MD11 Installation Failure

[Eric_Parker 4]

I have been trying to reinstall MD11 software for about two weeks now and it fails every time. I wouldn't need this so much but after my hard drive failed this is one of the last items to deal with. Emails from the factory tells me there is a problem on their end but how long can it take? I paid good money for this airplane and I like it a lot. Surely there is someone at PMDG that has the ability to fox this problem.

 

Eric Parker

[Rafael Souza 0]

PMDG doesn't support the product anymore?

I need reinstall all my system next week, I won't be able to reinstall MD-11?

[Captain Kevin 586]

First, PMDG doesn't use this forum anymore, so you won't get a response here. Second, here are a few threads regarding the issue:

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-legacy-products/22410-this-is-getting-ridiculous

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-legacy-products/47853-still-waiting-for-the-legacy-products-activation-update

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-legacy-products/48420-deadline

[craig_read 43]

I saw your post on PMDG forum, I don't participate much (well... at all now actually) there anymore for reasons I'll keep to myself.  I was actually invited in as a beta tester for PMDG's MD-11 way back when (seems so long ago now).  I just couldn't really give them the time through studying and social life so mailed RSR telling him to drop me and I'd pay for it due to 'low contribution' to bug reports, he was pretty good about it actually and sent me a free copy regardless.  I guess what I'm saying is he's a pretty decent chap overall, if he says he's (or his team are) trying, he / they probably are.  But I guess it comes down to 'priorities' unfortunately. 

Anyway.. unfortunately I think you might well be out of luck here.  Once something goes 'out of support' it's kind of up to you to ensure you can still run it even if their infrastructure etc. is no longer present.  This isn't that much different even in the corporate multi-national world either. 

In the case of the MD-11, the only way would probably be to have taken a HD image once installed for backup purposes, perhaps have a look around to find out if you have one?  This would probably mean you could simply restore the image and be on your way, you could even re-image onto newer hardware and you could even, clean up the sim how you like, update the OS and re-image again.... lots of options.... For many years I used to do this with my FS setup, in the 'old days', because I got sick of having to re-install things.. I'd make a clean build, image it and restore when I had trouble.  With P3D of course addon xml makes it easier to handle so data can sit on drives, you copy over the addon.xml and boom.. you're away.. it's really fiddly though and takes effort to get it sorted and working properly (probably waste of effort now with MSFS 2020 coming along though).

It's probably unreasonable to give a software house a hard time to support entertainment code 12 years after creation, it's up to you but if it were me I'd take a more 'accommodating' approach than a 'guns blazing' one, might work out better for you.  I can't remember when they did it, but they did state publicly that they would 'end of life' the MD-11, although not stating it explicitly this does imply owners would have needed to take the 'necessary steps' then to safeguard their use of it.  Not a lot different to any other 'end of life' software really.

I hope you get a good outcome, but anything they do is good will only at this stage and I think you might just have to accept that I'm afraid.  Generally, these things are only handled if you have a 'proper' 'support contract' with the vendor; something relatively large multi-nationals like  RedHat / Microsoft / Oracle would probably do but not (and I say this with respect, but it is true) a (self professed) 'hobbiest sim business', often saying they are 'simply simmers too'... 

Word of warning, they have already mentioned deprecating FSX and P3Dv3 software, so it might well be worth making yourself 'unsupport' proof there in the coming months, I suspect you still have a lot of time though so don't panic!  But it means no updates, etc...

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/2624-23feb19-weekend-update-the-future-of-fsx-and-p3d-v3-development-and-technical-support-also-some-pbr-update-information

Although this isn't the same as ceasing support altogether, but it should be a consideration given your MD-11 experience, perhaps bag a copy of Acronis?  It's not the expensive... you could then install P3Dv3 or FSX with PMDG aircraft and image it to keep it safe.. for allll time...  Many vendors are also doing this now, and I don't blame them to be fair, too many sims to look after just causes headaches.

Don't give up, but I think the image option is probably the most likely to bear fruit for you...

Cheers

Craig