FSX...fragile?

[Guest yarvelling]

Hi all,I am having a problem with FSX being rather 'fragile'; in that if I try to install some items that FSX doesn't like, then it'll throw up the following error and refuse to start, even after the offending items have been removed, and all traces of any entries made to varying config files have also been removed....http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/160184.jpgThis results in my having to uninstall/reinstall the programme; an annoying and time consuming process! Any ideas as to whether I'm missing something somewhere that needs to be removed/replaced? I've checked all the folders/files/locations that I know of, by 'date modified' and can find no further modifications made, so I'm at a bit of a loss here - I REALLY don't want to have to try and reinstall and then apply all the tweaks, traffic etc. again!!I forgot to mention that this last item that caused the problem was the freebie FS Genesis US landclass; I put it into it's own US_LC/Scenery folder within Addon Sceneries. When I then went to start FSX it came straight up with the above error and has never recovered.Thanks....Steve.

[Guest JSPuonti]

I can't offer any advice on that particular problem, however I can offer a suggestion related to it:When you install FSX, immediately after completing the activation process take a backup copy of the complete FSX directory (yes, the whole 13 gigabytes) and place that copy somewhere else on your harddrive.I'm not 100% sure since I haven't had to try this yet, but I *think* that if you botch up your installation you can simply delete the original installation directory, make a copy of the "backup" and place it where the original installation used to be. You'll lose all changes you made to the sim, of course, but I'm thinking those changes are what caused you problems in the first place.Since your hardware has not changed and FSX finds itself in the same folder where it used to be, you *shouldn't* have any problems with activation. That's just an added benefit - the real benefit is that you won't have to go through the installation process itself again.Theoretically you could even shorten this process if you know which folder in your FSX installation has been damaged - all you'd need to do would be to remove the damaged folder and copy it over from your backup version. This isn't guaranteed to work, though, since files might have been changed elsewhere without your knowledge and the installation would still be botched.

[Guest 67C VJPL]

Unfortunately it will not overwrite any new files you added,although backing up all the dll's ini's and program files into a zip that you unzip into FS whatever has saved my butt before, and also works with Gmax when i blow out some dll's.

[MartijnPleines 0]

Hi Steve,If you have compressed your FSX folder, you might try uncompressing itI did get this message every other day or so while I had my FSX folder compressed; strange as it may seem, after I had uncompressed it the problem went away. You can still compress individual folders within the FSX folder such as Scenery and Texture without issue.Hope this helps,Martijn

[Guest yarvelling]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas! I will uncompress FSX (the drive it's on is set-up to compress by default), and see if that helps!I'll also copy the entire install to an external drive too, just in case;)I just wish that FSX gave some sort of hint as to what it's having a problem with here...at least FS9 would kindly warn you of problems loading/finding stuff so that you some kind of ideas where to go looking!I did finally have to delete everything and reinstall; even then it refused to start and came up with that same error!!! I was ever so slightly mad, but just for S & G's I tried the 'repair' option off the DVD, which subsequently seemed to hang after about ten minutes of trying to replace a tiny 'button' graphic! I cancelled the operation, and without expecting too much, clicked on the FSX desktop icon...bloody ####, it worked!!!It's still working too!Thanks again,Steve :)

[yellowjack 28]

This problem is being reported regularly now. De-compressing did it for me. Reinstalling and/or repair doesn't make a difference so peeps that suggest it are just guessing. I agree the error message might as well be in Cantonese for all the info it gives. I hope that MS have this problem on the list of bugs.