Something curious has happened....

[FlyingsCool 3]

It's not the fault of the tech guys. Could you imagine trying to support as many software packages as they have to support? And, despite the "gobs of money that MS makes", MS as a company can't afford to pay these people $200,000/year or more or have them spend 50 hours with me testing various things that may be unique to my machine alone. And then to do it over the phone or a chat?So there really is not choice as a tech guy but to relay the known solutions. Problem here is that there is no "known" solution. And to exacerbate it, I don't know, but I imagine that MS did not write the code for the activation security, so there is the problem of the "it's your fault, - no it's your fault... no we won't give you the source code, how can we fix it then?" issues.I just hope they get this figured out.Imagine if I went through the whole rigamarole and then had a similar crash again? Ouch.I hope this doesn't count as a thread hijack. It seemed like my problem was similar enough to yours that I could include my experience here, too.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[FlyingsCool 3]

Oh, and to exacerbate the problem, I've installed FSX on 7 computers now (and I have 7 copies of FSX, 8 in fact as I have another copy I bought which I haven't installed yet). But I didn't keep track of which copy went with which computer. I recently removed and installed a copy on another one of the computers. And I've had to reactivate another couple along the way and have had to resort to phone activation a couple of times now. I wonder if, combined with the clock change in the crash, there is now confusion on the MS side of the activation database?But at this point, I don't even know how to bring up the activation window without doing a reinstall, and I'm afraid if I reinstall, that this will not fix the problem and I'll have to go for the disk wipe. No joy there!Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[FlyingsCool 3]

Hi,I have solved my problem (5 hours of work later, though some of it was spinning wheels reading things trying to understand what was going on).1. I removed installed addons that might be affected by repair.2. I backed up all other changes I have made (changes to aircraft mostly (new skins for real airlines, etc.), gauges, effects).3. I tried to run the install repair. It failed with error 1722.4. I downloaded and ran the error 1722 fix.5. I rebooted the machine.6. I ran the install/repair from disk7. I started FSX. It showed a window saying it was activating, and then the window went away and FSX was running.8. I ran the SP1 fix.9. FSX is now running and I didn't even have to reactivate the software.10. Now I've got to go back and reapply my changes.Well, I am happy it worked, but unhappy I've had to spend basically a day recovering.I'm thinking next time, rather than go through the repair route, first, I will try to run the error 1722 fix and reboot before I do anything else.Hope this gives somebody else confidence that the problem can be overcome. At least I am learning how to set up my changes for quick reapplication. For example, I've created a zip file which when unzipped will reapply all my changes to the default aircraft. I've installed all addon aircraft to the FSXAircraft directory, so that I can keep track of them and not have them interfere with the default install. I've created separate directories containing all the gauges and effects and sounds that are added to the system for these addons. I still put the gauges, effects, and sounds in the main directory, but I'll also put copies of all added gauges into these other directories (Actually, I use an awesome program called Winmerge to find the difference between a copy of the default gauge directory and the main one). This will also help me to install new systems later. So this isn't all bad.Thanks for listening!Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[N562Z 4]

Thomas:This occassionally happened to me in FS9, after I would uninstall something, and was caused by a registry error / corruption. I would suggest a registry repair. There is an inexpensive utility out there called Registry Mechanic, that will detect and repair registry errors. There also used to be utility, put out by one of the third-party aircraft vendors, was it PSS? that would re-detect the FS9 registry entry. Don't know if a similar utility exists for FSX. Just a thought.http://www.my-buddy-icon.com/Icons/objects/red_3d_plane.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MD

[FlyingsCool 3]

Well, I know that the default directory registry entry was fine, the install tools were able to find my original installation, which is not in the default location. I may have other registry issues, however, so I will look into a registry repair tool.As I noted above, however, my activation problem is now fixed and I am only now working on getting my system back to its previous configuration.Thanks!Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[GaryGB 10]

Hi Thomas:I found your information on setting up FS changes "for quick reapplication" and use of "Winmerge" very interesting, and believe that this information could prove to be helpful to many FS users.: Just looked at the Winmerge website: http://winmerge.org/ :-lol Would you elaborate further on how you do this, perhaps posting a detailed tutorial in a separate thread here to give the subject the additional attention it may merit?I think we all might benefit from periodically learning about new ways to get our customized FS installations back up and running after maintenance, testing and re-installation.System Restore, backup software packages, as well as many generic established backup and restore routines simply do not provide a comprehensive means of implementing some of the specialized procedures we follow to "individualize" our FS installations when we are recovering from a problem with FS.Thanks for your input here too, and here's hoping to learn more about your "FS recovery" procedures!:-) GaryGB

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi all.I find it a bit disturbing that these different computer systems would have FSX files corrupted, and would require an FSX repair at all.That indicates to me there is a hardware issue in some of these cases. No file images on a disk drive should fail, unless the drive is faulty. FSX does tax the disk handling of PCs, so it may be uncovering a potential hard disk failure.Just a thought.Dick

[Cruachan 705]

Hi,It's happened again!!! :(Cold boot (rig had been off for approx 10 hours today), checked e-mails and visited Avsim (my normal practice before doing anything else), started up FSX and that fateful message reappeared at 20-22 secs: " MS Flight Simulator has encountered a problem and needs to close, etc, etc" - just as on previous occasions.I tried again and no joy.I then tried disabling Catalyst A.I. and still no luck.Tried several times without success.So, again, as on previous occasions, I performed a shutdown, waited 2 minutes, rebooted and then loaded FSX...Success!This is becoming a pain and is all the more frustrating because the content of the 'dxdiag.txt' file appears to indicate that there is no problem and no Registry errors! As ever, when the message appears I have a look at the details and, as ever, fail to comprehend what I am seeing :( Nothing stands out, however, to my uneducated eye. SMART data on my main drive appears normal.I tried again after 15 mins and FSX loaded fine to the 'Free Flight' screen in 8 secs.This appears to be the same pattern of events every time.I'll try running a Chkdsk /f /r on my D: partition and see if anything turns up. However, if there is file corruption, why does shutting down and restarting resolve the issue, albeit temporarily.Mike

[FlyingsCool 3]

Well, I have a feeling I didn't have to do the reinstall. I probably could have just run the error 1722 fix. I'm pretty sure that the license file got corrupted and needed repair.I don't know enough about caching and disk writing operations to assuage your feelings about file corruption. But you can imagine if the machine suddenly shuts down in the middle of an operation, something not going to get finished being written.I think I read somewhere the license file is being accessed once a minute (huh?? seems overkill to me). 'Course, in that case, why would it be writing to the file? Wouldn't reading it be enough?Oh well.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[FlyingsCool 3]

Have you tried running the error 1722 fix? Maybe you have a small corruption. Have you run a defrag lately? Maybe your license files are split, or got put on top of a going bad disk area?Maybe somebody from ACES could pipe in and talk about any dangers associated with running the error 1722 fix program. It's scary doing things like that.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[N562Z 4]

Mike:Try Registry Mechanic. You have nothing to lose. It's safe and effective. It may or may not fix this problem, but it will do a lot to make your rig run smoother and probably faster. You won't believe the number of registry errors the first time you run the program. It will likely number in the hundreds!http://www.pctools.com/downloads/rminstall.exeLet me know how it goes.http://www.my-buddy-icon.com/Icons/objects/red_3d_plane.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MD

[N562Z 4]

Dick:Hey on a different note, what is the file name for your reduced default.xml file? Is it available here at AVSIM? FlightSim? Thanks,http://www.my-buddy-icon.com/Icons/objects/red_3d_plane.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MDjenchris1@verizon.net

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Alex.http://webpages.charter.net/ludowr/FSX_def...rhumba1_XML.zipDick

[Cruachan 705]

Hi everyone,I appreciate all your attempts to help me with this one.Despite my scepticism I ran Chkdsk and nothing turned up (I've already run it on C:). In a way I wasn't surprised as this problem appears to be confined to FSX exclusively. Everything else appears to be loading and running normally, e.g. FS9, Lock On(uses Open GL so may not count), RealFlight G3, Steam (HL2, HL2 Ep1), Oblivion, Tiger Woods 2003, X2 The Threat/Reunion, Orbiter etc, etc).Currently I use RegSupreme and RegCleaner to keep my registry in good shape.What is strange about all this is the fact that once I achieve a successful load of FSX (as I did today following the first boot), then subsequent FSX error-free loads continue thereafter during sessions often lasting several hours. I've just done it again before typing 'I've just done it again' :)I'll have a look at Registry Mechanic - thanks!Mike