Reproducable RC 3.1 Program Crash

[ronzie 21]

3.10 build 2205 FS2K2 FSUIPC (full reg) 3.11. W98SE DX8, 756 RAM (recognised by W98), 2.52 Gz CPU, GeF 4 TI4200 - 128.To make this quick, if I bring up any one of several aircraft types and let it sit parked at the gate, if I have a plan loaded and RC started:Every time I let ATIS run a couple of minutes, eventually I get an audio chattering tone, then the FS2K2 trap window pops up. The error data states (I'm a bit of a C++ programmer) that an exception (C5) was thrown addressing 0:0, a no-no of course.All that's running is FS and RC. I have tried all levels of DX audio accelleration including off. The time to crash varies but is still persistent.When I close out FS, RC is hung and needs to be stopped from the task pop-up. Any suggestions?This happened in earlierf 3.1 builds but not the first as I recall.

[Guest Scott Campbell]

Ron,Can't tell you what's going on with the crash, but you have to close RC BEFORE closing FS. RC links to the FSUIPC calls and when FS is closed FSUIPC is unloaded.Do you have this problem when you are NOT on ATIS, or if you get ATIS then call CD?

[ronzie 21]

I used ATIS to accelerate the problem as with other audio it is intermittent depending on length of audio. It goes along with stuttering on audio. No unneeded background processes.I will try using Active Sky wxRE along with FS ATC/ATIS to see if I can reproduce it without RC to see if FSUIPC is the culprit.

[ronzie 21]

I tried the test with just AS WXRE 1.91 and FS2K2 so FSUIPC was active, I hope. I also left all background programs running and normal acceleration in DX Sound options. Same aircraft and location.I loaded the same plan into FS, stayed parked, and let the FS ATIS audio loop for five minutes. No stutters or crashes.So, what audio mechanism does RC use? Maybe I have a dll conflict or require a new version regarding audio options?By the way, I recall the error code from the crash details indicates a null pointer somewhere if I recall correctly from my programming days. I just wonder if it might be an error in the audio SDK tools JD might be using for interfacing audio. MS is famous for those.

[jd 57]

nothing special. just a call to the windows api to play a soundPublic Declare Function sndPlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" Alias "sndPlaySoundA"

[ronzie 21]

Thanks for the info. I'll delve into some module versions.

[ronzie 21]

For a good laugh, do a search on the MS knowledge base and you'll find there were problems with FS2000 and Microsoft Money. For money they recommend turning off the sound features.Anyway, it appears that winmm.dll is not a well behaved sharable dll, like it should be, at least the version with W98, W98SE.I'm just curious if FS2KX developers can use an FS API call within FS itself that links to winmm.dll, where sharing may have been introduced and maybe an undocumented work around, or the only interface is as you describe.I'm going to extract and reload it just to insure somehow an older version did not get in.

[ronzie 21]

Still having some audio stuttering and long term exceptions but better . . . I'm working on it looking at gauge conflicts.However, I have a dependency-walker utility still installed from my C++ days, and for winmm.dll it shows two calls: PlaySound and PlaySoundW. I think the latter may be for 32 bit calls and perhaps the previous for backward compatibility. It might be worth looking into. I know I am not alone with these problems.So far, it is only RC 3.1 that exhibits problems. If I fire up ActiveSky WXRE alone with FS2K2 I can listen to the Flight Service continuously at 122.0 without these interruptions/stutters.I also fired up RC 3.01 but with the FSUIPC 3.11 still installed. It worked but still with pauses and I saw some nice hex characters displayed on a gauge. I also with RC 3.1 back still had problems after entering PatchWeatherToADV=No and MakeItVersion = 2002, the latter now gone(?).More tests coming up.