DarkBlueMonkey

Zowen, you are a FREAKIN' GENIUS. I just realised that when I alt-tab out to nDAC to get my route, or check the enroute chart, and then alt-tab back, FSX is "paused", even though the FMC window is still operational.. Whenever I use it to plot the route, then enter the fuel load, it produces exactly those symptoms! It looks like you're able to do about 50% of your work with FSX paused, but some of the FMC's internal calculations must be tied to the main engine loop! Sometimes if you set it up paused, and then unpause it, the FMC start spitting out errors about MACH's and SPEEDs. If programming the FMC when FSX is paused is not a supported operation, then the FMC should be paused when FSX is paused too.. That's why it didn't bork when I didn't alt-tab out! I *knew* it was a PIBCAK issue. I've been beating my head against the yoke for days over this before baring my incompetence in a public forum ;-) I've tried a lot of tweak guides and tools for FSX, but they all just end up with FSX being slower, or PDMG737NGX.DLL crashing FSX. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! If there were virtual cookies to hand out, I'd hand one over right now! N

Hi All! Wow, thank you all so much for assisting with this! I absolutely love this plane, and with the FS2Crew voice addon, it's really superb! I've tried the routine by zowen above three times, and it works perfectly every time, so that's going to become my procedure... I don't know if that's the cure, but 100% success definitely floats my boat... As for the stability tweaks: Yes and no. I've done the two essential ones, but when I use the PDMG-recommended fsx.cfg tweaker tool online, the DLL tends to crash MUCH more frequently. At worst, I cannot start a free flight with the 737, I have to start it with the trike, then switch planes to the 737 (the trike is my default plane on the start menu, and in my default flight). It seems to be the optimisations to do with memory usage and allocation.. So I've left them at stock values. I get 40fps in and around EGLL using the VC, so it's all good. That's why I think the DLL is a little brittle.. It doesn't bow out gracefully, it just takes a shotgun to FSX and pulls the trigger ;-) No, I have no Weather FX installed and the in-game Weather is off.. clear sky for this guy... ;-) I followed the setup to the letter. I have no weather addons either (although I'm sorely tempted by the nice gfx of some of them). I have done a lot more playing, and the problem seems to occur when I'm double-checking my route using vroute or nDAC. Something about switching in and out of FSX in windowed mode seems to really irritate the FMC. I wrote the route down on a notepad, and entered it without leaving FSX, and I haven't made it crash yet (although the flopflopping ND still happens). To Lek: Thanks for the figures, I'll use those to check my loadouts from now on. I've been using the figures from FCOM1 to guesstimate the right numbers, but it's nice to have actual rw values. OK, here's my loading procedure: 1. Double-click on FSX.EXE 2. Wait for the spinny trike 3. Choose the 737ngx (BA livery, cos I like it). 4. Choose EGLL, any heavy gate. 5. Click "fly" 6. If FSX crashes, wait 10 seconds, then go to step 1. 7. Load Panel State Cold-And-Dark 8. go. I've got everything set according to the manual, don't try to load a 737 after a different 737 of the same config, don't scratch my nose while blinking.... all the things they suggest in the manual. I'm going to play with it some more, but I think Zowen's workaround works for me. N.

Hi There, Thanks for replying.. Yeah.. There's a couple of places you have to make sure you double-click to get it to 'stick', and I always give the ZFW a good poking whenever I pass that page I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong.. but the ZFW isn't the thing that's wrong.. I've not modified the PAX/PYLD, I've modified the fuel loadout, so ZFW doesn't change.. The ND's displayed route is flipflopping between two projected courses. One "hits" the WPT, one misses it.. it's flipping each time the ND updates (I've set it to 10fps for perf reasons, so it flips every 100ms). Ach, It's gotta be PIBCAK if nobody else sees this issue... If I work out what I'm doing wrong, I'll update Thanks for all your help (everyone)! It's much appreciated! N.

I'm trying to troubleshoot this myself... But does anyone know if that when you change your fuel loadout, you have to update the FMC manually? Here's a little experiment I just did:- When I say "the other information", I mean the V-speeds, alts, etc on the RTE page... This doesn't happen every time, but occasionally when it does, another symptom is that it won't accept a value into the Cost Index field, any value entered is ignored...Another (happening right now) is that the ND does this:- A restart of FSX will often clear it. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Or does everyone else just shrug and restart FSX when this happens? a restart only takes 30 seconds, so if a flight takes an hour, an extra 30s to restart fsx is acceptable, I guess.. N.

If you set the flaps *just* before T/O, then the LE devices may still be in transit. It sometimes takes a few seconds for them to reach their 'extended' detente. Watch for the orange "LE Devices" annunciator in the middle of the main panel. Wait for that to go out before your roll. HTH, n.

Hi There, to produce both of those flows I used my own checklist, so apart from the fact that I was sat on the rwy, so used a different amount of fuel while running the APU, they both had identical values for PAX/Payload/Fuel and I used the same process. The only thing I cannot guarantee is that I didn't skip to the wrong page, before going back and hitting EXEC. For example, I may have thought "OK, next I go to RTE..." clicked RTE, and then thought "whoops.. didn't activate those changes", then go back to PERF INT, and click EXEC. i'll try again tonight and see how I get on. I just started up FSX, and despite buying brand new AIRAC data three days ago, the FMC is already saying "NAV DATA OUT OF DATE", but it's showing the right Code JAN10FEB10/2013 (or something like that). *sigh*.. This is why I'd like a clearer QRH for the FMC.. It's so hard to know if this is all my noobness, or there's an actual bug (even if the FMC simulates a real bug in the original unit). N.

Hi There! To Both of you, thanks for the response. THE FCOM does give a lot of help with what the messages ARE, but the problem I have is that sometimes something pops up which shouldn't... or doesn't pop up which should. I enter all the details EXACTLY the same as the tutorial, except that instead of flying to EHAM, I fly a slightly shorter route to EGNT or EGPH. All PAX/Fuel/Payload values the same.. sometimes I just hit 'random' and make sure the payload isn't too high. For example, in the tutorial, it goes through the process of removing the speed/height restrictions at SUGOL, etc.. and then after sorting the INIT REF page, the LEGS page fills with height/speed information. Sometimes, this just doesn't happen, and I wish I knew why. Is it because I activate the route at the wrong moment? Did I drop a dorito and wege the CLR key?!! All I know is that if I quit FSX, reload it, restart the flight, and follow (what I THINK) are the exact same steps, I stand a 50/50 chance of it working. but I just don't know if it's a PIBCAK, or an FMC 'feature'. :( I've taken a picture of each step as I proceed through setting up the FMC for my flight, you can find it at (Just to annoy me, it worked this time) :- : FMC_worked.jpg However, I quit FSX, restarted and followed the exact same procedure, on the second (and third time before PDMG_737NGX.DLL crashed), I got this:- FMC_failed.jpg I'm still a total noob at this, but I suspect that there's a bug somewhere that if you do something sliiiightly out of order, it snafus the FMC irretrievably, and only a complete quit/restart will sort it. Trying to restore it by trial and error ends up with a CTD. The PMDG DLL seems very brittle to me (as a developer), but that's just my 2c. What I really would like is a QRH for the FMC, that goes into troubleshooting, rather than explaining what all the buttons do. Does that make sense? I'll go back over FCOM 2 with a fine toothed comb, and see if my answers are hidden in there. Thanks for the recommendation of flightaware and checking the weights etc. I'll make triple sure I'm within specs from now on. Nick

Hi There, I've been using the 737ngx for about two weeks and LOVE IT. But the FMC seems really hit and miss. I've got enroute charts and up to date NAVDATA off navigraph, and try to use them (with routefinder and nDAC) as much as possible, but I keep running into brick walls trying to use actual real-world routes! Problem #1: I enter all the information on the pages exactly in the order described in tutorial #1, only using different waypoints. The route has no discontinuities, no DIRECT portions, it's all using valid airways. All pages have the right information, as per the tutorial (octuple checked!), but the LEGS page will not calculate Height/Speed values. Problem #2: Occasionally, a speed or a height on the LEGS page will highlight purple. Whenever this happens, especially when it's the first "TO" in the LEGS page, I get all sorts of CANNOT xyz errors off the FMC, and other things tend to be purple too. Problem #3: I enter a route as described by a real world plan (EGLL->EGPH), but the route created by the FMC involves a left-turn that's so tight that the A/P can't make it. Problem #4: Sometimes at the TOC, before BOD, the FMC will suddenly bring up "DES NOT POSSIBLE", and sure enough, by the time I hit that left-turn on base into EGPH, I'm doing 250KTs, and even on manual with SPDBRKs, overshoot. Problem #5: I enter a route as described by a real world plan (EGLL->EGPH) using current cycle navdata, but it simply will not accept a VIA/TO combination.. it always ends up with a Disco. I realise that most of these are because i'm a noob, and I just need to spend more time googling, but my time isn't infinite.... Is there a proper FMC troubleshooting guide anywhere that would help? The tutorials are great for knowing the exact sequence of buttons to press to make the tutorial happen, but when you run into a snafu trying to do something else... it's tricky to get the information you need... The information I'm looking for would be of the form of the 737's QRH: On the XXXX page, when YYYYY says ZZZZ, then you must ASDASDASD. when AAAAA is <colour> this means you must QWEQWEQWE. . . . Reasons FMC might not calculate height/speed correctly on Legs: 1 - PERF INT page not complete 2 - Software Bug, restart FSX . . FMC suddenly claims DES NOT POSSIBLE 1 - You didn't reduce MCP alt fast enough, and the margins were tight, lower it earlier. 2 - Software Bug, PMDG FMC sometimes miscalculates on tight margins, oopsie. . Is there such a thing? I think it'd be monumentally helpful to noobz like me. Cheers, Nick

I have a very similar problem. Have you, by any chance, got CMD B active still after landing? Occasionally my (correctly calibrated rudder) will suddenly go to full right deflection. I noticed this immediately after landing once (cleared by deactivating CMD B ) , and twice now midway through an AP flight, the plane will suddenly begin a roll to the right and plunge to earth. Deactivating CMD A seems to fix it. It seems as if the AP suddenly commands full-right-rudder for me occasionally?