Medic1030

Hi Joe, Thanks for the help. I'm aware of those shader cache folders that you mentioned, which rebuild themselves when deleted (and I did that). However, in this case Damian Clark from HiFi (ASN) recommended that I should restore any modified files in my ShadersHLSL folder to default because he suspected this issue was maybe caused by a corrupt shader issue. I happened to have a copy of the default version of this folder from a separate vanilla FSX install on my laptop, which I copied over, restoring all of those files to default. Alas, it made no difference anyway, as this ended up being caused by something corrupt in the weather folder and not the shaders. I'm still curious as to what caused the problem to begin with, but happy enough that it's resolved.

Well after trying just about everything, including uninstalling ASN, REX and Steve's DX10 Fixer, and replacing the ShaderHLSL folder with the default one, I was about to give up and do a reinstall or Steam "repair." But then I noticed a folder in the FSX root named "weather." I have no idea what the files in this folder do, but I erased the folder and replaced it with the one from my vanilla FSX install from my laptop... Astonishingly, that fixed the issue! All of my low level clouds and weather effects are now back. I have no idea what corrupted the files in that folder, nor do I have any idea which addons normally alter those files or why, but at this point it doesn't matter. Hopefully this doesn't happen again, but if it does I'll have to spend more time narrowing down which addon is the culprit.

Well, I remembered that I have a vanilla install of FSX:SE on my old laptop. I deleted the ShadersHLSL folder from my root FSX folder, then copied the vanilla ShadersHLSL folder over. I also erased my shader cache folders and my fsx.cfg for good measure (again). Restarted FSX and loaded a flight... Still nothing. No low level clouds or precipitation no matter which weather preset I try.

Thanks for all that info Damian. Do you know where I may find the original shader files? I don't think I have any of these backed up as originals. I was able to find the 2 specific ones you mentioned that were backed up by ASN as .BeforeASN and reinstated those two but this made no difference to what I saw in sim.

None of those make any difference. No matter what I choose or do there are no low/mid level clouds, no rain, no snow, no fog, no lightning. Rebuilding fsx.cfg also didn't fix it. Previous saved flights also have none of these textures. There are 1,854 files in my texture folder. I'm at a loss here.

Yes it does. But even reverting to backups the clouds and precipitation remain missing.

Thanks for the suggestion Cat. Unfortunately my FSX install is on a dedicated drive which does not have system restore turned on. I've been a bit neglectful, and my last backup copy of that drive was made a few months ago, so restoring from that will be just as bad as a Steam repair option I think. If anybody knows a way to find out which texture files are missing I could try reinstalling just those textures from the default FSX ones on the backup. That will at least give me my default clouds and precipitation back and I can go from there. I'm not convinced that it's missing textures causing my problems though, given that the missing clouds and precipitation persist even after I tell REX to restore my default textures. Is there a file that tells FSX which textures to call in given situations? If so I think that may be corrupt. I'm just guessing here. Any ideas? Regards,

I'm experiencing a very strange problem with FSX. All of a sudden I have no cloud or precipitation textures/effects in my sim. It doesn't matter which weather theme I select, whether one of the default themes, ORBX themes, or ActiveSky Next, and there's also no change whether I launch ActiveSky Next or not. There are zero low or mid level clouds, and no rain, snow or fog effects visible. I do get a few high level cirrus clouds visible (depending on which weather theme is selected), but that's it. I run FSX:SE (stand-alone install) in DX10 mode with Steve's Fixer. I haven't made any changed to DX10, Nvidia Inspector or FSX.cfg in the past month so I'm ruling those out. I'm using Rex 4 with Soft Clouds for textures and ActiveSky Next for my weather engine. I'm not sure when this started exactly because for the past week or so I've been doing some self-training, flying practice flights with only clear skies selected. Today I went to fly in some weather again and that's when I noticed this issue. The last thing I did before loading up the sim with the intention of flying in weather this morning was to select a new cloud set from within REX, so that's my chief suspect, but I can't be 100% certain. The only other things I've changed since I last had properly functioning weather have been switching FTX Central from North America to Global, and making some changes to FlyTampa and SimAddons airport settings using the FlyTampa Configurator and SimAddons Scenery Manager respectively. I can't imagine how these would affect the weather textures but I figured I should mention it just in case. Things I've attempted so far to correct the issue: Using the REX option to "restore textures to what they were before installing REX"; flushing the shader caches; switching back and forth between DX10 and DX9 mode; reinstalling a new REX theme. None of this has worked. I'm guessing there's a corrupt texture file (or several) somewhere, but how do I locate and fix it. I would really like to avoid using the Steam option to "validate integrity of game cache." This would probably work but from my understanding it will also mess up most of my addons and require a fair bit of work and reinstalling of many addons. This is really frustrating because I finally had my FSX setup exactly how I wanted it with everything working just about perfectly for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Corey

Thanks. I tried searching but couldn't find any info about it. Guess I didn't search hard enough.

I'm gradually getting FSX set up on my new computer build and I've reached the point where I'm ready to start fine-tuning, including using Nvidia Inspector. I downloaded the latest version as of a couple of days ago. All of the Nvidia Inspector guides I've found online state to select the "MS Flight Simulator X" profile from the drop down. However, this doesn't exist in my drop down list. I do see a profile for "Micorsoft Flight Simulator 10." I'm assuming this is the right one but I just wanted to make sure. I'm running the latest drivers from Nvidia on a GTX 970. Regards, Corey

Thanks for the advice. I was able to find a relatively cheap 4:3 10" monitor advertised as a CCTV monitor that has both VGA and HDMI inputs. The specs list it as a TFT LCD with resolution: XGA 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1280x1024. I was thinking of getting 2 of them. Does anyone have any experience with similar small displays for PFD/MFD/Gauges? Will the resolution pose a problem? I've read somewhere that FSX doesn't like it when there is a resolution difference between displays.

I'm setting up my new system this week (built around an i7-4790K and GTX 970 and running Windows 10). I currently have a 27" monitor, which I plan to use for my primary display for now. I'd really like to get 1 or 2 rather small monitors to use for my PFD/MFD and a few other instruments if possible. The only problem is that I only have about 10.5-11" of vertical clearance below my main display in which to put any secondary displays. I'm not married to any specific aircraft yet as I'm still learning and trying to figure out what I like, so this won't be aircraft specific. For now I'll be doing a fair bit of flying in the Carenado B1900D, but I plan on working my way up to the PMDG 737NGX eventually. I'm looking for some input re display ideas for this setup that would be reasonably priced. I was thinking of using a second-hand iPad with Duet Display, but I don't know how this will impact performance, and I think it will only support use with a single iPad (not ideal given the small screen size). Any 15.5" or smaller widescreen monitor would work I think (with no stand), but these seem to be very hard to come by other than a few USB monitors, which I've read will really impact performance with FSX. Does anybody have experience with reasonably-priced and effective smaller displays for something like this? Thanks.

Thanks folks. Seems like great tips/advice.

So my new computer will be ready this week (i7-4790k, GTX 970, OS and FSX on SSDs) and I will be going with Windows 10. Prior to this I've been running FSX on a less than ideal laptop with Win 7 which I optimized as best as I could using just about every setup guide that could be found out there, including all the big ones. Unfortunately no such guides exist for optimizing Windows 10 for FSX. So what are some key points? I know some things remain the same, ie deactivating UAC, while others are quite different. For those of you with experience using Win 10 what are your best optimization and setup tips in order to maximize what I can get out of FSX, or just in general. Thanks, Corey

Yep, well after deleting this gauge all works perfectly so I'll consider this issue solved. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help out and provide your insight. Regards, Corey

Alas, I seem to have partially figured out the problem. The crash is being caused by GPWS_Sound.gau. When I don't give this gauge permission to load everything works perfectly. When I do, FSX crashes on loading the flight. This is a repeatable error so I'm going to say that I'm pretty confident that I've narrowed it down, though it doesn't seem to make much sense. I'm not sure exactly what this gauge does, but based on the name I'm assuming that it's involved somehow with the warning sounds associated with the GPWS. I can live without this. I'm a curious guy though, so I have a nagging need to know why I'm experiencing this problem while others aren't. Seems strange. If anyone thinks they know why this is causing a crash or how to fix it please let me know, otherwise I'll go on enjoying my plane without it. I did not install it to the default location. It's installed directly in c:\steam\steamapps\FSX. My anti-virus is set to ignore this directory as well as the fsx directory in my user appdata location. Yep, all this is done except for taking ownership of the FSX directory, but now I'll likely do that too! Thanks everyone for all your help so far. Corey

Jim, I think you're bang on here. When this aircraft is first selected FSX asks for permission to run various gauges (6 of them I think), which I've done after each reinstall whenever prompted. So what I did now was I removed the B1900 folder from my simobjects folder, renamed it and reinserted it in simobjects, restarted FSX, then reselected the B1900. Not sure if all of that was necessary, but this achieved my goal, which was for FSX to re-ask for permission to use those files. This time I said no to all, and what do you know, the plane loads and flies without crashing. Now I'm guessing I just have to give permission for these files one at a time until I find the culprit that causes the crash. Once I do I don't know what to do next but it'll be a start. Still find it odd that these gauges aren't an issue for any others using this plane. Also, I do have CCleaner so ill temporarily disable it. Regards, Corey

Thanks, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to help. I'll try those suggestions. FYI I did try both versions of the aircraft as well as both included panels. Is there a way to tell which of the gauges in the the folder are original FSX gauges and which aren't? Also I'd love to be able to figure out why I'm having this issue with only this aircraft when others aren't. Could it be a problem in my dll.xml or exe.dll files? Would love to get my windows crash reporting back up and running to help solve this if any of you have any ideas. Thanks again.

I only have FSX-SE on my computer, no boxed version. As Charlie mentioned there's no installer.

Hi folks, I seem to be experiencing an odd failure/crash issue related to a specific add-on aircraft, and I think I've narrowed the problem down to the panel. The aircraft is the Beech 1900D by Premier Air Design. Whenever I attempt to load a flight with this plane FSX crashes ("This program has encountered an error and needs to close" or something to that effect). This usually occurs at the very beginning of the flight loading process, just before or just as the loading bar appears. Occasionally it appears at the very end when the loading bar is complete, or rarely I have been able to load a flight successfully (twice) but as soon as I clicked on the first switch or gauge it crashed the same way. I've tried multiple uninstalls and reinstalls including reloading FSX between reinstalls and loading both a default and add-on flight before reattempting to re-use the PAD B1900D but the problem keeps reappearing, and only with this one add-on aircraft. Finally on a whim I replaced the panel folder with the panel from the default Beech King Air and presto, it works. I can load the flight and fly it with this replacement panel, leading me to the conclusion that there is a problem with something in the panel.cfg or one of the gauges. Interestingly this aircraft came with 2 panel options but the problem occurs with both. I can't find any other reports of this issue so I really don't know where to go next. I'd really like to get this plane working with the intended B1900 panel as others have, seemingly without issue. I know this is the part where I'm supposed to paste the report from AppCrashView, but that brings me to my second problem... When I run AppCrashView it fails to display a single crash since February of 2014, which happens to coincide with approximately when I used NickN's guide to optimize windows. Wondering if I did something then that somebody can help me out with to reinitiate crash reporting so I can have an idea of what's going on. I fail to believe that this computer hasn't experienced a single crash for 2 years. Any help anyone can offer with either of these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Corey Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm running FSX-SE on Windows 7

friendly bump

I've reposted this in the correct forum as noted in the edit at the end of the last post. I'll be checking that one instead. Sorry about that.

This was first posted in the wrong forum so I'm reposting here and have noted that in the other post. Hope that's ok with the mods... I was originally planning my first FSX build over a year ago when I had just started getting into FSX, but life got in the way a bit and here I am a year later, finally ready to pull the trigger on the new build. It’s going to be a huge improvement over the laptop I’ve been using since getting into FSX (I know, awful). Good news is that I now have a bit more spare cash to make this a good build I think, and I’ve also spent the last year becoming a much better virtual pilot. Listed below is the system I’ve put together from PCPartpicker. I’m hoping the experts on here can spare some time to take a look and give me some feedback. I’m reasonably handy and can self-teach pretty well, but by no means am I computer-savvy and I have never built my own system. I’m just looking for some general feedback about the list or any glaring errors I may have made, and then I also have a few specific questions listed below the specs… CPU – Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D14 Motherboard – Asus Z97-Pro (Wi-Fi ac) ATX LGA1150 Memory – G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-2133 - (9-11-11-31 - 1.6v) Storage - Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5” SSD - (for OS and other basic programs – ie office, adobe, AV, etc.) - Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5” SSD – (for FSX and all addons) - Western Digital Black 1TB 3.5” 7200RPM HD (for storage/everything else) Video Card – Asus GeForce 970 4GB STRIX Case – Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 ATX Mid Tower Power Supply – EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX OS – Windows 7 Home Premium My questions: 1- I plan to overclock modestly to 4.4GHz. This CPU already has a "turbo" rating of 4.4GHz, but my understanding is that this is only with one core under load. I’m hoping it'll be a relatively straightforward overclock process to get it to a steady 4.4. Am I right in this assumption, and will my selected cooler be adequate for this? 2- With regards to the memory; pcpartpicker gives me a warning that, at 1.6v, the Ripjaws exceed the recommended 1.5v as per the Intel specs, and that it may not run at the specified frequency as a result. Is this something I have to worry about? Will it cause any problems with the CPU, and will it actually run at less than 2133? I’m hoping not since there’s no point buying 2133 if it will run at a lower speed. Also with regards to the memory, would there be a significant improvement if I went to the 2400 (10-12-12-31) Ripjaws over the 2133 (9-11-11-31), and would there be any logical reason to go to 2x8GB instead of 2x4GB? 3- Re the video card; Would there be any worthwhile improvement if I went with the GeForce 980 (at nearly double the cost) instead of the 970? 4- Finally, regarding the case, it comes with 3 built-in fans but lists space for 5. Are the 3 it comes with enough, or should I look at getting 2 more? Thanks in advance for the help. This site is great and has been a great resource for me over the past year as I got into flight simming! Corey

I originally posted a similar build-related question about a year ago when I was first planning on putting together a custom FSX computer, but life got in the way a bit and here I am a year later, finally ready to pull the trigger on a new build. It’s going to be a huge improvement over the laptop I’ve been using since getting into FSX. Good news is that I now have a bit more spare cash to make this a good build I think, and I’ve also spent the last year becoming a much better virtual pilot. Listed below is the system I’ve put together from PCPartpicker. I’m hoping the experts on here can spare some time to take a look and give me some feedback. I’m reasonably handy and can self-teach pretty well, but by no means am I computer-savvy and have never built my own system. I’m just looking for some general feedback about the list or any glaring errors I may have made, and then I also have a few specific questions listed below the specs… CPU – Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D14 Motherboard – Asus Z97-Pro (Wi-Fi ac) ATX LGA1150 Memory – G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-2133 - (9-11-11-31 - 1.6v) Storage - Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5” SSD - (for OS and other basic programs – ie office, adobe, AV, etc.) - Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5” SSD – (for FSX and all addons) - Western Digital Black 1TB 3.5” 7200RPM HD (for storage/everything else) Video Card – Asus GeForce 970 4GB STRIX Case – Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 ATX Mid Tower Power Supply – EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX OS – Windows 7 Home Premium My questions: 1- I plan to overclock modestly to 4.4GHz. This CPU already has a turbo of 4.4GHz but my understanding is that this is only with one core under load, so I’m hoping it will be a relatively straightforward overclock to get it to a steady 4.4. Am I right in this assumption, and will my selected cooler be adequate for this? 2- With regards to the memory; pcpartpicker gives me a warning that, at 1.6v, it's above the recommended 1.5v as per the Intel specs, and that it may not run at the specified frequency as a result. Is this something I have to worry about? Will it cause any problems with the CPU, and will it actually run at less than 2133? I’m hoping not since there’s no point buying 2133 if it will run at a lower speed. Also with regards to the memory, would there be a significant improvement if I went to the 2400 (10-12-12-31) Ripjaws over the 2133 (9-11-11-31), and would there be any logical reason to go to 2x8GB instead of 2x4GB? 3- Re the video card; Would there be any worthwhile improvement if I went with the GeForce 980 (at nearly double the cost) instead of the 970? 4- Finally, regarding the case, it comes with 3 built-in fans but lists space for 5. Are the 3 it comes with enough, or should I look at getting 2 more? Thanks in advance for the help. This site is great and has been a great resource for me over the past year as I got into flight simming! Corey EDIT: Oops. Posted this in the wrong forum. Mods can you please move it to the "MOBO, RAM, CPU's & Other Hardware" forum, where I think it is more appropriate given the various questions I asked. Thanks.

But without the validation servers we won't be able to use it. I guess we just have to wait and see.