While most of my aircraft (default, payware and freeware) work splendidly in FSX Steam Edition, I have experienced FSX CTDs whenever I try to load a freeware aircraft that includes the file "GPWS_Sound.gau". When I get rid of the file, the aircraft works great. I have discovered however that it's not enough to remove this file from the panel folder of the freeware aircraft in question. The lines referring to it in the aircraft's panel configuration file also have to be deleted. Otherwise there will still be a crash. An alternative is to select "Don't Run" when FSX asks you if you want to run GPWS_Sound.gau. This also works well.

 

I have noticed that GPWS_Sound.gau is also a default file. But that doesn't cause FSX to crash (thank goodness!). The GPWS_Sound.gau files for my handful of freeware aircraft that cause FSX to crash always seem to be dated 4/1/2005. So I think they might precede FSX, and there could be some sort of version compatibility issue. Or maybe they're clashing with the default file? I don't know exactly, but I have narrowed the crashes down to that one file and coding of it in panel.cfg.

 

Any thoughts on this issue?

The gauge must belong to one of the aircraft you installed as it is definitely not a default file for fsx or p3d.  Since FSX-SE is exactly the same as FSX, it's not the default for SE.  Believe it was made for FS9.  I would do a search on the Internet for the gpws_sound.gau and see if there's an updated version or a better sound package.

 

Best regards,

Belated thanks for your answer, Jim. I thought GPWS_sound.gau was also a default file because it was in my "gauges" folder (but as you say, I must have put it there myself when installing a freeware aircraft). The one in that folder was dated 14/2/2014, whereas all the other ones I saw seemed to be dated 4/1/2005. I tried replacing these with the one dated 14/2/2014, but FSX still crashed as soon as I tried to load a flight with the affected aircraft. There seems to be nothing for it but to delete the line referring to that gauge (it's usually only one line - have to remember to renumber the other gauges though) from the aircraft config file. This particular gauge must be incompatible with FSX. Even the code related to it appears incompatible with FSX! My aircraft still have sound though, but I guess in those particular planes, I might have to do without a few ground proximity warning messages or something.

 

Anyway, if you're downloading any freeware aircraft, this gauge is something to beware of. Not too many planes have it thankfully, but the ones that do won't work in FSX until it's gotten rid of. Then they'll work just fine (as far as I have been able to ascertain, anyway).