Abrupt exit from FS... need help please!

[matta757]

Hey guys,

I have been dealing with a kind of curious problem for a while now and was wondering if anyone could help me out. This is unrelated to my other topic about fs crashing, which was related to a hardware issue. This issue is purely software based.

For my simming, I have been using the PSS 757 for several years. This problem had happened before, but never to the extent that it is happening now. When I start flight sim and the startup screen comes up, I go to select my aircraft (one of my PSS 757 variants) and airport, and then I click fly now. Except instead of loading up, the game just exits immediately. No error message comes up saying that FS has crashed and needs to restart, no error reporting message from microsoft, it just exits for no apparent reason. It's as if I have hit the "Exit flight simulator immediately" button.

Like I said, this used to happen every once and a while when I would try to select an aircraft AFTER completing a flight. For example, let's say I flew my American Airlines 757. After landing and parking, now let's say I wanted to fly my Delta 757. After going to the Aircraft menu and selecting the Delta bird, the game would just exit as I described above. However, this problem really has never manifested itself on the initial starting menu in the game. I have always been able to select any of my PSS 757 and perform flights normally.

As of a few days ago, this started happening all the time. My default flight is with my American 757, which is what FlightSim loads up with. I was able to fly just fine with this aircraft. But the minute I tried to select a different aircraft: crash. Or, let's say that I selected a particular saved flight that utilized a different aircraft. That flight would load just fine, but the minute I tried to select a different plane: crash.

So I decided to unistall flightsim and find out if the problem was being caused by something that had "gone bad" within the game and/or one of the many addons that I have (scenery, gauges, etc). After reinstalling flight sim as per the CD and installing FSUIPC and reinstalling all my PSS 757's, I tried to load them up, and the problem seems even worse than before. I am lucky now if I can get any of the PSS aircraft to load up without the abrupt exit. I checked the application log and the error is registering, but here is the message I am getting:

"The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source (   ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: 7."

On a side note, if I setup the aircraft to load with the default flight sim panel, the problem does not happen. I believe this is an issue with the PSS 757 panel but have no idea what that issue might be, or why it has manifested itself like this all of a sudden when I used to be able to fly without any concern at all.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for trying to determine the cause and/or to fix the problem, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks,
Matt

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Always start FS with the default 172 at Seattle. This initializes the guages and may prevent all sorts of problems from FS crashing and aircraft not loading correctly, to FS exiting on it's own, video problems and sound problems.

[matta757]

That's what I am currently doing after my reinstall and this problem is still happening...

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Hmmm...

[Bob Reed]

What version of FS and what version of Windows. Sounds like something is corrupted. Uninstalling does not get rid of all the flies, you have to manually get rid of some of them and that is where the corruption is. So uninstalling and re installing does not help.

[matta757]

Hi Bob,

I am running FS 9.1 on a Windows XP system. When you say I need to delete files, which ones are you talking about?

I have FS on it's own dedicated hard drive. After running the unistall, I also went in and deleted the entire FS9 folder from that drive. If you could point me in the direction of what files remain and where they are located, that would help too!

Matt

[blueskydriver]

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[saabpilot]

Hi Matt,

Many problems comes with an corrupted FS9.cfg file!
Just delete fs9.cfg and FS will create a new one.
All personals "hacks" in fs9.cfg you have to put in again and also run the "Settings" in FS9, but that is easy and quick.

Another culprit for trouble are saved flights - they sometimes get corrupted with immediate CTD (Crash to Desktop) as a result.
Delete the saved flights in their folder and save new ones.

Start FS with the FS9 default Cessna is usually not necessary unless you use a lot of different aircraft.
If you do, you can run into problems with 3rd party addon planes such as the Master Nav Switch is off or Battery power not available.

This is the location of the config files in WIN 7 - if you use XP I can upload that too I just  temporary not have access to my XP computers.

[ETomlin]

Hi Matt

It may or may not help but I can concur that the default C172 @ Seattle is not always required, but it is suggested by many 3rd party guys. To sum up what was already said that has helped me in the past, I would:

1) Delete your current default flight and allow the C172 at KSEA be the default, just as a standard. Make sure that RW Weather is NOT saved here. In fact, I suggest you always have a "Clear Wx/No Weather" selected for default flights and manually go in and load RW Wx.
2) Save your fs9.cfg to a safe place and delete it from FS. Let FS recreate one and then use the saved one as a reference for tweaks.

3) If this doesnt fix your issue, then maybe uninstall your PSS bird and do 1 and 2 again. Seems like maybe you tried this already?

4) If 1- 3 doesnt work, then you need to totally clean FS from your system most likely. Bob mentioned that you can not simply uninstall. The reason why is that there are some system files generated and placed in other locations. Hopefully Bob or someone else can advise how to clean those out.

Also, dont forget about the other sugestion of System Restore. However, since you have had this issue for quite a while, I dont know how helpful that will be.

One last thought- Do you think it's possible you have a hardware issue now that is caused by the PSS bird loading? As in a failing RAM module that gets soaked each time that plane is loaded? Is this the only 3rd party plane that you have? Just some thoughts. Unlikely this last thought is relevant at all....just a thought.

[matta757]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions. Tried deleting the .cfg file: nothing. Tried deleting the flights: nothing. I have no idea what to do. If someone could describe how to do a COMPLETE unistall like Bob suggested I would appreciate it. This is so frustrating....

Matt

[Maurice]

As Eric suggested, before you go to more drastic measures, try downloading a memory test somewhere & run it to make sure your RAM is OK. I have experienced very weird problems as well in the past and it turned out there was a bad memory module. What you could do as well is swap the location (slots) of the memory modules. If it is in fact a bad module, the problem should manifest itself differently.

Maurice

[Bob Reed]

Hmmm.. Try Maurice's idea and see what you get. Also is this the only AC that does it? is it a file to install it or a disk? What do you have installed for add ons? What is the motherboard, video card and ram(how much) Sounds like you got the files I was talking about. If you uninstall again delete everything in the area you found those files in (I don't have access to a XP machine right this second to look at the paths) Keep us up to date

[matta757]

Does anyone know if installing the PSS software makes changes to the registry? I am going to do a complete unistall of FS, including removing its registry entries. I have already removed all my addons anyways with my reinstall yesterday, so it's really no skin off my teeth to reinstall FS again. I will look for a memory test as well.

I do believe that this is the only aircraft that does it. The default aircraft, certainly after my reinstall, do not have this problem. Also, replacing the panel folder in the PSS 757 also makes the problem go away. Interestingly enough, the only 2 PSS aircraft I can get to actually load are the 757PW freight models. I have no idea why they load, seeing as they all access the same panel folder. Frankly, the PSS 757 is basically the only aircraft I fly with. I did also have the PSS 777 installed and I think the problem might have manifested with the 777 too. My motherboard is an ASUS with an Intel Core2Quad CPU at 2.83GHz, with 3.00GB of RAM and a brand new nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 graphics card.

Bob I think I did not delete the stuff in the Application Data folder, which is where the cfg file is stored, etc; along with the registry entries as well. So I think retrying a complete unistall makes some sense. But again, if anyone knows if PSS modifies the registry at all that would be great.

[Bob Reed]

Are your installation files for this aircraft on a cd? Sounds like a corrupted file if replacing the panel fixes it.... Or might be a bad video driver. More things to look at.

[matta757]

Bob the files are installed from the downloaded version of the software from JustFlight's website. I agree it seems like a corrupted file, but again I cannot figure out where that file is. I am running a RAM test right now using Memtest86. When that's done, in about 45 minutes, I will move onto doing registry edits and removing flight sim. I will keep you posted.

Matt

[matta757]

RAM check completed with no errors reported. Moving on to uninstalling flight sim... again lol.

[Bob Reed]

So you have re downloaded the file? Correct?

[matta757]

Alright, I am about &*%#ing ready to retire from flight simming altogether.

Unistalled flightsim, following microsoft's directions for complete manual install (including registry modifications). At the same time as editing the registry for FS, I found some JustFlight entries and deleted those too for good measure.

Reinstalled flight sim 2004. Ran the program. No issues.

Installed the 9.1 service pack. Ran the program. No issues.

Installed FSUIPC. Ran the program. No issues.

Installed the PSS 757 package from Just Flight (newly downloaded installer). Ran the program. Crash to desktop.

Installed the PSS 777 package from Just Flight (also newly downloaded). Ran the program. Crash to desktop. 

I even uninstalled my copy of FS Panel Studio (which I used to make my panel/gauge modifications for my simulator) in the hopes that maybe it was causing some unknown ill-effect on the PSS 757 panel. Ran the program. Crash to desktop.

I was able to get one of the PSS 777's to load, but upon trying to select a different one, it also crashed to desktop.

I am so angry right now I cannot even bear it. I have no idea what the hell could be wrong with either flight sim, PSS or both. I never had this issue before, and have been using the PSS software from JustFlight for several years. If anyone has any idea where to go from here, I am so desperate I might just try anything.

[matta757]

UNBELIEVABLE...

So just out of desperation, I tried something...

For years I have been using flightsim solely in Fullscreen mode. In fact, even after the reinstalls, it always started in Fullscreen. Only recently did I start using it in non-fullscreen mode because that's how to undock and move windows between monitors.

So I just randomly put it in non-fullscreen mode, loaded up a 757... and IT WORKED. Dumbfounded, I tried loading from the aircraft menu another 757 and... IT WORKED AGAIN. It has worked OVER AND OVER AGAIN now that I am not in full screen.

WTF? How could such a little detail cause these planes to crash? Especially since it never used to happen? Does anyone have any idea? Is there a way to fix it? Not that it matters... I can load in non-fullscreen, but I'd just like to know.

All this working for &*%#ing for nothing (sort of...). Obviously I am glad to have found some sort of resolution, but what a pain in the ass to go through all this when all I needed to do was hit ALT-ENTER...

[ETomlin]

Matty, make certain you dont have a popup window moved off screen or something. Sounds like when in full screen it's trying to display something that causes a crash but windowed mode allows it to be rendered, even if off the viewable area. Glad you are closer to figuring it out.

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Now that that has come up, check your Windows monitor resolutions against the resolutions in FS. You never know.

[matta757]

Eric,

I hadn't thought of that. But now that you mention it, it makes sense. Except that I can't imagine what windows are open considering that none of my own modifications remained after all the reinstalls. Still, I will certainly check that out.

Mike,

The resolutions are the same, so I don't think that's the issue. Hmmm I am still really curious what this could be!

Thanks for all your suggestions guys, and since the mystery still isn't solved... keep em coming!

[warvet]

Matt,
I had a similar problem, years ago and all I did was used system restor back just before problem occurred and it reset everything back to running tckety boo, just a thought. This can be frustrating believe me. a decade or more i this hobby, I have run against almost every conceivable frustration including maurice lol ya know im only kidding Mau hehe my fine feathered Boeing friend. All the best Matt.
Tim
frm A340

[TomR]

Hi

First thing to do is open FS9 or FSX CFG file (Win 7 or Vista, AppData->Roaming->Microsoft->...).
Open it and find the line with the opening situation
SITUATION=...
Delete the line behind it and save the file, then try to start again.

[blueskydriver]

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