Problem with starting Fs2004

[bocephus292002]

I have been running FS2004 for almost a year now with no problems. A few weeks ago my FS2004 program would not start. The splash screen shows up and then the screen turns black and returns to desktop. I disabled the opening video and it solved the problem. But now if I try to return to the main menu, the screen turns black closes the program and returns to the desk top. All of my other games and programs work fine

I have tried all the diagnostic procedures on the MS knowledge base. I have even reinstalled and updated IE, Media Player and XP. I am out of ideas. Just wondering if anyone has heard of this and might know how to fix it.  

Thnx

[RollerBall]

Good idea to update/reinstall your DirectX

[bocephus292002]

Tried that, still no luck

[Graycat8524]

The first thing that I would do in this instance Bocephus is to open your Windows Explorer and go into your C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9 folder.  

Locate a file called FS9.cfg.

Right click it and left click Copy.  Double click one of the other sub-folders (doesn't matter which -- the Facilities folder will work just fine).

Paste this FS9.cfg into this folder.  Rename this file to FS9(Old).Bak or something similar.  Cut and paste this renamed file back into the original FS9 folder.

Next Delete the FS9.cfg file.

Exit out of the Windows Explorer and restart the FS 2004.  

The FS9.cfg file contains all of your preferred game settings.  If this file becomes corrupted it could cause problems like what you are experiencing.  When you delete the old FS9.cfg and restart FS 2004 a new FS9.cfg will be automatically created.  

One thing that I wanted to mention is that when you delete the FS9.cfg file your FS 2004 program will return to the original default settings as if the program was newly installed.  You will need to go back into the FS2004 and reset your preferences again.  

I hope that this helps.

[JohnS]

Perhaps you could try some of the tips I received - search for "Laptop freezing - CPU usage" elsewhere in this forum

[bocephus292002]

Thnks for everyones help

Tried all those. I called ms support and they couldn't help me much. They did say something about FS using IE when running the main menu. So i reinstalled IE and still the same thing.

About the same time I had this problem i ran Adaware 6.0. I am wondering if this had something to do with my problem. Has anyone had any thing like that happen?

I have no problem Flying if i go straight to the default flight on startup, it is just when i want to create a flight or go to certain menu's.

Im stumped

[MooseMan]

Have you tried a ncie clean reinstall of FS? That always works for me when games/apps get screwy.

[bocephus292002]

Do you mean just uninstall and then reinstall, or is there more?

[Graycat8524]

Heya Bocephus,

As I said on another recent thread in this forum I don't recommend an Uninstall/Reinstall of FS 2004 unless all else fails.

Try this.

Open your main FS 2004 folder then open the Aircraft folder.  Look in there for a folder simply named as c172.
This is the Default Cessna 172SP aircraft that appears first when you Create a Flight.  If it's missing or corrupted then it could be causing your issues.  Get back to me and let me know.  If this is the cause then it's a relatively simple procedure to get it back.

[MooseMan]

Really? Just wondering, Greycat, why don't you reccomend a reinstall? It always seems to work for me. I just back up saved games, or in fs's case, flight plans, etc.

[Graycat8524]

The main reason I don't recommend a full Uninstall/Reinstall is because of aircraft.  

When you uninstall FS 2004 it deletes all of your default aircraft.  So far, so good.  The big problem is with Add-On Aircraft.  With Add-On Aircraft the FS 2004 Uninstall procedure leaves the aircraft folder as well as the Model, Panel, Sound, and assorted Texture Sub-Folders, however, ALL of your *.txt and *.cfg files(i.e. Aircraft.cfg, Panel.cfg, Sound.cfg, and any aircraft specs.txt files & etc.) are deleted as well!  When you reinstall FS 2004 it replaces the default aircraft, however, all of your Add-On aircrafts are toast.  

This becomes especially gruesome if you have several payware aircraft like I do (I purchased them, HONEST!).  The reinstall of most payware aircraft involve registration key files that (hopefully you backed these up as well) are needed to reinstall.  If you cannot find these key files then you need to go to the medicine cabinet and pull out your big bottle of Tylenol.  You're going to need a lot of little white pills in attempting to obtain replacement key files from certain software vendors for payware aircraft.

Then the real nightmare begins.  Unless you do as I do and backup everything on a Secondary hard drive you're really up the creek without an Evinrude on the back of your boat.

It's a lot of work to restore Add-On aircraft even if you did back them up.  Believe me.  It's not pretty.

The second main reason that I don't recommend a full Uninstall/Reinstall is that I also have a lot of Utilities, Add-On Sceneries, Textures, etc. that I have downloaded since I broke open my FS 2004 box.  Normally, (to my knowledge) an uninstall does not touch these.  But you remember me talking about the *.txt and *.cfg files being deleted from the Aircraft folder?  Well it's my belief (I don't know for sure and I don't wish to find out) that these are deleted for your "Eye Candy" as well.  

I don't know for certain, however, I think that if you slip in your FS 2004 install CD and select "Repair FS 2004" from the main install menu it does the same thing.

I'm sorry for being so long-winded in my explanation, however, I feel that you should explore every option possible before resorting to a complete Uninstall/Reinstall of FS 2004.