Spontaneous Closure

[JETZcorp]

Hey everyone.
Terribly sorry that my first post here has to be on an unpleasant note, but it can't [practically] be helped.

Right, so here's the deal.

[Groundbound1]

Welcome to SimV, JETZ.

Sorry to here about your sim's troubles. Does this happen with any other programs, or just FS9?

Off the top of my head, you may want to try running Memtest. I had an issue similar to yours a good while back, and it turned out to be a faulty memory module. Whenever the sim would begin to load anything "heavy", it would crash.

Have you made any hardware changes or upgrades as of late? If so, (and actually, even if not) you might also try deleting your FS9.cfg file. After deleting it, your sim will automatically rebuild a new one. This often corrects many sudden or newly developing crashes.

There could be any number of reasons for this problem, so any further information you can provide would be helpful. For example, what are your system's specs, operating system, and so on..

There are many knowledgable people here, and even if my suggestions don't help, I'm sure someone elses will.

[JETZcorp]

Thanks for the quick reply.

No, I haven't made any hardware changes in well over a year, which is unfortunate given my current system.  I've got a single-core Athlon 2.4GHz Prosessor with 2GB of RAM (it's not DDR2 or anything like that) with a pair of 80GB Hard Drives, an ATi X850 graphics card, a DVD-RW drive and CD-RW drive.  I run on Windows XP.

This problem is happening with FS9 and FS9 alone.  This makes me seriously doubt that it's a memory problem, because I've tried running FSX (which, as you may have guessed from the specs above, runs at single-digit framerates with mediocre settings) with no crashes.  I've also played around with some movie editing stuff (Movie Maker and Vegas) as well as one "MX Simulator" and Lock-On: Flaming Cliffs.  With the exception of Movie Maker, everything went fine, and I'm pretty sure Movie Maker's problem was the inordinately complex movie I was making.  I have not failed to notice that it's only the Microsoft programs that are failing.

I deleted the FS9.cfg file, loaded up my Level-D 767 at PDX, and the sim promptly crashed.  Growl.  I thought I'd try again with another plane at another airport, but before I could even click the little arrow thingy to select a new plane, it shut down.

[garymbuska]

I would suggest you check out your video card to see if it is running hot on you. When was the last time you opened up your system and cleaned it out using canned air. [glow=yellow,2,300]i WOULD SUGGEST YOU DO THIS WITH THE POWER OFF [/glow]
some Video cards have there own fans as well make sure they are clean and running.
If you have a mother board monitor check it out. If not google the word mother board monitor and download one it will let you know what your temperatures are. 8-)

[JETZcorp]

Okay, so I downloaded the Motherboard Monitor thing, and took a shot of the Dashboard.

[garymbuska]

[quote]Okay, so I downloaded the Motherboard Monitor thing, and took a shot of the Dashboard.

[Nav]

JETXCorp, I'm no computer expert but there are some possibilities you could look at.

First one is, FS is pretty 'memory-hungry' and is designed to use free disk space as 'extra memory' when needed. How full are your two drives - and especially the one FS is installed on? You could just have reached the point where FS can't find enough free space to work with.

Next, airports vary. I think that Portland is a 'high detail' one. I just checked it out on my own machine and got only about a 12fps framerate instead of the more normal 28-30 (you can check the framerate by pressing "Shift-Z'). So the airport itself may be causing some sort of overload; maybe try a less detailed one?

Thirdly, FS files get pretty scrambled and 'out of position' over time. You could try a defrag and a disk cleanup (and a Registry Clean if you have 'Registry First Aid' or similar installed).

Finally, maybe try re-installing FS? Make sure to use the 'Uninstall' option on Disk 1, though, don't just delete FS. The uninstall/install programs will clear and re-install all the basic FS files but will not delete any of your addons.

[JETZcorp]

I think I'll try the reinstall option next.

[Kaworu]

Before you reinstall, remember to make a backup of your Scenery.cfg and Texture folder. Makes the whole cleanup process soooooo much easier...

I had a similar problem once, reinstall was the only fix.

Course, try everything at "02 Ranch (alphabetically first airport, somewhere in rural america) with the default 172....if you can get things working.

BTW, do you have a higher-quality version of the video? I watched, and it really was excellent! I would like to sue it as an intro to wing physics for my Venturing crew. The math is not important for the classes I teach...it's more important to get the concept than the nuts and bolts. Email me if you've got a higher-quality version (like one I can put on a projector for an entire classroom to see)

Good luck mate

[Vuikag]

Yeah reinstalling is best. sounds like a run file is corrupted, so when something, anything tries to load, it may crash. well that's what happened to me anyways.

I'll forgive your bad math because it was really confusing and had long words (a simpleton I am). And plus you have combat videos of LOMAC, anyone who can figure out how to fly on LOMAC has to be a genius! (I can fly, just not more then 20 seconds, then I blow up)