FS9 back to old antics

S

SSI01

Charter Member
This FS9 installation is going into "reset" mode again; by that I mean it takes about 45 minutes to get from "start" to where I can select an aircraft, and an airport, set fuel/payload, etc, and hit "fly now" - at which point it loads scenery and everything, the black scroll gets about 75% of the way across, to "creating scenery objects" when it stops working and I get the MS dialog box saying system is checking on the problem, followed by another one saying FS9 is restarting. I never take it up on the restart because I know this is just the beginning of a vicious loop

I am getting pretty tired of this, it seems to be a very temperamental installation. A few days ago I visited Historic Jetliners Group and downloaded a number of their DC-10 versions for inclusion in my copy of FS9. That's where the problems started. I had one good flight with a HJG DC-10-10 variant and after that, I found a flock - around 35 or 40 - of new folders in my Add-On Scenery file each with a four-letter code by them - and I hadn't placed them there! No wonder it took an inordinately long time to load. I went into the Add-On Scenery folder and deleted those, plus unchecked them in the "scenery file" section of the start-up screens. I also fixed the basic display configuration, per suggestion at FlightSim, to have "aircraft reflections" checked but "render to texture" unchecked - the instruction said you should do one or the other, but not both. I still had no luck, had a CTD when trying to start - got as far as being able to select the desired aircraft, and then the "loading everything" scroll after selecting "go fly" - and that's when the CTD occurs. I just went into "compatibility mode" on my machine and tried restarting FS9 in WXP SP2, and still had this problem.

I have a second iteration of FS9 that contains only aircraft from 1903 through 1949. In this folder I have the MAAM-SIM TBF and all its variants. Some of those will make a complete flight, and some will cause a CTD after about 30 mins of flight. No other aircraft causes this.

A couple of things occur which may be of note for those of you who have dealt with this issue in the past. First - it takes a LONG time for the scroll to pass through the "scenery objects" phase when the sim finally accepts the last input before loading what I've selected; second, after choosing the aircraft I desire to fly, the default aircraft appears for just a split second in that screen before the aircraft I've selected to fly appears again.

I don't know if this is something peculiar to my installation of the HJG DC-10 package; a new AMD video driver I just installed (although the TBF issue predates that); a hardware issue; or problems with the basic FS9 package itself. I'm getting ready for a break for a while from FS activity, maybe this is a way of being told I need to do that. My problem is I hate to leave something like this festering, and want to set this right..
 
Format and a clean new install would be my approach!
I keep a plain vanilla FS9 as a backup on an external HD, haven't had to use it yet and I'm running ten variations of FS9 on my system.
Can't answer the question hanging over the HJG DC-10 but the problem seems to be (IMHO) in another area.
And FTR, running separate flavors of FS9 results in smaller packages and fast start up times.
:encouragement:
 
Without knowing your system specs it would be hard to zero in on a real cause, although you probably answered one question yourself. . ."I visited Historic Jetliners Group and downloaded a number of their DC-10 versions for inclusion in my copy of FS9. That's where the problems started."

Dump every bit of that (you can always download again later) for starters. There's no way I would ever wait 45mins for a Sim to start. . .maybe a few minutes, but beyond that I'd be at the task manager shutting down the sim. How much addon scenery is active in the Scenery library? If you aren't flying to an airport that day or only flying in a specific area, uncheck everything else (this is only your own installed addons). . .no sense in loading (or trying to load) scenery for areas you won't be flying to. If you have aircraft that weren't built specifically for FS9 (CFS or FS8 portovers) each one of those albeit small are contributing to a slightly slower sim. Once you've weeded out all these things, defrag and restart your PC, load FS9 and see if there's any discernible difference, if so continue weeding out aircraft or scenery that seem be causing lower fps. . .every little bit when stacked together contributes to slower load times and a sluggish sim. Finally, make a copy of your FS9.cfg file and then delete the original. Load FS9 and let it build a new config file. See if that makes a difference as well. You can always use the copy to add some of your tweaks back in but at times the config file just gets corrupted and needs to be flushed out and rebuilt.
 
All good suggestions, and I guess I'd better get down to finding that FS9.cfg, eliminating it, and letting the sim build its own, as Falcon has suggested. That's just for starters.

Based on recommendations I'm going to install a good program to temporarily shut down unnecessary services to run while also using FS, whether it's FS9 iterations or FSX.

BTW here are my system specifics:

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor, 3.0 GHz
RAM 4.00 GHz
64-bit OS
AMD Radeon 6850 Video Card
Realtek High Definition Audio
 
I decided to bite the bullet and do another clean install of FS9. In this case, I put the new install into the same drive where FSX resides, in a folder designated "FLIGHTSIM." The path is "G:\FLIGHTSIM\FS1970S." "FS1970S" is the designation for the iteration of the old FS9 I am breaking up into more easily manageable (hopefully) fragments. The sim installed with no problems, and starts normally with the usual "MS FS2004" intro screen; I selected the standard Cessna 172 as the aircraft for the first flight, and let the sim dictate parameters for the flight. Everything loads fine until we're at 77% and the sim is loading weather, when we get a CTD. I then get the screen telling me FS2004 has encountered a problem, but is restarting.

I don't understand why this has to be this difficult, this was a fresh install right out of the box, the only think I did differently was to change the .exe file from "fs9.exe" to fs1970s.exe," and when this was done the machine gave no indication of problems in accepting it. The problem somehow seems to reside with whatever governs the "weather" portion of the simulator - or the internet connection, which is functioning without problems.
 
SSI01 said:
I decided to bite the bullet and do another clean install of FS9. In this case, I put the new install into the same drive where FSX resides, in a folder designated "FLIGHTSIM." The path is "G:\FLIGHTSIM\FS1970S." "FS1970S" is the designation for the iteration of the old FS9 I am breaking up into more easily manageable (hopefully) fragments. The sim installed with no problems, and starts normally with the usual "MS FS2004" intro screen; I selected the standard Cessna 172 as the aircraft for the first flight, and let the sim dictate parameters for the flight. Everything loads fine until we're at 77% and the sim is loading weather, when we get a CTD. I then get the screen telling me FS2004 has encountered a problem, but is restarting.

I don't understand why this has to be this difficult, this was a fresh install right out of the box, the only think I did differently was to change the .exe file from "fs9.exe" to fs1970s.exe," and when this was done the machine gave no indication of problems in accepting it. The problem somehow seems to reside with whatever governs the "weather" portion of the simulator - or the internet connection, which is functioning without problems.
Click to expand...

That will do it, you can use a different name for your containing folder but the fs9.cfg gets very confused. I just go with 'fs9.exe' through however many numbers of 'FS9' the system designates.
As you can see you get several shortcuts in numerical order from the different folders of each fs9.exe, keeping track of which is which is just a matter of allocating appropriate icons.
works for me.
You might get away with renaming your fs9.cfg file to fs.1970s (as one does with GW3) but I think that can get messy.


UteIMJ.jpg



jomgyE.jpg
 
Maybe the problem is in re-naming the .exe File. You have your 'clean' Installation in a parent "FLIGHTSIM" Folder... what about creating a clean, stand alone Folder called 'TEST', and put your clean Install there, all by itself. Don't re-name the FS9.exe File, and route your Shortcut there (G:\TEST\fs9.exe).

If that doesn't work, hmmm... :banghead:

If the same actions are repeating themselves (Progress Screen gets to 70-80%, LONG load time, then CTD regardless of 'version'), my thoughts are that something is pointing Windows towards something Scenery related... a stray .bgl file, Scenery module, or other File that was supposed to be deleted when you got rid of the earlier Versions, and wasn't.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Alan :dizzy:

EDIT: what wombat just said, too... :biggrin-new:
 
Hi guys. I changed the name of the folder to "Flight Simulator 9 1970s", then went back to using the "fs9.exe" as supplied out of the box. This is what I get after the sim gets past the startup screen:
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That aircraft is actually in the sim, it's an add-on I put in a little while ago.
 

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I should have put this first, this is the screen that comes up before the ones I posted above:

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What's interesting about this is the aircraft referenced in that box is in the original FS9 that is on another drive altogether.
 

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-- Why is your 'clean' Install trying to use elements from other Installations to open (Aircraft Initialization Failure)?

-- Why is the 'Create A Flight' Screen so fragmented?

Please correct me if I'm mistaken (or blind), but I presume that for each Install of FS9, you have an associated Shortcut pointing to that specific Installation...

I'd like to know too, because I would like to create a separate GW Install myself, and want to have as many Tips as possible. I'm still getting used to W7!

Alan :dizzy:
 
FS9 (and the newer FSX) creates a 'shadow' copy of aircraft folder, it resides in the same folder as the fs9.cfg file,
ie user (your name) /app data/roaming/Microsoft/fs9 ; if you rename your fs9.exe then you will have folder for that version, ie user/app data/roaming/Microsoft / gw3 <--- your choice
If you do not rename fs9.exe, then it will simply be trying to add the shadow aircraft back to main folder, which is what you are seeing.

Its worthwhile once in a while clearing out the aircraft folder in the user (your name) /app data /roaming/Microsoft/ fs9 folder
especially if you add/remove aircraft frequently from fs9 installation. EDIT : Ps forgot to say Fs9 will rebuild folder when it next starts to reflect current aircraft listings.

ttfn

Pete
 
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Thanks Motormouse - I'll clean that folder out straightaway.

I already have three other FS9 iterations - called "FSSW," "FSSW50," and "FSSW60" for different periods of aviation development ("SW" was for "Silver Wings," the program relating to aviation development in the '40s and '50s, that I used as the basis for the first three folders). Everything after 1969 was lumped into FS9. This turned it into a whopper of a file. I am now breaking it down into iterations like the previous ones - "Flight Simulator 9 1970s," and so on. In the past I've managed to change the name of the FS9.exe file into a different ".exe" to suit each of these iterations, and the computer swallowed the change without a hiccup. Suddenly, this little problem appeared in the largest of the sims - FS9 - just after installing files from a source - Historic Jetliners Group - that worked perfectly in the past. I've since transferred those files to FSX, with FSX-compliant panels and sound - and they work fine there. I'm not sure what was the immediately cause of this problem other than that. As mentioned previously, I think cutting down the size of the original FS9 installation will make this work better.

I'm also finding out there is a lot more detailed maintenance to FS9 than I originally thought there was.

I'm on my way into that folder using the path(s) specified and will report progress as I go on. Don't mind doing this for someone else to learn as well.
 
Well, here's a new wrinkle - Windows 7 will not even allow the .exe file in Disk 1 to be read - it's in the CD drive and it's blinking frantically but nothing is happening. Yesterday it was working fine. There aren't any scratches on the surface of the disk. "Autorun" doesn't come up when I go to the "search programs and files" box at the bottom box that appears after "start" is pressed.

That's not all - I can't find that "aircraft" file anywhere in the files on "C" drive, which is the main drive - I've been to "All Users," which doesn't contain those kinds of files; "C: - All Users," "C: - Users - All Users - App Data - Roaming" which has a "Microsoft" folder in it but no FS9 in that folder. "C: - Users - All Users" and "C: - Users - Default Users" are locked, and I have no knowledge of how to unlock them (it's wonderful how MS does this to purchasers of its products).

I tried changing the name of the .exe file in the new installation of FS9 in "G" drive, it started normally at very low resolution and let me go through the steps to sharpen everything up; when I got to key assignments/joystick calibration, I was able to finish that but then the sim locked up, kept cycling back to the basic key assignments screen even after "OK" was pressed at the l. right corner. Things are royally hosed up at this time.

EDIT: I was able to find that "Aircraft" folder in one of the folders that had a lock icon on it but was nonetheless accessible (?) - anyway, there were over 5,100 items in it - it's being cleared out right now as we speak.
2nd EDIT: On opening the .config text file for the new iteration and comparing it to the .config text file I found the "RWW WEATHER" section was missing completely from the new iteration .config - I copied it and added it to the new .config. Am doing the same now with anything else I find different from what I knew was a working copy of FS9. Also, the "OldModules" block was missing from the new .config file, so I added that, too.
 
SSI01 said:
That's not all - I can't find that "aircraft" file anywhere in the files on "C" drive, which is the main drive - I've been to "All Users," which doesn't contain those kinds of files; "Users - All Users," "Users - All Users - App Data - Roaming" which has a "Microsoft" folder in it but no FS9 in that folder. "Users - All Users" and "Users - Default Users" are locked, and I have no knowledge of how to unlock them (it's wonderful how MS does this to purchasers of its products).

I tried changing the name of the .exe file in the new installation of FS9 in "G" drive, it started normally at very low resolution and let me go through the steps to sharpen everything up; when I got to key assignments/joystick calibration, I was able to finish that but then the sim locked up, kept cycling back to the basic key assignments screen even after "OK" was pressed at the l. right corner. This are royally hosed up at this time.
Click to expand...

Folder is not in the all users section...read again /\ ....back in a mo with a screenie.
Also sounds one your user account control is messing about, see the tips tricks section for that.

Ttfn

Pete
 
Still staying on this, MM - got to run into town on a couple of errands but will check back in after about 3 hours - thanks for the tips, we'll see how this pans out. Will check back in later.
 
Before I left on my little jaunt, I rewrote the .cfg file for the new installation of FS9 - for the 1970s - to exactly match that of the FS9 .cfg. After a trial run of the new installation, I've discovered I still get to the 77% loaded point on the black scroll, re: weather input - and I get my recurring CTD, along with a restart.

I'm going to try another installation as a straight, unadulterated FS9 version - followed by another installation for the 1980s, with a renamed .exe file. Both of them right out of the box. The only things I'm going to change in the 1980s version are the "Gauges," "Effects," and "Scenery" folders (not "Add On Scenery" - that comes later). I'm going to add only that add-on scenery that is specific to that time frame as well.
 
SS101,

When you do the Install, make a separate Folder on your Hard Drive. Install it just like you're a newbie, and it's the 1st time you're doing it.

NO Add Ons... NOTHING. Don't fiddle with the fs9.cfg OR fs9.exe Files. Just point the Install to that EMPTY Folder.

Don't mean to be pushy, but we've got to see if a Vanilla FS9 Install is going to work in the 1st place! I know it's frustrating, but to be honest I don't want to see you take an imposed hiatus from FS, just because the Sim won't run!

We'll figure this out...

Alan :dizzy:
 
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