Crash to Desktop

[phil white 274]

For some reason my FSX has started doing the CTD. When flying any aircraft the frame rate stutters and freezes then the CTD happens with a window appearing saying that FSX has stopped responding and FSX then restarts

 

I have not made any changes to settings so I have no idea what's causing it.

[jaydor 345]

Have you got automatic updates running? as this will cause a lot of problems for FSX?

[britfrog 180]

James's idea is a good one , if that doesnt give you a solution, had the p.c. been running for some time and been used for other jobs before flying? if so always reboot before stating fsx. and also clear out all your temp files, something may be running in the background.

[phil white 274]

Thanks for the replies, yes I have automatic updates running and I will also bin the temp files too. So I will disable auto updates and see how it goes.

[PCAviator 30]

Does the error message give you any option to view the log or error report?

If so, what is that saying?

[phil white 274]

There is no error message, just stutters then freezes and CTD with the "stopped responding"  then restarts FSX

[brett 2,315]

James's idea is a good one , if that doesnt give you a solution, had the p.c. been running for some time and been used for other jobs before flying? if so always reboot before stating fsx. and also clear out all your temp files, something may be running in the background.

 

+1

 

I find starting FSX from a reboot always gives me a better ride.

[phil white 274]

 

James's idea is a good one , if that doesnt give you a solution, had the p.c. been running for some time and been used for other jobs before flying? if so always reboot before stating fsx. and also clear out all your temp files, something may be running in the background.

 

+1

 

I find starting FSX from a reboot always gives me a better ride.

 

 

FSX on my system has it's own drive and operating system and this drive only contains FSX so I reboot the system selecting this drive.

[J G 927]

I think the stuttering here is key.

 

Your instance of FSX is being interrupted by something else.  This could be a software issue or a hardware fault.

 

First do the above.

 

Second, shut down any other processes you may have running (if any). If that stop the issue stare each the stopped processes one by one to see it you can identify the issue.

 

Third, de-frag you hard disks. this will see if there are any issues with your HDDs such as bad or failing sectors and may solve them by marking them and then not using them.

 

Fourth, leave your PC on for a few hours with some ongoing process running - perhaps play a movie.  If this fails then may be you have a heat problem, although I doubt this as it would usually give you the Blue Screen of Death.

[britfrog 180]

As you say the stuttering is the key, there has been a recent nvidia wdm installation from M.S. I installed it on one hard drive and all hell let loose. My advice is uninstall the whole of nvidia , reboot, then reinstall the lates nvidia drivers from the nvidia site not M.S. and then stop automatic updates .

[stu7708 244]

I seem to recall seeing something about the latest NVIDIA drivers being very FSX unfriendly in general too...

 

But I could have mixed up NVIDIA and ATI for all I know since I can't find the info now....

 

and as above, automatic updates from MS is a big no no.. I never update any hardware drivers through Windows update.. I've lost enough hair over issues related to that already...

 

and as John said, hardware issues could be a part of it, but they do tend to lead to BSOD rather than a crash to desktop. But I guess it never hurts to run a memtest while you're at it...

[jaydor 345]

Have you tried increasing your virtual memory?  If you have any NVidia/ATI tweaks place them in the bin, where they belong.  Go to the setting menu inside FSX place your setting sliders to zero and start the long road of increase a little until you crash.  Make note of each setting.

 

These is the settings I use on one of my machines with no problems using a ATI card and using ORBX scenery. Quad 2, 4Gb memory ATi 5830

 

 

 

Daylight

 

 

Night-time

 

 

So as you can see nowt wrong with those settings 

[Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142]

This cautionary tale may or may not be relevant.

 

Since returning to NVidia I had been taking the lazy route and just applying the latest NVidia update in Express mode.

 

No longer. The last update in that mode completely screwed my machine.

 

So I first saved my Inspector settings and then uninstalled everything NVidia; removed any remaining fragments with DriverSweeper; then reinstalled the drivers in Custom mode.

 

(I will never again use Express mode, only Custom!).

 

During the Custom install, I unchecked all the unneeded stuff, but most importantly of all I will from now on always put a tick in the box for "Perform a clean installation".

 

All my problems then disappeared — so maybe it might help?

 

Cheers,

 

Bruce

 

[Soaranden 84]

Most flight simmers use Nvidia graphics cards because FSX likes Nvidia cards better than AMD cards. However, that doesn't mean that things can't go wrong. Whenever a FSX CTD occurs, it's a good idea to do a cold boot into Safe Mode followed by a cold boot into normal Windows mode. One-hundred percent of the time when I receive a "stopped responding" message during FSX use, the problem is due to my graphics card overheating. I know this because I use the Nvidia System Monitor utility to check the temperature of my graphics card after FSX stops responding. The graphics card temperature is always higher after a "stopped responding" message than it is when FSX is continuing to run normally. There was a situation, last year, where a new Nvidia driver caused overheating because it had an adverse affect on graphics card fan speed. Fortunately, I didn't own one of the graphics card models that was affected by the errant driver, and fortunately, it's rare for Nvidia to release a bad driver. I keep my Nvidia graphics card drivers up to date.

 

Dan

[lewblok 1]

My experience with CTD results when I do a lot of right clicking on views and menu options.  When I refrain from that, I can fly for hours without any problems.  I have no idea why, but it works for me.  I click and undock windows in 2D options on aircraft panel and move onto other monitors instead of using menu options.  Hope this helps.

[adrians69 159]

Hi Phil, I had this problem too. It turned out to be a corrupt registry entry somewhere. Have you tried running Flight 1's registry fix? If not here is the link. It worked for me mate.

 

http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

 

Adrian

[stu7708 244]

Hi Phil..

The issue with CTD while right clicking or accessing menus is usually due to the UIAutomationCore.dll bug..

The version of that DLL in win 7 ( and Vista I think) doesn't work well with FSX.

I think the fix is available in the file library here on Mutleys ( I'm browsing on the iPhone right now and havn't managed to locate the file library from within the mobile theme)....