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Well my minor trials and tribulations seems to be continuing.

I'm now getting the occasional "a fatal error has occured" message in FSX which results in a lock up in FSX (PC continues to work so no CTD) FSX then restarts!! At present it is a random thing and does not occur every flight. Unfortunately it's happened on two recent Air Hauler trips which have subsequently meant I've missed the deadline because I didn't have time to re-fly the route before the deadline passed.

At present it is in the mildly irritating category but I wondered if there are any suggestions of things to check in case it becomes a more frequent matter. A quick google search didn't highlight anything major that I haven't already tried. I'm running Win 7 64 bit OS.

  1. I have FSX installed on a separate drive D:\FSX
  2. I have it set to run as administrator
  3. I've added the UIAutomationCore.dll to my FSX directory (not sure this is needed or works)

I know many people are running FSX on Win 7 64 bit systems, have you made any special tweaks or adjustments?

Is it possible that lack of RAM or running some of the HD textures in REX would effect this?

Any suggestions greatly received.

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There's a very good method of getting around this with no more than a minor inconvenience in AH, but it requires the registered version of FSUIPC for FSX. It's free in FS9. Am leaving the house momentarily but will post details in a few hours.

John

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There's a very good method of getting around this with no more than a minor inconvenience in AH, but it requires the registered version of FSUIPC for FSX. It's free in FS9. Am leaving the house momentarily but will post details in a few hours.

John

Thanks John apprecaite your input as always - I'll be interested in how this works as atm that is the most irritating aspect - it's cost me reputation and money the last FSX crash happened only 7nm from home base as well. :gaah:

I'm still interested in any general FSX input though if anyone else has any just in case this becomes more frequent.

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This happened once to me too since flying with AH on win7 64bit! Couldn't say why ain't got a clue!

Looks like John might hav a nugget of info that may help tho! My FSUIPC is not registered so maybe that!

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I had similar issues when I migrated to Win7 64-bit, but placing the UIAutomationCore.dll file in the FSX folder solved it for me. (well, in all honesty they did reappear for a while when I started using the Ezdoc camera addon if I accidently shifted to a world camera a long way away from my current position, but that's more of a user error in my mind).

Since you have the UIAutomationCore.dll in place my best bet would be Out of Memory errors, if the computer is stable outside of FSX use.

As far as I've understood from a couple of topics on the PMDG support forum a 32-bit native program, like FSX, can only adress a total of about 4 gb RAM and Video RAM regardless of if it's run on a 32-bit or 64-bit OS.

To make things worse in your case FSX always let the RAM on the GFX-card take priority even if it isn't used, so with 2 gb gone there you only have access to 2 gb of regular RAM for non graphic related items FSX.

But just to rule out faulty RAM I would also consider running a memtest, plus some sort of monitoring software to rule out overheating of the CPU and/or GPU..

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OK, here's the story. My solution will not do anything to prevent the FSX crashes, but as long as it's only FSX that crashes and AH continues to run, recovery is quick and easy and you will not have to repeat the flight.

At the heart of it is a FS utility called AutoSave that is built into FSUIPC. Autosave is available to FS9 users free, i.e. does not require FSUIPC to be registered (and paid). For FSX users, Autosave is only available with the registered (paid) version, but I don't think it's expensive to register. For the rest, this is out of the "Useful Info and Top Tips" thread in the JF/AH forum. Be sure to follow it all the way through for the part at the bottom about using Autosave...

Posted: Sep 12 2009 at 12:04pm - IP: 24.110.13.153

RECOVERING FROM A FS CRASH DURING AN AH FLIGHT

Credit for the concept behind this goes to AH user Pilot1. His original post, contained in this thread…

http://forum.justfli...ts.asp?TID=9416

…put me on to this solution. His words, edited a bit:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“When either FS9 or FSX crashes or exits normally it saves a flight called "Previous Flight.FLT" in…

My Documents -> Flight Simulator Files for FS9 or

My Documents -> Flight Simulator X Files for FSX

Create a shortcut to Previous Flight.FLT on your desktop or somewhere you can find it easy. You must associate the .flt extension with either FSX or FS9. To do that right click on the shortcut and select 'open with' then select the exe file of your FS and make sure the 'always open with' box is ticked. You only need to do this once, when creating the shortcut.

If FS crashes during an AH flight, double click the short cut and FS will restart a few seconds before it crashed, in flight, where you left it.

Don't touch AH while you do this; when FS restarts you will hear the bongs as AH reconnects and you can carry on with your flight as if nothing has happened. You get paid and your cargo is still intact.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When I used the above method it worked, after a fashion, but put me in the AC that was saved as my default flight, not the one I was flying. Because of that, many other things were not correct either, however the basic objective was met - I was placed at the correct location and altitude and AH was still alive and monitoring the flight. I was able to restore/reset everything manually and continue to my destination and received full credit for the job completion.

One quirk is that AH records an extraneous landing when this occurs, sometimes at your last stop, sometimes somewhere else nearby. You’ll be assessed the normal landing fee for it and it shows up in your Flight Log tables. It’s a small price to pay for not losing an in-progress flight/job to a FS crash.

An enhancement I recommend for FS9 users is to install Autosave 1.501 from Pete Dowson, available at…

http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

Instead of restoring from the saved Previous Flight file, restore from one of the ten rolling Autosave files, which are done at 1 minute intervals. For me that did a much better job than Previous Flight of restoring things as they were before the crash.

A tip of the hat to Pilot1 for coming up with a real life-saver for those who experience FS crashes while flying AH jobs. It’s gone from catastrophe to a mere bump in the road thanks to his insight.

John Allard

John

EDIT: I should clarify. Autosave is stand-alone freeware for FS9, not part of FSUIPC. For FSX it is included in FSUIPC but requires that it be the registered version for it to work.

JDA

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Well, let's face it, you're never going to get a perfectly stable FSX with no crashes, errors, etc...

My FSX usually crashes about once in every ten or fifteen flights, so you're not alone.

But as Mikael said, it is likely an issue with the RAM and graphics card VRAM, where FSX simply doesn't have enough. Here are a few things you can try:

- turn down some of the settings in FSX, like scenery, weather, AI traffic, etc.

- if you're using HD textures in REX, try something lighter, like 1024. That's what I use, and it works and looks great (I find it to be more realistic than the HD textures as well).

- limit the frame rate in FSX (preferably not with an external program) -> this prevents your computer from overworking itself by trying to create extra (useless) frames.

- and, if you're really desperate, buy more memory.

Hope this helps. :)

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To make things worse in your case FSX always let the RAM on the GFX-card take priority even if it isn't used, so with 2 gb gone there you only have access to 2 gb of regular RAM for non graphic related items FSX.

But just to rule out faulty RAM I would also consider running a memtest, plus some sort of monitoring software to rule out overheating of the CPU and/or GPU..

I didn't know that and I've been thinking of putting more RAM into my rig anyway so this may give me a bit more incentive to part with my money.

OK, here's the story. My solution will not do anything to prevent the FSX crashes, but as long as it's only FSX that crashes and AH continues to run, recovery is quick and easy and you will not have to repeat the flight.

Thanks again John that will certainly help so I'll register FSUIPC. Do you know if it just gets installed over the top of the free version? I don't want to mess up Air Hauler.

That can get you back yes - I often use it in VA. For the error itself I have found it can occur when using a lot of high res scenery (Bojote's tweaks help) and also differently when FSUIPC gets conflicting calls - like from Fsinn and Plan-G. Make sure you use Simconnect for Plan-G for example. Use the 4 GB mem fix (search) and not just run FSX as administrator but in compatibility mode for Win7 may also help

Mike

More questions Mike I'm afraid. What do you mean use Simconnect for Plan G? I do run Plan G on the same machine. Also what is the 4GB memory fix? I'm seriously thinking of increasing RAM but what is this fix?

But as Mikael said, it is likely an issue with the RAM and graphics card VRAM, where FSX simply doesn't have enough. Here are a few things you can try:

- if you're using HD textures in REX, try something lighter, like 1024. That's what I use, and it works and looks great (I find it to be more realistic than the HD textures as well).

- limit the frame rate in FSX (preferably not with an external program) -> this prevents your computer from overworking itself by trying to create extra (useless) frames.

Hope this helps. :)

Thanks for that - yes it helps I'll take a look at REX as I had tinkered with it recently - so maybe I've over tinkered.

Interesting about the frame rate though - I've read a few articles suggesting not to limit frame rate - maybe I'll try limited.

Thanks to everyone as always for the input it's greatly appreciated and has given me plenty to go on. Better just tinker with one thing at a time here though otherwise I'll get myself in a right mess :wacko2:

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Thanks again John that will certainly help so I'll register FSUIPC. Do you know if it just gets installed over the top of the free version? I don't want to mess up Air Hauler.

I THINK that it is just a matter of paying your money and unlocking what is already there, but not 100% sure of that. A lot of free->payware is set up that way - the code that provides the full functionaliy is there as soon as you download the demo/free part and paying for the upgrade just unlocks it.

I don't think registering your existing FSUIPC will have any effect on your current AH installation. Backing up your AH and companies first would be prudent, but will probably prove to be a waste of time, disk space and electrons. It's still the prudent thing to do, even if the probability of needing it is low.

John

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Thanks gents - I've registered my FSUIPC and now have the additional options etc to save flight and so on. Should also come in handy for fine tuning my controls, might even get my yoke and throttle quadrant set-up correctly now.

I checked Plan G and did have it set up correctly so I guess I must have read the manual at some point :D

Thanks again for all the help.

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Remember that if you get a crash, leave AH entirely alone - just let it run. Get FSX running again and restore from your most recent Autosave backup, which should be less than a minute prior to the time FS folded it's tent.

Go to FS and pause immediately and check out everything - altitude, positon, heading, flaps, gear, lights, trim, pop-up windows, AP settings, radio frequencies, etc. When you're satisfied that all is as close as you can get it, go to the Flight Monitor screen and Re-Connect manually, unless AH has already done it by itself (it usually does). I think you'll even find the correct amount of fuel remaining in the tanks.

If you're using Radar Contact for add-on ATC I don't know of any way to bring that back gracefully so you just have to shut that off and fly the rest of the flight without ATC.

If you shut down AH when this happens, you're toast.

John

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The patch - one source here http://www.softpedia...oad-175709.html (make sure you hit the right download button or you'll get some crappy scanning software) or search for "4gb_patch.exe", lets x86 executables on 64 bit machines, e.g. FSX, have 4gb virtual memory instead of 2gb. Just run the patch and point it at whatever .exe (FSX here) and it mods the executable after creating a backup. Ace for the likes of this!. Also using more than 4gb of ram will help - although FSX won't run higher, some of your other stuff running same time will . . .

Hope helps, Mike

I've downloaded it Mike thank you for the link. At the risk of making myself look an even bigger dummy is this 4GB patch worth doing if I install more RAM?

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Some very Interesting stuff in this thread, well done Guys :thum:

@ Mike.

I was thinking about upgrade my Video card from an GTX260 OC to a GTX560Ti at some point in the near future? do you think that the extra power will help with regards to how fast my scenery (orbx stuff) will load in the sim?

Cheer's...Graham...

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A BIG thank you to everyone for the input into trying to resolve this problem.

I did an extended test last night with two Air Hauler trips covering 250nm in total plus a couple of flights in the A2A P40 and a short flight in the Katana all flying over Orbx scenery and so far so good no "fatal errors" or crashes.

In addition to specific things mentioned above I also tinkered with the scenery settings and it now seems to be back to running smoothly - time will tell.

Changes made:

  1. Purchased a registration for FSUIPC and set-up autosave (not specifically helped fatal error but a very neat back-up that will save great frustration in Air Hauler - plus I can now fine tune my contols)
  2. Installed 4GB Patch.exe fix - easy install
  3. Added HIGHMEMFIX=1 to fsx.cfg
  4. Set autogen back to "Dense"

One last question - is there a general consensus on limiting Frame Rates within FSX. I appreciate it will depend on set-up and technical specifications of equipment but I still can't fathom what is best. I've read a number of artciles and various posts in forums that suggest FSX should just be left "Unlimited" on the other hand some folks suggest limitihg the frames. At the minute I run unlimited and work on the basis of how smooth FSX runs rater than the numbers.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Thanks again

Graeme

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Thanks very much Mike :thum: .

My GTX260 has 896mb of Ram on it, so a little less that what you recommend, but I guess thats not going to be much of a problem, and I won't really notice anything extra eye candy wise by adding a 1 or 2 Gig card ATM.

I won't dash out to buy a new card just yet as there is a ton of other stuff that I want Sabre is insisting I should get :whis: . (Like Trac IR for one ;) ).

Cheer's...Graham...

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Regarding limiting framerates Graeme, in FSX I ran at unlimited as this was the most suggested setting. As long as your happy with it, that's all that really matters. I'm thinking of starting the old girl up again so many hours of tweaking ahead!

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I used to run my FSX frame limiter on unlimited, but as I added more and more stuff to my sim, I started to get stutters and minor screen freezes in heavy scenery areas :( I have now set my it to 25 FPS and the stutters are gone but still get the odd mini lock up every now and again, but can live with it for now, as there is no way my mrs is going to let me get a i 2600K any time soon :th_blush:

Cheer's...Graham...

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Thank's for the Tips Joe and Mike :thum: .

I did try nHancer the other day (well I have tried it a few times TBH) but it does not seem to want to work on my PC :( when I try to start nHancer after it's been installed, all it does is flash up the consul on my screen and then it disappears! never to be seen again??? :unsure: Must say that it looks like it has installed OK, but I have no idea why it just seems to vaninish from my monitor after I try to start it up, I must be missing something here??? :th_blush: also it looks like there is no support on the website, so I uninstalled it and carried on useing my Nvidia control panel, which I think works ok ;) .

Cheer's...Graham...

BTW: @ Sabre :Hijacked: (sorry mate! you can have your thread back now :whis::th_blush: )

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BTW: @ Sabre :Hijacked: (sorry mate! you can have your thread back now :whis::th_blush: )

No problem at all. There's so much useful information in this topic its probably better kept in one place.

:icon_goodpost: chaps not just the tips but the discussion as it has certainly helped my understanding of how things work.

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