Strange FS9 crash

[Leftcoaster]

Hi All
In the last couple of weeks I have experianced some unusual FS9 crashes and so I decided to check in here to see if anybody has seen
anything similar. First off, 5-month old P5 3.2 duo core with 2 GB RAM, XP with latest service pack, NVidia GForce 8600 with newest
drivers so the machine is very FS9 friendly. Six times now, when turning off the runway and selecting "Contact Ground" on the M$ ATC
window, FS9 crashes to a black screen that can only be closed with the program manager. Strange.

Am running FsP in a Silver Wings (retro-scenery addon) environment but have been using this since day-one without incident. The crash
happens intermittently but I have not been able to intentionally reproduce it which would allow proper troubleshooting. It has happened
with stock airports and AFCADS, airports with customized AFCADS and add-on airports so no patterns is seen in the scenery. It has
happened with different aircraft five out of the six times so far so no pattern there. Thinking it might be an AI traffic issue, I tried turning off
all AI traffic and had the same CTD happen after landing at stock KCVG (Cincinatti OH) a couple of flights later. Always use real weather
as well but have seen no patterns there either.

The only common denominator for all six crashes is all have been FsP flights BUT I cannot see how anything in FsP would cause an FS9
crash at this particular point in the flight. All have occured after landing at the scheduled airport and all have been near to being on time
but nothing in that points to specific problem with FsP.

Frustrating... I just lost a 10-hour Vancouver to Honolulu trip flown after landing within 5-minutes of scheduled arrival. This is the second
long trip I've lost but there has been no patterns apperant in the trip lengths either, the crash at KCVG noted above was a 1:15 trip from
Chicago Midway.

None of the crashes have happened at the latest installed airports (Paris Orly 1962 and Atlanta Hartsfield 1962) and the aircraft used
have all been installed since day one as has Silver Wings. Also not one single crash has happened to date when FsP is not being used
in exactly the same FS9 environment.

I'm stumped. The work around is not using M$ ATC after touchdown, not a major issue but I would still like to know if anybody has any
insights into this unusual FS9 lockup/crash. If so it will be more than I have for answers now. Thanks in advance

[s0cks]

A quick search here will throw up some results. Try the following:

- Replace the atc.dll (in the Modules folder) with the original. I think this can be found on CD2 (in a CAB). There are spreadsheets somewhere that list what files are on what CD (try avsim or google).

- Rename your FS9.CFG to FS9.BAK in the "Application Data" folder which changes depending on OS. Type "%appdata%\Microsoft\FS9" into the Run box on the Start Menu. Locate fs9.cfg and rename it. This will create a new config file next time you fly.

- There were reports of problems with EditVoicePack versions. Check you have the lastest one.

Good luck!. I would bet number 1 being the problem. But you never know.



Post Edited ( 03-09-08 04:55 )

[Leftcoaster]

S0cks
Thanks for the quick response, must admit I wasn't expecting one this fast.

Generating a new FS9.cfg was an early attempt at a fix so that's not the problem but it was an excellent idea. I actually have three parallel
FS9 installations, each with FsP and its own .cfg file but the crashes have not yet shown up in either of the other two (Golden Wings 30's
scenery and the seldom used modern FS9). I generally create a new FS9.cfg (or Silver Wings.cfg or FSGW3.cfg) file after every major
scenery installation as a matter of course.

Don't have EditVoicePack so it can't be that.

The ATC.dll module file suggestion is a nice catch that wasn't even on my radar. I remember seeing that "what files are on which FS9
disk" somewhere, will hunt it down or failing that, copy the original off of my contemporary FS9 install.

Thanks again, Cheers.