A36 1.10 problems (EFIS bus and Sound)

[Old Boy]

Hello,

The Bonny looks (and feels to) simply great. Sadly I'm experiencing two problems:

First problem: When loading the plane or using the configuration panel I get this message:

"EFIS bus init fault when trying to open COM10. The port is beyond the COM1-COM9 allowed range. You need to free 4 COM# ports in your system in the allowed range"

Thereafter the EFIS output is disabled because of "Insufficient Avionc Bus". FS don't crash, I can continue and use the aircraft. The GPS seems to work correctly to me. But this error message bother me a little. That makes no much sense to me since my system has only one COM port and the ports numbers and interrupts are automatically managed by Win XP.

Any idea?

Second problem: The ANR-Sonds sometime fades almost completely out. I hear the wind, but no engine, no avionics or warning calls and no ATC too. This happen sometimes in the 2d panel, but not in the virtual cokpit; sometimes in both cockpit, but not in the side views; sometimes in all internal views, but not in the outside views.
In this cases it helps to pause the sim, to switch to the desktop, to play some sounds file and to go back to the sim.
With any other aircraft I don't have this problem.

My system is a Dell with Pentium IV 2,8 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, ATI Radeon 9800 and the sound card is a Terratec Aureon 5.1 Space

Old Boy

[Old Boy]

I have to correct me. The sound problems arise with the FS sound set too. Furthermore it seems that only engine and ATC sounds are affected and very very low. They are to hear only looking to the left or to the right. Funny thing to speek to the wingtip to get a clearance. Wind, gear, flaps and so on are fully audible.

[ToddNicholson]

For the Insufficient Avionics Bus Resources, you might try installing the update located here:

http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/Previews/A36/preview_downloads.html

A very few number of users experienced this issue and the update should take care of it for you.

As far as the sound, I believe you're the first person to have an issue like this, so not sure what to tell you except to update your sound card drivers. Also, is that sound card integrated into the motherboard or a plug-in PCI soundcard? If the former, there can be issues with integrated cards. Addon cards are usually not a problem, but if they're not compatible with the latest DirectSound technology, then there can be problems. Anyhow, check for recent soundcard driver updates and apply them if necessary.

[RealityXP]

Well, the message displayed with the new updated version says it all!

"EFIS bus init fault when trying to open COM10. The port is beyond the COM1-COM9 allowed range. You need to free 4 COM# ports in your system in the allowed range"

You need to free at least 2 COM ports below COM9 (inclusive) (4 COM ports for a dual GNS setup).

You may consider looking in your device manager what device/driver is taking this much COM ports. This happens with Bluetooth devices for example.

Hope this helps!

Jean-Luc

[Old Boy]

Hi Tod,

the update don't solve the Avionic Bus Resources bug. I have allready installed the update off course and I'm speking about Version 1.10.

To the sound problem I have to add some informations:

- Not sure, but I believe it happens after pausing or using some menues.

- The sound muting is caused by the Bonanzna but it affects other aircraft too, when I load it AFTER the Bonanza. Furthermore the problem is not limited to Flight Simulator only. For a matter of fact, "FS Sound Studio" is muted too. The same with my Sound Forge audio editing programm. But Windows Media Player is as loud as it should. All the problems disappear after restarting Windows (XP, SP2).

- Terratec Aureon 5.1 Space is a good PCI sound card and the drivers are uptodate.

Any idea? This Bonanza is simply to good to land as yet another hangar queen.

Old Boy

[ToddNicholson]

Yes, take Jean-Luc's advice and check your device manager to free up some COM ports. As far as the sound - I don't know. Nobody else has reported an issue with sound, and as it happens with other appications, then I'd lean toward a system-specific problem. You might try a different sound card if you have one available. Beyond that, I don't have any other advice. If, within 30 days, you're unable to get thing worked out with your sound, Flight1 does offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

[Old Boy]

Well, I managed the sound problem the hard and boring way: format C. After a fresh Windows, FS and Bonanza install the aircraft "sings" a nice, very nice concert. My congratulations to the sound designer. When I switched blower on for the first time the I had a lot of uncontrolled transpiration and feared a big and costly engine overhaul. Wow!

But I still have the EFIS bus problem. I don't have any special hardware connected, just CH yoke and pedals (USB) and Saitek Dashborad2 (USB). No idea what could use up all the COM channels. The device manager shows only one COM port (COM1) and I don't know where I have to look for the other ports. I own to the sort human being that don't touch ugly slippery things like hardware resources or interrupts with naked hands. Any hint?

Old Boy

[alastairmonk]

Even after the Update I've been getting a very similar error message on first loading of the Bonanza, so the information about the COM ports is very interesting.

In my case I only get the error message the first time the Bonanza is loaded, and so far can't see any problems with the operation of the instruments. If I select another aircraft then select the Bonanza again, no error message is presented.

However, if you want to check you COM ports, this is where you look in WinXP:

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Select System
3. Select the Device Manager button
4. Select the Ports (COM & LPT) entry, clicking on the (+) entry to the left to open the list of items.

On the PC I'm using to write this it lists just 2 COM ports (COM1 and COM2) plus LPT1.

To view the Interupts (IRQ) list repeat the above but make sure that you are "viewing resources by connection" rather than by type. Select the Interrupt request entry to get the list of IRQs in use.

On this PC COM1 and COM2 are on ISA(4) and ISA(3) respectively.

Cheers,

Alastair

[RealityXP]

As an additional note: some drivers create COM ports not listed in the Ports (COM & LPT) entry. This is the case with some bluetooth drivers, and the Reality XP Avionics Bus Driver.

The best way to make sure about this, is to start Hyper Terminal (Programs / Accessories / Communication), then create a session with any name and click ok, then open the dropdown list under "Connect using" to list the available COM ports on your system. What does it list?

After this, if you do like Alastair suggests, that is load the A36, load another aircraft, then load again the A36, do you still have the message?

Jean-Luc

[Old Boy]

Hello Jean-Luc,

I tried this immediately. Hyper Terminal lists COM 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and TCP/IP. From this standpoint it seems to me that the COMs are in the allowed range.

Different to Alastair the error message pops up everytime I select the Bonanza and everytime I use the configuration panel and klick on save. If I don't save, no error.

There is another thing that I did not mention: On closing FS9 I have another error message about FS9.EXE and the impossibility to "read" something at "0x20d13930". This happens only when:
1 - The last aircraft is the Bonanza.
2 - The EFIS error message was shown two times or more. If the EFIS error message was shown only one time during the FS session (for instance when I select the Bonanza and never use the configuration panel), the FS9.EXE error don't happen.

Nevertheless I'm enjoying the Bonanza. The EFIS bus error is annoying but the equipment works well.

Old Boy

[RealityXP]

There you are: your system already has COM1,4,5,6,7,8,9 regardless of the Reality XP Avionics bus. The Avionics bus tries to create/open COM2,3,10,11 and 10,11 is not in the allowed range.

You may consider trying to find what driver/device is creating these ports on your system. Maybe you have installed something once, and uninstalled it since, that created the ports and never freed them? (the ports # are stored in the registry, and if the uninstaller fails to delete the entries, your system thinks the ports are still there). To further find out if these are ghosts, or real ports, you can:

1) connect to one of these ports with Hyperterminal (one step further than listing them documented above) and check if HTerm reports an error
2) list all your devices in the device manager for potential device/driver creating "virtual" com ports.

Hope this helps!

Jean-Luc

[Old Boy]

Hello Jean-Luc,

first I have to say that I really appreciate your help and committment for solving such a weird problem.

Hyper Terminal don't have any difficulty to open and use any of the COM. They seem to work.

But the device manager don't lists all the COM used by Hyper Terminal. The device manager lists COM1, COM4, COM6, COM8 and COM9. This mean, COM2, 3, 5 and 7 should be free.

I don't have any idea what is wrong. I have done a fresh install and at the moment I have only WinXP SP2, MS Office, Photoshop, FS9.1 and the Bonanza installed. I think, I have to live with two mouse click more when I use this aircraft.

Old Boy