Possible CLUE to BSOD, Lockups, and crashes FS2004 WinXP

[Jethrobodine]

My System:

Dell Dimension 8200 2.24G
40G Hard drive
512 RAM
Vetro GeForce ti4600 128
Detonator 41.03 drivers
Direct X 9.0 this is an important part of the story

My Story:

Had this system for about a year, runs FS2002 great outside of a VERY occasional “ATC.DLL” error.

Ran these drivers (41.03) since they came out maybe six months ago, I can’t remember exactly but it has been several months.

Installed Direct X9.0 when it came out. DID NOT UPGRADE to 9.0a when it came out.

When I originally installed FS2004, I had one of the Windows services that allow driver signing turned off. So, when FS2004 installed it said that it could not install Direct X9.0a, but went ahead with the FS2004 installation. I flew the sim for three days while trying to figure out how to get Direct X9.0a or b installed. During this time I had NO lock ups, graphics issues, or re-boots of any kind. Even flew from KORD to EGLL with NO problems!

Then I figured out which service was not allowing the DirectX upgrade and was able to successfully install DirectX 9.0b. This is when the FUN began. The following is a list of problems after the Direct X9.0b install:

- Garbled Window start up screen
- FS2004 locks after maybe 10 to 20 minutes of flying always
- Computer re-boots and will not display the screen (Can only go in under safe mode)
- Memory dump (Blue screen of death) after FS2004 lock up
Note – The last memory dump said that the problem was Nv_disp.dll failed on a
Drawing operation, possible ENDLESS LOOP.
- FS2002 now locks after a few minutes

The following is things that I have tried:
- Several different drivers from the Nvidia and guru3d sites
- Clean registry between driver installs
- System restore to before DirectX 9.0b
- Re-install FS2004
- Re-install WinXP over the top of the current OS

Conclusion:

Whatever DirectX 9.0a and b did to my computer is apparently irreversible without a clean install.

I have never done a clean install with XP. Does anyone know of a good tutorial to accomplish this? Also, I have the XP re-install CD; will this be enough for a clean install?

Thanks very much for listening and for any responses!!!

Jethrobodine

[RexFarley]

Do a search at http://www.google.com/. Installing Windows XP. It spits out tons of sites with good guides.

Hope this helps,
Rex

[av84fun]

Hard to believe it is a dx 9 a or b issue. There are a number of posts on this forum however, some of which quote MSFT tech support that state that 2004 is unstable with any driver earlier that 44.67.

9(b)made a noticeable improvement in my system although some say it's not supposed to....but it did. Either that or the good fairy!
(:

[newguy]

something must have gotten seriously tweaked with WinXP. I have DirectX 9.0b and SP1 and whatever other update, security update, service, and have never had any BSOD's garbled startups...etc.. Perhaps you do need a clean install. and when you install, stick with everything the way it is. don't go mucking around with settings and see how FS2004 runs. My "personal" feeling on this (not directed at you) is people start to mess with the OS, turning this off, tweaking this, installing that, and things start to not work. Leave it alone.
As far as re-installing Win XP you should be able to reboot the computer and choose the option to boot from the cd-rom drive and XP will give you a list of options to choose from...reformat/new install, or repair XP..etc etc.

[pretend pilot]

jethrobodine, do you by chance know what kind of fps you were getting w/ fs2004 b4 ur probs started? i'm just curious as i have the exact same system specs as you but i haven't been home yet to try fs9 on my dell. i'm a long haul trucker, been trying fs9 on my sharp laptop, P4 2.2Ghz, 512 DDR, SIS 32MB shared video, 30 GIG HD, while on the road, getting very low fps. Should i get my hopes up for when i get home and try it on my dell? does your dell have ddr sdram, or rdram memory? mine is rdram.

also, what service was keeping you from updating directx? i have 9.0a, when i go to windows update it shows 9.0b, i do the install, it says everything went ok, but still end up w/ 9.0a. return to windows update again, there is 9.0b ready for install again. no matter how many times i try this, still end up w/ 9.0a


thanks.

i'm not a real pilot, i just play one in cyberspace

[BGen_SirJohn]

I actually had something like that happening to me recently, only it was with ALL high-end graphics demands (FS2004, UT2003, ST:Elite Force II, etc.) and it turned out to be a hardware problem... but not with my video card.

For some strange reason, my dying ETHERNET CARD (!) was crashing my video card under high-demand situations...

Since replacing it, everything has functioned just fine, even with the detail level dialed waaaaay up...

Which means, if all else fails, check your hardware. ;)