Default gauges go blank when I install Acceleration???

My FSX has been working normally for a good year or more and suddenly all the aircraft gauges have gone blank ( you can see the glass/reflections and a few spots of random color). I have uninstalled / installed three times and discovered the gauges work normal with the initial FSX but when I add Acceleration they go blank! I sure am not any sort of computer geek so I need all the help I can get. Any help someone can offer would be much appreciated. Max

I suspect you are having trouble with add-on aircraft and default aircraft are fine.

 

Based on your answer I'll have a response.

 

-Pv-

Thanks Pv for responding. I first had the problem with my new CaptainSim 707 which is all I have been flying for the last month and it worked really well for the first three weeks. However all addon and default aircraft gauges went blank also except for an older FS9/FSX Beaufighter addon. There has been a little window come up stating I do not have a common.DLL file?? Something happening about a week ago?? I am located in Goldendale, WA and have grandkids living in the Tri Cities. Happy new year, Max

I do not have a common.DLL file?? Something happening about a week ago?? Max

 

Would that missing .dll file be msvcr70.dll?

You are about 85 miles from me as the crow flies. If this cannot be resolved online, let's chat private. Maybe we can get together.

 

Still a little unsure of the timing of things.

 

Did stuff break before or after Acceleration? I understand adding Acc breaks stuff.

 

You seem to indicate default planes are OK w/o Acc except for an old plane.

 

I'm unfamiliar with "common.dll" This sounds like an add-on to me, maybe the Beau depends on it.

 

One typical problem with add-ons is if they rely on a default aircraft, and the default

get reverted to their original state which is different than the add-on expects, things like "Aliases" which use parts of other planes break.

 

I still do not have a full picture of what happened exactly "three weeks ago" when stuff broke, weather this was an add-on or your first attempt at putting in Acceleration.

 

There are ways to get your default aircraft back and eventually get Acceleration in on top of that if you really need it.

 

The problem of add-ons is more complex and the idea of repairing or re-installing them AFTER fixing FSX and Acceleration and all the defaults work again should get you going. Be aware many FS9 aircraft have trouble if they are using older gauge sets and the flight dynamics may not be true to the original designer's intentions until a proper conversion has been made.

 

-Pv-

Pv, I have been running Acceleration successfully for about 2 years. In December 2014 I added a payware 707 which ran great for 3 weeks and then about a week ago the gauges went blank. When I checked the other addon and default aircraft gauges there gauges were also blank. The only gauges that worked normally were in the older FS9/FSX addon Beaufighter. I then uninstalled and reinstalled FSX a couple of times and discovered the gauge problem occurs as soon as I install Acceleration. I currently have FSX( Deluxe Edition ) installed ( without Acceleration ) with both payware and freeware addons and all aircraft gauges are working normally. I appreciate your interest in my "glitch". A private chat sounds fine with me. Also I did a search for a common.DLL file and could not understand the information enough to decide if it might be something MSFS needed or not? I tried to download it ( .DLL that is ) from what looked like a legitimate site but my Avast virus protection really went "nuts" so I shut of everything as quick as I could.

 

Mr Zippy, What is a msvr70.dll and does MSFS need one?

 

Cheers Max

I'll send you a private and we can set up a Skype Voice session for now...

I'm not surprised you got a protection alert downloading a file which does not come from a known reputable source or MS itself.

 

I'm curious about this dialog with reports "common.dll" and need more details. While we are getting comms between us set up. Read the crash sticky above and review how to access and read the Event Viewer crash logs.

 

-Pv-

I suspect the common.dll and your gauges problems are unrelated and only possibly related because you did multiple things around the same time.

 

Made any changes to your computer's audio? Plugged-unplugged, played with mixer or enhancements?

 

-Pv-

 

Mr Zippy, What is a msvr70.dll and does MSFS need one?

 

Cheers Max

 

That .dll is the only "Common" one that I can think of that many of FSX aircraft need to display gauges.

 

It's the file that most of the people that uploaded 777 aircraft here did not include and folks had big problems displaying the 777 gauges.

That .dll is the only "Common" one that I can think of that many of FSX aircraft need to display gauges.

 

It's the file that most of the people that uploaded 777 aircraft here did not include and folks had big problems displaying the 777 gauges.

 

Many FSX aircraft ? The POSKY 777's are the only ones I can think of, and those are ported FS9 aircraft.

People did not include ? Of course they didn't, as the 777 was/is an FS9 stock plane, and MSVCR70.DLL came/comes stock with FS9. POSKY borrowed the MS FS9-gauges for their panel.

 

IMO it has nothing to do with the OP's problem, and is just confusing him.

 

Wim

 

IMO it has nothing to do with the OP's problem, and is just confusing him.

 

Wim

 

Sorry if it's confusing the OP! I'm just going by what he is saying. I keep seeing him say he gets an error about a "common .dll missing".

The OP says he has a missingfile called "common.dll" There a number of Windows systems files called "xxxxx.common.dll". Unless the OP can tell us which one, how can he expect help?

I found out Common.dll is a Windows system dll file.

This could have gotten damaged.

You can use system file checker to check for this and correct it.

I will explain,

I hope this is not to technical. I think it should be do-able.

 

Common.dll is a system file.

You can check if system files are ok.

To do so you run SFC. System file checker.

You run that from an elevated command prompt.

 

Click start, type cmd in the search box.

You will see cmd.exe listed.

Right click that and then click "run as administrator".

Now an elevated command prompt opens.

 

At the prompt you now enter the command:sfc /verifyonly

Then press enter.

now you will see sfc starts to check your system files. (in the command prompt itself). When it's done it will report if errors are found.

 

If there are errors you can use sfc to fix them too. but Carefull.

Before you do make backups of your important stuff.

Ok, here goes. The command to make sfc check AND repair is:sfc /scannow

During the repair you may also need your original windows disk. Sfc may need it to restore the files.

 

If sfc /verifyonly finds nothing there is no need to run sfc /scannow.

And you then know the error is caused by something else.

 

Plenty more to find about sfc on the net.

here's one link; http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/929833/en-us

 

il88pp.

 

 

Then, I also found a second option. I will mention it here also, since you mentioned sound.

I found this on Tom's Hardware Forum. A very good site with technical info.

They say some sound drivers don't work well with Windows 7 and up.

To fix it the suggestion is to use an older sound driver.

I found that in the "Best Answer" in the following thread.

I must admit I don't completely understand how to perform that fix, but if my computer showed this issue I would look into it.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/2439-63-windows-shell-common

 

il88pp.

 

And, whatever you do, don't download a .dll file from a site that is called www.All-dll-files.com or something like that.

Avoid sites that say they will replace "any missing .dll". It just does not work like that!!

I can't any Windows file called common.dll on my PC. The only one on my hard disk was installed by Family Tree Maker

Sorry. You are correct mgh. There is not one file called "Common.dll"

 

It seems like there are actually several .dll files that Windows conciders to be -Common Dll files-.

(but I still do not understand fully)

 

It means there can be several issues that generate this same error. And therefore several different possible fixes.

 

I still would recomend trying sfc, as it can be a system .dll file issue.

And also looking into the second solution.

 

As info for mgh. (doesn't offer a fix). I found this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/194984-windows-shell-common-dll-has-stopped-working.html

I have a screenful of xxxx.common.dll's. The first is Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dll and the last is Microsoft.VisualStudio.Diagnostics.Common.dll

 

I too have no idea what they do!

I was looking on the web so far.

Just now looked in my own PC (should have done that right away).

I find one in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Inter® Management Engine Components\UNS

Common.dll 66kb

Suggest the OP run the installer(s) for his add-on aircraft again after adding the Acceleration upgrade. This might put the missing file back in the Acceleration update removed.

 

I myself do not allow ANY FS add-on to install files of any kind to the Windows folder no matter how much I admire the add-on. In this case, the dll in question might be within FS installation to perform some kind of panel gauge tricky-woo. I would find a completely FSX converted aircraft without the tricky-woo to use.

 

-Pv-

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Inter® Management Engine Components\UNS\Common.dll 66kb/

 

I don't have that one so it's not associated with FSX.

 

It would have been helpful if the OP had told us which .dll it was!

Thanks everyone for the help so far. il88pp I ran the SFC per your instructions and it looks good, "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations". So I'm guessing the common.DLL question is not a factor, right?. A couple of more possible clues are (a) My FS9 and CFS3 are running okay. (b) When flying FSX the ATC sound (voice) fades away completely on occasion although I can continue to communicate with the text window overlay. I checked out the Tom's site and that maybe worth a try but how do I find and install an old pre Windows 7 driver for the sound card? Pv, Thanks for the heads up, I have already learned the hard way not to install anything except native FSX addons, also what does OP stand for? Thanks, Max

what does OP stand for? Thanks, Max

 

Oh, Poo! No, that's not it! How about Original Poster.

just a word of warning.

 

the fix on tmentioned on tom's hardware seems risky.

You should only do things like taking ownership of files if you are 110% sure of what you are doing!! (it is forcing a change of a protected file.)

 

 

You should know what you are doing, know the file you are putting in is 100% safe and 100% sure that it is the correct file. You should only do such things if you have good backups of all your personal files.

 

 

****

The first part of the post seems a good idea. "find a sound driver for it that works". That could be an older driver, but it could also mean, a more up to date driver!

 

The second part, taking ownership may not be neccesary at all.

 

*****

Not finding errors with sfc is a good sign. It means the Windows .dll files are o.k.

 

****

To find a driver you need to know the name of your sound device.

 

The issue with the driver may have to do with a certificate.

Drivers have direct access to the hardware. A wrong driver could damage the hardware and do other damage. For that reason, in win 7 and up, drivers must be signed to be allowed to run. (they get a certificate. If they don't have a valid certificate, windows blocks them.)

Drivers for Xp sometimes have a certificate that is not valid for win7 (and up), and will show problems.

 

*****

To make things worse, there could be different causes too. So I'm hesitant to give advice in the form of :"try this".

 

******

I just searched google for: common.dll older sound driver

And got lost in a forrest of advanced stuff.I'll llook into that when I have a clearer head.

 

*******

What Operating system do you use? XP, Win7, or...

To be clear, I was focussing on the sound problem only.

I doubt the common.dll has anything to do with the missing gauges. I could be wrong though.

 

*************

Some questions you really need to clear up

was the error about

Common.dll

Or was it about

a Common dll file (so no period between common and dll)(there is an important difference.)

If you see the error again, write it down, completely, and post it.

 

Also, can you upload a screenshot of one of the panels with the missing gauges? preferably a default aircraft.

To upload screenshots you need to take a screenshot with th v key on the keyboard. It will be a .bmp file, located in the ..\My Pictures\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ -folder. Open the file in 'Paint' (a image editor included in Windows). Then save the file as JPEG file and upload that.

 

Also, look in the folder ..\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Gauges\

Tell us if that Gauges folder is there after installing acceleration.

(On second thought, you don't have accelleration installed now, so don't bother with that... sorry.)

You Max are the original poster. As requested, we need more information from you so we can stop guessing.

 

The dll file in question may be the gauges problem, or it may be a sound problem but likely not both. No way to know until we know more. I definitely would not pursue messing with sound or files at all until we know more. If sound, it may be as simple as turning off the EQ and base enhancements using the sound control panel.

*I* don't know enough yet to suggest ANY concrete action without making things worse.

 

A screenshot of the dll dialog box would be extremely helpful as well as full FSX and computer specs.

 

-Pv-

This is a picture of the default Cessna 172 panel in my FSX. Also my computer specs are - HP pavilion HPE System h8-1360t x64, Processor Intel ® 3.4 GHz 4 cores, RAM 10.0 GB, GPU NVIDIA GT 630 2048MB, Windows 7 ( Version 6.1.7601) Service Pack 1