Faulting module terrain.dll

Recently, whenever I try to load any flight, an error message now appears, quite late in the loading process, stating that FS has stopped working. The faulting module is terrain.dll.

This follows much trouble with trying to get EarthSims Alderney installed properly - the ESI not 'seeing' the downloaded ESI pack, some optional elements selected for download but apparently not downloaded successfully, error messages when installing, and so on... I've tried completely removing Alderney and downloading / installing it again, without success. Basically the more I use ESI, the more seems to go wrong. Anyway, perhaps needless to say, I've now done my best to remove all traces of Alderney and I've no plans to use ESI again, but nonetheless I'm now left with a broken FSX, as above. A system restore has made no difference.

Can the terrain.dll be somehow repaired?

Vista 32bit, FSX with Acceleration.

Thanks.

Your installation comes with a REPAIR feature. Place your disk in the drive and select Repair.

Be aware of the following:

Repair will restore ALL DEFAULT FSX files to their factory settings including aircraft and scenery as well as FSX CFG etc. ADD-ON aircraft and scenery files will not be touched unless those things modified default FSX files but that does mean these will still work when finished . If your installation is Standard/Deluxe upgraded to Acceleration, you will have the earlier version as a result and you'll have to run the acceleration upgrade again.

Some people have a super-duper CFG file they really like, so be aware you'll have to back yours up and put it back in after everything else is done with FSX shut down. In many cases though a snaggled CFG is at fault so this helps some people to have it restored to factory.

Fly FS more than a few minutes before you put in new stuff to be sure the factory restore is working.

Note: Many people playing with scenery forget there is a Scenery Library built into FS where you can turn add-on scenery off and on which will keep bad scenery from being used.

-Pv-

Can the terrain.dll be somehow repaired?

Odds are there is nothing wrong with that .DLL.

That .DLL shows as the faulting module because for some reason it cannot do it's job.

Most likely you have a bad scenery file which is causing the error.

Based on your description of the problems you were having installing that addon I suspect there are remnants of it somewhere on your system.

Scenery\World\scenery would be one place to look.

You could also do a Windows search in your FSX folder for files with recent modification or creation dates.

peace,

the Bean

"Odds are there is nothing wrong with that .DLL."

Agreed.

-Pv-

If your installation is Standard/Deluxe upgraded to Acceleration, you will have the earlier version as a result and you'll have to run the acceleration upgrade again.

My stock repair statement:

The biggie with a Repair is any default file, including those default aircraft.cfgs with added liveries, that have been modified, tweaked, or otherwise changed, will be returned to default status.

You can make a copy of your existing FSX folder before the repair and paste those individual files back in afterwards.

IMPORTANT:

Acceleration Repair only fixes what the Acceleration expansion pack modifies/adds.

It will not repair core FSX files.

If you have SP1, SP2, or Acceleration installed, they must be uninstalled before a repair attempt, and reinstalled, after the repair, or it won't work. Using Control Panel/Programs and Features, uninstall SP1, SP2, or, Acceleration until Microsoft Flight Simulator X version 10.0.60905.0(Deluxe) is all that remains.

Once you have your FSX up and running properly again, back it up, all of it.

You may need it again and it's a lot easier than a Repair or Re-Install...Don

FSX file locations:

fsx.cfg, dll.xml, and GrantedRewards.BIN, {C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX}

Your control settings = Standard.xml {C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\Controls}

Logbook.BIN and Flight Plan files {C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files}

scenery.cfg {C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX}

Thank you for the replies.

I've managed to get FSX working again now, without having to do a full 'repair'. I recall that there was a 'Hotfix' on the ES site that overcame FSX crashes after installing Alderney. I don't think that fix can be accessed now though.

However, I did recently get error messages when trying to reinstall Alderney stating that 'AutogenDescriptions' and 'Materials' files were missing from the Autogen folder. Fortunately, I have found both these files backed up in an EarthSims folder. I have copied them both into the Autogen folder, and FSX loads up flights OK again now. I'm without ES Alderney, but that doesn't matter, it cost next to nothing anyway in a sale.