First FSX crash

So I experienced my first FSX crash today. After selecting aircraft to fly and departure airport and time, things loaded as usual and then FSX "stopped working" after loading 86% (right after AI started to load).

 

The event viewer says that the faulting application path is FSX.EXE and the faulting module path is FSTRAFFIC.DLL.

 

Is this usually caused by a faulty AI aircraft, or by a faulty AI flight plan? All my recently added AI flight plans have been compiled with AIFP, most recent version.

 

Or, could there be "something entirely different" going on here?

 

Thanks for any pointers -

 

Jorgen

I MAY have found the cause of this - bad scenery file for KMKE.

 

The file has been exchanged for a newer version, testing continues.

 

Jorgen

Google says: 'zero useful results for fstraffic.dll

 

did you perhaps mean 'traffic.dll'

?

Copied from event viewer>

 

Log Name: Application

Source: Application Error

Date: 10/22/2016 6:12:14 PM

Event ID: 1000

Task Category: (100)

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: Powerhouse

Description:

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14

Faulting module name: fs-traffic.dll, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb59

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000031b0

Faulting process ID: 0x1604

Faulting application start time: 0x01d22c76fbcb43d1

Faulting application path: F:\1FSX\fsx.exe

Faulting module path: F:\1FSX\fs-traffic.dll

Report ID: 39229e7c-7833-4876-a920-234b15113e94

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Xml:

1000

2

100

0x80000000000000

3945

Application

Powerhouse

fsx.exe

10.0.61637.0

46fadb14

fs-traffic.dll

10.0.61637.0

46fadb59

c0000005

000031b0

1604

01d22c76fbcb43d1

F:\1FSX\fsx.exe

F:\1FSX\fs-traffic.dll

39229e7c-7833-4876-a920-234b15113e94

 

 

 

Jorgen

My bad for misspelling the file name, should of course have been FS-TRAFFIC.DLL.

 

I googled this, and apart from all the ads for tools for fixing bad dlls and advice for scanning for viruses, a thread on this forum from 2012 came up reporting a similar problem. The advice at that time was to uninstall and reinstall FSX. I don't really believe that this is the cure, as this issue only (so far) has shown up at this one airport (KMKE).

 

On the other hand, I don't really think it's a bad scenery file. In the download section here you can find two versions of KMKE, of which I had the older installed. I swapped that for the newer version, and the problem persisted. I am now wondering if it can be a bad AI traffic file, or an issue with 2 or more AI traffic files "colliding", or something along that path.

 

Jorgen

Hi Jorgen,

 

It still might be that the KMKE scenery is causing the problem. The update can easily still have the same problem that the original carries. Try without the scenery activated and see what happens. If the problem goes away then it will prove that the scenery is at fault - if not then it will imply that an AI conflict of some sort exists.

 

WRT to the scenery it is possible that author has included some 'built-in' AI that may be the cause.

Hi Brian,

 

I am going to do that, but testing is slow because it takes about 40 minutes from I double-click the FSX icon on my desktop until I can start selecting aircraft etc., and sometimes I also do "Other Thingsâ„¢" than playing with FSX.

 

Yesterday I tried to fly out of Eau Claire, WI, and first of all no problems there, but when I then looped back over the airfield I saw my AI working to perfection - a Convairliner of some sort taxiing to the active, closely followed by a DC-3. Wonderful!

 

Jorgen

Hi Brian,

 

I am going to do that, but testing is slow because it takes about 40 minutes from I double-click the FSX icon on my desktop until I can start selecting aircraft etc., and sometimes I also do "Other Thingsâ„¢" than playing with FSX.

 

Yesterday I tried to fly out of Eau Claire, WI, and first of all no problems there, but when I then looped back over the airfield I saw my AI working to perfection - a Convairliner of some sort taxiing to the active, closely followed by a DC-3. Wonderful!

 

Jorgen

 

If it takes 40 minutes to get to the gaming point, then it is DEFINITELY time for a reinstall.

Tried just now to fly out of Mitchell Field, Milwaukee, WI (KMKE) with only default scenery, same issue.

 

Well, not quite default scenery, because I have UTX and GEX installed. However, I will allow myself to assume that that's not an issue, or we would probably have heard angry shouts about that by now.

 

So, back to checking AI - there was no AI included with the two addons I have tried for KMKE.

 

Jorgen

I was also thinking 40 minutes is a bit long.

For me the time between selecting start--FSX to the fsx menu's appearing is 13 seconds.

Your mech hdd's may slow it a bit, and so would excessive amounts of planes (i have 158 planes installed), but 40 minutes seems like way too much.

Mechanical HDDs and a large - very large - number of AI aircraft IS the cause. :pilot:

 

That will hopefully change Real Soon Now, if/when I get around to migrating to SSDs.

 

Jorgen

Hi Jorgen,

 

WRT to AI testing - not an easy task but I would start with files that you have for the major airlines that fly into KMKE.

 

WRT long loading times - It may not be necessary to go for a full re-install as suggested by mallcott. Having lots scenery and simobjects can cause this issue so reducing them first may be all that is needed............

 

For Simobjects - remove any that you don't fly often. For freeware it is relatively simple as few, if any, will have written data to the Windows registry - all that is necessary is to cut and paste the model folders to a location outside of the FSX. Any gauges and effects specific to the models can be left where they are as they only load if the model is loaded for a flight. To use them again you then simply place the folder back into FSX. For payware, you will obviously have to uninstall using the product uninstaller and then reinstall if required - so I would only remove payware as a last result.

 

The same can be done for AI models but it is a lot more difficult. For example if yo have a package or packages for a South American Airline that only flies to destinations in South America you could remove the associated airline models and, if required, the associated traffic files.

 

For scenery - you can disable those areas/sceneries in regions that you are not intending to fly but how you achieve this will be very dependant on how your addon scenery is structured. This can be done in FSX or by using a scenery configuration tool. When disabling scenery best practice is to leave the FSX default areas selected and only disable addons.

 

Even splitting your scenery into continental sized regions and saving it in a dedicated named scenery.cfg for each (such as Europe_scenery.cfg) can have a big effect in reducing the load time. If you are going to fly only in europe you simply place a copy of the file into C:\ProgramDate\Microsoft\FSX, rename it to scenery.cfg and then start FSX as normal. Off course, it is best practice to keep a backup copy of the scenery.cfg will all areas enabled.

 

A very good scenery tool that will make it easier to configure the scenery is the Scenery Configi Editor - see https://sourceforge.net/projects/fs-sceditor/ - this tool, amongst the many things it can do, makes it easy to create different .cfg files. The best thing about it is that it all can be done outside of the FSX and, having used the tool for many years I now no longer use the FSX setting page to add new scenery.

 

I don't have UTX but do have GEX. If you chose to disable GEX do so using the GEX configuration tool. However, when I first installed GEX I didn't notice an increase in the load time, so disabling it may make no difference.

The 158 planes I mentioned are user planes.

I have 129 addon AI aircraft, and 159 addon airports.

 

Did a little test. Disabled all traffic plans. Made no difference whatsoever.

So AI planes don't seem to make a difference.

 

Then another test. Disabled all 158 user aircraft, except for the ultralight. That took two seconds off the fsx startup time. from 13 seconds to 11 seconds.

A small difference. But nowhere near your 40 minutes.

 

I used to have a Mech Hdd as system/fsx drive with this same pc. A 5 year old 1tb WD caviar black. I never saw startup times anywhere near 40 minutes. One or two minutes at most.

 

Something seems wrong there. Only thing I can suggest:

-I doubt it's AI causing it. Just in case, test by switching off your AI (move all traffic.bgl files to a folder that's not called 'scenery').

-Do a virusscan.

-Rebuild your fsx.cfg file so it has no edits. May help with the crash as well.

You can have every scenery and plane known to man installed and FSX will not take 40 minutes to load. You have corrupted file(s) somewhere.

Just did other test.

Had my addon user planes installed again.

 

Disabled the ai planes themselves, by removing my:

SimObjectPaths.6=WOAI aircr

SimObjectPaths.7=MAIW Aircr

lines from the fsx.cfg so the AI planes won't be loaded.

(Those two folders are in the root folder of fsx.)

 

Also disabled all addon scenery's by clearing the scenery.cfg file in 'Program Data' of all but the default area's.

 

Startup time was still 13 seconds. ((times all after boot) second time starting is 2 seconds less.)

So no difference from AI, or from Addon Scenery.

 

 

I doubt it is the amount of addons installed that causes the 40 mins.

If you find a significant difference when disabling such files, maybe look into faulty: addon scenery/AIplanes/traffic.bgl's/user planes.

Let's just say that I'm looking into all possibilities here, and each and every suggestion is very much appreciated.

 

I have been using the SCE for years, and a very good tool it is.

 

I have all my AI aircraft in the FSX root folders also, but haven't tried commenting those folder out in fsx.cfg yet.

 

There are some old AI traffic files that I suspect are using a lot of aircraft which they don't actually REALLY use. It seems they come from FS9 installations, where all the author's AI aircraft were picked up when he authored the flight plan, regardsless of the aircraft really was being used in the flight plan. Does that make sense? ;)

 

Jorgen

I did not use SCE to disable all my addon airports.

 

I openend folder C:/Program Data/Microsoft/FSX

made a backup copy of the scenery.cfg file,

(in same folder)

Then edited the file scenery.cfg and deleted all the non default scnenery's. (at the bottom of the list)

After the test I deleted the edited scenery.cfg file,

made a copy of the copy I made earlier,

and renamed that copy to 'scenery.cfg'

to restore everything.

 

(I always give my backup copy's a number and a name. And keep them afterwards.

For example I saved this one as:

scenery -5- ok copy for test jorgen.cfg

)

The simple fact that you dont know what is causing the excessive startup time is reason enough to reinstall from scratch and be more selective about what your pour into the folders.

There are two distinct and different problems in this.

 

The serious one is crashing when trying to fly from KMKE.

 

The secondary one is the long startup time. That I can live with.

 

Jorgen

Problem solved. I cannot say, however, exactly what solved it, but i found some very old AI traffic files covering that area, and I recompiled those with AIFP.

 

A couple of those were apparently made with an old version of TTools, which had the habit of taking ALL the aircraft on he authoring system and throws them info the flight plan.

 

Once the recompiling was don, everything was OK at KMKE.

 

Jorgen