FSX Freezes when choosing location?

[ano2k77]

Not sure if I'm in the right forum or not so if not then I apologise.

 

Basically, everything was running fine last night, I had UK2000 scenery installed for some UK airports but then I wanted to play multiplayer with a mate, so we found "Maldair" and had to download and run some programmes for stuff like installing the airports they use, setting up flight plans, installing planes etc etc. However when my friend installed it, he had 25,000+ airports on his list whilst I still only had 400, and I couldn't see any airports that the ATC was talking about etc but my friend could but we did the installations the exact same way, so I thought it might be conflicting between UK2000 so I tried uninstalling & reinstalling FSX from Steam, but it did nothing so I then went and uninstalled it along with anything FSX based on my pc, including deleting the whole FSX folder in steam on my HDD and uninstalling UK2000 scenery via the control panel and programmes and features. However once I reinstalled then, I got errors whilst loading up saying about scenery.cfg error and can't find the scenery for like East Midlands airport in fsx/UK2000/ etc - and obviously I deleted the folders. Since then, I've been into Scenery settings in FSX and deleted all the scenery I previously installed.

 

But when that happened, I've not been able to choose a location airport? Like even on free mode, I'll load up FSX and when I click on choose a location, the game will just freeze / not respond, then close automatically. I can't physically choose a location and it's a bit annoying. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game about 5 times today alone and deleted everything to do with FSX and reinstalled it. But there's just no change. I just want to fly!!!

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I have no idea what to do!

[jethrom]

Hello ano2k77,

 

Having a little educated guess here, I use FSX boxed so the Steam folder structure is slightly different but I'm sure the process is similar even if folder structure/locations are different.

 

From your description it sounds like you deleted the scenerys/airfields or at least their folders before deactivating (unchecking them then removing them from the Scenery.cfg database, "best practice") in the FSX Scenery library. This would be the reason for Scenery.cfg error messages, (ie; "Area not found" error) and the sim not starting or freezing, therefore the entries are still listed in the scenery.cfg but their corresponding folders are gone.

Reinstalling them in this manner you may now have double entries in the scenery.cfg for those sceneries/airfields as you will have reactivated them in the FSX Scenery Library. The sim will protest where the entry error remains. I would suggest deactivating all addons in the FSX Scenery Library rebuild the database by clicking OK in the Scenery Library panel, then run the sim to see if the Scenery.cfg error has cleared and your sim no longer freezes. If it has cleared and FSX runs then reactivate those sceneries one by one, their entries should be allocated then to the proper priority.

 

If this does not reset the active Scenery.cfg we may need to manually copy/replace a default Scenery.cfg and add/activate your added sceneries/airports again. And do some resetting of the SceneryIndex .dat files.

 

Lets see how the first solution (unchecking addons and rebuilding Database) goes then proceed from there.

 

Cheers Jethro

[ano2k77]

Hello ano2k77,

 

Having a little educated guess here, I use FSX boxed so the Steam folder structure is slightly different but I'm sure the process is similar even if folder structure/locations are different.

 

From your description it sounds like you deleted the scenerys/airfields or at least their folders before deactivating (unchecking them then removing them from the Scenery.cfg database, "best practice") in the FSX Scenery library. This would be the reason for Scenery.cfg error messages, (ie; "Area not found" error) and the sim not starting or freezing, therefore the entries are still listed in the scenery.cfg but their corresponding folders are gone.

Reinstalling them in this manner you may now have double entries in the scenery.cfg for those sceneries/airfields as you will have reactivated them in the FSX Scenery Library. The sim will protest where the entry error remains. I would suggest deactivating all addons in the FSX Scenery Library rebuild the database by clicking OK in the Scenery Library panel, then run the sim to see if the Scenery.cfg error has cleared and your sim no longer freezes. If it has cleared and FSX runs then reactivate those sceneries one by one, their entries should be allocated then to the proper priority.

 

If this does not reset the active Scenery.cfg we may need to manually copy/replace a default Scenery.cfg and add/activate your added sceneries/airports again. And do some resetting of the SceneryIndex .dat files.

 

Lets see how the first solution (unchecking addons and rebuilding Database) goes then proceed from there.

 

Cheers Jethro

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

Originally, yes I did delete everything out of my FSX folder before removing any scenery addons in the actual game its-self. Since then, I've been into the scenery library on fsx and disabled the addon scenery I had, and even deleted them and clicked ok and it's still not done anything. I get no errors loading up FSX anymore but even when I still go to select a location, either in general or on a flight planner, the game will freeze / not respond and then just close automatically after about 2 minutes, I just don't know what to do, I want to play but it's like I can't atm! I would've thought uninstalling it and re-installing it would've installed all the default files?

[jethrom]

Hello ano2k77,

 

Sounds like things are in a bit of a mess, so we might try a few more things to get you back up and stable. Bear with me as I'm not a FSX Steam user but have a basic idea of the default FSX-SE folder locations, but the process is the same for FSX:MS.

Be sure to make the necessary backups as directed, in case you wish to revert back to your original Scenery.cfg and SceneryIndexes .dat files.

 

This process will set your Scenery.cfg back to default and force your SceneryIndexes to load only default FSX sceneries/airports, your addons will need to be added back and prioritised manually in the FSX Scenery Library once the sim is stable, and you have also tested loading a Flight Plan. However as I'm not sure exactly what addons you had before, where they may be enabled in the "dll.xml" (there might also be some dll.xml formatting error causing your issue). It would be great if you could attach a copy of your current dll.xml located in C:\Users\Your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX-SE

 

To begin setting Scenery.cfg back to default please navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE then find the "Scenery.cfg" file, rename it to Scenery.cfg.ano then open a new Explorer window, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\FSX find the Scenery.cfg located in the main FSX folder, highlight right click and copy the Scenery.cfg, then navigate back to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE and paste the copied Scenery.cfg into that folder (remember you have a backup of your original "Scenery.cfg.ano" you will likely see other Senery.cfg backups created by other installations leave them as they are.

We're nearly there.... now we need to reset your Scenery Indexes. You will see a folder in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE called SceneryIndexes open that folder and select/highlight all files in that folder, they have the .dat file extension, Select /cut then paste them to a new folder on your desktop called indexes_ano.

 

Now start FSX and allow rebuilding of the index and Default Scenery database. When you are loaded into the FSX "Free Flight screen" select "Fly Now" without making any changes. Test the sim for stability lockups and freezes.

Then load/create a flight using FSX FlightPlanner, nominate departure and arrival destinations and VFR & Direct GPS, save and load the scenario, test for stability freezes and lockups. Hopefully there will be none, but as said earlier there could also be a formatting error in your "dll.xml" keep this in mind. There may also as a result of the addon airports installed by "Maldair" which may or may not have placed new Flight Plans in default save location, some corrupted or incomplete files in the C:\Users\yourusername\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files where saved flights and saved Flight Plans are kept, these plans can also call aircraft and airports you don't or nolonger have, an error dialog will usually indicate this and attempt to load the scenario regardless if you so choose, albeit without certain features using an available default aircraft.

 

Beyond this I'm fast running out of ideas, if you had a previously stable sim before installing the "Maldair" stuff.

 

Cheers Jethro

[ano2k77]

Hello ano2k77,

 

Sounds like things are in a bit of a mess, so we might try a few more things to get you back up and stable. Bear with me as I'm not a FSX Steam user but have a basic idea of the default FSX-SE folder locations, but the process is the same for FSX:MS.

Be sure to make the necessary backups as directed, in case you wish to revert back to your original Scenery.cfg and SceneryIndexes .dat files.

 

This process will set your Scenery.cfg back to default and force your SceneryIndexes to load only default FSX sceneries/airports, your addons will need to be added back and prioritised manually in the FSX Scenery Library once the sim is stable, and you have also tested loading a Flight Plan. However as I'm not sure exactly what addons you had before, where they may be enabled in the "dll.xml" (there might also be some dll.xml formatting error causing your issue). It would be great if you could attach a copy of your current dll.xml located in C:\Users\Your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX-SE

 

To begin setting Scenery.cfg back to default please navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE then find the "Scenery.cfg" file, rename it to Scenery.cfg.ano then open a new Explorer window, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\FSX find the Scenery.cfg located in the main FSX folder, highlight right click and copy the Scenery.cfg, then navigate back to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE and paste the copied Scenery.cfg into that folder (remember you have a backup of your original "Scenery.cfg.ano" you will likely see other Senery.cfg backups created by other installations leave them as they are.

We're nearly there.... now we need to reset your Scenery Indexes. You will see a folder in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE called SceneryIndexes open that folder and select/highlight all files in that folder, they have the .dat file extension, Select /cut then paste them to a new folder on your desktop called indexes_ano.

 

Now start FSX and allow rebuilding of the index and Default Scenery database. When you are loaded into the FSX "Free Flight screen" select "Fly Now" without making any changes. Test the sim for stability lockups and freezes.

Then load/create a flight using FSX FlightPlanner, nominate departure and arrival destinations and VFR & Direct GPS, save and load the scenario, test for stability freezes and lockups. Hopefully there will be none, but as said earlier there could also be a formatting error in your "dll.xml" keep this in mind. There may also as a result of the addon airports installed by "Maldair" which may or may not have placed new Flight Plans in default save location, some corrupted or incomplete files in the C:\Users\yourusername\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files where saved flights and saved Flight Plans are kept, these plans can also call aircraft and airports you don't or nolonger have, an error dialog will usually indicate this and attempt to load the scenario regardless if you so choose, albeit without certain features using an available default aircraft.

 

Beyond this I'm fast running out of ideas, if you had a previously stable sim before installing the "Maldair" stuff.

 

Cheers Jethro

 

Mate, you are an absolute legend!!!!! It worked! I don't know what it does or did but it fixed everything, I can even see the 25,000 airports now which I couldn't see before! Before, I could only see about 400-500, now everything is working! You don't know how appreciative I am, thank you so much

[jethrom]

My pleasure ano2k77, your welcome, glad you stuck with the troubleshooting process, enjoy your sim!

 

I guess multiplayer is back on again now things are stable, woooohooo!!!!

 

Cheers Jethro