AI aircraft has terminally damaged my FS9 install

Installation of an AI aircraft has triggered a fatal "failed to read from file" CTD on the splash screen attributed to MFC70.dll. Using FS9.1 with the no CD patch and the same install which has worked for about 2 years without any serious errors (would not work on my PC without the no CD patch). Since the error occurred minutes after my last safe startup of FS9, I have a full list of changes I made before the error and afterwards.

1. Attempted to start FS9 to test new AI textures applied to the FAIB A320. FS9 starts successfully but I found out I forgot to copy the textures and the aircraft.cfg file edits from my downloads folder to the main aircraft folder.

2. (6:42 PM) Installed AI Aircraft Editor (to check the aircraft file for errors before I realized I forgot to copy the files)

3. (6:44 PM) Applied Virgin America textures and edited aircraft.cfg to the FAIB A320. These are FSX textures that were previously converted in nconvert.bat and tested in AI Aircraft Editor's model viewer (they were working properly).

4. (6:52 PM) FS9 takes too long to start and seems to stop responding. I force close it and try again. Listed as an application hang.

5. (6:55 PM) FS9 crashes on the splash screen with a "failed to read from file" error, attributed in Event Viewer to MFC70.dll

6. Subsequent attempts to start FS9 all fail with the same result, after attempting to remove the FAIB A320 and restarting the computer.

Any way to recover FS9 without a full reinstall being necessary?

From memory mfc70.dll is a Microsoft Visual Studio file and nothing to do with Flight Simulator so a reinstall would be fruitless.

You may need to download the latest Visual Studio runtime files (not the developer's full software) to be sure you have the latest version.

John

i would first remove all the traffic files from the world/scenery folder and see if fs9 starts and runs just to be sure it is a traffic file that is causing the crash

I would try but I cannot back up my files safely, for some reason they seem to be corrupted ("could not read from source") even though they were working fine when FS last ran safely.

Even then I'm not sure it would work because removing the offending aircraft did not change the error. The texture installed before the fatal errors began wasn't even in any of the traffic files I had installed yet.

From memory mfc70.dll is a Microsoft Visual Studio file and nothing to do with Flight Simulator so a reinstall would be fruitless.

 

You may need to download the latest Visual Studio runtime files (not the developer's full software) to be sure you have the latest version.

 

John

The faulty DLL file is in the FS9 main folder and wasn't touched by a runtime update, even replacing it with a copy from a friend's working copy of FS9 did not work.

Tried deleting the fs9.cfg? The sim will rebuild a new one when restarting.

Deleted the faulty AI plane?

Something else is going on here and I think it may have been a coincidence that the Sim stopped responding after you made an AI change. Especially since it seems like you have corrupt FS files.

Do you use a program to create AI flight plans though? Perhaps it messed up your AI flight plans and some other things.

Are you using Win 10 and was there an update?

What type of hard drive are you using?

I would try but I cannot back up my files safely, for some reason they seem to be corrupted ("could not read from source") even though they were working fine when FS last ran safely.

Well, I think that's your answer.

If you can't read the files, nor will Flight Simulator.

It sounds like a faulty disc - I would start with the chkdsk utility before moving onto other recovery possibilities. There's lots of help to be found on the net but often specific to a particular Windows version so a careful search will give you the best options.

But you have to accept that you may have some permanently lost/damaged files and resorting to a backup after repairing the disc may be the best solution.

John