Only suspicions - no proof!

Brand new flightsim.com member here.

As a former licensed and certified IR PP, I've been enjoying (entertainment?) re-kindling my old piloting skills that I thought I'd never use again. Thank You Very Much, Lockheed P3D.

Upgraded my graphics card in mid-Jan. 2020. Then, booted system approx 3 times before sitting idle for about another 3 weeks. During last session on P3D, I was on an IFR flight plan and was given some very nonsensical and erratic instruction from the P3D Virtual Air Traffic Controller.

After the 3 week respite, my SIM PC had trouble booting. Further attempts to re-boot got worse and worse until ultimate failure. Even the recovery disk that I made prior to complete crash was useless. Luckily for me, my PC was still under warranty from the retail seller of the video card. A complete OS installation solved my problem. BUT WHAT WAS THE CAUSE?

I have no proof, but, my suspicion is that Lockheed Martin maliciously infected my PC with some kind of fatal virus AS PUNISHMENT FOR VIOLATION OF THEIR EULA.

Have registered with FlightSim.com in order to post this "conspiracy theory" to the community.

Please respond if you have knowledge of a similar experience, or, if you think my suspicion is absolutely crazy?

Because I now have to decide if I want risk re-installing P3D, or not.

P3D wasn't the cause (nor Lockheed). Your description sounds very much like a hard disk slowly dying, possibly the controller (electronics) from getting overheated (perhaps from a manufacturing defect) or from the actual disk having surface problems. I've encountered similar things both when I worked on mini-computers for a living and when I was around a lot of microcomputers (today's PCs), and in virtually every case it was the hard disk/controller that was dying.

I have no proof, but, my suspicion is that Lockheed Martin maliciously infected my PC with some kind of fatal virus AS PUNISHMENT FOR VIOLATION OF THEIR EULA.

How would they even know? They certainly are not monitoring people using it, but rather they just rely on your word (given in the form of your purchase choice).

So forget that theory, as it won't wash, and just remember that yes, components actually DO fail, sometimes early (the reason for warranties) and often called "infant mortality" in the trade.

No, Lockheed didn’t infect your PC with a virus. Something else is causing your problems.

Yes, first place to start is with your hardware, NOT the software you run on it.

LM have no culpability nor concern, here. They don't know you from Adam and could care less about abuse of the system.

I would fix what is wrong, before I attempt any blame and shame against L-M...

Thank you all for your input. After reading your opinions, maybe I will re-install P3D.

However I disagree with the opinion that LM couldn't care less if users like myself are imposing on their time for pure entertainment. On several occasions under IFR I was given nonsensical heading changes over and over again. As if I was being slapped on the hand like a child stealing cookies. On the last flight before PC "crash" , I was given nonsensical altitude changes eg: "climb and maintain 8,200" which as most of you know is not a common en-route altitude one would expect from a real ATC. And as soon as reaching 8,200 , it was immediately followed by "...descend and maintain 7,200...."???

This went on and on for several minutes during this flight. It's as if LM V-ATC was saying..." if you want to play "games" , we will play the "game" too" And then when they got tired of playing , they infected my PC as punishment.

This PC was serviced by "Micro-Center" computers & electronics in Denver. They had this PC in their shop on two occasions and NEVER found any fault with the hardware. They could not find any CLEAR reason for my "crash". Or , why the recovery disk failed to fix the issue. They offered two possible explanations; 1) File corruption during WIN update. 2) Somehow a virus had gotten through my WebRoot firewall in spite of this PC being a dedicated Gaming PC and was rarely used for Web surfing.

Of course "Micro-Center" completely quashed my original accusation that it was their own in-house diagnostic program that either corrupted my files or injected the virus infection.

Anyway, thanx again and I will no longer bore this community with my "problems". However, you might want to make a mental note about this in case this becomes a more widespread issue in the future.

If any company - any company at all - even were to THINK about such a behavior, they would have so many cases against them in the courts in no time flat that it isn't even funny.

What would happen in a blatant case of an EULA violation is that their lawyer would contact you and say "Ahem" - then your lawyer and their lawyer would take it from there and get rich.

Get your hardware up and working, install P3D, and if there then is any issue or problem then just post it here or in the P3D forums at L-M, we'll help you out.

Jorgen

The main problem is that the OP seems to think that anything that goes wrong with his flight is LM getting back at him. This isn't the proper place to deal with that kind of paranoia. Ending this one.

Vic