Griphos Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I've been having a problem for a month or so. Sometimes when I start FSX, it crashes while it's still on the splash screen. I thought at first it was EZCA starting that caused it, as it seems to happen about the same time. But I uninstalled and reinstalled EZCA and that didn't fix the problem. It's been happening a lot more lately. Almost every time. But I think I've narrowed down the problem to something in the Orbx NA scenery files. If I set FTX Central to default and start FSX, it starts fine every time. If I set FTX Central to Oceania, it starts fine every time. But if it is set to NA, it crashes a lot. Not all of the time, but a lot lately. If I cycle through those scenery areas, starting FSX each time, that seems to help. Not always, though.. I also deleted all the trusted items in my fsx.cfg, just in case it was some other addon (and let it build a new fsx.cfg in the process). I've been letting it add new entries as I use things. But, of course, most of the Orbx scenery asked to be trusted on first startup, and it crashed a few times before I added any other trusted entries. This is another reason I think it is something to do with Orbx. So, how do I diagnose the problem with the NA scenery files? Everything runs fine once FSX starts. Is there another FSX cfg or dll or xml file I should check for the problem? I have a LOT of Orbx NA stuff. Should I just reinstall the patches? All or them or some of them? If I should reinstall all the Orbx NA stuff, should I uninstall first, or install over the top? What order should I uninstall/install? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Hi Griphos, I've been having a few of these crashes lately myself, I run Win7 so if you are also, what I have noticed though if you elect to not allow FSX to restart automatically and then go into Win7 Action Center - Maintanance tab - select - Reliability history , a table of the last crash will be there right click on the last FSX crash and choose - View technical details. This will tell you which module is faulting, in my case its the (A2A_Feel.dll) this is the A2A Acufeel module I dont know why it bugs out like it does but it has since allowing the last round of Microsoft recommended security updates. It might be different in your case but worth a try to track it down. Cheers Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griphos Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 Thanks for the tip. I don't have a maintenance tab in my Action Center (Win7x64), but I tracked down the reliability history and checked the last dozen or so crashes for FSX and the fault module is visualfx.dll in every case. Off to research that a bit. Okay, it appears that it may be caused by a corrupt texture file, but no telling what file that might be! I'm still curious why switching between Orbx areas seems to resolve the problem. Of course, switching areas in FTX Central means switching textures, so that could be part of it, right? Hmmm.... So, it still looks like I may have to reinstall all my Orbx NA stuff (which is a LOT). Would still like advice about how to go about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Hi Griphos, Funny you should say you have a problem with Visualfx.dll - or not so funny, as is the case. My sim is crashing with exactly that same module and I have already refreshed my texture folder with a backup set. I am thinking it is related to a recent microsoft update, there is one MS update occasionally that has a list of .dll updates and the unpleasant outcome is, a complete blocking or loss of functionallity for some older .dlls. at least thats my theory. now how do we go about fixing it, I'm at a total loss at the moment and will probably do a MS search and lots of Googling to see what I can come up with. I'm in the "not happy Jan group" right now and definitly not looking forward to a reinstall. if I find anything of use I'll keep you posted. Cheers Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 google is yer friend ? => http://www.google.com/custom?client=pub-3794288947762788&forid=1&channel=5369970905&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=active&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1&hl=en&q=Visualfx.dll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griphos Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 @ Wolter: Yes, Wolter, as you see, once Jeff showed me how to locate the module that is causing the crash, I looked it up and read quite a number of these links. And Jeff, in the message right above yours, also suggests that he will do some research as well. But what that research has told me so far, as I noted above, is that it's a texture problem of some sort, perhaps caused by scenery, perhaps by an addon aircraft. None of them explain how to locate what texture is causing the problem, perhaps because it is not possible to tell what texture is corrupt. There are a range of possible fixes suggested, ranging from just silly to reasonable. As I also said, my problem appears to be related to a scenery texture since it doesn't happen when I'm using default scenery or Oceania scenery. So, if you might perhaps answer my specific question as to whether it is appropriate to install my Orbx NA scenery on top of itself in an effort to correct any possible corrupt texture, or whether I need to uninstall and reinstall, that would be appreciated. @ Jeff: I hope a complete reinstall is not necessary. The only things I've installed lately are the RealAir Legacy, the A2A P-51, and Orbx KJAC. I suppose it could be a corrupt texture from one of those, so I'll start with a reinstall of those first, if I can't find any other solution. But for me, the salient diagnostic feature of my situation is that I can ALWAYS start FSX fine on Default, and ALWAYS fine on Oceania. So, I'm led to suspect Orbx NA. Could be something else, and even something in the core of the sim itself. But I copied another version of the visualfx.dll into the sim and that didn't solve the problem, so it's not that .dll itself, but something it seems to be calling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLighT Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Hi Griphos, I've been having a few of these crashes lately myself, I run Win7 so if you are also, what I have noticed though if you elect to not allow FSX to restart automatically and then go into Win7 Action Center - Maintanance tab - select - Reliability history , a table of the last crash will be there right click on the last FSX crash and choose - View technical details. This will tell you which module is faulting, in my case its the (A2A_Feel.dll) this is the A2A Acufeel module I dont know why it bugs out like it does but it has since allowing the last round of Microsoft recommended security updates. It might be different in your case but worth a try to track it down. Cheers Jeff I ran into this same issue with the A2A dll starting 2 months ago after that months .Net windows updates. I uninstalled feelThere and the problems stopped. I have not tried to reinstall it, yet. I have since installed A2A's Spitfire and P-51 with no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 @ Wolter: So, if you might perhaps answer my specific question as to whether it is appropriate to install my Orbx NA scenery on top of itself in an effort to correct any possible corrupt texture, or whether I need to uninstall and reinstall, that would be appreciated. First of all it is NOT related to our sceneries, read the various posts on the subject in the different threads all over the net. OK here we go, on forehand I say it is not the magic bullet , but it may work in your case, if I have issues this is what I do : set fsX via FTXCentral to default delete your fsX.cfg delete the Visualfx.dll from your fsX root folder insert the Acceleration disc when the screen comes up select Repair let it finish it's thing fire up fsx shutdown fsX run FTX Central and select NA or Oceania fire up fsX if all OK close if you are using REX you'll need to re -inject their textures if you are using SHADE you'll need to run the proggy again and re-inject their settings in case you have your fsX install on a HDD run a defrag in case you have your fsX install on a SSD there is no need for that and I really hope that you do not have your fsX main folder installed on the C drive as that is THE main cause of a lot of issues I'll await you results ............................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griphos Posted June 18, 2012 Author Share Posted June 18, 2012 For the third time, Wolter, I have read a lot of the various posts on the web and it appears to be related to a corrupt texture file from what I can learn, which could be anything, including scenery. Once again, the fact that it only happens when I have FTX Central to NA makes it reasonable to assume it is a scenery texture in my case. I'm not understanding how you can so adamantly claim it is NOT related to your scenery in this case. If you've spotted some clear diagnosis that has escaped my notice I'd be more than happy to hear about it. Clearly it is not a case of some defect in your sceneries, and I never claimed it was. But it is certainly possible that some NA scenery texture has been corrupted somehow and is causing the problem, which is why I asked about best procedures for reinstalling. I have my FSX folder on a separate drive. I'll try the procedure you recommend before attempting a fuller reinstall though. Thanks for the suggestion. Still working on isolating the specific problem and hoping for a more precise fix that doesn't involve changing too much. I'll try uninstalling Accufeel, since there seems to be some indication that could be involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griphos Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 I think I have solved the problem. I recently (week before last) built a new computer. FSX is on it's own drive, but I bought a new, faster drive for the new computer and so moved all the files from the old FSX drive over to the new one. I discovered that the move was not completely successful. One of my default planes did not make the trip over. I think having that plane missing was the culprit. As soon as I made sure all the default planes were in the SimObjects/Airplanes folder, the crashing stopped, and it hasn't happened since. I still don't understand why it only crashed in NA, but I suspect it is because my default flight is at Bowerman. It tired to load Bowerman with my default plane (the trike), and couldn't do it. It wasn't the trike that was missing, but some combination of loading the addon scenery at Bowerman instead of default, and the missing default plane (the C172), triggered the visualfx.dll fault, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 pleased to hear you've found the "culprit" also thank you for reporting back that it indeed was not FTX that was the issue . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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