ACTIVE ObjectFlow update ruins PMDG B738 product

[BenvanBoom]

Hello,

 

FSX told me during startup that Objectflow.dll can be updated to the new version and asked me if i wanted that.

 

While confirming FSX shut down and objectflow.dll is downloaded and installed.

 

After that FSX can be restarted.

 

I did this three times, every single time it effects the PMDG B738 product.

 

What happens after updating Objectflow.dll is that:

 

1. FSX is starting up much slower.

 

2. When selecting a pre-saved PMDG B738 situation, the PMDG product is not initialising and the gauges are blacked out.

    Restarting the situation of the aircraft is not solving the problem, also not reinstalling the aircraft.

 

To solve the problem i had to use Acronis and install back a backup.

 

I was working on this for three weeks and set updates back for four times already.

 

For me it is clear that this problem is caused by the objectflow update from ORBX.

 

Are there more people having this problem?

 

Or better, is this an known (and solved) issue?

 

My FSX is running ok now after installing my backup, but every time i startup FSX

i have to ignore the update report by clicking "no" (do not install the updateflow update).

 

I am talking about FSX, not FSX SE.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

 

I have all payware and freeware product from ORBX , but i give just one

ordernumber, just to be easy: FSS0368370

[Nick Cooper]

I cannot imagine why this update should affect an aircraft.

However, if you have not already, perhaps you can create

a new situation once the update has been done.

 

It's only a guess, but just as the flight planner will not work

if a situation is loaded and the included flight plan has been

changed, perhaps the presence of objectflow in a situation

created when there was none is causing your problem?

[BenvanBoom]

Hello Nick,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I did save a new situation file, but the a/c keep failing to initialise and the gauges are blacked out.

 

The problem did not started at an objectflow airport, i am speaking about EHAM The Netherlands.

 

Again, nothing helps and it is for sure that the problem is caused by objectflow update.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[Nick Cooper]

I'm sorry I couldn't help, I don't have any PMDG aircraft

[Ed Correia]

PMDG staff and their beta testers have access to our full range of products which they use for testing and have not reported this issue.

Also, myself and our team members that do have PMDG have not seen anything like this. Considering the popularity of both Orbx and PMDG products I think we would have seen many more reports if there was a connection.

Have you reported this to the PMDG support forums to see if they have any other ideas?

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Ed,

 

Since the problem occurs after installing the objectflow.dll update and repeat to come back after i installed a backup of my system and try to do again, it is clear to me that the objectflow update is the cause.

 

I have installed the objectflow update for four times now and every single time i had to recover my system because it effects my PMDG B738.

 

It is just an small effort to write a message about this in the PMDG forum though, wich i will.

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[John Dow]

And I guess you have re-installed the PMDG plane?  That would be something to try if you haven't.

[olli4740]

 

(...)

 

    Restarting the situation of the aircraft is not solving the problem, also not reinstalling the aircraft.

 

(...)

 

 

Check your simconnect installations. To be absolutely sure, reinstall all three simconnect versions again.

 

I have also been having recurrent simconnect issues for a couple of weeks, but I haven't found the root cause yet.

[BenvanBoom]

@ John

Yes, i have tried that. But no show.

 

@ Oliver

I am not sure what to do with simconnect

 

Thanks for the idea's guy's.

 

Does somebody know how to deactivate the objectflow.dll update question that comes up during FSX startup?

 

Regards,

Ben

[Adam Banks]

I've not had any problems with the NGX in any ORBX areas (and I have a fairly average/slow system). A few of things to try though:

1) Try not setting the PMDG aircraft as your default flight. Start with a default FSX aircraft at EHAM - then load up the NGX. See what happens.

2) Before launching FSX, go into FTX Central and swap regions back and forth. Maybe that will rebuild the scenery cache - which may help.

3) Check that the object flow libraries are properly entered in DLL.XML. It's possible that the new Objectflow didn't "take" somehow. If you ever have to go back to your pre-objectflow image, try copying that file somewhere and comparing it to the one you get with the updated image.

Other than that, I'm wondering if it's a general memory problem - and that a slightly fatter objectflow was "the straw that broke the camel's back". There are options in the aircraft setup to turn down CPU usage for the instruments - that may help.

Adam.

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Adam,

 

Thanks for jumping in.

 

1. I did, was familiar with that, but did not help.

 

2. I did, but no show.

 

3. I will check that, thanks.

 

What i did not do is unstalling PMDG B737 NGX, update Objectflow and then reinstall PMDG B737 NGX.

I will go and try this, if i fail....i have a good image so no problem.

 

Regards,

 

Ben

[Adam Banks]

@Ben - it's not 100% clear from your last few posts whether you're loading a situation or simply loading the aircraft. In my previous post I should have said "just load the aircraft - not a situation". It's possible that Nick may still be right and there's something not quite right about your situation file.

Since you say you have the complete ORBX catalogue (gasp!!) then I presume that you have Global etc. active. I don't have any of that, so me doing a test at EHAM in the NGX wouldn't be a fair comparison <?>.

For what it's worth - I just did a flight EHAM-EGLL in FSX/DX10 with no problems at all. I have Ultimate Traffic2 killing my frame rate at both airports, yet the NGX worked perfectly.

Adam.

[olli4740]

Check your simconnect installations. To be absolutely sure, reinstall all three simconnect versions again.

 

I have also been having recurrent simconnect issues for a couple of weeks, but I haven't found the root cause yet.

 

 

Need to "unconfirm" my reply there: Does not seem to be an issue with the NGX. Sorry for the confusion.

[BenvanBoom]

@Ben - it's not 100% clear from your last few posts whether you're loading a situation or simply loading the aircraft. In my previous post I should have said "just load the aircraft - not a situation". It's possible that Nick may still be right and there's something not quite right about your situation file.

Since you say you have the complete ORBX catalogue (gasp!!) then I presume that you have Global etc. active. I don't have any of that, so me doing a test at EHAM in the NGX wouldn't be a fair comparison <?>.

For what it's worth - I just did a flight EHAM-EGLL in FSX/DX10 with no problems at all. I have Ultimate Traffic2 killing my frame rate at both airports, yet the NGX worked perfectly.

Adam.

Hi Adam,

 

Yes i did load the aircraft, beside load an pre-saved situation.

 

I don't think the EHAM scenery of ORBX Global is the problem, it seems like the objectflow update did something with my system.

 

Meanwhile i will click on "no" to the question "update objectflow?" on FSX startup.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[Ed Correia]

Hi Ben,

 

I'm curious, could you try extracting this DLL ObjectFlow.zip to the ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_ORBXLIBS\Scenery folder and see if the issue remains?

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Ed,

 

I have put the Objectflow.dll into the directory you mentioned.

My file was from February and your file was newer, i overwrite my file.

 

On FSX startup i had to confirm if i wanted FSX to use the .dll, wich i did.

 

Normally on objectflow module update i also had to confirm several ORBX airfields to use (i think) the objectflow update.

But this time i only had to confirm that one file on FSX startup. (i hope you understand what i mean)

 

My PMDG B738 is not affected by this now and is working fine, but FSX keeps asking on startup if i want objectflow module update 1.0.10.2.

to be downloaded and installed. wich i denied.

 

Thanks for your continued curiosity.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[Ed Correia]

Hi Ben,

 

Most odd as the DLL I gave you is the current one 1.0.10.2 for FSX so I cannot understand why you are having an issue with the update because it just copies the new DLL.

 

To remove the other update message, do a search for *.DLL in your ORBX folder, this will return all the other ObjectFlow dll files. To manually update them, take the DLL I gave you and copy it to those locations. You'll need to rename some to match what they were, hope that makes sense?

[Guest]

Hi,

As it's about dll, it may be useful to investigate into the antivirus settings to know whether is locked or not from execution...

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Ed and Richard,

 

Searching for the same file resulted in the find of only one and that is the one you send me (dated 25 April 2015) in the ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_ORBXLIBS\Scenery folder

I see by the way the "ModuleInstaller.exe" in that folder to, that is dated 14-02-2015 and the ModuleInstaller.cfg that is dated 8-6-2014.

 

There are a lot of other *.dll's in that folder by the way, but they are all named like for example "Objectflow_airportname.dll"

 

After installing the Objectflow update via the ModuleInstaller i had to confirm FSX to use all those new "Objectflow_airportname.dll" files . And after that the problems begin.

 

After installing the ObjectFlow.dll you send me with the .zip file FSX only asked permission for that file, not for the "Objectflow_airportname.dll" files, since they appearently where not changed.

 

I checked my virus scanner but could not find any blocking of *.dll

 

I hope i am clear a bit?

 

Regards,

Ben

[olli4740]

(...) You'll need to rename some to match what they were, hope that makes sense?

 

 

I would think this is to reflect the airport names in the file names. (Use the old names for the new dll version.)

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Oliver,

 

Maybe i misunderstoord Ed, you mean i have to duplicate de ObjectFlow.dll to all the existing "Objectflow_airportname.dll" files?

 

In other words, the new ObjectFlow file match the different ORBX airports?

 

Regards,

Ben

[olli4740]

Yep, that's how I read Ed's post. Duplicate the new dll file as often as needed, and rename each copy to the respective name of the old dll.

[Ed Correia]

Hi Oliver,

 

Maybe i misunderstoord Ed, you mean i have to duplicate de ObjectFlow.dll to all the existing "Objectflow_airportname.dll" files?

 

In other words, the new ObjectFlow file match the different ORBX airports?

 

Regards,

Ben

 

Yep, that's how I read Ed's post. Duplicate the new dll file as often as needed, and rename each copy to the respective name of the old dll.

 

 

Oliver's answer is correct, Ben. 

[BenvanBoom]

Thanks guy's, i will do so as soon as i have the time and come back to you with more information.

 

Regards,

Ben

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Ed,

 

Sorry for the delay, today i could find some time to work on the problem.

 

I updated all 51 objectflow_*.*.dl's in my FSX.

 

I started FSX and the message that there is an objectflow update did not appear, but i had to confirm that i want FSX to use all the new objectflow.dll's.

i clicked on every one of the reports and FSX started.

 

I found out immediately that FSX was changed, because starting up took twice as long.

After that my PMDG B739 did not startup as usual (did not initialise), also my Virtual CDU did not want to connect (from Virtual Avionics) and also my MCP hardware backlight did not want to light up anymore.

 

So one (or more) of the objectflow.dll's did something on my system, even when we update the .dll's outside tha automatic installer.

 

Meanwhile i have set bak my backup and everything is running fine again.

 

Only FSX keeps asking me on startup to update objectflow.

 

It seems that i am the only one with this problem.

 

When you are out of idea's, can you tell me how to switch off the question on FSX startup if i want to update Objectflow?

 

Kind regards,

Ben

[Ed Correia]

Hi Ben,

 

I'll need to ask the developer of ObjectFlow if they have any ideas as to why this is happening.

 

Considering you are using FSX (not FSX:SE, correct??) you don't need updated DLLs, so suppressing the message is the solution. I'll need to find out about that as well.

[teecee]

This adds nothing to solving the problem, but I just want to congratulate all of you guys that contributed to this problem. This is how the forums should work, and it is a pleasure to see a whole group of you having input, with not a sharp word anywhere.. Well done all. Teecee.

[Edward Boyte]

Just to check but do you have the latest version of the NGX installed?

The latest is: 1.10.64.61

 

You can check this in the PMDG Operations Center.

[Adam Banks]

This adds nothing to solving the problem, but I just want to congratulate all of you guys that contributed to this problem. This is how the forums should work, and it is a pleasure to see a whole group of you having input, with not a sharp word anywhere.. Well done all. Teecee.

I think us die-hard simmers have all "been there, done that/got that T-shirt" with respect to problems like this - so tend to feel that pain. As my grey cells decline (all too rapidly) I'm finding forums like this increasingly useful. Also - it's great to see a *scenery* developer allowing their forums to host topics about the sims, but not related to their core products. With a knowledgeable user base, ORBX becomes a "one stop shop"

Adam.

[Ed Correia]

Hi Ben,

 

Unfortunately there is no way to get rid of the update message. The only solution is to resort to an earlier version of the DLL that was not self-updating which I am attaching at the end of this post.

Before using this older DLL could you please do the following so if we can see maybe any other issues that may be causing the problem.

 

If you could locate your DLL.XML file (located in your AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX folder) and copy and paste the contents here. Please use the Code feature of the More Reply Options box  

It would have been handy to see this XML file as well while you were having the issues but I'm not going to ask you go through it all again.

 

Also, please double check the file versions of the DLL - right click the DLL and select Properties and it will be under the Details tab. No need to do it for all the DLL files, just the one under Orbxlibs.

 

To remove update message:

Extract this DLL ObjectFlow.zip to the ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_ORBXLIBS\Scenery. Keep a copy of this DLL handy because as the Orbxlibs gets updated, this DLL will be overwritten with the latets one.

 

 

 

 

[BenvanBoom]

Hi Ed,

 

Thanks for your quick answers. I will do as you asked asap and come back here.

 

@ Edward:

I did not upgrade to the last version of the PMDG NGX yet.

That in itself is a process that i want to start with after i solved this .dll issue (or leave it as it is).

Going to two difficult processes at the makes it uncontrolled a bit more and we do not know weather it is the one or the other.

 

But thanks for your idea.

 

I appreciate ORBX staff's help, specially because we certainly do not know if it really is an ORBX issue (yet).

 

@ Teecee:

How can we use sharp words, when help is there all the way? 

Luckely my FSX is not destroyed and i can still fly, so no reason the get frustrated.

But you are right, it is really nice to be involved in this mature way.

 

Kind regards,

Ben