Fpda_gear_wind gau

[SSI01]

Hello,
I am having trouble w/FS2004. My aircraft textures grey out after the engines start. Panels stay ok, all controls work and the sound is fine. I just lose aircraft textures. I then have to ctrl-alt-del out of the sim and get either a "hungapp" message, or "fpda_gear_wind.gau" with 00001520 as the offset in the error signature box. My video card is by NVIDIA. Device Manager says I have four NVIDIA drivers installed, all the same (1.0.15.0), all dated 6-21-10. I also had a RealTek AC'97 Audio card in the list that I've disabled, using only one NVIDIA driver. Now the sim does not load. Does anyone know what is wrong?

 

[SSI01]

Sounds simple enough. I've got literally hundreds of add-on textures and aircraft. They're saved separately from the sim in another file on the same drive called "hangar." I just transfer them over to the sim when I would like to fly a particular one. They used to take about 35 or so minutes to load before I did that. I don't see where that's going to be a problem. I'd like to save the sounds and add-on scenery files I've got in the sim, I think I can put them on the same drive only separate from the sim, then add them back in once the remove/reinstall is done.

The problem seems to revolve around the ".exe" file. I have recently added a program that, along with a lot of random splash screens, also installs something that chooses a splash screen and then starts the sim. It's not the same .exe file that MS uses to start the sim. I recently did away with the splash screens thinking the images were using memory that might be useful elsewhere. Maybe when I got rid of them I also got rid of the new splash screen ".exe" file, or something related to it. Not sure.

I have my disks for the FS, obviously. I was wondering if I found the .exe file on the disk and reinstalled it separately back into the sim if that would resolve this problem.

 

[COLGeek]

It might just do that. Worth a shot.

 

[SSI01]

I'm going to keep a log of attempts to correct this situation, and report what happens with each attempt as that may help pin down what's wrong.

I've tried going to a part of the world where I've never installed add-on scenery, and flying there. The greying-out continues.

I went through the scenery list and deactivated everything that I could, except for what FS would not let me deactivate. When I went back to the sim, all I got was one airfield in Britain I could fly from - and only one country was listed, which was Great Britain. I'll try that again.

Still thinking it may be a memory issue. The "Properties" tab of My Computer says I have two GB of RAM but that's the specification - what is the best way to check on how much RAM is available on the drive FS is on?

 

[COLGeek]

Start the sim, then press ctrl-alt-del and launch the task manager. You can check levels there.

 

[SSI01]

I've gone ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled. In the process of moving gauges/panels/sounds folders from the old sim to the new one. While doing so I noted my "gauges" file had a "texture" subfolder in it. Upon checking in the textures folder I noted it had building, ground and sky textures in it. I did not put them there and am wondering how they arrived at that destination. I then opened a mirror image of the FS file and checked in the "texture" file, on a suspicion that was confirmed - I had gauges files in the texture folder where the ground/building/sky/cloud textures should have been. Again, not sure how that happened.

 

[COLGeek]

How is the sim performing now? I would assume those files arrived where they did as a result of the install process.

 

[SSI01]

So far the default trimotor seems to be working well. I've got one import I want to try flying to see if the gauges, panel, and sound folders "took" when I moved them over. After that, I'll let you know.

 

[SSI01]

Yesterday the sim was working fine, this evening I tried to start the thing using the disk as usual. After hitting the "start" icon, I get the following dialog box: "Couldn't load language resource dll - Error file: E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\language.dll - Error Code Ox7E (126) - Program is aborting!"
Not sure what the problem is.

 

[COLGeek]

Yesterday the sim was working fine, this evening I tried to start the thing using the disk as usual. After hitting the "start" icon, I get the following dialog box: "Couldn't load language resource dll - Error file: E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\language.dll - Error Code Ox7E (126) - Program is aborting!"
Not sure what the problem is.

What anti-virus program are you using? Also, have you scanned with Malwarebytes and removed all it found?

 

[SSI01]

I am using Iolo for antivirus protection. This morning I updated and ran Malwarebytes, discovered two malware infections. I quarantined and removed them. Tried starting the sim and got as far as the splash screen, when it still abruptly shuts off. I found the language dll in the FS2004 folder, it is version 9.0.0.30612 from 2003.

WinPatrol just found a change to one of my file associations, in Notepad, the file is Notepad.exe%1; a change was made to use Microsoft regedit.exe %1 instead. WinPatrol wants to know if this change is OK. That so far is the only thing out of the ordinary re: scans. I will do an E drive virus scan shortly.

 

[COLGeek]

You have something corrupting your files (like a virus or other malware) or a defective storage device. Files just don't go missing or change otherwise (without user involvement anyway). Have you scanned your hard drives for errors lately?

Most HDD manufacturers offer diagnostic tools (like SeaTools from Seagate, as an example) that can verify the health of your drives. I suggest you check them out.

 

[SSI01]

Can do. This machine is over 4 years old, and the sim has seen almost daily use. Can you recommend any diagnostic tools you yourself would use on your machine, and where you can find them? Also, which do you considere the best?

I have Iolo System Mechanic currently providing virus protection for this machine. Do you recommend an adjunct to that program? I have seen cautions re: using Norton Antivirus if FS is on a computer.

 

[COLGeek]

To be honest, I would dump Iolo and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It is both free and effective and puts minimal load on the system.

What make/model of hard drive (s) are you using? We can get the tools you need directly from the manufacturer.

 

[SSI01]

Thought I'd let you know I can a scan on e (main) drive and c (2TB FS drive) to fix file system errors and recover bad sectors. I wanted to try that since the MS website recommended it, and I had never done it. Maybe cleaning up the system would reorder things and put the files in proper order on the drive. I did in fact get the FS back, but we're right back where we started - i.e., aircraft textures greying out but everything else functioning fine. At least I've got it working.

Here's what I've got re: my hard drives, according to the Device Manager:

WDC WD32 00AKS-22L6A SCSI Disk Drive

WDC WD20 EADS-11R6B1 SCSI Disk Drive

I can't find the names of the drives anywhere else but thought the number/letter codes might give a clue as to manufacturer/model of hard drive.

If the drives are not identified above, and there is a place where the drives are identified by manufacturer, please let me know and I'll go there and recover them for our use.

 

[COLGeek]

Those are Western Digital HDDs. Go here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en

Get Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows, install and run. Shouldn't take too long and will thoroughly check your HDD's health.

 

[COLGeek]

Also, might be time to think about a fresh install, from the ground up, of your operating system. Just a suggestion.

 

[SSI01]

-Ditched Iolo

-Downloaded the Microsoft scan tool and am running it now.

-Visited the Western Digital site and downloaded the necessary tool. As soon as the MS tool is through running will put the WD tool through its paces and report results.

 

[SSI01]

I've done a QuickScan on both drives with the WD technology, took about 2 mins for each. E drive seems to have maxed out some of the values, I can give them to you if you like - one that stuck out was HDA Temperature, worst is 99 and I'm at 110 - does that mean I should be picking up a can of compressed air for a cleanout?

 

[COLGeek]

Cleaning and verification of good airflow is always a good thing to do. Are any of your SMART values highlighted as critical?

 

[SSI01]

There's a green check by everything on the report, for both drives. If it's at or above "worst," I've listed it. First no. is "value," second no. is "worst." Here it is:

E Drive
Power On Hours count 93 93
Drive Power Cycle count 100 100
Emergency Retract count 200 200
Load/Unload count 200 200
HDA Temperature 109 99
Relocation Event Count 200 200
Current Pending Sector Count 200 200
Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 200
UltraDMA CRC Error rate 200 200
MultiZone error rate 200 200

C Drive
Raw Read Error Rate 200 200
Spin-Up time 153 144
Start-Stop Count 100 100
Re-Allocated Sector Count 200 200
Seek Error Rate 200 200
Power on Hours Count 90 90
Spin Retry count 100 100
Drive Power Cycle count 100 100
Emergency Retract count 200 200
Load/Unload count 171 171
HDA Temperature 117 103
Relocation Event count 200 200
Current Pending Sector count 200 200
Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 200
UltraDMA CRC Error rate 200 200
MultiZone error rate 200 200

 

[COLGeek]

Looks like your HDDs are healthy. That is a good thing.

My concern now is software (of the malicious variety) as it seems you have some data corruption going on. Programs like Malwarebytes and HiJack This can be used to verify no little nasties are running in the background. If any are found, they should be removed.

You are also using XP. XP is becoming quite dated and it might be time to consider moving up to Win 7 and a nice fresh install to build from.

BTW, are you in the US?

 

[SSI01]

Good to hear in your estimation the HDDs look good.

I am running Malwarebytes in the background, also WinPatrol. I haven't heard of HijackThis, but am willing to give it a try as long as it doesn't conflict with anything else.

Is SP3 the last update for XP?

Let me run Malwarebytes and see what it says. I'll let you know what it comes back with.

I just tried the sim - It opens properly with absolutely outstanding external textures (internal too - i.e., inst panel, plus views from inside the aircraft looking out). External panning is quick and precise. Zooming in and out is very good, again quick but precise. All ground scenery around the airport is detailed, not blurred, and nothing is missing. The moment an engine is started, views from inside the aircraft show a grey exterior. External views show a grey external aircraft texture. All scenery is still very good. There is invisible disruption to the aircraft external texture, seems like something that can't be seen swirling over the wings, blocking portions of the grey texture and showing the tarmac beneath, at least momentarily - this is start-up smoke from special effects, which the machine is producing the effect for, but not the visuals. Also, frames-per-second drop way down after the engine is running. Panning then gets just a little jerky, as does zoom (caused by lowered fps, I guess).

This is beginning to sound like a direct conflict between the sim's visual requirements, and its audio requirements. In the past I tried lowering the quality of the sim's sound, thinking lessening a demand on the sound hardware might lessen demand on processing power. This has produced no effects.

I'm wondering if more RAM is the answer to this problem. Should I consider going from two GB to four?

And, yes, I am in the states.

 

[SSI01]

I forgot to add that just as an experiment I went into the cockpit, set up all the switches, fuel, throttle controls, etc just as they should be for startup, taxi and takeoff - then went to outside view and used the keyboard controls to start the engines. There was no change to external textures, they remained outstanding (although there was that mystery swirling again, over the textures, and they blanked out for a few seconds until the smoke effect stopped). FPS dropped after the engines were started and taxi, panning were both jerky. I was able to take off, climb and set autopilot to hold altitude and wings level. As a further experiment I went into the cockpit for a quick look around, then went back to external view. I was greeted by a grey texture, and panning and aircraft movement in relation to ground objects and nearby clouds was jerky. Sounding like a lack of memory to you? What do you think?

 

[COLGeek]

I forgot to add that just as an experiment I went into the cockpit, set up all the switches, fuel, throttle controls, etc just as they should be for startup, taxi and takeoff - then went to outside view and used the keyboard controls to start the engines. There was no change to external textures, they remained outstanding (although there was that mystery swirling again, over the textures, and they blanked out for a few seconds until the smoke effect stopped). FPS dropped after the engines were started and taxi, panning were both jerky. I was able to take off, climb and set autopilot to hold altitude and wings level. As a further experiment I went into the cockpit for a quick look around, then went back to external view. I was greeted by a grey texture, and panning and aircraft movement in relation to ground objects and nearby clouds was jerky. Sounding like a lack of memory to you? What do you think?

I think you have a couple "processing things" going on. The increased motion is affecting you FPS and the processing required for that movement is causing some of your issues. Also, 2GB is a slight issue (given the settings) and is your single core processor and XP. BTW, SP3 is the latest major version (with tons of updates since it came out a couple of years ago.).

Sending you a Private Message now.

 

[COLGeek]

I forgot to add that just as an experiment I went into the cockpit, set up all the switches, fuel, throttle controls, etc just as they should be for startup, taxi and takeoff - then went to outside view and used the keyboard controls to start the engines. There was no change to external textures, they remained outstanding (although there was that mystery swirling again, over the textures, and they blanked out for a few seconds until the smoke effect stopped). FPS dropped after the engines were started and taxi, panning were both jerky. I was able to take off, climb and set autopilot to hold altitude and wings level. As a further experiment I went into the cockpit for a quick look around, then went back to external view. I was greeted by a grey texture, and panning and aircraft movement in relation to ground objects and nearby clouds was jerky. Sounding like a lack of memory to you? What do you think?

Also, what make/model of video card are you using?