FS wont start ... never happened before

Have you tried running fs9 in Safe Mode via the Start Menu?

Fly in Safe Mode for a while if you can (using your usual settings), Pause and then hit Alt+Enter... see what happens.

If you can fly in Safe Mode without a problem but fs9 crashes when you switch back (Alt+Enter) - my guess is it's a GFX driver issue.

Even though everything used to be fine, I'm told the drivers can become corrupted.

Thanks for the reply Tailhook. I dont know how to start up FS in safe mode. Could you please explain?

freedspeak wrote:

Thanks for the reply Tailhook. I dont know how to start up FS in safe mode. Could you please explain?

Unless you've somehow deleted it you should be able to go :

Start / All Programs / Microsoft Games / Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 / Troubleshooting / Safe Mode.

Or.

To use the System Configuration Utility method

Close all open programs.
Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG in the box and click OK
The System Configuration Utility appears, On the BOOT.INI tab, Check the "/SAFEBOOT" option, and then click OK and Restart your computer when prompted.
The computer restarts in Safe mode.
Perform the troubleshooting steps for which you are using Safe Mode.
When you are finished with troubleshooting in Safe mode, open MSCONFIG again, on the BOOT.INI tab, uncheck "/SAFEBOOT" and click OK to restart your computer

Started up FS in safe mode as Tailhook suggested. This time I got to the menu screen but when I clicked "fly" the sim stalled out again. Went no further. Tried changing the weather from "real weather" to a theme and went to change the aircraft to the default C172. Still wouldn't go. Wouldn't load the C172.

Tried RadarMan's suggestion but when the computer restarted in safe mode I didn't know how to perform any troubleshooting steps. Unchecked SAFEBOOT and restarted computer. Still no go. Tried starting my Nascar racing sim and it worked fine.

I'm so depressed. I never thought this would happen to me.

PS
Should I try deleting my FS cfg. file? And if so should I delete a Word pad document right next to it that contains the same information?

I'm going to bed now and sleep on it.

freedspeak wrote:

Tried starting my Nascar racing sim and it worked fine.

I'm so depressed. I never thought this would happen to me.

PS
Should I try deleting my FS cfg. file? And if so should I delete a Word pad document right next to it that contains the same information?

I'm going to bed now and sleep on it.

Bummer... happens to us all sooner or later.

Seeing that your Nascar sim works fine I would definitely look at fs9 as the culprit.
As you suggest, I would delete the fs9.cfg, but back it up first and move it to a different location ie outside of FS. Do the same with the other wordpad doc you're mentioning - rename it and move it.

Now whether or not FS is able to rebuild the .cfg file in Safe Mode remains to be seen.

Another thought: In My Documents you'll find the Flight Simulator Files folder. Back it up by renaming it and if you can, move it to another location - outside of the 'My Documents' folder... this way FS won't find it and I'm almost sure it will build a new one as well. If push comes to shove, you can always move it back to its original location and rename it to its original name.

The above is just an idea - the folder contains flights - maybe one of those has become corrupted and is messing up things.

Good luck freedspeak, hope we're getting somewhere.

Well Tailhook you saved the day. Did everything you said and it's working now. Not sure what made it work. The CFG file was regenerated but came back 2kb smaller (what's up with that?) Deleted the Flight Simulator Files and of course I now have no saved flights. That's ok, it was getting cluttered anyway.

One thing I noticed ... when restarting I got a notice that the FSSound.dll was corrupt or missing. There was a notice about another file also, .. cant remember what it was. Clicked "yes" to both when asked to replace and everything worked ok.

Now I have to reassign all my keys and I'll be good to go.

Thanks Tailhook for your help.

Actually it's not quite right yet. I still get these messages on startup:

It doesn't seem to make any difference whether I click yes or no.

Do a search (start/search) for each and remove them. Start the sim and see if all is ok, it should be.

Its great that you can fly again even with some small problems my friend.
If im allowed i would like to make a point here.
If i was in your place i would fix my problem with a more harder and time spending way.But i think that its worth the time.
First of all i would un-install FS 😳 😞 ...Yes i know this is the hard part and not the first preferable solution.
After it i would clean-up the FS registries of my system.
Then i would do a fresh installation of FS.No add-ons.
After it i would go to main FS folder and make a back up of all the contained files of it and save it somewhere to my disk.
Then continue with your add-ons one by one by check them.

The back-up of the entire FS folder will save your time(and your life... 😉 )when you face up such problems.I've done all this process and believe me im happy for it. 😉

Just my opinion to your already semi-solved problem. 😉

This link should be helpful to prevent those messages.

Scroll down till you find the section referring to these files.

That said, I don't think they are the problem. There is actually nothing incompatable with those files, but FS9 just doesn't recognize that.

Off topic question.Crash i cant see your sig.Am i the only one?

Greekman72 wrote:

Off topic question.Crash i cant see your sig.Am i the only one?

I can see his sig

😉

freedspeak wrote:

The CFG file was regenerated but came back 2kb smaller (what's up with that?)

One thing I noticed ... when restarting I got a notice that the FSSound.dll was corrupt or missing. There was a notice about another file also, .. cant remember what it was. Clicked "yes" to both when asked to replace and everything worked ok.

The CFG file came back 2KB smaller because either you had manually edited the previous one or one of your add-ons had done it for you.

This answers your following question re the FSSound.dll and others.

This FSSound.dll is an old file originating way back in FS2000 (I think) and if I remember right, is not present in fs9 by default. Many add-on a/c however still require this file and if you add it manually, you have to edit the fs9.cfg --- if you don't, you'll get the Error Message.

In your case, the FSSound.dll is already present in your Modules folder but the corresponding Entry in your fs9.cfg is now obviously missing because you've had the Sim create you a new one which of course hasn't been edited yet.

[OLDMODULES]
SOARRec.dll = 1
FSSound.dll = 1

The above is taken from the link CrashGordon submitted, you should add those lines to your fs9.cfg.

It appears that your problems were caused by a corrupted fs9.cfg file. What could possibly corrupt the file in the first place is a mystery to me but I'd sure like to find an explanation for that.

I'm glad it's fixed for the time being freedspeak and hope it'll stay stable.

I'd just like to thank you all for bringing me through this crisis. RadarMan, Greekman72, Tailhook, I cant thank you guys enough. And Crash your link to remove the error message worked. Thanks much.

I'm still tweaking the settings and assignments but it's good to be in the air again.

You guys are the greatest.

I'm suddenly having a similar problem. I tried running the program in safe mode, restoring defaults. I followed all the directions tailhook and radarman gave. Whenever i start up the program, it crashes instantly. I get a splash screen and then it says the program has run into some error. and asks whether it should send the error message. I uninstalled everything, and try to reinstall only the flight sim and I'm still have the same issue.

I would love any help i can get.

Did you try to restore your system some days back?

Nedrick wrote:

I'm suddenly having a similar problem. I tried running the program in safe mode, restoring defaults. I followed all the directions tailhook and radarman gave. Whenever i start up the program, it crashes instantly. I get a splash screen and then it says the program has run into some error. and asks whether it should send the error message. I uninstalled everything, and try to reinstall only the flight sim and I'm still have the same issue.

I would love any help i can get.

You say "some error" what is the error.
You also say that it asks to send the error, send it and see what MS has to say.
Both of those things and your system specs will be a big help.