FS04 crashes!

Thanks for the very well detailed post.
Make sure you have DirectX 9.0c installed and try using the crack (NO-CD) for it.
Crashing after a few minutes usually comes from overheating, try loading it, if it crashes, take the side off and then run it again.
During the summer a friend of mine did that and had a small table fan pointed at the open side, worked fine until he was able to by a few case fans and close it back up again.
Let us know how you do.

😕 The fact that you can run the sim for a couple of mins before crashing would lead me to think about overheating.Fs9 puts a huge strain on the CPU, GFX and eats memory

The power supply is plenty powerful enough if its working properly.The only way I know to check the power output is a free utillity called speedfan
This lets you monitor temps,fan speeds and voltages

Have a read about it and if it sounds OK, give it a whirl, d/load from here ➡

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

The only other thing I can think of is something like a program kicking

Thanks for you help, but I forgot to mention that the vid card has a temp monitior and fully loaded and overclocked to 500mhz on core and 625mhz on mem (stock = 425 core and 525 mem @ 32 degrees) it still only runs at 42 degrees. I know that it can reach a core temp of 120 degrees and then shuts down via software to save my bacon. I have Dx9c installed and no probs there. I also have a thermaltake case with more fans than a 747 and 2 of them blow straight onto the vid card. The vid card has a heatsink to die for as well. I run flight sim 04 with no overclocking on vid card and I don't overclock to CPU. the ambient temp inside case is 38 degrees whilst the core temp of GPU never goes past 42, even on a hot day. One thing I did notice was that after uninstalling FS04 there was about 9 registery entries left in the reg. I can only assume that after uninstalling FS04, there might have been some corrupt entries left in there. I have manually deleted them and are preparing to reinstall FS04 as I write this. I downloaded the no-cd crack and that helped to the point where I can now run FS04 about 15-45 mins before crashing. Now I'm no ace pilot (although I did break the record for going solo at my airfield) but that gives me enough to do a few touch and goe's and maybe a quick dash up the coast. I'm about to reinstall FS04 without the reg entries and go from there. Once again, thankyou for your help and concern. If all else fails in the future, I'll pull out my trusty hang glider and head to the hills.

Nice setup!
Some areas of the world (bug) have scenery that causes crashes.
Let us know how you do and good luck!

Great news, I was nearly ready to call it quits and decided to have one more think about all this mayhem. As I sat and thought to myself, I asked the question... and BINGO!, it hit me like a runaway train. The only thing left to change was the operating system...yes you heard it right. Now some of you might think thats a bit extreme, but believe me, I've seen worse on computers and the funny thing is, and I'm sure some of you techies out there would know... stranger things have happened. So out with Win XP pro and in with Win XP home edition. I had to try it cause the only thing left to change after that was my undies. So I dug out a copy of XP home and installed it and updated it and then installed all the software that I had running on Pro including the same drivers and then installed FS04 with update followed by no-cd crack. I sat on the tarmac for about 5 mins to see if a crash was immenent but all I was getting was chitter chatter from AI pilots... I started smiling. The real test was taking off and waiting to see what would happen once I was airborne. I set a flight plan for a return trip of 400nm, thinking that would be longer than any flight I have ever had from FS04. I have never flown further than 15-20nm without FS04 crashing. Now some of you who can remember going solo in the real world would also remember that you were nervous and probably shaking in your boots...(I know I was), well I was doing the same last night on FS04 when I took off and found myself doing it through the whole flight. Thats right... the whole flight. Once I landed I had to go outside and have a ciggie and cup of coffee to calm down as it blew me away. I turned up the frame rate to max and anti alaising to boot and still I was flying as smooth as an eagles bum in lift. The graphics are simply stunning. I'll post another reply soon to let you all know how its going but I think my problems are gone, judging from what I've seen so far. The only thing I need now is addons etc. To all who gave advice...thanks. I can honestly say that without this forum I wouldn't have gone this far as you guys got me thinking. Once again, Thanks 😀

There was a post in the Hardware Forum a while back where we disused the OS Home against Pro as a gaming system and we all agreed that Pro is not a good gaming system.
Good luck to you and enjoy! 👍

Great that you changed from XP Pro to Home edition and your problem stopped. But I have the same problem (games runs 5 minutes normally, then suddenly the display goes blank and the PC needs re-booting)... and I"ve always had the Home XP edition! Since this started, I've:

1. removed recent applications
2. Did Windows Restore
3. Did System Recovery.
4. Made more room in hard drive.
5. Added a beefed up video card.
6. Increased RAM from 512 to 1014.
7. Opened the PC box for cooling.
8. Tried every conceivable display and sim complexity configuration.

Before all this FS9 worked fine. What is more frustrating is that I'm now taking actual flying lessons after putting this off for years. Before, the sim was just a toy. Now.. @#$%#@!

Please, any ideas? Specs below. Thanks, Everob

2.53 pentium, 1 gig RAM, 120 HD, ATI Radeon 9600, CH yoke and rudder pedals.

Everob,
When you say it goes blank, do you mean it turns black and freezes, crashes to desktop (CTD) or what.
When you took the side off did it last longer. Taking the side off for a test flight is fine but not as a steady practice.
The aircraft that you are flying at that time, is it the same one, a new download or a MS default.
Are you flying in the same area with the same weather (MS bugs).

Try different drivers for your video card.

Thank your prompt attention and suggestions. Here are my answers to your questions:

The sim works normally for about 5 minutes, then the screens goes blank and the PC crashes. PC must be powered off (by holding the PC power button down until the light goes off), then rebooted.

The symptoms did not change with cover off. About the same crash time.

Aircraft is the included 172. That's it.

I tried different built in flight scenarios. Same result. I use the simplest weather configuration.

Following your suggestion I downloaded and installed the latest video driver for my card. No improvement.

Can data files effect this? Maybe I should remove those associated with the sim before doing another reinstall.

You can try another installation of the sim but I don't think that will do the trick.
The computer freezing to the point that you have to use the "button" to reboot is bad news.
Either the video card is causing the freeze or I would do a clean install of Windows and start fresh.
You seem knowledgeable enough to know that you have to defrag often and keep all the fans clear of dust. Check the CPU heat sink fan for dust in the fins, if it's a stock one they are close together and can get clogged

Is your power supply above 300-350w?

This is a very good and safe registry cleaner. Use it ONLY in the NOVICE mode.

http://www.superwin.com/fregvac.htm

I tried again to ventilate the PC box. This time not just opening the side cover but aiming a small fan into the opening like one of our members wrote earlier.

😛 And would you belive it? It worked!!! 😛

I remembered, that recently, I replaced the adjacent ethernet card with a wireless, which was apparently much larger than before. This must have resulted in not enough air circulating between the 2 cards. (The older video card had no built in fan, but the new one did. I would have expected the newer card to have better heat displacement.)

Anyway, everything boiled down to just a cheap little plastic fan. Now I can start ignoring those little voices in my head who say to go out and buy an assualt rifle

You and the other writers helped me find the solution. For that I am very grateful.

👍 Fantastic, you solved the problem and now all you have to do is install an inexpensive rear or front fan. I also use a PCI fan. They can be found anywhere and are also very inexpensive.