Trouble with FS9 and PMDG 744

[WILCO737]

Hi everybody,

I have some serious problems here.

I installed FS9 on my PC after I put windows 7 64-bit on it. FS9 is running fine, no problem.
Now I installed PMDG744 and PMDG MD11s. The MD11 works fine, but everytime I open the 744, FS just crashes and windows tells me that FS9 will be restarted and is looking for a solution, but cannot find one.
I used the repair function and let it run, but it couldn't find any error, so the problem still exists.
I removed PMDG744 and installed it again, no change.

Then I thought, install the FS9.1 update... Guess what: doesn't work. Always get an error message during installation: "modules\ATC.dll" cannot be found. Installation will be terminated. So this doesn't work as well.

But this is not all... I thought. remove FS9 and install it again. But guess what: The uninstall.exe won't start. I try opening it from the FS9 folder and from the deinstall programs section. Neither won't work, neither won't open... So, how do I remove FS9 from my HDD properly?

I contacted PMDG support as well, they try to help me as well, but I have been told by them, they never have seen this problem before...

Anybody any ideas, tips etc?

Thanks.

wilco737

[LH-B744]

Probably more than a hand full of possible reasons for a problem that is similar to one I recently experienced...
Bill Gates always tells you that you don't have to restart windows (afaik he referred to all win-versions win95 and later), if you only install 1 additional program. But is this true? Well, let us compare error messages.

No1: You experience a "FS just crashes and windows tells me that FS9 will be restarted"-happening after you install the B744 and the MD11.
So, Bill Gates would probably say "Hey you, you installed not 1 program without restart, but 2.". And, ...well I seldomly agree with Mr. Gates, but, I had exactly the same happening when testing some different graphics driver versions. Freely changing driver versions (del the old, install a different, without at least a "warm" restart) without 1 bad thought, and what should I tell you, FS9 did not like the action at all.
At least when changing drivers or graphic cards, you better dont have FS9 on your harddiscdrive (hdd). Allow yourself a fresh FS9-installation although if that costs you maybe one hour, all add-ons included.

No2: Regarding your special problem, I looked up the system requirements for the PMDG B744 (FS9-version). They recommend a PIV 3 GHz (or faster), exactly 2 (or more) GB of RAM, and, PMDG urgently asks you to only fly their B744 with a 512 MB (or more) video card.
So maybe now youre laughing at me, because you own the newest (and fastest) system on this planet, but I know people who cant fulfil these sys reqs.
For some of the newest add-ons, it is recommended to own an Intel DualCore 2.8 or 3.0 (so that you have 5.6 or 6.0 GHz).

No3: One very bad result of No1 (an old FS9-installation that is no longer fitting your altered system) could be: you use old FS9-savegames with your updated system and nothing works any longer. So maybe even if a fresh FS9-installation gives you your old savegames, maybe you dont use them, but you list the flight data for each single saved flight (as long as you can restore them without running the old savegame) and you create a fresh flight with the restored data.

No4: Run (maybe again you need 1 hour for a complete system check, but it's worth it!) an antivirus program of your choice. Some freeware add-ons come with more than only the add-on. If you never in your life had installed one freeware program, you may skip this step.

No5: Watch the list of installed programs and try to understand "why do I need this program". I recently discovered some multimedia-programs that were really redundant in my computer. And how did I find that they are redundant? Well, without these little programs, the computer is as fast as before or even faster.

No6: Try to manually look for ATC.dll, maybe FS9 only tells you this file is missing but it only cant find it. If you cant find it either after manual search, you better allow yourself a fresh FS9-installation.

No7: ...This would be what spontaneously comes to my mind, let's talk about it, we should get fixed that little problem.

[WILCO737]

Holy Cow, what a lengthy post

Ok, where do I start:

No.1: Tried, didn't work.

No.2: My PC has all these things and even better than needed for FS9 and PMDG744. It worked fine even before I installed Windows 7.

No.3: I don't have any old savegames of FS as I formated the HDD and installed Windows 7 brandnew on the PC and didn't copy and FS files back on the HDD.

No. 4: Antivirus program checked the HDD and couldn't find anything.

No. 5: Removed 2 programs I have never heard of. But didn't change anything.

No. 6: I couldn't find the ATC.dll file. I installed FS9 already twice now and it doesn't seem to be copied during installation process...

No. 7: Many thanks. Good help and good options. I tried them, but situation unchanged.

I am waiting for another response from PMDG, their support service is awesome.

Thanks again for your post and your help!!!

wilco737

[LH-B744]

Well, I do not yet use Windows 7, but Win7 in combination with FS9 is certainly not your problem, there are users who run Win7+FS9 on a laptop, and they even experience a quantum jump in performance (frames) compared to their previous OS (and that is without changing one thing in the hardware).

No8: I hope all the best for you, but not long ago, I had a FS9-compatibility-test with an irreversible overheated video card due to overclocking. Of course, the test failed. But that roasted video card yet failed on the win-desktop surface after 1 hour test endurance: funny coloured squares and pixels all over the screen.

No9: Again, what pmdg recommends to you, and what I strongly second: do not install one add-on until you have FS9.1 running. As I read it, especially the pmdg B744 does not work without a previous successful FS9.1-installation.
And, of course, a successful B744-installation is only possible when you are online during the installation process.

So, my first guess, the order in which you build up your simulator were an Active Camera problem, is wrong. The order indeed seems to be important.
Thus, my next try would be: win7 running, ok. install FS9 and test it, running? ok. install FS9.1 update and test it, running? ok.
Now your system may be ready for pmdg B744 installation, install, test, running? ok.
Seems a little like a real world engine start procedure (order is important), but maybe it virtually works, too.

[WILCO737]

Well, I do not yet use Windows 7, but Win7 in combination with FS9 is certainly not your problem, there are users who run Win7+FS9 on a laptop, and they even experience a quantum jump in performance (frames) compared to their previous OS (and that is without changing one thing in the hardware).

No8: I hope all the best for you, but not long ago, I had a FS9-compatibility-test with an irreversible overheated video card due to overclocking. Of course, the test failed. But that roasted video card yet failed on the win-desktop surface after 1 hour test endurance: funny coloured squares and pixels all over the screen.

No9: Again, what pmdg recommends to you, and what I strongly second: do not install one add-on until you have FS9.1 running. As I read it, especially the pmdg B744 does not work without a previous successful FS9.1-installation.
And, of course, a successful B744-installation is only possible when you are online during the installation process.

So, my first guess, the order in which you build up your simulator were an Active Camera problem, is wrong. The order indeed seems to be important.
Thus, my next try would be: win7 running, ok. install FS9 and test it, running? ok. install FS9.1 update and test it, running? ok.
Now your system may be ready for pmdg B744 installation, install, test, running? ok.
Seems a little like a real world engine start procedure (order is important), but maybe it virtually works, too.

Many thanks again for your help.

You know, what puzzles me, that PMDG744 was working perfectly fine before the new- installation of Windows 7 on my PC. I had Windows Vista and I had ONLY FS9. I never updated it to FS9.1. I didn't even know of this update until I had the trouble with PMDG now... So this doesn't seem to be the problem here.
I installed FS9 on my laptop as well and the PMDG744 and I have the same problem under windows XP. 2 different Computers, same problem... Sounds more like the file of the PMDG installation has some issues...

I don't know, nothing works...

wilco737

[Juulke]

Seems that only the PMDG B1900 and B737NG is working fine, you got problems with the B747 and I with the MD-11

[WILCO737]

Seems that only the PMDG B1900 and B737NG is working fine, you got problems with the B747 and I with the MD-11

The MD11 is working fine for me. And the 744 is working now as well. After I installed the update from the PMDG website. But the FS9.1 still not be able to install... Must be something seirous wrong. But finally the 744 works.

wilco737