Author Topic: so has ANYONE been able to figure out.... (Read 4326 times)

canadave · 17 March 2003, 07:30:51

......why Orbiter crashes to the desktop when loading certain scenarios, with a "memory read
error" referencing the same hex code all the time? Orbiter's getting a black eye because of it.

I was all gung-ho telling a friend of mine about this cool Orbiter program. He was excited, asked
me to drive over this weekend and help him get it installed.

So I installed the default stuff, patches and all, to the 030303 build. Also got Vinka's dlls. Then he
wanted some spacecraft add-ons, especially the USS Enterprise (he's a Star Trek nut). I
downloaded and installed that, and he started his Enterprise scenario all excited.

But the scenario crashed to the desktop (as it had done originally for me) and gave that
aforementioned error. I can't figure out what the heck it is. We're both running WinXP Pro, other
scenarios work just fine, some including add-ons, some without. The scenarios that crash--some
of them are with add-ons, some without. It seems totally haphazard.

Sorry to vent, but I had to talk fast to explain to this guy that a) Orbiter's free, b) it's still pretty
good with the scenarios that work, c) yada yada yada. He didn't seem to believe me after Orbiter
kept crashing for him.

*sigh*
Dave

DanSteph · Reply #1 - 17 March 2003, 10:29:54

Don't know about this add-on but it may be outdated
for the current version ?

Dan

sarelg · Reply #2 - 17 March 2003, 11:32:26

It happens to me all the time as well, with a stupid message saying soemthing about memory.
1oox2ood, or something like that, it happens to me usually with the nassp, only the apollo 11
works, the other ones dont, btw, I have version 2

Harmsway · Reply #3 - 17 March 2003, 14:07:02

I wrote a bunch about this in the bug forum but didn't get a responce. If the
forum was up now I could relate exactly what I found. I try to do my best here anyway.

System:
Dell 1.7
NIVIDA GeForce2 video card 64M
WinXP

Now I knew if the problem lies with add-ons I would recieve little help from Martin. To my surprise I
was able to reproduce this error without any add-ons. However it is aggrevated by pluggins. I
narrowed it down to this. The ModeIndex does not auto populate correctly. Now if I only knew
what this means I have a clue. If you open the orbiter.cfg file and look under device settings, you
will see the ModeIndex auto generated number. I believe this is what is screwing up.

Try this the next time you get this memory error. Save a copy of the orbiter.cfg. Then open Orbiter
Launchpad and remove all modules. Then open the error causing scenario. If you are like me, you
will not get the error this time. Now get out of orbiter and check the orbiter.cfg file against the one
you saved. What do you find?

Sometimes you can install the modules back one at a time and get your scenerio to work with all
the Modules. But not always. This is where we need help.

I was hoping Martin would know and correct. However I haven't heard anything from him. But the
forum has been down twice for long periods of time during my posting.

I am still looking for others to confirm my findings.

Gene

Harmsway · Reply #4 - 17 March 2003, 14:18:49

I failed to mention. Of course you can't open a scenario that requires a certain pluggin. However
there are default scenerios that do not require pluggins to run and yet produce the memory error.
The one I use to test is the Old scenerio " Dock to ISS". This one gives me the error. However you
may take any scenario and try to fix by removing some pluggins and see what happens.

When I say pluggins I mean modules. Go into Orbiter Launchpad (modules tab) and deactivate
some or all. Let me know.

Gene

canadave · Reply #5 - 17 March 2003, 18:57:07

And wouldn't you know it....now ALL of my scenarios on MY computer work fine. *sigh* I'll try to
install some more things and see if I can get an error again....

Dave

canadave · Reply #6 - 23 March 2003, 09:34:04

OK, so I finally got around to trying to resolve this. This is what I did:

I installed a fresh copy of the latest edition of Orbiter, plus the patches up to the 030303 build. I
installed the hi-res textures, plus OrbiterSound 2.1b and the latest copy of Vinka's
spacecraft/multistage DLLs. Also installed the Delta Glider 2.

Here's what happens when I try to start up a default scenario (I used "Docked at ISS"):

Orbiter crashes to the desktop with a memory read error. I looked at the Orbiter.log file, and
here's what it shows:

**** Orbiter.log
Build Mar 3 2003
Devices enumerated: 3
Devices accepted: 3
==> RGB Emulation
==> Direct3D HAL
==> Direct3D T&L HAL
Found 1 joystick(s)
DirectDraw interface OK
Direct3D interface OK
Zbuffer: 16 bit
Finished initialising world
Render device: Fullscreen 1152 x 864
ERROR: DDraw object is still referenced: 7808
ERROR: Destroy framework objects failed
[D:\Orbiter021202\D3d7app.cpp / 595]

Notice the last couple of ERROR lines. The last bit references a file in D:\Orbiter021202. But I
don't have that directory! Is this where the problem lies?

More hints. I tried to remove the installed Modules one by one. It kept crashing. When I finally
removed the last two modules that came with the default installation of Orbiter, leaving NO
modules installed (no TransX, antifall, or whathaveyou)......the scenario worked!

So what does this tell us? It's so simple a five-year-old could figure it out.

Someone find me a five-year-old!!! :0

cheers,
Dave

canadave · Reply #7 - 23 March 2003, 09:37:45

OK, I traced the problem on my machine. It's the CustomMFD module. Everything works as long
as that one remains uninstalled. As soon as I make it active, Orbiter crashes immediately to the
desktop.

Anyone else seeing this?

Dave

DanSteph · Reply #8 - 23 March 2003, 14:13:30

CustomMFD is here just to show an example of how programming the MFD.
it seem that martin have forgeted to modify it for the last version so it must
contain wrong stuff and make Orbiter crash.I don't remember what do this Mfd
but I think you can remove it without probleme.

Dan

gladiator1332 · Reply #9 - 23 March 2003, 15:23:35

Do you have to have it inactive, or do you actually delete it?

DanSteph · Reply #10 - 23 March 2003, 15:26:02

Inactive is sufficient... it will not be loaded and will not cause any problem.

Dan

dbartles2 · Reply #11 - 23 March 2003, 22:39:55

I dont want to turn this into a video card manufacturer arguement,

However sifting through the posts, 90% of the time it seems to be people with Nvidia cards that
are tending to have the intermittent problems.

I myself am running windows XP Pro and have had no problems at all. I work with computers for a
living and find that drivers are normally always the cause of the problem with strange memory
dumps.

I would recommend that if anybody is having problems, to update not only directx and their video
card drivers (I know several people have tried this) but their motherboard drivers as well
(especially if a VIA board) as the AGP control drivers in this tend to cause a lot of problems.

If this still doesnt help it might be worth running a windows update to download any patches to
see if this helps.

I will keep playing and see if I can replicate any of the errors.

If anybody can post any more info as to what they were loading at the time of the crash and
system specs then I will keep looking

Cheers

Dave

canadave · Reply #12 - 23 March 2003, 23:37:49

Hello fellow Dave

I wish it were as simple as a generic nVidia card issue, but I don't believe it is. I had the same
issue the other day installing Orbiter for a friend of mine, who has an ATI Radeon 7500 card. Also,
being a techie person myself, I've made sure I've got the latest drivers for everything in my
system (including the VIA 4-in-1 stuff).

From the error log I posted, it seems to be something related to a call from a .cpp file that's in a
directory that doesn't exist (?) related to the CustomMFD module. I could be wrong, since my
grasp of programming is tenuous at best, but it seems that when I remove the CustomMFD
module, the problems disappear (I can't say "completely", since I haven't tested it extensively, but
so far it's working better with the CustomMFD inactive).

If it helps, my system specs are as follows:
WinXP Pro SP1
1.2GHz AMD Athlon CPU
MSI 6380LE mobo
512MB DDR RAM
128MB XFX GeForce Ti-4200 vid card
DirectX 9

I get the error when I load any default scenario using a purely default Orbiter installation (base
install, plus the three build patches up to 030303--no hi res textures or anything else).

I've emailed Martin about what I know, since it seems like it's something that might be
independent of add-ons. If/when I hear anything back I'll shout it out on this forum.

Cheers,
Dave
Cheers,
Dave

tjohns · Reply #13 - 25 March 2003, 11:34:18

Don't worry about the filename in the error log...when Orbiter detects the crash, Martin displays some
internal program stats (maybe to help him determine what caused the error) along with the filename and
line number the error was detected in ON HIS MACHINE WHEN HE BUILT THE EXE!!!

It's a common programming "trick"....he can look at the code around that point and try to work out what
"non-standard" event might be triggering the fault.

Trev

Dave Klein · Reply #14 - 25 March 2003, 20:07:06

Oh.

*heavy sigh* ah well, then I got no clue what's going on

I guess I'll just wait til the next
version and see what happens!

Thanks,
Dave

wingtip · Reply #15 - 15 November 2003, 21:23:15

ok, i have been playing with orbiter for a few days now and i have noticed that after 10 or so into
a mission the sim just crashes back to desktop.... i do have the mfd activated and might try to
disable it but everything works great for a certain length of time then bam, it just crashes to the
desktop.. running xp on a 1.7 ghz pc, radeon 9700pro

still cant get into a normal orbit lol... good thing there arent police vehicles to pull u over and
check for drunk astronauts lol...

L.Long · Reply #16 - 18 November 2003, 05:13:15

From what I've seen, Orbiter doesn't run well under XP, and its needful to free as much resources
as possible... on the ohter hand I run a dino Pent II with soundblaster 16... 192 RAM... NO
PROBLEMS.. Am I just lucky? Oh, and Windows 98 too.

John · Reply #17 - 19 November 2003, 07:43:05

Adding my two cents to the above problem. I am running Orbiter on three different XP Systems
and I have had no problem with crashes. On one system I ran it at 2050x1500 over multiple
screens and it has run fine. On the otherhand I did try and run some scenarios on another
computer for a friend of mine and it crased on his. It was a new system and he didn't have the
right VIA drivers installed yet, nor the Service Pak one update. So maybe this is the issue. I have
service pak one loaded on the three computers in which I have no problem even running it at 100
and 1000x time settings. Oh and I have every module activated as well. So go figure.

:top

John

:piff

bradz · Reply #18 - 19 November 2003, 17:30:08

All works fine for me res 9 60 Fps all the way
with costom mfd

Xpirex · Reply #19 - 03 January 2004, 22:29:36

I have the latest version of Orbiter (Dec 17th 2003) ..and I installed a couple of scenarios and
addons that were extremely up to date (ie, released 4 days ago)...and I also had the constant
crash to desktop but no error messages. I just disabled the custom MFD module and all has
started working normally again. Now I'm going to try and re-install the Appollo stuff and see if it
works too.

my system specs:
WinXP Pro SP1
2.6 GHz P4 CPU
512MB DDR RAM
64 meg Mobility Radeon
DirectX 9a

Author Topic: so has ANYONE been able to figure out.... (Read 4326 times)

sarelg

Harmsway

Harmsway

gladiator1332

dbartles2

Dave Klein

wingtip

John

bradz

Xpirex