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JSACKS

Help! Troubleshooting maddening "panels.dll" error in FS9

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Can anybody assist me here, as folows:I fly the whole range and fully patched series of the PMDG NG (I have posted on their forum about this, but no assistance on this specific issue) and it works beautifully in every aspect. But the sim always fails to re-set after crashing the a/c through bad piloting or overstress. What happens is that the screen turns black and FS9 crashes. Just prior to crashing, it flashes several black undocked panels of the PMDG on the screen (for about a millisecond) including "Throttle". This scenario happens with no other aircraft in my huge fleet in FS9.I have examined the error message from Microsoft following the crash of FS9 and it seems to point to panels.dll as being the primary source of this event. It consistently points to panels.dll and the error message is always the same when failing to re-set.I had exactly the same issue on my other DELL PC (which has a completely different configuration and different hardware to my newer DELL XPS system) with the PMDG series. I ported over a lot of a/c and panels and gauges from my older PC to the newer PC using a USB cable.I therefore believe that this FS9 crash scenario tends to suggest a conflict between the NG and another panel that I installed some time after installing the NG. I have thought about removing all such aircraft (about a dozen) and their panels but don't know if this will necessarily work. I also have Ultimate Traffic installed and am wondering if that is a possible source of trouble for this re-set process.In the meantime, I was wondering, is there any way I can get into panels.dll and troubleshoot things from there? I guess I want to be careful with this.I appreciate any assistance or advice, thanks!JS

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Guest firehawk44

JS,I did a search on this site for "panels.dll" threads and found several possible solutions for you. Here are the 2 most likely:1) Make sure your page file is managed by the OS and not manually. It worked with one individual.2) Many simmers had this problem after installing the FS9.1 patch since this is one of the dll's replaced. They recommend uninstalling the patch, make sure you have the orig panels.dll in your modules folder (plus all the other orig dll's), and reinstall the patch.Hope one of these work for you.Jim

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Guest GCBarni

MS error messages are usually generic; that is, they only point to symptoms and rarely the root cause. By this I mean that the problem you're experiencing may have nothing at all to do with the panel.dll file specifically; thus even if you could access and read it, it would likely prove fruitless.You can however, probably narrow down the source of the problem by re-naming your various plane folders rather than removing them. And temporarily disabling and then re-enabling one-at-a-time such programs as UT and any other add-on that you perceive as a contributing factor while running this PMDG plane might give some indication of the source. I assume that if crash detection is "off", there are no screen issues, correct?

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Guest oldngray

>MS error messages are usually generic; thus even if you could access and read it, it would likely prove fruitless.I agree with this "generally", however, yesterday, after installing several add-on scenery packages FS9 (not the aircraft) crashed twice and the error file indicated "scenery.cfg" as one of three files to be included if I sent the report to MS.That would tend to indicate that my scenery installs contributed, even if in some small way, to the FS crash. Haven't figured this one out yet.>You can however, probably narrow down the source of the>problem by re-naming your various plane folders rather than>removing them.Are there no references to aircraft, scenery, textures, etc., anywhere except in the FS9 folder? I have checked the registry and find nothing there other than the main FS file references.If I didn't want any of the default aircraft to be shown in the list of choices to select a flight, would it suffice to simply rename the appropriate folder and leave it there without any ill effect on the rest of FS9?I'm new to flight simulation... have lots of questions. :D

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GC BarniI think I understand your point about panels.dll.No issues at all with crash detection disabled. All works fine then. The thing is I'd like to keep it enabled as it does add realism.It looks as if this will be a one-at-a-time troubleshoot, doesn't it?Thanks for posting.JS

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Jim:I shall try your suggestions.Thanks for posting.JS

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Guest GCBarni

>>MS error messages are usually generic;> thus even if you could access and read it, it would>likely prove fruitless.>>I agree with this "generally", however, yesterday, after>installing several add-on scenery packages FS9 (not the>aircraft) crashed twice and the error file indicated>"scenery.cfg" as one of three files to be included if I sent>the report to MS.>>That would tend to indicate that my scenery installs>contributed, even if in some small way, to the FS crash.>Haven't figured this one out yet.Quite correct....but the scenery.cfg file is only doing what it has been told. It's never a good idea to install more than one item at a time, in any respect, but FS particularly! There could also be a problem with the manner in which you installed them. If you put everything in the Addon Scenery folder for example, that could cause problems.....and this method also makes troubleshooting....well troublesome! Better to install each as a separate area and enable via the Library. Then when a problem arises, each 'new' area can be disabled until the source becomes obvious.>>>You can however, probably narrow down the source of the>>problem by re-naming your various plane folders rather than>>removing them.>>Are there no references to aircraft, scenery, textures, etc.,>anywhere except in the FS9 folder? I have checked the registry>and find nothing there other than the main FS file>references.There are some references to addon aircraft in the FS.cfg file which is found in the Documents and Settings folder tree. But this shouldn't be a factor in your 'test'.>>If I didn't want any of the default aircraft to be shown in>the list of choices to select a flight, would it suffice to>simply rename the appropriate folder and leave it there>without any ill effect on the rest of FS9?>>I'm new to flight simulation... have lots of questions. :DI've never tried this with default aircraft, but I'm sure a trial or test wouldn't cause permanent damage.

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Guest GCBarni

>>GC Barni>>I think I understand your point about panels.dll.>>No issues at all with crash detection disabled. All works>fine then. The thing is I'd like to keep it enabled as it>does add realism.I understand and appreciate that. I only mentioned it as a consideration in solving your problem, because if disbling Crash Detection did _not_ have any affect, then a whole other can of worms is opened!!>>It looks as if this will be a one-at-a-time troubleshoot,>doesn't it?It sure does! It might help if you could determine a start point though with regard to what was recently loaded and when the problem began to make its presence known and then work forward. Other than that, it does indeed look like trial and error.>>Thanks for posting.NP>>JS

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Well, I removed 20 aircraft I'd installed after the NG and also removed all UT aircraft. I then started FS9 and loaded the NG and took off and crashed. It did not re-set at all. Screen went black and FS9 crashed again with panels.dll highlighted as error.Looks as if something has been reconfigured or possibly corrupted with regard to the NG in some way, but just for the re-set function. My page file is fine.I am a little reluctant to uninstal the patch for Fs9. I am not sure if it would make a diff after considering it as the non re-set issue is identical to my older 8200 PC which did NOT have the Fs9 patch. This is so weird and insane, I can't believe it's deja vu all over again!JS

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Hey:Read this!In FULL SCREEN mode, it re-sets normally after a crash of any sort !In Windows mode, it goes black and crashes FS9 totally.What does this point to?JS

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Guest GCBarni

This sounds like a video problem. Re-installing direct X maybe? But you said this problem also happened on the other PC, right?

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I am not sure whether or not it is a video problem: my XPS has an ATI 850XT PE card and my 8200 machine has a Ti4600 card.I thought this might be related to an add-on I installed after the NG but maybe not. Basically, it all works perfectly but the sole thing wrong is that in windowed mode, the NG never resets after an accident because something crashes my FS9 on BOTH PCs!The things we do for FS.....!JS

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Guest GCBarni

Well, my impression has been that the main difference is that in full-screen mode, the vid card is carrying more of the load with respect to the 3d effects, etc. So maybe there is a snag with one of the addons. I guess isolating them is what it's going to take to track the problem down. That would include scenery, panels and aircraft, Afcad files, etc.

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Yeah, same thing on both PCs. I just don't know (scratching head...)JS

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