Help - Shift-2 (Checklist) causing crash to desktop

[freddy4242 15]

I have recently purchased this excellent product.  Upon first install, version 1.11, including Hotfixes 1-4, things all worked wonderfully ... and then I added EZDOK camera views ... fully aware of the (in)compatibility issues this can/will cause with the existing camera views and checklist.  Sure enough, yes, the view panel camera views and checklist views certainly were mixed up, but I was still able to successfully open and use the checklist and I flew my first circuit flight at my local airport.  All good, awesome!

 

However, after doing some tweaks to my EZDOK cameras, any attempt to now bring up the checklist (pressing Shift-2) causes a crash to desktop, with an error about Panels.dll.

 

(And, yes, I did run the EZDOK configuration tool when I installed the aircraft.)

 

I am very familiar with editing .cfg files and .xml files, but despite everything I tried, I could not resolve this issue.  Searches of this forum suggested things like commenting out the relevant sections of the .cfg files etc.  I tried those.  No change.  I even "reversed" all of the EZDOK changes that I had added, and, at one stage I fully removed EZDOK from the aircraft.  However, the problem remained.  In fact, it got worse ... Shift-3 was now ALSO causing a crash to desktop as well.  (Strangely, Shift-4 [GPS] still worked fine.)

 

Unable to resolve the issue, I uninstalled and then reinstalled the aircraft.  This fixed the issue ... however, only temporarily.  As soon as I re-enabled EZDOK the issue immediately reoccurred, this time without doing any tweaking of EZDOK at all.  I stress again that I am aware EZDOK causes issues with the camera views, but I have seen many videos of people happily using EZDOK with this aircraft AND also with a working checklist.  And, I also stress that the aircraft and its checklist did work for me, with EZDOK, the very first time I installed the aircraft.

 

OK, I am happy to fly the aircraft without the camera view panel, but I certainly would like the checklist to work ... not only because the checklist is a necessary item, but also because it has the CONFIGURATION section in it.  And, having seen many videos of other people flying this aircraft, with EZDOK, AND with a working checklist, I know that this should be able to work.

 

So, I am seeking advice or help as to what could be the cause of this issue.  Every time I try to open the checklist (Shift-2), I get a crash to the desktop.

 

I realise that this is a working product, and that this is a problem specific to my machine.  And I know about the EZDOK compatibility issues.  But with others seemingly able to do what I am trying to do (use EZDOK and also have a working checklist), I am hoping to get some more technical advise (from Finn perhaps) as to why it might work for others, but not for me.  For the record, my FSX installation is fine with all other add-ons etc all working well, and in harmony.  I have successfully added panels to other aircraft, added AI planes, and done my fair share of all of that kind of stuff before ... I've even edited and tweaked panels before ... so I am reasonably familiar with the workings of these things.  But, despite this knowledge and "expertise", I have been unable to nut this one out.

 

I am using FSX, on Windows 7 64-bit, Acceleration installed, DirectX 9 (latest DirectX 9.0c installed), no fsx.cfg tweaks except the HIGHMEM=1 fix.  My FSX is being "Run as Administrator", and it is not installed in the default "C:\Program Files (x86)" folder, instead being installed in it's own unique folder.

 

I may be going out on a limb for help here ... but I would be grateful for any suggestion, no matter how trivial or advanced ...

 

 

[freddy4242 15]

UPDATE:

After much experimentation, this issue now appears to be RESOLVED.

I uninstalled and then reinstalled the aircraft, which, as per the post above, fixed the issue.  However, it was easy to cause the issue to reoccur simply by adding an EZDOK camera view, or, by making ANY change at all to the aircraft (for example, just adding a new livery would cause the crash to desktop on the next attempt to load the aircraft).  Efforts to REVERSE any such changes by "undoing" what had just be done (eg, removing the new livery and removing the respective aircraft.cfg file entries), did NOT resolve the issue.  I experimented with numerous uninstalls and reinstalls, followed by various SIMPLE edits and changes, each time undoing what I had just done, in an effort to discover the cause of this crash to desktop issue.  Each time was unsuccessful.

 

However, I had a sudden flash-back from reading a forum post from long ago, from who knows where, about deleting the FSX.CFG file and letting FSX recreate it.  Well, I didn't actually quite go that far ... instead I chose to erase only the sections in that .CFG file pertaining to the Twin Otter.  Upon running FSX and choosing the aircraft, I was presented with the usual "Do you want to allow this file to run" dialogue box, asking about the ASC.DLL file.  And, voila!, the aircraft this time loaded and did not crash to desktop ... and had both EZDOK working and the checklist working (as well as the panel view selector and GPS).

 

So, it appears that the uninstalls were not removing the Twin Otter references from the FSX.CFG file.  I am not sure how the respective entries in the FSX.CFG file get matched or checked, and against what ... but it would appear the Twin Otter entries that were in that file from the first day I initially installed it, were somehow incompatible with the file changes made to add EZDOK and new liveries etc.  And with the uninstalls and reinstalls not removing those entries from the FSX.CFG file, the issue would not have been resolved with out me MANUALLY editing the FSX.CFG to remove them and have FSX recreate new ones.

 

As I type this, the Twin Otter is now flying well ... with EZDOK working, and the checklists too.

 

I am hoping that it continues this way!  (If not, I'll be sure to post a further UPDATE).