FSX Cannot communicate with the outside 'world'

[Firekitten]

I loath to post 'help me' topics but I'm at my wit's end...

Every aircraft or program I have in FSX that communicates out of the sim isn't working... Accufeel... fatal error on fsx load (When it loads to the default flight) Accusim... when I select one of their aircraft... Our own Ryan Navion (due to Doug Dawson's sound gauge) on load... Classics Hangar 108 Taifun on load...

It seems as though whenever a process tries to communicate... it can't.

I have .net, C++ redist, Directx 9 and 11, FSUIPC... everything I could possibly need... Nada. No bueno...

Does anyone have any ideas? This is mind boggling ><


Help me Outhouse-Kenobi, you're my only hope!

[Milton Shupe]

When did this start?

Have you tried restoring back a few days to before the issue date?

Have you run a network "Diagnose"?

Have you run a dxdiag from the Start/Run to check for issues?

[gradyhappyg]

Simconnect?? It's about all I can think of. Of all the issues I have had this wasn't one of them. At least not yet. (knock on some FSX wood)

[Firekitten]

When did this start?

Have you tried restoring back a few days to before the issue date?

Have you run a network "Diagnose"?

Have you run a dxdiag from the Start/Run to check for issues?

Restore won't work...
Dxdiag is ok...
Network is ok...

Simconnect?? It's about all I can think of. Of all the issues I have had this wasn't one of them. At least not yet. (knock on some FSX wood)

I use Sim connect for another program and it runs fine...

[gradyhappyg]

Maybe try reinstalling say acufeel or one of the other non working programs and see if it either reconnects or throws out some problem reports to help you trace the issue. At this point can't hurt. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[huub vink]

It looks like xml is not handled properly. It is not really related to network as no network is required for these application. Do you only have problems with FSX or do you have problems with your internet browser as well? (or applications triggered by your web browser).

This type or errors can easily be caused by updates. Check which (automatic) updates have been performed lately.

[Firekitten]

Perhaps there is some confusion... when I say 'communicate with the outside world' I mean out of the sim program in the rest of the computer... not the net.



Ok, bit the bullet and tried the final hand... full reinstall (not too painful as id only just reinstalled a few bits)... Everything as admin, started fs after install, ran flight, reboot, sp1, ran flight, reboot, sp2, ran flight, reboot... Install accufeel... No dice... fatal.

Makes me want to scream!

Whatever the problem is, it's not fsx...

[huub vink]

XML is a very common used computer laguage, which is used for many application. Among others A2A and Classics Hangar use it to make things happed, which FSX normally can not be done by FSX. But it also makes things happen on web-pages, in documents etc.

That is why I asked whether you only had problems with other applications.

I have been wearing out my brain thinking about why the xml files could make FSX crash and to figger out what is unique in these file used by A2A and Classics hangar. I'm afraid I didn't find the answer. But my best guess is that a routine in another application is triggered by the initiation of xml files in the sim. So again, look very careful what has been changed, installed or updated just before the problem started.

I don't know why but my underskin feeling tells me it might be a web based application, for which you have the initiating files on your computer and which conflict with the xml files used for the flightsim. But again; it is not more than my best guess.

I don't know whether you use multiple web-browsers, but a start could be to unstall these completely and do a clean install again (don't forget to back-up your favourites first!).

Good luck as I'm sure you will need it.

Cheers,
Huub

[Maj Kong]

If all is well up to the accusim install I would suspect that something was rearranged in the dll.xml
Check its location relative to the fsuipc entry. I believe fsuipc should be near the bottom (or last)
(...users\yourname\apps data\roaming\microsoft\fsx}
Hope this works.

[Firekitten]

I have the solution!

It's bizarre... and I didn't know these things demanded it...

My machine is a dedicated games rig... the mobo has no on board graphics or sound. I have a sound card on the machine, but as I had switched to using exclusively usb headphones, I had installed its driver but not used it... A post on A2A's forums about sound streams gave me the idea...

Checking my sound devices, the Soundblaster x-fi Platinum was installed... but not showing up? strange!

Now I have sound with my logitech g930s... it had gone unnoticed. Flattened and removed the device, and reinstalled. As soon as it showed up in the sound devices menu, enabled or disabled... bang. It all worked. The USB one was apparently not counted as satisfactory... working or not.

All these fsx things had sound in common... Accufeel, Accusim, Doug's sound gauge, the classics hangar module... Sound. As soon as they 'saw' a hardware sound card... bingo. Sound... This had been a real head scratcher... I even reinstalled the sim totally to no avail. I had totally discounted the sound as irrelevant... when I went back to a total process by process troubleshoot it was something I'd done on a fluke chance...

Thank you all so much for the help and advice... at least it's solved now and I certainly have learned a lesson... Sound card = required for these quite common fsx modules... At least this is a useful search record now if anyone else gets this issue!

[Tako_Kichi]

Glad you got it fixed.

[huub vink]

Luckily a happy ending! I'm glad you were able to locate the problem.

Cheers,
Huub

[Mathias]

Very sharp catch, Firekitten. I would have guessed simconnect but that soundcard thing is definitely something to put on the trouble shooting checklist. Cheers!

[Viper007]

Hello,

You said it was a sound communication issue; you use onboard sound now instead of that X-Fi?

I have had nothing but problems with X-Fi and Win7 (64); I dont know what is going on and gave up on it; now it is collecting dust; I am using my onboard sound on a new MB; no real frills and I still have USB sound issues with my mouse and a few other USB devices causing noise; it never ends.

So you are using an onboard sound or how did you fix it?

Viper

[Firekitten]

No on board capability... had to get it working.

The driver installs are... crap basically. Grab the latest driver off their site after removing the sound studio and all that rubbish. Execute it, and it should say 'remove all drivers first?' or something to that effect. Do it, reboot as it requests, and follow its instructions and put the very latest one on clean... should work then.
Now X-Fi works great actually... my issue was no sound devices at all... as far as the sim was concerned.