Can't get CFS3 to run............No CFS3=No BH&H

[Cameljockey 3]

First of all, my six month old Seagate 500Gb SATA HD bit the big one. Don't know what happened. I shut down the PC and when I started it back up I got "Disk boot error, insert system disk". I said "Okay" and put the XP disk in the drive and was told there was no hard drive in my computer. There was definitely no joy in Mudville this night!

I broke out an 80Gb IDE 133 Ultra that is supposed to be for my son's computer (once I get his case) and put it in. After I got XP re-installed and updated to SP3, .Net framework 3.5, yada, yada, I installed CFS3, updated it to V3.1, and flew the P-47, more out of habit than anything else, and it ran fine.

I installed BH&H and everthing went smooth as clockwork. Ran the config, did the setup, made a pilot, and went for a QC. Everything went smooth until it got to the splash screen with Richthofen and Ball that says "WWI World Initialising", and then it crashed back to the QC screen. I went back and tried to start CFS3 again and the game froze on the big splash screen. I pushed Esc and got CTD.

So the problem is with CFS3. I got the new copy of CFS3 (V3.1) that I bought not long ago, uninstalled OFF, deleted the folders that were left, and restarted the machine.

I put the BH&H disk in the drive and when prompted I put in the CFS3 disk. When the necessary files were downloaded from the CD, I replaced CFS3 with BH&H and continued. Everything went smooth as silk, no problems. The patches went in just as easily, but I still got the crash after the initialisation screen.

My problem is obviously with my machine as two different sets of CFS3 were used and both produced the same problem. I believe it's a CFS3 problem because I loaded up that other WWI sim (which shall remain nameless here) and it runs fine. Unfortunatel, it's not the one that I want to fly.

Any ideas fellas?

 

CJ

[sitting_duck 3]

not sure if any of this is going to apply to you.....

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showt...mp;#entry320050

[Guest Barnstorm]

CJ,

Like you say, if other apps run fine, then most likely a CFS3 thing. Maybe some residual entries hanging-up in the registry after the uninstall process (?). May have to use some utility like regedit to look line-by-line for anything leftover causing problems. I will continue to ponder this....

[Typhoon 5]

CJ:

I hate to say it but, Format "C" may be the next option.

Tony

[Cameljockey 3]

Thanks guys!. I finally uninstalled everything (even that WWI sim which will remain un-named here) just in case. Searched for anything and everything OFF or CFS3 and got rid of it, then restarted and started over. It works now, thank goodness. I'll just put this down as practice because I'm going to have to do it all over again in a few days when the new HD comes in.

Thanks again!

CJ

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

no need to format C.

Not if everything else is working...and it's isolated to cfs3.

Try the manual reinstall option in workshop.

Whatever was the problem with my install, whether pilots being deleted or w/e, the reinstall worked. The fact that your reinstall didnt (but it's freezing at the same spot that mine did) shows that there's likely a corrupted file.

if the workshop reinstall files doesnt work, try installing to a different location...after uninstalling it from the uninstall files section in control panel.

 

HTH

[Winston DoRight 3]

Since you're using an old hard drive (perhaps used?) you should run a chkdsk and check the tick box to look for and mark out bad-sectors. Possibly something essential was written to a bad or going bad sector? If you have any it's very possible that other similar problems will reoccur in the future.

[Cameljockey 3]

No worries. The new drive should be in by Wednesday. I'm going to give this one a try......

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136358

As soon as it does, the old one will come out.

[Creaghorn 10]

what's happening right now? wid has lost all his skins, and now your rig is bothering you. didn't know swineflu is also dangerous via forums!

 

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Perhaps its the "camel flu" --C1M1 virus

[Olham 164]

Great you're airborne again, CJ - hopefully from Lieu-St. Amand

[Cameljockey 3]

I've got some real problems. I posted this message at SOH since that's the "go to" place for CFS3 and got no help, so I'm posting it here.

 

I have used CFS3 for quite a while on this particular machine, but last week I had to replace my HD and CFS3 hasn't worked right since. It installs and configures fine and everything works well until I go to fly. I got into the P-47 and was sitting at the end of the runway with the engine idling. I pushed the throttle forward and the picture froze but you could still hear the engine idling. After about 20 seconds the screen starts to move again and I'm either in the air or in a pile at the end of the strip. (see screenshot 1) I took a screenshot of what I thought was the plane frozen on the runway, but when I looked, the shot was the plane airborne, but closer to the field. (screenshot 2) That tells me that the game keeps running, but the screen remains frozen for a time.

The machine runs all of my other sims fine. Rise of Flight couldn't be better and it is extremely resource hungry. It just seems to be a problem with CFS3 and consequently OFF BH&H, ETO,PTO etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

CJ

Edited August 3, 2009 by Cameljockey

[77Scout 3]

CJ: I have no idea on the problem with CSF3, but just wanted to say that having CSF3 preinstalled is not necessary for OFF (used to be back in the Phase 1 and 2 days, but if you check the instructions on the Phase 3 case you can see there is no mention of CSF3). If you were to completely uninstall CSF3, then when you run the OFF installer it will see there is no CSF3 and ask for the CSF3 discs at the appropriate time and get only the files it needs. Might work??

[Cameljockey 3]

Thanks for the tip Scout but I've tried both sets of my CFS3, one is 3.0 and the other is 3.1. I used the 3.1 to install just OFF and it did the same thing and also the motion was really jerky instead of smooth. All of my other programs run great, it's just CFS3. I don't know what the problem is. I hope my graphics card isn't going South on me.

 

CJ

[sitting_duck 3]

just out of curisity,,can you outline your cfs3config settings?

[Cameljockey 3]

I'm not sure they're right, I lost all of them in the crash.

[ONETINSOLDIER 2]

I dont think your graphics card is going bad, you are describing one of the problems I had with CFS3 to a "T"

Heres the kicker, I tried to reinstal CFS3, and I get a message saying DX8 cant be found and the installer exits,,,

 

 

carumba!

[Cameljockey 3]

Nobody have an idea? I guess it's a lone wolf mission then.

[godzilla1985 0]

CJ,

Just out of curiousity do you really have all your sliders set to five?

[Cameljockey 3]

CJ,

Just out of curiousity do you really have all your sliders set to five?

 

 

For CFS3 only. I haven't gotten it to run yet so I haven't installed BH&H. I'm reformatting my HD as we speak. I've tried everything else.

 

CJ

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Sound card issue? Run dxdiagnose.exe and try lowering your hardware sound acceleration.

 

Also, since you put in a new HD, make sure all of your drivers are up to date.

Edited August 3, 2009 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[Cameljockey 3]

If the problem persists after this re-install, I'll check that out. All of my other programs ran just fine. Train sims, flight sims, etc, no problem. The ironic thing is, I built this computer to specifically run BH&H and now CFS3 is the only thing that won't run and you know what that means. :cray:

 

CJ

[Cameljockey 3]

Sound card issue? Run dxdiagnose.exe and try lowering your hardware sound acceleration.

 

Also, since you put in a new HD, make sure all of your drivers are up to date.

Damn you're good with that hammer Prop-Wasche! You hit the nail right on the head. I have two sound cards in my machine but one is just for the gameport for my MS Sidwinder FFB. I had inadvertently installed the drivers for both sound cards and it was causing a conflict. This time I installed the drivers for the Audigiy and then went to the device manager and installed the CH gameport driver on the SB Live!. Works like a champ. CFS3 runs as smooth as silk. I'm installing BH&H now. Will report back later. Thanks a million!

 

One happy camper!

CJ

[Flyby PC 23]

In the yada yada yada bit, after you flew the CFS3 P47, did you exist properly through the menus? Remember, it's the exit process which writes the config files for the next time you play.

 

It sounds like there something in your uisel which your new install cannot find, except that you describe a vanilla install on a virgin hard drive. Everything should be default. Very confusing.

 

Scraping the barrel for ideas, but my CFS3 updates to version 3.1a, not just 3.1.

 

Other than that, it might be something in your pc which CFS3 needs, but you've missed out the driver. With a new hard drive, you'll need to update all your drivers and check for conflicts. Seems unlikely that CFS3 would be using hardware which other sims wouldn't. Clutching at straws I guess, but maybe investigate your graphics card driver. Maybe your card is under performing with the wrong driver but it's only a graphics hungry beast like CFS3 which exposes the problem.

 

And BTW, even if your old hard drive packed in, don't ditch it. Even with a fault which gives you the install boot disk etc.. Once you've got a primary hard drive, you can sometimes install your damaged hard drive as a parallel drive, and recover loads of data by copying it across to your new drive. I'd steer clear of applications because the registry won't tally and the application won't run, but you can grab all sorts of data files and backups. You can even be clever, run scandisk on the damaged drive, and sometimes 'fix' your bad hard drive. Sometimes...

 

I wouldn't reformat any hard drive unless I'd tried EVERYTHING else - twice. Stuff's not just gone, it's really gone.

 

Update.... You're already fixed? Good stuff. Forget everything I said....

Edited August 3, 2009 by Flyby PC

[sitting_duck 3]

yeah,,,good show prop-wasch,,,id have never gone in that direction!!!