orbiter crashes in "newer" (but OLD) XP computer

[Priscilla_Anne]

I have flown orbiter for years in a pentium II 450MHz with 524Mb RAM and a 64Mb video card. (Windows 2000 pro).
Just recently I was given a slightly better(?) computer; 920MHz, 526Mb RAM, 128Mb Video card and running Windows XP Home Edition.

I simply copied my entire 9/2006 set of orbiter folders from the old computer to the newer one and tried to run orbiter.

I was able to "load" a scenario and even got a view of the MFD cockpit view before it failed. There was a continuous almost familiar sound sort of like an engine firing - some sound from orbiter - but not the main thrusters - higher pitched than that - and then window went black with a smaller white rectangle taking up 1/4 of the screen. Then after a few seconds of that sound and that black and white screen, it popped out of orbiter completely - I mean it closed the program down.

There had been a problem when I was copying all the folders over to that computer. The Texture Earth_tile_Imask.tex file - gave a "Cyclic Redundancy Error" and it didn't copy over. I tried several times and it just wouldn't go. I guess that means something like that file references another file that references this file - or something like that??? I don't know that much about computers. Maybe you can tell me what it means!

I went to orbitersim.com forums to ask some questions, but after many hours, their failure to deliver on a promise of an email reminding me of my password tried my patience.

So I put my head in the sand and tried to run orbiter without that file. Maybe that is the whole problem right there. What do you think?


I tried several times to run orbiter and the first time or two there was a message about paging memory size problems. Then I brought the RAM up from 128 to 512 and since then I don't see that virtual memory error, yet it still hangs and fails and "apologizes" for the inconvenience. I could not make any sense of the things it wanted to send in an error report and didn't write them down. (That computer is has no internet connection anyway).

I have only a few Add-Ons in the set-up that I copied from one computer to the other. Mostly sound and scenario editor and the delta glider IV. I was not using a DGIV scenario when it crashed, just Atlantis STS 101 and ISS in orbit around Earth.

I have not thought a lot about this problem yet as I have been doing other things. Maybe a link to a "bare-bones" 2006 version of orbiter would get me into orbit.

It is not too big a deal to solve this right now, because I am giving that XP machine to a friend in a few days. HOWEVER, I will be getting a 1.5GHz PIV (with only 282DDR RAM at first but eventually 2Gigs RAM and 512 Video RAM) and THAT is the computer I expect to be eventually using full time. Maybe that XP computer will have the same problem as this one.

I'm hoping for suggestions. If you think I need to start fresh - please, can you give me links to where the bare-bones install files can be found I could start fresh with those. It's been a few years since I poked around these orbiter web sites and there seem to be so many of them now.

THANKS!

 

[tl8]

Your best bet will be to use the FAQ under the links tab at the top.
It has the current version and recommended addons

 

[simonpro]

There had been a problem when I was copying all the folders over to that computer. The Texture Earth_tile_Imask.tex file - gave a "Cyclic Redundancy Error" and it didn't copy over. I tried several times and it just wouldn't go. I guess that means something like that file references another file that references this file - or something like that??? I don't know that much about computers. Maybe you can tell me what it means!

It means that there's a problem with that file, it has become corrupted. Your best bet to fix that is to download orbiter (or the textures, but ideally both just to make sure) again.

 

[liber]

I think that best option would be to download new Orbiter...here you could find all version.

http://www.orbithangar.com/orbiter.php

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

Thank you both!

My thanks to all three of you.
Thank you for replying so quickly!

I found the links for the downloads
in the FAQs as suggested.

I will check out the link in that last reply too!

Right now I am downloading the base package 5/29/06.

I have discovered I still have zipped
versions of all the 5/04/06 version of the hi-res planets on my old hard drive, so I won't have to download those again.

I will set up just the base package without even the patch/upgrade first and see if that runs.

Then I will duplicate that set up and add the patch to one version and test again.

If that works then I will add SOME Hi-res (mostly Earth, Moon, Jupiter, Io, Europa... my favorite places.....) to the pathced version and test again.

Then add sound.... scenario editor.... eventually DGIV again.... I think, if I recall correctly, these last things can be added and just removed again if they cause problems.

By the time I get that much done the computer I am actually going to use should be ready for me to pick up.
But I will have the base package in one folder
and however much further I got set up in another folder. I can try those when I get the computer that will become my primary machine.

-------- aside -----

I was just looking through the lists of tutorials and I see that a lot of people have done a LOT of hard work putting those things together. I remember from a few years ago that some of those were very good. I could see that these were good enough even for people who had no formal training in orbital mechanics.

 

[simonpro]

I'd recommend downloading the high res textures again too, as that's where the CRC error could have come from.
When in doubt, download it all again and try with that

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

I'd recommend downloading the high res textures again too, as that's where the CRC error could have come from.
When in doubt, download it all again and try with that

So far I have run the 060929 base package successfully.
Next I will add the patch to that and test it.

You have got me wondering about the hi-res package. I still have a zipped version downloaded some time ago. It seems like it worked okay here on my old computer....
but with computers it is not save to make assumptions.

I have to go somewhere soon anyway, so I may as get the download started and let it come while I am gone, just to be safe.

Thanks!

 

[DaveS]

So far I have run the 060929 base package successfully.
Next I will add the patch to that and test it.

No need to add the patch, as 060929 is the patched version!

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

No need to add the patch, as 060929 is the patched version!

OH! I am glad you told me that. That was not clear to me from the way the download things are written up.

Good. Then I can move ahead to start testing with sound and then DGIV.

 

[n122vu]

I would also recommend trying the LandSAT team's L10 Earth textures, as opposed to the default ones. I think they give a more realistic feel. You can find them here:
http://www.setheden.com/LandSat/Maps/MapsIndex.htm

Regards,
n122vu

 

[Priscilla_Anne]

Good Idea!

I would also recommend trying the LandSAT team's L10 Earth textures, as opposed to the default ones. I think they give a more realistic feel. You can find them here:
http://www.setheden.com/LandSat/Maps/MapsIndex.htm

Regards,
n122vu

I am definitely going to do that and am looking forward to it. Thank you for that link. I will keep track of it.

Just this afternoon, I got the XP 1.5GHz PIV that is going to gradually or quicker, replace for this old Pentium III 450. Right now the XP only has 383Mb DDR RAM So I have some research and shopping to do to bring it to 2Gigs. That's the maximum this motherboard can handle.

And I have to move the fresh basic orbiter package and the zipped files onto this newer XP and start testing it there. The other XP I was using - an even older machine - is going to a friend. It is too limited in it's capabilities to be of real use to me.