Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by Nick - A2A »

Jim,

One other thing you could try is deleting (or temporarily moving) your modified default flight and reverting back to the original FSX default. I know it's not very helpful to start in the air in the Trike, but if you can revert FSX back to this startup flight and then reposition the Trike on the ground before loading the Bonanza, it should help us rule out any corrupted entries in the *.FLT file.

You can do this be moving all files out of the"Documents\Flight Simulator X Files" folder and into another temporary directory.

So far we seem to have two customers reporting this issue (with different sim platforms too) so it's also a case of trying to work out what the common link may be.

Thanks,
Nick

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25J - Jim
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by 25J - Jim »

Scott/Nick,

Status Report - Situation is a little better than before but still present. Also, had no FSX Fatal Error screen messages.

Setup a new FSX default flight based on Nick's suggestion. Default flight is now the Trike at KCMI in a C&D state. This location is all default and has no extra scenery added to muddy the waters. Also, flights load in really fast. No AI planes in the immediate area too. Shut down FSX after setting up the new default flight and installed update 18.9.30.0.

Ran 10 flights with no preflights as follows:
Started FSX - Trike brought up at KCMI C&D.
Changed Trike to Bonanza.
Started up Bonanza - i.e. battey on,check fuel gauges, set fuel lever to left, set mixture and throttle ... the usually stuff for engine startup and flight.
Taxied and took off on RW 22, circled around, landed on RW22, and did a complete shut down in the middle of the RW.
Ended the flight.
Exited FSX.

Repeated the above until 10 no preflight flights were completed. On the last no preflight landing the shut down also included yoke lock, chocks, tie downs, pitot cover, and empty plane. A complete C&D aircraft.

Ran 10 flights with a preflight conducted prior to each engine startup. The same process above was used.

Results:
No Preflight Conducted: No engine startup problems. 10 sucesses and 0 failures.

Preflight Conducted: 8 sucesses and 2 failures. Startup #6 and #9 failed during cranking. Aux pump would not operate afterwards. All breakers Ok. Hangar indicated a fuel leak. Once again the fuel leak could not be cleared. The red text would disappear but reappear 2 to 3 seconds later. For each failure ended flight and then hit the Fly Now button in the preview window. No preflight just tried to start the engine. Both times they started normally. Did a complete shut down and put the plane in the C&D state. Continued with the next test (either #7 or #10).

It should be noted that during this test cycle the Hangar, Map, Clipboard, and Payload popups were not accessed. Nothing was done to interrupt the preflight process by doing something else. Test #6 and #9 were both an exception for the Hangar popup due to the failures.

The probability of occurrence is lower but fuel leak failures are still a problem. Perhaps the reinstall, new Accusim DLL, or new default startup flight helped some. It's not fixed but better than before at the moment.

A fuel leak problem is apparently not a stored state for the aircraft as End Flight and Fly Now correct the problem. Is there a magic programmers button that can emulate this function without leaving the sim? Boy, would that be handy here!

Jim

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by Nick - A2A »

Jim,

Thanks for the detailed report.

We'll keep you posted as to whether we manage to reproduce this our end, but just out of interest, is it the boxed version of FSX you're using or the Steam edition?

And is it literally only add-on scenery that you have installed alongside the Bonanza? No other software such as FSUIPC or utilities that affect how the sim is launched? How about any other general Windows utilities such as Process Lasso or similar?

Thanks,
Nick

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25J - Jim
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by 25J - Jim »

Nick,

Thanks for sticking with this. That was an interesting test and gave me a lot of opportunity to fine tune my landings. Had a couple of landings so smooth I didn't realize the plane was on the ground. After all the tests were complete I checked the Hangar. The mechanic said "Like new".

I am using the FSX boxed version with SP1 and SP2. In the Add-ons menu window within FSX indicate FSUIPC (free version), Accufeel Setup, and Instant Scenery are installed. I also have FS Recorder installed. Plan-G and REX are available but neither has been used with the Bonanza yet.

FSX is installed on a computer only used for FSX. It doesn't have a lot of software installed on it; mainly utilities like GIMP, CoffeeCup, Fraps, Hex Editor, Word Pad, ModelConverterX, airEd, to name a few. Nothing like MS Office is installed on it. I do run Core Temp when FSX is active to watch CPU heat and core loads. I have the CH Yoke and throttles along with ProPedals. All three items are mapped via the FSX controls window.

Windows 7 does have a lot of processes running when FSX is active but I have never had anything surface from them other than the Windows 7 update slowing things down. This process I make sure is off before I run FSX. My Anti Virus software is Norton but it has been set up to be off during FSX sessions and all folders that FSX use are excluded from it. FSX is also set to run as administrator. FSX and all scenery are installed on the F Drive. FSX has been stable for years (knock on wood) and runs your other planes (172, 182, Cherokee, Comanche, and J3) just fine.

Here's a thought: Would a fresh install without running the update until the basic application has had a chance to run at least once be worthwhile? I seem to recall some programs need to "get into their environment first" before being updated. Is this one of those type programs? Each time the software was installed (first time after purchase and then doing the uninstall/reinstall last weekend) it said an update was available so it was immediately installed. I suspect this isn't an issue for your software but thought I would ask.

Haven't had a chance to run FSX today but still hoping for a solution.

Jim

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Scott - A2A
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by Scott - A2A »

Jim,

Great testing btw.

Are there any points where you reboot FSX and not just reload the airplane? I ask because after 10 or so airplane reloads, FSX / P3D will require a restart. IOW, if you are finding this only happens after many reloads, it's possible we are just hitting that freeze issue from many airplane reloads without a sim restart?

Scott.
A2A Simulations Inc.

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by Nick - A2A »

Hi Jim,

Thanks again for the detailed reply. I don't think a fresh install without running the update would help if I'm honest. The update will simply replace installed files and make some registry changes to reflect the updated version number.

However, could you try with FSUIPC disabled and see if it's still possible to reproduce the issue? The easiest way to do this is probably just to move the FSUIPC4.dll into a different folder temporarily.

It may also be worth making sure that your copy of FSUIPC is fully updated. Just to clarify I use FSUIPC5 in P3Dv4 without problems, but because FSUIPC is a powerful piece of software which is always active within the sim, it's generally a good idea to try without it when trouble-shooting odd occurrences.

Thanks,
Nick

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25J - Jim
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by 25J - Jim »

Scott,

Each test was run with a fresh FSX start. First step: Started FSX = Launched FSX application ; Last step: Exited FSX = Closed FSX application. Basically, 20 reboots were conducted. I only reloaded the plane when I got the fuel leak problem so I could do a complete shut down of the aircraft. This way I could keep each startup attempt identical. Otherwise the ignition, battery, beacon, and aux fuel pump would be left on. Also, the fuel tank selection lever would not be off (closed).

I am aware that A2A planes are sensitive. If one moves an A2A plane from one airport to another after loading it into FSX there is a high risk of getting a call to a nil value error. Additionally, if one loads an A2A plane more than twice there is a high risk of getting the scrolling green line across the screen that indicates Simconnect failed and is restarting error. So, my standard practice has been to restart (reboot) FSX if I change planes (any plane).

Before I reinstalled the Bonanza last weekend I was getting roughly 4 fuel leak startup failures out of 5 startup attempts. After the reinstall it looks like the failure rate dropped to roughly 1 fuel leak failure out of 5 startup attempts. This is much better and is something I will probably have to live with as I seem to be the only one experiencing this problem. Hopefully, it doesn't get worst.

Nick,

FSUIPC is current. I am not keen on disabling this software product as it provides important functions. However, if fuel leaks start happening with every startup I will do some testing without it to see if that stops the problem. Right now fuel leak failures are too random for a meaningful test with FSUIPC disabled.

BTW: Your main A2A home page still shows update 18.9.20.1 is available. That needs to be updated to reflect the current release 18.9.30.0.

Jim

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25J - Jim
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by 25J - Jim »

I see this thread is getting a lot of views. Thought I would give a follow-up on my fuel leak problem in case others were interested.

My Bonanza now has just over 26 hours on it and more than a dozen and a half preflight and startup trials. No fuel leak problems have occurred. The gremlins seem to have moved on. Knock on wood (that would be on the wood paneling in the cockpit - that's not imitation wood is it?).

Jim

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Persistent Fuel Leak Problem (FSX)

Post by Nick - A2A »

Okay, thanks for the update Jim. Good to hear that the issue appears to have resolved itself.

Best regards,
Nick

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