OnCourse Software

When I click Select a Flight Plan nothing happens. No dialogue box opens and PF3 becomes unresponsive (or at least, if I click another PF3 button, I just get the Windows Asterisk sound). I have minimized all other windows and there is no dialogue box hiding anywhere (unless its behind the main PF3 window that I can't click on). I've tried leaving it for several minutes but no change - eventually I use Task Manager to End Task and PF3 momentarilty displays "Are you sure you want to quit the program?" before the force close completes.

This is a relatively new installation (about 1 month). The error first started to occur before the update to v3.20.0 and its still going on after the update. I've tried to reinstall from my original download but no improvement.

I don't believe its an AV problem. I have tried another resinstallation of PF3 today with Bitdefender disabled but still no joy. (As an aside, I had (false) virus alerts from Bitdefender when I first installed but I got around that with Exceptions and PF3 worked fine for a few weeks.)

I am using MSFS 2020 but of course I don't get that far without a flight plan.

I am running PF3 with Admin Rights.

The other PF3 buttons e.g. Options, Check for Updates etc all work fine until I click Select a Flight Plan.

Most of my attached log files predate this problem except DebugRebuild.log, PF3-Updater.log, startup.log and pf3_validate.log which are all dated today. pf3_validate.log from today says "File Validation Successfull - PF3 Installation is COMPLETE !!"

I tried Windows Event viewer - I'm not very familiar with the Event Viewer but the only PF3 log I can find, gets written when I use Task Manager to quit PF3, see below:

Fault bucket 1837502642201134687, type 5
Event Name: AppHangB1
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: PF3.exe
P2: 3.20.0.0
P3: 6439112e
P4: cc14
P5: 67247104
P6:
P7:
P8:
P9:
P10:

Any ideas?

Mmmmmmh... never heard of this one before. Try going into Options #2 and then Advanced Options and selecting 'Don't use skins'. See if that helps and please report back

Hi Dave, no that made no difference (other than the skin changed).

I uninstalled PF3, did a registry deep clean with a PC maintenance tool and re-installed from a re-download of v3.16.0 with my AV deactivated again. However, I cannot reactivate the PF3 - apparently I have exceeded the number of times I can activate PF3. I have only ever installed it to this PC but have probably done that 3 or 4 times due to early problems with AV software interfering with the initial install and/or automatic updates when it is easy to forget to deactivate the AV software.

Please would you allow me to reactivate so I can check whether this has resolved the Select Flight Plan hang problem.

Thanks
Chris

MaxStout wrote: *

Tue Apr 25, 2023 10:56 am

I uninstalled PF3, did a registry deep clean with a PC maintenance tool and re-installed from a re-download of v3.16.0 with my AV deactivated again. However, I cannot reactivate the PF3 - apparently I have exceeded the number of times I can activate PF3. I have only ever installed it to this PC but have probably done that 3 or 4 times due to early problems with AV software interfering with the initial install and/or automatic updates when it is easy to forget to deactivate the AV software.

Please would you allow me to reactivate so I can check whether this has resolved the Select Flight Plan hang problem.

Thanks
Chris

Done

Thanks for the reactivation. The 'Select a Flight Plan' problem is now resolved and I've also been able to update PF3 to v3.20 with my AV running (I had previously created some AV Exceptions for PF3).

At first I assumed something must have been corrupted that caused the 'Select a Flight Plan' to hang and that the deep clean fixed it but then I ran into problems with windows like PF3_Display, TGS_Display and RemoteText no longer visible on my MSFS flying PC. I had recently done a reallocation of monitors between my MSFS flying PC and a network client I use for some MSFS addons. I found this thread

viewtopic.php?p=22385#p22385

and used it to fix my window display problems so now I am wondering whether the 'Select a Flight Plan' dialogue box was simply trying to open off screen on a monitor that had been disconnected and the registry clean just cleared out the old duff 'Select a Flight Plan' screen positional information?

Quote:

and used it to fix my window display problems so now I am wondering whether the 'Select a Flight Plan' dialogue box was simply trying to open off screen on a monitor that had been disconnected and the registry clean just cleared out the old duff 'Select a Flight Plan' screen positional information?

Yes you're probably correct. I hadn't thought an about PF3 windows opening up in the wrong position, which can happen if you remove a monitor, etc. That's why the following was added to PF3 in version 3.20.0

Quote:

ADDED a 'Reset' feature which will reset all the currently saved PF3
window positions. So, if you used to display PF3 on a second monitor,
which has maybe died or been disconnected, you would be able to drag
PF3's main screen back onto your main monitor but any other PF3
windows you try to display would not show, due to PF3 remembering the
last position each window was displayed. This feature is initiated by rightclicking on the aircraft picture on the PF3 Main screen... then selecting
'yes' to confirm you wish to proceed. Be warned... there is no backout
from this so if you wish to try it please make a copy of your PF3.INI first.

That new feature sounds useful.

I'm still getting to grips with PF3 so please forgive this if its a dumb question but I don't understand the difference between the In-Sim AcarsX window and the Local AcarsX window, for a couple of reasons:

1. If I select In-Sim AcarsX in the Adv. Options, I can still drag it outside of the sim (I'm running in windowed mode)

2. If I select Local AcarsX instead and restart PF3, I can't see a window at all. I see a message saying ACARS ATIS requested but then in the Taskbar, the PF3 icon flashes and it appears as though another window is opening but I can't click on it. I think I have previously seen this window before I shuffled all my monitors around but that was soon after purchase and I was even less familiar with the program then. I've tried resetting my PF3 windows as per the new feature but the Local AcarsX window still won't appear and I searched the registry area in case there was another set of screen locations for AcarsX but I couldn't find anything.

I've attached two images, the ACARS ATIS request and the taskbar pop-up.

What's the differenec between In-Sim and Local AcarsX and any idea why I can't see the Local window?

Quote:

What's the differenec between In-Sim and Local AcarsX

One YOU can see and one YOU can't !!

Sorry, sorry, sorry... my bad humour... I must keep taking the pills!!

Okay, in-Sim windows were designed for FS20 and P3D and allows you to have a popup window even when using full screen mode... in FS9/FSX this was achieved using the FS kneeboard. The Local AcarsX cannot be show in FS fullscreen mode and is a just another PF3 window... in fact it uses a browser to display the info

I wish I could just say "I see " but I can't.

I understand from your message that Local AcarsX cannot be shown in FS fullscreen mode but I am confused as to how it can be seen. I can only see the AcarsX window when I select InSim.

In Windowed mode, with 3 monitors, MSFS just on the main one:

In-Sim AcarsX - I get the following:

• Message Window 1 (attached) - the In-Sim PF3 Captions Window
  Message Window 2
  Message Window 3 when I click Key 2

Problem / Misunderstanding 1
Local AcarsX - I get the following:

• Message Window 1
  Message Window 4 - this gets stuck (and I'm definitely in Windowed Mode, please see MSFS top bar in image)
  Screenshot 5 - Flashing taskbar icon and blank window
  Screenshot 6 - Blank window "visible" in when i click Alt-Tab but not selectable

Question 1 - Should I be able to see Local AcarsX in Windowed Mode?

In Fullscreen mode with the same monitor config, I get the same behaviour - InSim AcarsX works fine but Local AcarsX does not. I understand from your message that I should not expect to see Local AcarsX in the sim but I assume I should be able to see it as another PF3 window on a 2nd monitor.

Question 2 - Is that correct and if so, any idea why I can't see it?

For what its worth, I can drag any of the attached PF3 windows to any monitor irrespective of whether I am Full Screen or Windowed so I know one solution is to run FullScreen (my prefered setting) with In-Sim AcarsX and drag the windows to a second monitor but I think the inability to display the flashing Local AcarsX window is also linked to Problem 2 below.

Problem 2
"Use PF3 Hotkeys Window" - when I do Ctrl+Shift+T, I get a similar flashing taskbar icon and inaccessible window. I've tried toggling Use PF3 Hotkeys Window off and back on in Options but cannot display the Hotkeys Window in either Fullscreen or Windowed Mode. I hear the Windows Asterisk, I assume because I have Hotkey Beep set to ON, but I get no pop-up. I have tried changing hotkey assignment in case there is a conflict but no difference.

Question 3 - why can't I access these mystery windows?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks and kind regards
Chris