rec.autos.simulators

The sim has never crashed once a track loads.  It always either freezes or
dumps me back to the desktop at the track loading screen, or gives me an
error message when I start the sim and won't load at all.  Any ideas, or am
I by myself on this one?

Jerry Morelock

Search for a prog called killhelp, run it before starting the game.
I have the same problem after running F1RC a 2nd time since a reboot.
Running killhelp solves the problem.

Cheers,
Rod.

THX, I'll try it.

Yep, the prob must be similar because I can't start close and restart F1RC
without rebooting at all, even after going the CTL-ALT-DEL route to shut
everything unnecessary down.

Jerry Morelock

Well, I couldn't find killhelp, but it doesn't matter unless it does
something that enditall or just killing unnecessary stuff the old-fashioned
CTL-ALT-DEL way doesn't.  Nothing I do or don't do lets me run F1RC twice in
a session without rebooting.  Not only that, but simply running F1RC at all
creates a condition on my machine that causes problems unless I reboot
immediately after leaving it--can't have that.

I've uninstalled it and will leave it uninstalled pending a patch that
solves the problem, or unless someone comes up with a solution.  Can't
return it since I'm in the US and ordered it.  Oh, well.

Thanks for the help, anyway.

Jerry Morelock

If that's your real address above, I've sent you a copy.

Killhelp I believe kills ddhelp.exe which seems to remain resident
after exiting F1RC. It's completely different to endall or killing
things in ctrl-alt-del. ddhelp.exe process won't be altered by
either means. I don't think it's DirectX specific, but it works
with DX8.

I use it before I run any d3d game out of habit now, it's amazing
seeing how often this process is still running after exiting a game
cleanly. Solved my F1RC re-entering problem as well as excessive
stuttering in other games after loading a few and exiting. Obviously
doesn't beat a reboot but has saved me from making a few reboots.

Cheers,
Rod.

THX for the file, Rod.

Jerry Morelock

Real address, and I've already tried the prog.  Again THX.  Using it
eliminates the loading error I would sometimes get when starting F1RC a
second time, and evidently stops the system freeze I would sometimes get at
the track loading screen.  Unfortunately, tracks still will not load if I'm
rerunning F1RC.  Oh, and after using killhelp I *can* restart F1RC again if
I delete the Save folder--couldn't even always do that before.  I've tried
just eliminating the vid config but it seems that unless I wipe the entire
folder, it's nogo.  Very curious happenings going on that I don't think I've
seen before, and I've seen a lot.

Again, thanks for the help.  Maybe I can use F1RC for hotlapping and
individual races, but under the circumstances doing much else would be a
real pain in the posterior and not worth the effort.

Jerry Morelock

I don't think you're the only one experiencing this. All we can hope
for is that it's addressed in a patch and it is reproducable at Ubi.
Killhelp solved exactly the problem you're experiencing for me when,
on the odd occassion, I wouldn't be dumped back on the desktop from
rerunning F1RC and attempting to load a track.

Cheers,
Rod.