I love it. But like others I have the occasional Fatal Error/CTD. I have not had a BSOD like CoolP mentioned. YET! I'm very much looking forward to the next patch when it should be fixed.

I have found that if I take my time filling everything in, I don't have a Fatal Error/CTD. BUT, if I start clicking the buttons too fast, I'm guaranteed to get a Fatal Error/CTD.

Cthulhus wrote on Jul 4^th, 2012 at 7:05am:
I think it could be because the PDCS is not linked to the EPR bugs. In other words, the PDCS does not move the bugs to the EPR setting that it recommends.

Thanks for your input, guys. It's good to see that the problem gets confirmed. Got some ideas on a lead? I'm puzzled and I think Mark's expression is the closest we saw yet.

Xavier, if I've read the docs the right way, you have a point on the EPR bugs. They should get driven by the PDCS when pressing ENGAGE. Now that's a confirmed bug or missing feature. The key just doesn't do anything. It should get lit to show that you can now set the EPR bugs. When pressed, the bugs should move.

The other stuff, the PDCS not preventing the engines from going higher, is by design. I think Lou would have some ideas here, but it's not linked to any overspeed protection. Instead, the pilot flying would set the initial thrust values when starting the takeoff and then grab the yoke with both hands, while the pilot not flying would fine tune the throttles to meat the pre-set EPR bugs. In the case of an emergency, the pilot flying would grab the throttles again and either retard them or go full power for, I don't know, clearing an obstacle or meeting some climb gradient in the SID.

The PDCS itself isn't linked to the position of the throttles and can't command them. Later autothrottle installations received their values though. I wonder if the old engines (non FADEC) actually had some overspeed protection. I could think of simple rpm limits, which would mean that high OAT plus full throttle will cause some damage or at least the need for an inspection.

On setting the EPR bugs, you can push them in for PDCS controlled values or pull the knobs out to be in the 'M' mode, for the manual setup. Normally, this may only be necessary for special cases like operating hot&high. So if the crew is hot and the pilots are high. 

With the current 737 build, we are always in 'M'. I also think that we are missing the flight mode annunciator for the active PDCS modes. Should be some 4 lights on the Captain's and FO's side, stating about the currently active thrust mode like CON, HOLD, DES, GA. The PDCS should also drive the speed bugs for the v-speeds.

Regardless of my long texts, the PDCS CTD issue remains to be puzzling.   Maybe only few folks actually use it?

Don't worry, we'll stay on it.  I think that most people could live with missing features or even faulty data on some occasions, but ending a flight due to a CTD is  .

Thanks for your kind words, Marvic.

May I ask about the rough circumstances of the PDCS problems at your end? E.g. what mode did you use or which button or situation lead to a problem? Any data is good data. 

marvic wrote on Jul 5^th, 2012 at 4:00am:
Glad that my suggestion of clicking the buttons a bit slower has helped. Since I started doing it that way, I only had one CTD, but I think that was because I accidentally did a rapid double click on a button.

All this talk of the PDCS made me do a flight and use it (the PDCS) for the first time in about two months. Lately, I have been a bit busy with the 777 and another new aircraft, so I haven't done many flights with the 737 in that time. The PDCS worked fine and I didn't get a CTD.

On the CRZ page (ECON) it recommended EPR of 1.72 for a speed of M.72. I flew at FL320, EPR of 1.63 and a speed of M.78, so it was off by a bit. However, after doing all that, I realized that I was still using the 737 original settings, so I have changed them and plan on doing the same flight again, with the modified settings.

The FL page (#3 button), gave me FL370, no matter what I did. I thought that was above the service ceiling of the 737-100/200/200ADV which I was 35,000 feet. I can't figure if this is the PDCS doing it because my Gross Weight was low or not.

I have two assumptions on the CTDs, but this is just guesswork. One thing is the gauge code of course, ending up in a situation causing the CTD. Another one is just the sound on the buttons. That rather sharp click. I could imagine it being a problem when the clicks are performed faster.

As said, just guessing. To test the sound stuff, one may load up the plane without that sound.dll being active or with the disabled click sound in Captain Sim\sounds.

You are right on the actual ways of playing sounds. I think I should have been more specific since I don't know about how the gauge 'calls' for the click sounds. The sound stuff on the plane is handled by the sound.dll running alongside FSX and my assumption was pointing at the interaction of that dll with the system.

For example, I saw some sound related problems with another dev's B-17 and certain sound hardware. Every time the initial click was 'called', some PCs received a BSOD or just some CTD. It wasn't the actual wave file being called, but the ways of the calling.

Sounds weird  , I know, but you can call for sounds in FSX in different ways and since I saw that CS chose the dll to interact with things, I was assuming some more complex processes being involved. Hence my point on the click and perhaps some background buffer causing a CTD when being full (too fast clicks).

So my suggestion was to try some FSX runs without the sound.dll of the CS737 (one has to edit the dll.xml for this, to avoid it being loaded) and still 'hammer' that gauge with fast clicks. Here's the entry to look for.

	<Launch.Addon>
		<Name>Captain Sim 737 Sound</Name>
		<Disabled>False</Disabled>
		<Path>Captain_Sim\737\cs.sound.dll</Path>
	</Launch.Addon>