My OS firewall is disabled. My anti-virus/malware software was shutdown. My router's firewall has been set to pass-thru for my FSX computer. Any attempt to DE-ACTIVATE still produces the eSellerate Fatal FAILURE message.
I'll check this with Esellerate, perhaps they had a server down. But it won't make ANY difference in your case. Activation status doesn't have anything to do with buildings that disappear. If a scenery is not active or there's anything wrong with the activation, it will NOT disappear, it will run in TRIAL mode, which means everything will work normally, but buildings will disappear after 5-6 minutes. Restarting FSX will start another 5-6 minutes cycle, and so on, with no expiry.
When I start FSX, I get a window telling me there is a more recent Add-On Manager that I can update to, I select the option and brings up a screen that tells me what URL to navigate to so I can get the latest Add-On Manager. I did this and it indicates version 2.9.0.7 (setup_addonmanagerX.exe) ... this installs the bglmanx.dll which is listed as version 2.9.0.6 (this is what runs in FSX).
As I've said, it's not a problem. The installer version is not NECESSARILY the same as the .DLL. The .DLL IS the latest version, regardless what you see in the installer.
So it appears the version numbers of bglmanx.dll were NOT updated with the same version number as the installer (2.9.0.7) and whatever "checking" process bglmanx.dll performs appears to use it's DLL version number 2.9.0.6 and compares that with the setup_addonmanagerX.exe version number which is 2.9.0.7.
You seem to be fast drawing conclusions, but you can't possibly know how the "checking" process is done so, it would be best if you simply trusted what is being explained here.
As I've said, the installer version is not relevant at all. Nothing checks for it.
As a result bglmanx.dll is always finding a NEW version that really isn't a new version and prompting me to update when in FSX. This IS the problem I'm talking about. So clearly there is some versioning problem or else I would NOT be getting prompt to update every time I start a flight in FSX.
No. First, there's NO PROBLEM at all. There's no "versioning problem" too. The .DLL you are getting IS CORRECT. You are mislead thinking that was some kind of problem, but there isn't, because you are asked to update the Addon Manager, but this doesn't have anything to do with a versioning problem.
The real issue is, last week we had the site down and the forum down so, we had to move the fsdreamteam.com domain over a backup server and THIS creates an issue with the self-update system, which thinks you need an update when you don't, because the update system doesn't care AT ALL at the .DLL embedded version! How could it possibly know what version is on the server without downloading it first ? That would defeat the purpose of a check in the first place...
Instead, there's an entirely different system which calculates a checksum using web server metadata but, if we move to another web server, the metadata will not match, so the result is that you will be prompted to update even if there wasn't any real need to.
We are now running on the normal server again so, it's possible you were mislead thinking there was some kind of "versioning problem", when there wasn't any, just because of the move to the backup server and the move back to the regular server that happened this week.
But, again, it won't matter AT ALL with your issue because, obviously, both the backup server and the main server holds EXACTLY the same version of the Addon Manager .DLL so, you would get EXACTLY the same file. No chance you ever got a "wrong" file.
Now I realize that the installer (setup_addonmanagerX.exe) doesn't necessarily have to be the same version of the bglmanx.dll, but it would be an incredible coincidence that one is 2.9.0.7 while the other is 2.9.0.6 
Couldn't you simply accept this explanation ? I understand that it might have been confusing, but AFTER I've explained it, just take it for granted, because this is how it is. It would be dumb to force everybody to download an updated .DLL JUST with an higher version number, at least, we'll try to make them being equal, but when there's a REASON to change the bglmanx.dll file.
A problem that still exists now, except this time I just "ignore" - option 3 in the menu.
Ignoring an update will probably fix things now, because you won't be notified until the NEXT update so, you should be now synchronized with the change of the web server which caused the bogus notification in the first place.
I'm sorry, but unfortunately this system, although is VERY reliable and will not force you to download anything more than necessary, IS getting confused when the server is down and we need to move over the backup server, which is something very uncommon, but normally it works.
Note that, I'm simplifying things: it's not that we rely just on ONE server, the normal self-update system ALREADY works in two mirrors, but the self-update issue happens only when the site the forum is on ever goes down, which never happened so far.
I have "Microsoft ESP SimConnect Client v1.0.20.0" installed. Has not changed in some time.
Never had this happen before so I exit FSX, restart FSX, select KLAX and go fly and I see FSDT KLAX in all it's glory.
You fly FSX, but you have the Prepar3D Simconnect client installed ? First, you shouldn't have any client installed in the first place, the only reason to install the client, is if you want to connect with your PC to a REMOTE PC running FSX (or P3D). If you only fly with FSX locally, you don't have to install any client.
But yes, I saw some suggestions about installing the client, as a last measure to "fix" Simconnect issues so I guess you already realized you HAD Simconnect issues in the past, which maybe prompted to you installing the client.
In any case, I'm not sure what might happen when running FSX and installing the P3D Simconnect client, they are a bit different, and P3D use a different kind of linking for its .DLLs (static linking compared to dynamic linking in FSX) so this could possibly create problems, depending on what other Simconnect runtimes and VC++ runtimes you have installed in your system.
If you fly locally, the best Simconnect fixing method is to REMOVE the Simconnect folders and REPAIR the FSX SP2 install.
If you need to connect to a remote PC running FSX, it's best to install the FSX Simconnect client, unless you are flying P3D and want to connect to a P3D PC over the network.
