I guess this may have been posted before but this problem still annoys me.
Sometimes when flying a four engined plane a situation occurs when only one throttle lever (usually no 1) remains activated by the throttle on my joystick and despite all attempts at the E+1+2+3+4 trick, I can't get the other three to respond. This seems to happen mainly due to some misinterpretation of a spoken command to my Game Commander voice recognition software and the only fix seems to be to reload the aircraft.
The strange thing is that for some aircraft the E+1+2+3+4 (or my Game Commander equivalent command) does work. I last encountered this problem with the latest UKMIL Nimrod as I wondered why my planned descent wasn't happening !!
If its FS9 you are having trouble with, there are a couple of freeware 'fixes' out there. I can recommend EngineDoorFix.zip
"Does one of these problems sound familar ??
1. In my multi-engine aircraft, I suddenly find that my throttle controller
only works for Engine-1, and I cannot correct this by typing (default
keys) the keysequence E 1 2 (3 4).
2. In my aircraft that has an Exit-2, I cannot open/close Exit-2 by typing
(default keys) the keysequence Shift-E 2 (instead Exit-1 opens/closes).
If so, adding this invisible gauge to your panel should solve these problems."
Its by Rob Barendregt.
My copy came from Avsim - along time ago, so don't know if its still there, but it might be at the other main sites.