There are many causes of crashes, and instead of a user reporting they had a crash it is more useful to include the report that you get in the Event Viewer. A sim crash always writes an entry to the Application log, as any other program would. I believe the ones we would be interested in have an Event Id of “1000”
CTDs are very frustrating I know but there is no way that 40% of MSFS users are getting them regularly. If you did a random sample of 1000 users you might find that 2-3% have a problem with CTDs. That is still a large number of users and that is why Asobo is working hard to eliminate bugs which cause them.
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That’s probably still a bit high, but at least you’re in the proper ballpark. I can’t tell you how many times on this very forum I’ve seen the phrases “most users”, or “almost all of us”, and now “40%” that imply this is some widespread problem when the reality is that it is a small minority of users, and most of them need to look in the mirror first, before pointing fingers elsewhere.
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I play another server-based sim. And yes, it crashes too, and oops, 95% of the errors are on the server side, not on the own system.
That’s why I have to smile again and again when the tip is given here to reinstall the game or worse.
I wonder what percentage of that 40% that have CTDs know anything about computers or have the skillset to accurately identify and troubleshoot technical issues. Not blaming the users, just pointing out that it’s not a simple plug-n-play issue. Lots of variables on the user’s end to consider, and if they don’t even understand what they have, then how can they hope to identify problems (pre-existing or not)?
And I wonder how many of that 40% just assume their computers should be able to run MSFS on Ultra and blame the game if it doesn’t run smooth regardless of their computer or internet setup…
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Nearly 100% of all X-Box Users, maybe?
Was that poll for Xbox users?
even for xbox
There are lots of different permutations of flight, even without add-ons. When you have tried every single geographical area in every single aircraft at all times of the day and night, in all weather conditions, using all the instruments in all the different modes, come back and ask me the same question.
Have you flown into KADW, for example?
Bit off topic – but maybe not .
My Cable Modem has been re-booting regularly for the past 6 months.
Last week, it shut down and would not re-start. Bad Cable Modem ?
Easy fix - swap it out with a new one – but then loose all the Recordings on it’s DVR.
A little investigation :- it was the Brick Power Supply – A replacement power supply, and it Booted immediately, and has not reset since !!!
So it was not a bad Modem, it was not the cable Company messing about – It was the POWER SUPPLY “Drying out” (Capacitors !!)
I wonder how many MSFS & PC issues being reported here, are really just due to old, Budget, “Dried out” Power Supplies, or people upgrading their Video Board that requires more AMPS than the Power Supply can deliver “Reliably”.
ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS !!! The weakest component is most modern Electronics systems
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More off topic, I had my pool chlorine generator fail 2 years ago. It would try to start the turbo cell (converting salt to chlorine) and immediately shut off again. I got my pool supplier to come by to figure out what was wrong, he got the manufacturer on the phone and the consensus was, replace the system ($800 for the control box).
So I opened the thing up (there was definitely a burnt electronics smell when it stopped working) to figure out what was wrong. One thing looked like it had seen better days, google to the rescue. Find the manuals, check the diagnostics, and what common problems can explain the faulty readings. It turns out the thermistor had burned out. (Inrush Current Limiter)
I had never heard of such a thing, but it’s a key component to control the flow of current, getting more resistant as it heats up. Thus it heats and cools all the time with the unit turning on and off. It’s a $1 item. I ordered one from digi key, add $1.24 shipping, and fixed the unit with a soldering iron for under 3 bucks. It has worked all year without a hitch.
The art of repairing things has died, this replacement culture nowadays is sickening tbh. I actually got two in case it fails again. But indeed, faulty power units can cause a lot of random problems.
Unfortunately the 3AM reboot is from my cable company. A message comes up with a countdown, you can postpone the reboot for 30 minutes at a time, but it shall reboot…
And true, one time my fps suddenly went down the drain while flying. I’m trying to find the problem, changing settings, restarting the game. Until I finally realize my laptop is not getting power. The dog stepped on the power bar off button lol. Easiest fix ever 
And why they always ask you first, is it plugged in 
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This is true to some extend but there is a flaw in your arguement. IF I havent met those conditions yet on my computer then it still suggest, according to you, that the bug is in the program. So all I have to do is reproduce thos same conditions. With the thousands of users it should then be possible to reproduce the condition. As far as I can see, this doesnt apply.
There dont seem to be ANY posts that I have seen that actually lay out a way to cast iron reproduce the condition that causes the CTD. ALWAYS in a vanilla setup of course, because that would also have to be a pre requisite to reproduce a bug in the program. We had one some time ago. Remember that airport everybody hit the same problem FPS down to almost nothing?
We could all reproduce that. Thats a bug in the program. It is totally useless for someone to say, ‘when I add this or that add-on the Sim crashes’. THAT isnt a program bug.
Random CTDs are virtually always due to issues caused by additions or changes at the user end that cause the setup no longer to be in compliance with the program.
IT tends to be a local issue. However investigating what specifically causes this CTD and removing the offending add on or setting is indeed the most productive way to proceed.
That’s because (for the matter of this topic) everyone usually confuses a crash (a symptom of bugs) with “the bug” and think “if you have a crash and I have a crash we have the same bug”. So “40% of the users experience crashes” means as much as “40% of the users had some kind of disease”.
Well, discussing this would be endless and changing the topic. “More often than not” - OK but “virtually always” - that statement may be somewhat applicable to some rare apps that have a proven solidness and history of keeping track of and fixing internal issues quickly, but FS2020 is not exactly that.
Compliance with the program is one thing, compliance of the app with users aka robustness it is another thing and if an app pretty much relies on 3rd-party stuff/plug-ins to be useful, it better has a lot of exceptions, special case treatment for specific add-ons, allows for varying interpretations of the SDKs etc. and the makers of host software and add-ons are usually very interested to make that all run together. But it seems that’s currently not the top item in the agenda of FS, things seem to be rushed pretty much and it’s more like “if it compiles it ships” than “let’s check what it breaks”, so any confidence that either the user must be doing something wrong or the add-on must be defective might be a bit premature.
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More like, if it’s announced ship date, it ships – there will be opportunities to fix it later.
I think it has more to do with where you fly than the difference in specific hardware.
Maybe flying in a different location? I know for me I would always CTD when I flew low over Melbourne.
Just got an weird CTD as never before.
Sitting at LGAV with a320nx, during cockpit initialisation turned the copilot monitors to brighter as at this moment everything started to flash a few times, sim froze and CTD.
Application error, no video card error.
Weird. That’s new.
I will and will report back. What am I supposed to see? A crash or something else?
Update:
Believe it or not, my local ISP went down right as I was starting the flight! When it came back I restarted the flight.
I didn’t even get to the field. Crash to desktop with no indications. Event viewer says event 1000 as has been reported here.
If that’s a hard bug, it should’ve been fixed already. Did anyone report this through proper channels or just complain about it here?
I’ve read that there’s a known scenery bug. It occurs to me that this one bug could account for many CTDs.
When is Asobo create a dump (error) file so we can check what cause the CTD???
This should have been implemented long ago!!
Never had any CTD for a long time, but today 2 both in different place.
I was on vatsim if this can be why!!
That is not the impression I get when I see the team and how they respons to issues.