Cannot launch MSFS at all, CTD after Safe Mode prompt

User Support Hub Crashes (CTDs)
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1

I’ve done all of the troubleshooting steps on ZenDesk, I’ve also used MSFS since launch 3 years ago so I’m familiar enough with these aggravating moments, I don’t use Add-On’s other than the HondaJet from FlightFX, and I know how much this program likes to depend on other Microsoft services, so I’ve been cautious to keep things updated constantly… but I can’t seem to find out what has caused my sim to, as of this morning, be unable to launch. It will go full-screen, show the Asobo, Blackshark.ai and Xbox Game Studios Logos, but no matter whether I pick safe mode or normal, the Sim crashes shortly after that “Press Any Key To Start” screen, before ever displaying the slides of the latest World Update. I have exhaustively uninstalled/reinstalled the Sim 3 times to the default location today, clean reinstall of my NVIDIA drivers (I updated them on 11/14), uninstall and reinstall of Windows Gaming Services, I’ve done SFC scan, DISM validation, I refuse to reinstall Windows 11 a second time this year because of MSFS suddenly one day working, then the next day not. I use this computer for Fortnite and countless other games, but otherwise my web browsing etc I use MacBooks, so it’s not like I downloaded some foreign thing. The only change I saw in the last 24 hours was Microsoft pushing some Dev Home (Preview) update through the Microsoft Store. I don’t even know what that is, let alone whether I should have updated it, but it’s the literal only change I’ve noticed on my computer since the last time I used MSFS successfully (which was yesterday afternoon, I fly daily on this machine). I have found multiple similar entries in my Event Viewer like so:

Screenshot 2023-11-22 103124

Screenshot 2023-11-22 103206
Screenshot 2023-11-22 103206778×259 8.03 KB

What should I do next? Thanks in advance…

-Matt

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Although youve reinstalled msfs have you tried reset and repair function in the ms store app? Also completely removed community folder contents.Take it drive has free space on it. My c is small.

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I also use CCleaner to clean and remove old registry files and disc cleanup/ defrag tools

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I don’t know if you have seen this, but it contains a good amount of info:

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Have you tried logging off and back on again in Xbox? I seem to recall someone having a similar problem and Xbox was the culprit. Indeed I have had occasion to do this, although it was for a different problem.

You didn’t mention updating your Microsoft Store - Xbox can get updated there. Just a thought.

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To TheSevenflyer, I did follow that post before I ever even considered posting, I have done everything I mentioned in my OP following that post, while I was doing all of the pre-requisites. I check for updates daily before I launch MSFS, first Windows, then MS Store, then Nvidia, and do another check before I shut my computer down for the night. I’ve done that for 3 years, every time I launch MSFS, ever since I had an issue with FS not launching because Xbox Services broke. And I shut my computer down at night, so it’s a fresh boot every day when I launch MSFS. In my OP I said I only use the HondaJet, I’ve not purchased or used anything else additionally. While troubleshooting I had emptied out my Community folder, and ended up deleting the entire 302GB Flight Simulator folder off my game drive it used to sit on. I’ve tried everything that was listed in “How-to’s”, and if it helps everyone understand my depth of Flight Sim knowledge, I’ve used MSFS since FS5.0 in the early 1990’s, so I tried desperately searching and doing everything I could find posted before coming here to ask for help. I DID try Terrylawdinn’s suggestion, signed out and back into Xbox app with no help. I’ve reset the Microsoft Store. I’ve reset ■■■■■■ near everything, and I honestly think it’s more of Microsoft updating some deeply-intertwined dependency in Flight Simulator, it’s the only thing making sense. I really am growing to loathe this product’s technical design decisions. I get that a lot of devs put a lot of work into different systems that come together to make this work, but I made 0 changes MYSELF to my system or MSFS to start this sequence of events. I have auto-updates turned off, the only update that came in was that Dev Home on the Microsoft Store. I also deeply feel that 3rd party apps like CCleaner shouldn’t be necessary, especially when I just installed Windows 6-8 months ago, I don’t browse the web on this machine or use it for other programs/applications. It literally only is used to video games I can’t already run on my MacBook. Nothing but Microsoft’s own code was updated to break MSFS on my machine in the last 24 hours. It’s incredibly frustrating for me especially because this is my “de-stress” activity. And I haven’t been able to all day, I’m just getting more stressed because nothing I’ve done has helped. And the idea that I should just reinstall Windows again seems redundant because I did this before, and got the same crashes after, it was something broken in the Xbox Gaming Services last time I did a Windows 11 reinstall, so I had to wait until that was updated before my Flight Sim would work again, and I have this feeling I’m experiencing something like that again.

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It took me 2 days a couple of weeks ago to get my MSFS running again on PC because of a random gaming services fault. Very frustating.
Eventually last resort was I had to reinstall Win 10 - which solved the issue. Mine wouldnt get past Gaming Services though - it didnt CTD.

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Crucially though, had to erase previous registry keys first to get win 10 reinstall to work. The method is on this forum under gaming services error.

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Not to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it’s also possible you have some hardware failing. Most people’s natural assumption (mine used to be too) is that if all other programs work fine, it’s not hardware, but that’s not necessarily true.

Make sure nothing is overclocked as that can exaggerate problems, even if your temps are good. I have had two instances where ONE game wouldn’t work (all others were fine!) and it was a hardware issue. Some programs are just more picky than others. I’d run memtest86 on your ram. If it throws any errors at all, that could be your problem. Try downclocking it and see if it still throws them.

Beyond that, I’d work with tech support. Hardware can be difficult to troubleshoot if you don’t just have extra parts laying around - and most people don’t.

I would think support would be able to give you some kind of information from the game’s log. Most can… But I’ve never had an issue with MSFS to the point of needing to contact support before so don’t have any hard experience on that.

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Considering I’ve never enabled overclocking, never tried to, nor would I know the first thing about how-to start trying, I can promise it’s not from overclocking. I also have replaced the graphics card in the last 2 years (to an 8GB RTX 2060 Super) and earlier this year got 16GB of RAM new from Best Buy and ordered from Newegg the best possible processor for the motherboard, an i9-9900KF. If it’s the hardware, this will be my first computer to not last a decade, and will be a hint that they don’t make them reliable enough anymore, so my last PC build ever, cuz I’m on a fixed income, I can’t afford to replace anything right now, I’ve been battling homelessness for 2 years, this computer was in the back of a car for a year while I lived out of it, but has flown MANY hundreds of hours in Flight Simulator ever since… I honestly doubt it’s hardware failures because I’ve had A LOT of those in my past computers and made EXTRA efforts to pick parts from highly reliable sources for this build (which was bought by my ex for me Sept 2020 specifically for MSFS because my old PC, a Dell XPS 730X from 2009 that was having hardware failures regularly). I’m disabled, and use MSFS for immersive escape as part of my therapy for keeping my mental health in check when I’m having massive anxiety and depression (which are elevated around holidays because my family abandoned me and I have noone but my partner). It’s just Flight Sim is my go-to for relief, I’ve done this since I was 6, when my dad first got me a computer and MSFS, and 30 years later I’m still using it to escape when I’m panicking about things that are out of my control. But now, because I can’t fix it, I can’t use it, and it’s spiraling for me. This is not the experience I had with MSFS 5.0, 5.0a, 5.1, FSFW95, FS98, FS2000, FS2K2, FS2K4, FSX… why does this have to be the experience with “FS2020”?

And reaching out to support the day before a major US holiday is going to get me absolutely nothing this week. I’ve been patient with Asobo with the issues in this software for 3 years, but even I know it isn’t going to be easily resolved based on past experience: any and EVERY issue that has ever arisen while I’ve used this simulator takes forever to be resolved properly. I haven’t seen lightning in real weather for a year now. I’m still getting yelled at by ATC that I’m supposed to change altitudes all the time in the mountains when I really shouldn’t, why is that not fixed yet? I don’t want to waste my time with requesting support about this, cuz it’s going to get buried, they’ll likely push an update for Xbox Gaming Services in a day or two that will magically fix everything again, and it will have been pointless as usual because what harm does it cause Microsoft/Asobo? I feel like they don’t care about fixing things like this anymore, especially since 2024’s announcement. I’ve realized with how often even I personally have issues in the game with small things, from crashes, ATC freaking out and not allowing me to communicate at all, lost ATC voices, random “We can’t find the internet!” messages… And so many “FS has Crashed, are you overclocking?” error messages back in the Summer when the NVIDIA driver update caused issues… I feel like this product is just sub-par now. It was already struggling to get above water after release, and indeed things got better for a while, but then it all started to slip in the past year, year and a half. And for that I’m incredibly sad right now… I’ve even tried not just reinstalling, but I tried the Sim Update 14 beta, and it too crashes immediately before even arriving to the “Select where to Install” screen. Fortnite, AC Valhalla, High On Life, Civilization IV, Arkham Knight, No Man’s Sky, Subnautica, I’ve not had any issues running any of those games… and Fortnite is a monster these days for my computer to run, more than Flight Sim, I see a lot more pausing with it.

And I don’t even use fancy peripherals, I use an Xbox Elite 2 controller, with a USB cable connected cuz why risk a Bluetooth stack crash (which has happened to me before while flying and left me unable to control my plane the rest of the Sim’s runtime). I honestly don’t think I can do anything to fix why my copy won’t launch until Microsoft pushes some update somewhere to some dependency MSFS didn’t like having updated. And I’m really thinking it’s this Dev Home (Preview) app they forcibly installed on my computer through the Microsoft Store without any explanation for why I would want or need it, I’d place bets they updated a DLL dependency and when it updated last night before I shut down my computer, it broke something, because that’s the only change to my hardware and software. Everything else I do ritualistically the same every single day because of my OCD.

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I am getting the same CTD today at the World Map. Sim worked fine yesterday and was closed out properly. I am getting really sick of these server errors. We need to have a way to start and use the sim with out this online crap. Make it like FS9 so we can at least use the sim when MS servers are having errors.

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Trust me! I completely understand the frustration. Hopefully it’s not hardware. Probably it’s not hardware. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for things to try it is certainly POSSIBLE it’s hardware.

I was right where you were with World of Warships. I couldn’t believe the ram was bad since everything else worked fine. Benchmarking software said the ram was fine. But the game’s support suggested I run memtest in order to get further with their support… and it threw errors. They were fast enough to suspect the ram that they probably knew it from error codes, but anyway… There weren’t many errors, but a few. I replaced the ram and wouldn’t you know it… the game stopped crashing. It’s sucks, but it’s way it is (Sometimes, and thankfully rarely!).

The other situation was a graphics card. That was a little more obvious since I had a game artifacting. I down-clocked the ram 10 mhz and ran on that card for at least a couple more years before replacing it. That was many years ago though… I downclocked it from 300 mhz to 290 if memory serves…

I don’t overclock either. It’s just an obvious catch-all to check since it exacerbates problems sometimes.

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You can run it offline. But unless you have a lot of custom scenery, it looks pretty bad.

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After trying a bunch of things and continuing to get CTD’s at the World Map I decided to use a VPN and use a different city. Sim loaded right up and so far so good. Points to a server error yet again. OP try a VPN and see if you can load the sim.

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In a moment of “Well, I knew I was kinda right”, I should clarify the issue wound up being something fixed by Windows Update itself when I checked a few minutes ago (have been checking hourly), Security Intelligence Update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus - KB2267602 (Version 1.401.1026.0)

That’s all it took to fix my copy on my machine, YMMV, and sorry for cluttering the forum with my aggravated nonsense.

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Hey guy, so glad it’s sorted. We all of us need less frustrations in life, some of us more than others. Sometimes it also helps to have a bit of a rant, lets the mind “do it’s own thing” for a bit and then feel much better having gotten it off your chest as it were.

So my next job is looking for that update…!

2 Likes
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Wouldn’t ever worry about that! Glad it’s sorted and it wasn’t expensive.

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Good find. I’d be interested to know if there was any evidence in the Defender logs that it was stomping on any MSFS components. If a definition update fixed it, then it kind of implies it was a false positive.

You can find its logs here:

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And it was the dreaded “0xc0000005” error code to, so potentially add Defender as another possible cause for this one, and something to try temporarily for those who get them more regularly, and at more definite phases, locations or actions.