The ‘memory could not be read error’ was something we collectively experienced before, a couple of months ago. I then fixed it for myself by clearing the windows page file (cache). Yesterday, I experienced two CTDs too and like many others blamed GSX Pro.
I again cleared the windows page file yesterday evening and today I had a successful two hours flight from Nantes Atlantique to Venice, both 3rd party scenery in the Fenix A320 and without GSX Pro linked. All live services ON except for multiplayer as I never use it.
Perhaps, clearing the page file was again the solution that worked very well before for me and others who then tried my suggestion (it was filed as the Solution to that particular thread). Perhaps some are willing to again experiment with this suggestion and report their feedbacks here in the next few days.
To clear the windows pagefile, go to Start, type ‘regedit’, clik registry editor and go to this adres
On the second commandline, change the value of ‘Clear Pagefile At Shutdown’ from 0 to 1. Then restart the computer. Depending on the size of your pagefile it can take rather long. My 40GB pagefile takes about 5 minutes to whipe at which the ‘Restarting screen’ of windows remains active. No worries though, once it’s done it will restart the computer like any other restart. Don’t forget to go back to the reg edit and change back to ‘0’ after succesful restart.
So those willing, give it a try, see how it works and please report back here for the community to learn together. Cheers!
No, not one bit. The page file is where Windows taps extra working cache when the RAM-memory is full, for quick acces.
My theory would be that Microsoft/Asobo changed something in an update, that collides with data historically stored there and thus causing some sort of leak or conflict.
Page file is not a cache. It stores data of running applications / processes that do not fit into RAM. But when you turn off or restart PC no applications are running, so all data in the page file are not used anymore. There is no running process that would own them and use them.
I assume you have SSD. Writing to SSD is quite complex, because of limited lifetime of SSDs. So there is some “cleaning” needed sometime. And possibly cleaning page file also triggers some “cleaning” of SSD and that results in better SSD performance for certain time.
And possibly better IO operations lead to less CTDs. I posted another thread about my observation.
Btw, cleaning page file is done for security reasons. When an application / process ends, the data in page file owned by the process are not owned by anyone and thus not used. But they are not cleaned until some other process overwrites it. And now imagine you opened confidential document and part of it is stored in page file. You turn off your PC, but data are still stored in the page file because cleaning it takes lot of time. And now someone steal your PC. He cannot read the document, because it is hopefully encrypted as it is confidential. But he can look into page file and find pieces of document there.
I have done this and it has fixed all my CTD issues. Might I add that I didn’t have a custom page file before doing this, but I made one after for both Windows and MSFS drive, then cleared it once more, and no CTDs after that. Thanks for the suggestion!!!
One definite fix I think worked for me
Use sfc/scannow to replace corrupted files
I had the first CTD for ages yesterday and this seems to have cured it.
We are constantly downloading updates and there are bound to be many corrupted files which this tool found and replaced.
I started getting random CTDs after installing GSX Pro. Unlinking and removing it completely from my PC did not help at all.
Some CTDs happened without any error prompts and for some others, I would get an error saying that MSFS failed to read memory locations (“The memory could not be read”).
I tried all sorts of things including increasing the size of virtual memory and uninstalling all my 3rd plugins and scenery. None of those helped.
So yesterday, I cleared my pagefile and did a short 45 minute flight using the Fenix A320 without any crashes.
Today I will try to do a longer flight and post the results here.
Ok. I tested. One flight after without any problems. But the second one and all flights next with CTDs. This helped me for very short time.
I will tested today with all online functionality off.
I have tried everything and stopped chasing this error. I really believe this is a Asobo issue. I believe more people are getting it as Asobo tweaks things on there side to find a solution. I think it a timing issue with the servers.
Was hoping for a quick fix - and the illusion of control thereof - but it seems it’s really beyond our capability to influence. We just have to sit and wait this one out unfortunately. I’m confident they’ll have a fix soon enough.
Don’t confuse program memory with RAM. They are not the same.
The paging file is a memory extension for RAM, not a cache. Windows generally starts using it when RAM is 60-70% full. MSFS and each program running in Windows allocates its own “virtual” memory for code and data. These programs do not know where Windows puts the application’s memory in RAM.
Any MSFS code changes would only impact its own virtual memory space. Any MSFS historical data is stored in Windows files on a disk, not in RAM, not in the page file. Whenever MSFS uses “historical” data, Windows reads the file from the disk, puts it somewhere in RAM, then “tells” MSFS the data is available for use. Windows keeps track of everything in RAM and on the page file preventing conflicts.
MSFS and all programs manage their own allocated memory to prevent their own conflicts. A “memory leak” happens when an application allocates its own memory but does not release it when finished. The application’s memory continues to increase without stopping. Windows continues to assign RAM to the application until RAM is filled.
This is an over-simplification because there are registry, GPU, networks, that are all part of the Windows and application environments.
I was able to successfully fly a 5 and a half hour flight this afternoon which I wasn’t able to do the last couple of days. Like many others, I actually haven’t been experiencing any real issues with CTDs recently until the last couple of days (and no, I haven’t added any third-party packages etc etc).
My flight report as follows: hxxps://fshub.io/flight/1973240/report
And so, for me, it would also appear that this Pagefile fix does seem to “fix” the issue at least for the time being.
I have also had a few friends report they’ve completed ~2-hour flights without issues after doing this too.
I hadn’t flown in a while. Been too busy with other stuff. Today I had some time a decide to fly. Instant CTD. I tried bringing it up again and it ask if I wanted Safe Mode, and I accepted Safe Mode. CTD again right after checking for updates and showing the World USA update.
Decided to power off the PC and start fresh. Again asked for Safe Mode and again a selected Safe Mode. Crashed again.
So, I can’t bring to up at all. No flying for me today! I guess some of us can’t fly at all.
Hopefully this gets fixed soon. I haven’t flown in ages and would love to take to the skies again.
Adding my results while recognizing they are likely unique to me:
I get CTDs about once every 2.5 hrs on average when flying with AI traffic on. About 300 hours total flying time. I have however NEVER had a single CTD when flying without any AI or Real Traffic (‘none’ selected) About 260 hours total flying time.
