EDIT: THE ISSUE HAS BEEN RESOLVED! SEE END OF POST FOR DETAILS.
Hi,
I’m writing this post in a desperate attempt to make any progress towards an issue I’ve been facing since the release of MSFS 2024 on Nov 18th: It simply does not work for me at all. I don’t just experience bugs or CTDs, I reliably experience full backscreen PC crashes literally every time I enter the sim.
I am looking for any tips, any advice you may have that could help me resolve this problem, especially if you have extensive knowledge about troubleshooting such issues.
My specs:
- Intel core i713700KF
- ASUS Prime Z690-A
- TUF Gaming Radeon RX6800XT
- 3x 1TB SSDs (2 NVMEs, 1 SATA)
- 32GB 5200 MHz DDR5 RAM (soon to be 64)
- Corsair RM750 PSU
As you can see, while not cutting edge, this is a relatively high end system that should be comfortably within the performance requirements of FS24. The system is almost exactly 2 years old at this point, was built brand new by myself and worked flawlessly ever since, in every game and every application. This includes demanding titles like RDR2, Cyberpunk, productivity applications such as CAD software - and of course MSFS2020, including during frequent long haul flights of sometimes 15+ hours, even with some lighter games running simultaneously. I’m writing this to underline that this should not reasonably be any kind of power spike PSU overload or hardware issue, although the crashes I’m experiencing sort of fell like that in a way.
Like I wrote above, I’m experiencing full system crashes to a black screen without any sound left, but the fans and lighting remaining on, until the power of reset button is pressed. Very rarely the PC automatically reboots itself, but most often times it doesn’t, There is never a BSOD, nor any error message or indication of an impending crash. Just after release the sim/system was unstable that it crashed even a few seconds after the “customize identity” screen. Then, after the first update I made it to the main menu (although if I just left the sim there it would still crash the system after a while) and could start a flight, but then a crash was guaranteed after anything between a few seconds, to my record of maybe around 10 minutes or so. Always, every single time. And believe me, there were many times. I’ve been troubleshooting this since release - a lot.
So what did I try then?
Initially, since this only ever happened in MSFS2024 I thought it was software related (and in the end, I currently still do, but differently). SO I tried to repair the files (I have the Steam version). I tried to reinstall the sim, many many times. I deleted the cloud saves, I deleted everything local of the sim that could’ve been corrupted in some way, but to no avail. I checked my graphics drivers. I also updated the BIOS which included the lates microcode from intel that should stop the 14th gen degradation issue for those that are familiar. Didn’t help. I still suspected that maybe my CPU was a victim of Intel’s 13th gen ■■■■■■, so I tried to underclock it. Same with my GPU. Nope, nothing. Even with significantly reduced clock speeds and power draws on both, the outcome was still the same kind of crash. I ran a bunch of stress tests on the CPU, which it all passed without a hiccup. Still suspecting a hardware defect, I took it to the retailed I bought it from for testing, and it passed their testing as well. Of course I still can’t 10000% rules a hardware fault out, but given all of this, I think it is extremely unlikely. I also ran two different RAM tests and VRAM tests, which passed.
I also tried reinstalling windows, hoping to wipe any underlying software issue away. First I did so from within windows using the reset function. That didn’t change anything either. I then proceeded to reinstall it several times over using and installation USB drive, including secure erasing all drives in the process - with the same outcome.
I made sure to have all chipset drivers, any anything else my motherboard and GPU needs up to date. Tested the sim with only minimal additional software installed and nothing else open, still the crashes remain.
Online I read that some (unfortunately very few) people are experiencing something similar, so if that’s you I’d love to hear about it. Some people reported that a low level driver issue was the culprit, so I tried disabling the Realtek audio driver in particular, but that didn’t work either. I tried to use driver verifier, but didn’t get any results. I also do not actually get any memory dump files for some weird reason. The only indication of the fault I can reliably attribute to these crashes is a “fatal hardware error”, the details of which you can find in the attached screenshots.
At this point, I truly just don’t know what to do or try anymore. I feel like I’ve exhausted everything, without really even knowing where to search.
Short of just replacing hardware (which of course I don’t just have sitting around, I really think I’ve given it my full troubleshooting effort.
I should maybe mention that obviously I’ve also opened a support ticket with MSFS, but that has not really been very helpful at all frankly. Just the standard, obvious steps I’ve already done countless times in the past two weeks.
My current gut feeling is that it’s probably some driver issue, but I just don’t have the knowledge or experience to really dig into that. So I’d especially appreciate input from anyone who does. In that context, I should maybe mention that I use a lot of Corsair products including fans, a case and their iCUE software, which does have… room to improve, just in case that is relevant in any way.
Thank you so much for reading this & Thanks a lot for any possible help.
EDIT: SOLUTION: I have been able to resolve the issue after months of troubleshooting. The problem was an outdated VBIOS of my GPU. Updating to the latest VBIOS available from AMD introduced fixes to GPU stability issues and resolved the issue for me completely. The Sim is running flawlessly now.
