Hello Gents,
I am one of those lucky ones that have never had a problem with MSFS…until now.
I cannot launch the sim. At all. I get the opening screen, which shows the loading bar progress nearly to the end, and then-CTD. Every single time.
Here is what I have done:
Rolled back my driver to 531.29 (read that later drivers can cause an issue).
Updated Windows.
Tried launching game in Safe Mode.
Verified my file integrity in Steam (I have the Steam version).
Nothing seems to work.
My system:
Gigabyte Aorus Intel 8-Core i9-9900K 3.6GHz - Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6 - 4TB 5900RPM + 1TB SSD - 64GB DDR4 Ram.
MSFS occupies the SSD by itself.
I’m 64 and not exactly helpless when it comes to PC stuff, but it has worked flawlessly since release. This is a very sudden development and I am now out of ideas as to how I should go about trouleshooting this. Any help from the good folks here will be very much appreciated.
Moderators if I posted this in the wrong forum, please relocate. Thank you-
Chris
Hi Chris,
Is the sim just crashing to the desktop without any message or warning whatsoever? If you are getting any message please post it and you might get better help.
Have you installed any add-ons recently? I know you tried in Safe Mode but still maybe there is something conflicting with the sim…
A couple of things to try from a similar thread:
- Delete (or rename) the content.xml file (for me this is found in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache. MSFS will build a new one)
(I renamed it to .old and then once MSFS was running I deleted the new content.xml and re-enabled the one I had previously)
- Delete all the scenery index files (for me these are all the files located in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryIndexes) MSFS will rebuild these as well.
Good luck!
Hi Chris,
Do you have Error Logs enabled. It will give you a time and an error code.
It may point you in the right direction. You can then go from there. Or find Event Viewer.
Hello there,
We ask that all members not use General Discussion for help, troubleshooting, bug reports, or advice questions. Your topic has been moved to a subcategory of General Discussion & Community Support.
As a first step, I would empty your community folder to ensure it isn’t something in there.
Easiest way is to just rename it. Since you are on Steam, it will be located in
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\Packages
Unless you installed it to another location.
Just rename it to community.old and launch the sim.
He started in safe mode, safe mode ignores everything in the community folder AND anything installed from the marketplace too.
Thank you for the reply.
I receive no warnings whatsoever. Just the loading screen doing it’s thing, then CTD.
I was unable to locate either file you referenced. I am using the steam version of the game. I have checked the file integrity in Steam, but this has not helped. It said my files are OK.
I am using MSFS Add-On linker, I “uninstalled” all add-ons using this. So my community folder is empty.
Also, I tried to launch in safe mode. No help there either. 
Does this happen with a particular airport/airfield? Did you trired to load into different airports/airfields?
I once had a similar issue where I was not able to load into two airports in a small region.
I can’t tell you how to solve it though, because for me it resolves itself after some time.
What I can tell you though: I had a addon airfield installed previousley in this region. I suspected that this airfield was the culprit, so I uninstalled it → it had the same effect as you are observing → none in this case, sim still crashed. After all worked again I reinstalled the addon airfield and it worked as it should.
These CTDs on loading can be quite difficult to figure out.
Chris,
I need to mention first that I‘m using the Store version so I‘m not sure how it works at Steam. I assume however that you must have some sort of XBox App or login etc as well? I had the problem of a crashing sim at the last second, too, when the loading bar reached 100%. What eventually helped me was to log out of my XBox account, reboot the PC and log back in. I used the XBox App for that since, obviously, I couldn‘t get to my sim account on the main map.
You can start with this Support checklist.
If you get to the end, it provides a link for further troubleshooting.
Thanks for the advice guys.
I will try these and report back.
Chris
Try switching DX mode, if you are unable to enter the menus then edit UserCfg.
Gentlemen,
Firstly, thanks to all of you who contributed what they could to help. Your time and efforts are very appreciated.
The problem is sorted. I wish there wee some bit of esoteric knowledge I could record here for posterity in the even that some future reader , suffering from the same issue that befell me, could benefit from. Unfortunately, the solution was the time-honored “uninstall/re-install” method. I can share that as I was looking for files and folders that others said I should delete/modify, I noticed that my file structure, and even the names of some folders, had changed since I last visited them. Since I am the only one who could do such things on the computer, I suspected that somehow my file structure had been corrupted, hence the calamity. Thus my decision to re-install.
Everything is running great now, even with all mods enabled, I have a smaller, more efficient footprint on my SSD, framerates are excellent and the sim even seems to load more quickly.
I’d call this a win, albeit a somewhat painful one.
Thanks for the help guys!
Chris