Hi all. Wanted to post this for you this evening because I know many of you have the same problem I had. CTD’s on initial load and unstable flight sim. After battling this problem for over 2 weeks, reading lots of forum stuff and online things, I finally found, almost by accident the real problem. So, I’m sharing with you what I did to restore my sim after 2-3 weeks of frustration and lots of trial and error. I run a souped up Dell Aurora R12. WIN 10 system
This fix was not any of the following (Nvidia XL/GL cache, community folder, Navigraph, Neofly, DSIM fixes, SFC/scannow fixes, 3rd party addons (PMDG, Aerosoft, Just Flight etc.). Even have a Zendesk ticket open for this, and that helped lead me to something I hadn’t yet tried. It should be noted that the sim was working fine before SU 12, but then after started massive CTD’s on load. I did remove the community folder though just to eliminate any aircraft issues.
The first step is getting the sim to come up. My fix involved that and this may be very tricky to do for you. It’s frustrating but keep trying different things. Here is what I did.
#1 - In the search bar type Microsoft Flight simulator. On the right Choose App Settings.
In the window that comes up choose REPAIR. If the below steps don’t work, try again with RESET.
Thank you ZenDesk Helpdesk for this tip.
#2 - Very important - REBOOT your computer. With this instability issue, it seems to function better after a reboot. Multiple tries only result in more CTD’s.
#3- Right click on FSIM shortcut. Run as ADMIN
#4 - Choose NORMAL mode. Safe mode = CTD. I tried with SAFE mode and it blew up. So just for fun I retried with normal mode and somehow it worked.
#5 - If you get the sim to work go to OPTIONS. (Note, I had a greyed out Marketplace up to this point which I thought strange. But after the fix worked, it made total sense. It was in the reading of this fix that I found my problem). Then CHOOSE DATA.
#6 - Somehow, on my system, ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY was turned off. I remember messing with this right before I left for vacation but don’t remember which forum thing said this was a good IDEA. Turn it on. See picture
#7 - When I did this, it said “you have packages” to install, then promptly did a CTD on me.
Okay. That would make sense. It turned out these packages were from WORLD UPDATE 14 - The Eastern Europe one. Interesting.
#8 - Rerun the sim as ADMIN NORMAL MODE. Not safe mode. If all works right, WU 14 packages and such should install, update the SIM and return to normal. You should notice that Marketplace is now live.
#9 - Take a test flight and make sure all is okay. Exit sim, replace community folder to original spot and re-install Addon’s and such. Navigraph NEO FLY ETC.
I sincerely hope this fix solves your issues and restores your ability to fly again. It’s been a frustrating 2-3 weeks for me so I really hope this helps you out.
BanzaiBilly747