For those affected by CTDs of the marketplace CRJ since SU4: MS/Asobo will fix this which is related to a new encryption process introduced with SU4 which requires now specific CPU instructions which only newer CPUs are capable of. More - also background information on the CPU instructions - can be found here:
It’s amazing - the amount of abuse Aerosoft RECEIVES, it’s no wonder they are a little hostile. Even in that thread, there is a user who clearly said his PC is obsolete and below minimum requirements and still thinks his arguments stand. The larger market unfortunately brings a wealth of clueless AND entitled people with it too.
3 Likes
Man, the min specs in terms of CPU are too vague… And for instance that criterion hasn’t proven limiting for the sim. Now when you have everything working fine except after installing an addon, that’s normal to turn back to the editor of said addon! Now they (aerosoft) are probably as angry as the customers are that Microsoft made something that prevents their addon to work correctly but that does not void the need to provide support on the issue.
3 Likes
Hi BostonJeremy77
Can you look at my latest question - 5 mins ago (under 3rd party - CRJ Thrust reverser). I too have no CTD’s with the CRJ but have another issue. i thought you may well be able to offer a comment.
That thread on the Aerosoft Forum is really hilarious.
If you upvote a post they don’t like, they ban you… lol
Which is sad enough in itself, but they announce it without a sliver of shame. Why have a voting system at all if people aren’t allowed to use it the way they see fit?
Weird all.
1 Like
I know, I didn’t think this was North Korea!! I even wrote directly to him explaining that he had misunderstood what the guy was saying and explaining why and then telling him exactly why and what I agreed with and why therefore I had upvoted.
He replied that they were “Good comments” and asked if I would remove the vote and he would then remove my ban. I said I would if his guy TomA320 apologised for making personal remarks about my mental health.
He refused. So it seems that they think it is ok for them to make libelous remarks but not for us to vote against them.
Strange values!!
1 Like
It’s all very strange… why not simply turn off the voting system if it causes that much pain?
1 Like
I agree or block posts that you are not allowed (by them) to vote against. Surely the whole idea of a “FREE” vote is for people to be able to express opinion without any emotional or offensive baggage attached, which these forums seem to have way too much of.
Its bad enough when some individuals lose their cool and get rude, but companies have greater resources, access to combined wisdom and are obliged to rise above that level and set the example - can it EVER be justified for them to retaliate or initiate offensive remarks against their customers?
I don’t think so.
1 Like
It’s a totally weird situation anyway… I gather a lot of people still can’t fly this thing? And it’s about processors that are too old… for some reason I have the feeling it might be a red herring… I can’t really imagine that compilers do not know a way around a lacking instruction… is MS that stupid? Could be though. If the compiler is set to disregard a certain generation…
But if it is, I feel that last big post by someone arguing that a warning might be sensible - which apparently led to a meltdown of Mr. Kok - makes a lot of sense. Who’s not guilty of never reading the specs (of even understanding them), raise your hand… and who would assume an airplane for a sim that runs fine, will not run fine… There’s no incentive to check the specs if the sim is working.
Unless MS has a refund policy where you can show the software wasn’t suitable for your PC and get your money back, I think a warning in the Marketplace might be smart. Saves a lot of people a lot of misery and money.
1 Like
I totally agree with you. I made the point to Mr Kok, that to still sell the CRJ on the marketplace without such a warning, now knowing that it will not work is a misrepresentation if not dishonest.
I looked at my own spec against what MS released back in April 2020. I have an Intel i7 990x. It has 2 more cores than the min spec. It has 3 times the number of threads and Hyper threading, 3 memory channels instead of 2 a 3.46Ghz speed beating the min spec of 3.2Ghz. So its not until you get down to the extensions that you get to the issue that came about 14 months after the minimum spec was introduced and I am sure there are clever guys or gals out there that can tell you which one of these is the crucial one?
FI6C
AVX
EM64T
FMA3
AVX2.0
For sure I didn’t know or even understand enough to check this far down in the spec that was never mentioned and for almost a year the sim has worked perfectly for me, 21-25 FPS at 2160x1440 for over 600hrs and yes I am a real world pilot so sim fidelity is important to me.
If Aerosoft hadn’t chosen to write the CRJ in a different programming language, if they hadn’t released it through the marketplace but just sold it direct, presumably they knew that MS alter their code, there would not have been an issue - but it is not their fault!!!
2 Likes
Quotes from Aerosoft’s Mathijs Kok " We are a bit old fashioned in that aspect and believe accusations like “That’s a dishonest move” require very serious proof before you can post that." yet it is ok for them to tell you that you have a mental health issue = Double Standards or hypocrisy.
More importantly than that though he has also said
“Now while I am in no way sure there is an option like this (and do take this seriously), I will see if there is any way we can move the affected customers to our shop. Why on earth did he not agree to look into this at the first time of asking and save all the animosity.
And if you want a laugh have a look at the post about " CRJ Black Monitors” all the same obstacles, not enough people have this problem, how old is your CPU, “What do you expect us to do about it” and equally the same disappointment from customers spending good money with them and just trying to get a little bit of help, isn’t that the whole point of a forum.
1 Like
Are you moved to their shop already?
I am still considering buying this airplane, but not if they do not find an amicable solution to this problem. I just don’t want to support this kind of hostility. And you’re right… if now it’s suddenly an option, why not four weeks ago? But well… better late than never.
No - I haven’t heard anything directly from them, I just saw it on the forum. I think I am still banned.
It’s definitely worth buying, but only if you avoid the marketplace issues and buy direct from Aerosoft. There looks to be other issues with the displays not turning on, but it is one of the more complex models, it’s the first to use a different programming language so a few bugs are appearing but you will really enjoy the challenge there is less “automation” than the A320 so more to manage.
For sure Aerosoft could really do with some education about what customer service is, and there forum needs to be a place where you can go for help not an argument, but one day this will all be forgotten and we can get on enjoying the best flight simulation has ever been. Good luck
1 Like
Aerosoft are now saying that the PMDG DC-6 is experiencing similar problems to their CRJ, but PMDG don’t sell the DC-6 through the marketplace only direct sales.
So does that blow a hole in the MS DRM encryption argument?
There is also something wrong with the CPU spec probable cause theory.
A while back Mathijs Kok (Aerosoft) said that one person that had the CRJ CTD issue completely reinstalled Windows 10, then put a FRESH install of MSFS2020 and it cured the CRJ problem. He didn’t change or upgrade his CPU. Now he is saying two more people have reinstalled the sim and cured the problem. How can that be?
I’m really surprised that there isn’t a bigger appetite from the developers of these complex models to understand what is going wrong, especially as the CRJ seems to have a few other issues, ATC com problem, displays not turning on, Honeycomb Bravo autopilot ALT button not functioning.
Its not the fact that these complex models have bugs, that is only to be expected but it is the attitude to fix quickly that really matters and is sadly lacking.
From a developers perspective these bugs are horror.
In order to fix them they have to be able to reproduce them. Else they don’t have a clue. Or the logging has to be outstanding (which we know isn’t… the sim just crashes and Asobo gives you nothing).
On top of that… there might be multiple causes. I wrote earlier that I thought the processor argument was a red herring. Because of this. It might be true for a few people, but there might be other stuff going on they’re missing if they get fixated on that ‘cause’.
You’re right though… no idea why they drag the DC-6 into it… that one isn’t on the marketplace.
1 Like
I’ve had CTDs with the DC-6 by the way. The first version. Quite reproducible. Apparently that was related to LOD issues. After the first update the problem was gone.
1 Like
That’s the thing, isn’t it, plenty of people understand the problem from 1st hand experience and even more are willing to help to solve it. We are all on the same side and want the same thing.
I understand but do find it strange with software that you have to reproduce the fault to fix it, most other fields don’t do that, imagine taking your car to the garage - “sorry sir, none of our cars do that and we only sold 12 so we can’t help you, it’s not our engine where did you buy your petrol?”
If we collated all that was common between CTD’s it might narrow the search down, but Aerosoft make no attempt to collect any information, a simple survey might throw up something that we could then test and report back. Solving one issue might give insight into the next and so on.
For sure things will get more complicated not less and developing a diagnostic process which we can use from the get go would be a way better system than having to argue the case every time. Time wasted trying to convince Aerosoft that something needs to be done.
1 Like
Well, software is a bit particular. If the diagnostics are okay (which they aren’t) it would be a lot easier.
I agree they might have to be more pro-active, but I also recognize the inherent difficulty. This sim is all over the place. It’s unstable, it’s unfinished, it runs on a million different combinations of hardware, it keeps getting updated and changed around, and if it crashes all you see is ‘FlightSim.exe / errorcode 5’.
So if you have no clue what causes the problem, and you can’t generate the problem yourself, where are you gonna fix what? Unless you can identify unstable code that might cause a problem. But that’s like poking around in the dark. Fix and pray. I’m already surprised they were able to identify a processor issue.
Not saying they couldn’t do more. Just saying I wouldn’t want to be a developer for this sim 
1 Like
I agree though that all of what I wrote should not be a concern to the customer.
They either fix it, or you get your money back (through them or through MS).
This stuff should never turn into a problem for the customer.
2 Likes
I’m gonna make a bold statement. The one I always hated when I was trying to keep FSX together on a (fairly decent) laptop, with days or weeks of tweaking and finetuning… And I wasn’t even that demanding…! Well.. you know… not much… usually.
If you’re really into this hobby (which you are if you’ve hunted down the HoneyComb Bravo like myself $$$), try to buy the PC that matches. I finally did so a few months ago and I finally got to enjoy MSFS in all its tremendous splendour. I’ve been on flight simulators since the age of 13 (22 years now) and this is really really really something.
I threw about €1400 at a new PC, had it custom made (forced me to learn a lot about hardware for the first time, but its also cheaper that way) and I really appreciate that gift to myself every time I fire up MSFS and take it out for a spin, relaxing myself through those clouds on that peculiar way of concentration becoming relaxation like only flightsims can do for you.
My bet is… If this technical issue is going to mess up your CRJ already at the beginning of MSFS gearing up to its potential, its gonna get worse every three months untill it sickens you. I think that’s also in part the sentiment from the Aerosoft replies - which of course became a nasty discussion in which both sides have a fair point. Only 18 customers on the one hand doesn’t a force an overhaul, but then again just compensate them and be a good producer in our community.
So with regards to your setup: I always hated reading that the proper pc is the only cure for a fully fledged tweaked Sim. But they all turned out to be so right in the end… Sorry for repeating that here. Best of luck.
2 Likes