About a week and a half ago, I installed the latest Nvidia driver (which nobody else seems to have had any issue with at all), and my sim went from completely stable to completely unstable. I’m getting random CTDs that can happen during sim startup, while sitting on a menu screen not even using it, or while flying. There is no singular commonality to when/how it happens, only that at BEST, I can get about 4-5 minutes before it just disappears from my screen.
What I have tried: Everything I can think of. The obvious ones like turning off my overclocks, emptying my community folder, etc. I uninstalled and reinstalled Navigraph. I tried running it in 2D only mode, bypassing my Reverb G2s. Nothing changed.
So, I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it. (I have the MS Store version, should that matter.) Still no change, but interestingly, even during the installation process, the CTDs still happened at random, so I’d have to restart it 10 or 12 times to get everything downloaded. The same thing happens when trying to download all the content manager products.
So I’d tweak this and that and try to reinstall from scratch again, probably about 5-6 times, including even putting it on a different disk in case that was the culprit.
Still, no changes. I’m at my wits end and about to go nuclear and reinstall Windows 11 from scratch, but before I go that far, I figured I’d throw it out there to see if anyone has any suggestions I haven’t thought of…
Hey Kev, welcome back!
I hope you are doing better!!
A lot of folks are having issues similar to yours.
Internet connection (ISP throttling, router issues etc) are often the main cause.
You can verify some of that by trying a VPN. In a lot of cases (not all though), that has helped.
Wireless can also be fussy with MSFS as well in some cases.
When actually in the sim, using a weather preset instead of live weather, and disabling AI traffic seem to have helped as well.
I had the same problem, replaced the offending latest Nvidia driver and reverted to my previous one which was 497.29… … I am back to normal, CTDs are gone
I’m having the same issues now for a week and I rolled back my Nvidia drivers to 497. I deleted everything from my community folder, deleted all addons and applications (not that I have to many of them), downloaded last windows updates, downloaded last Microsoft Stores updates, uninstalled and reinstalled the sim and more. After all this, I was able to play with no CTDs but last night I got them back!!
I’m not very knowledgeable on PCs and sim issues and how to troubleshoot everything.
Does anyone here knows who here can provide any type of online technical support to ■■■■■ my system and my sim to figure out what I need to do?
If you know someone that I can contact so I can get some help that will be highly appreciated.
Thats frustrating. My suggestions are absolute last-ditch efforts when you have exhausted all other avenues, just wanted to say that
I am on Steam so I’m not familiar with the MS Store version and any quirks it may have.
Install the game in a custom folder under the drive root (eg. C:\MSFS) or on another drive (eg: G:\MSFS). Avoid the Program Files folders. (Edit: I see you have done this already.)
Check your security software (anti virus, anti-malware) to see if its poking its nose into the MSFS folder. I use the default Win Defender so I’m not familiar with 3rd party stuff but settings should be similar. I have added an Exception Rule to Win Defender telling it to ignore my MSFS folder (all downloads are scanned in the Downloads Folder)
Nuclear option
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If the above does not work - it really is time to go nuclear. After ensuring your data is backed up - do a FACTORY FRESH Windows10 (yes 10) install using the Media Creation Tool (you’ll need a USB with at least 8GB free).
Ensure you wipe the partitions during the install.
Install all updates, will take multiple restarts, once no more updates go ahead an install the game - again avoiding the Program Files folders.
Again this sounds wild but they are “I want to try anything to get back to flying” measures. I’m sure others will have suggestions too. For the record I’m on the latest Win10, rock solid game no core issues. (I say “core” because any issues I DO have are mod related). Good luck!
Have u checked the usercfg.opt for out of bound settings that eats up all of your memory and make the sim go crashing. Also check system management to see if there is something wrong.
The reason i mention, is on my old xeon 1230 system 16gb ram and 3gb vram 780 ti and a 620watt coolermaster powersupply. im running out of vram if i set resolution on secondary scale to much i think. but i also got ctd then, and management says for unknown reason loses my N:\ drive due powerloss.
Hope this help to determine the problem to bring forth contribution to solution.
Yes pagefile 800 to 15000 not Windows managed, but i did these because i had ctd and thought it was because lack of vram. And have not revert back.
Btw using win 10pro
Hey Kev:
One of the folks on here was having the same type of issues, he uninstalled the sim and did a Window’s reset (not a complete re-install) and then reinstalled the sim.
That worked very well for him.
OK, here are some things I have checked/tried from everyone’s suggestions, and a few ideas of my own.
Can I run other resource intensive games: Yes, I ran earlier today CP2077 for at least 45 minutes without any issues, except that I forgot how to play.
I downgraded the Nvidia driver, no help.
I tried downloading one “product” at a time, specifically the US World Update, didn’t even make it to halfway.
Why 10? I’m already on 11, and have been for months… I can’t say I care all that much, but am curious…
All - I will say, I did put Windows 11 on system back in late summer, it was the developer release, and it worked fine for MSFS. I had other issues, for keyboard (drivers), printer needed to be reinstalled after every update. Biggest things were the way simple tasks were changed to harder tasks, i.e., right click empty space task bar get menu, click “show the desktop” and I’m there. They moved that menu someplace I cannot remember, and also same click, task manager, again, moved someplace cannot remember. Worked on trying to like it, ok, the file naming depth is vastly improved, since OS is really 64 bits, so I can name directories long names, and copy them way deep into hierarchy, and they stay good. But the little things bugged me a lot, ones mentioned above, and just not for me as easy to use as W10.
Lasted about month, then formatted C, and reinstalled OEM W10 back on system form OEM USB Recovery disk. I had copied game files off to another place, so all I had to do was copy them back to correct spot, and then download and reinstall the X-Box installer. Game works fine. Then had to do it all over again, some weird file on PC, took it off, system would not boot, just OEM trick again. Same process on MSFS as above, fine. I personally do not think W11 is quite stable yet, so going to wait till July maybe. Just really happy with 10, but MSFS ran couple degrees cooler, and loaded a tad bit faster. Not sure that is enough for me to jump again. We will see how MSFS is after SU8 hits un on March 1st.
