MSFS stuck on initial loading screen

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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1

Hello simmers!

I am completely frustrated right now with my MSFS. Since Sunday (5 days now) I am not able to start the sim anymore.

Developer Mode is off.
Steam edition
MSFS Build 9500556
Setup: Windows 10 Home Build 19045 (latest)
Asus AMD RX 6900 XT
Intel i7 6700K

On startup, I see the company trailers but there is a blinking black square over the trailers (see Screenshot, blinks in a 0.5s rythm).
After the trailers, the menu music starts and I am having a black screen with a loading icon in the lower right corner. This icon spins first but then got stuck after about 30-40 seconds (menu music still runs). Then, every 60 seconds the spinner spins half a round and then got stuck again. It doesn’t matter if I wait for 30+ minutes… nothings happens anymore from here.

I have third party add ons installed (3 airports, 1 PMDG-Aircraft, nothing else). Already uninstalled the PMDG. I am not able to uninstall the sceneries as they are not present in the in the directories stated in docs (community and official/steam dirs are empty). Content-Manager is - logically - not an option as I do not get to the menu.

I haven’t modified any files by myself.

I also worked my way through the troubleshooting docs:

  • MSFS is up to date
  • Windows is up to date
  • Graphics Driver + Software is up to date
  • PMDG 737 was up to date
  • Time is synchronized
  • Resetted scaling settings
  • Unplugged all peripherals

I deleted the following:

  • PMDG aircraft
  • .DAT files
  • Content.xml
  • ROLLINGCACHE.CCC

I skipped the steps for xbox app and gamestore app, as I bought and start the sim via steam.

Started the sim with FastLaunch option,
started the sim as admin,
started the sim in safe mode … does not matter, every time the same behaviour

I deactivated all auto start software and told the AMD Adrenalin software not launch anything on game start.

Sim ran fine for weeks and there were no updates after the last flight (at least I haven’t noticed any). Played it 100+ hours. I also did not change anything after the last flights.

I would really appreciate any help as I am stuck completely right now. And I do not want to reinstall this monster as it takes so much time and effort… If you need more info, please let me know.

Greetings!

Screenshot (42)
Screenshot (42)1920Ă—810 64.5 KB

2

Enable Fast Start to skip all of this.

  • Steam
    • Close Microsoft Flight Simulator
    • Open your Steam Library
    • Right-click on Microsoft Flight Simulator > Properties.
    • On the General tab you’ll find Launch Options section.
    • Enter the launch option:
      • -FastLaunch
1 Like
3

Just ran into an update issue that would not allow the sim to load. It would show splash screen then go dark and hang. Reproduced this twice to be sure. Initially thought it was an addon recently installed so cleared community. Still no luck. Here are the steps I took:

Windows 10 cumulative update for 22H2 (kb5019959)

  • removed update

  • restarted and still wouldn’t load

  • ran disk cleanup on temp and system files

  • restarted and it worked

  • added all mods back in and it loaded with no issues

  • closed sim and added cumulative update and restarted

  • sim wouldn’t load

  • left addons but removed cumulative update

  • restarted and wouldn’t load

  • ran disk cleanup on temp and system files again

  • restarted and it loaded with no issues

Hope this helps someone else.

4

Thanks for your reply! I tried that, removed the stated update and ran disk cleanup. Funny thing is: I had 800MB of temp files before the cleanup… and after it I still have 800MB of temp files (running in admin mode). Oh man, this is why I love Windows :triumph:
Anyways, unistalled the update, disk cleanup not possible because Windows, and I still have the exact same issue…

But maybe this helps someone else, so thanks for sharing!

5

So, in my frustration I have reinstalled the sim now. And even on the initial startup run I’m stuck at the exact same point.

6

Did you try as I suggested above and enable FastStart?

7

Yes, but I’ve already written in my opening post that I tried that mode, so I did not respond to your post. I’m sorry for that!

As an update, additional things I have done right now:

  • Remove [old] drivers from my computer (including Realtek drivers)
  • Took a look into the event monitoring. There are the errors 0xc0000005 and 0xc0000409 randomly thrown (means not on every attempt)
  • Unplugged keyboard and mouse and replaced them with others
  • Deactivated Windows Defender
  • Freshly installed MS GameCenter and Xbox-App (hadn’t them before as I’m on Steam and the game ran fine without these apps)
  • Deactivated game mode
  • Written a support ticket… but expecting to wait long and get boilerplate-suggestions first

I should also mention, that I switched to the Asus RX6900XT recently, but already flew about 40 hours without problems…

I’ll try now to add a debugger to the executable file to see if I get any clue from it. Would be so nice to have sth like an info-log to see, at what loading point it got stuck. But what would be too easy.

8

A careful final update:
The sim works now. And as every time with Windows, I really don’t know why. The only thing I made is downloaded the Visual Studio Code IDE (20GB) and started the debugger after starting the sim.
At first I got permission rights exceptions and I stopped the sim via the debugger. Then, on the second run, the black blinking square was gone and I was presented the „safe mode“ modal. Got stuck again after it, started the debugger - nothing happened because no exception was being thrown. So, let it crash again by stopping the debugger.
Issue with stucking on loading persisted by choosing whether safe and normal mode.

Then started the debugger randomly 6 more times in different states of the startup. On the seventh try I started the debugger right at the „Asobo“ trailer. After choosing „safe mode“ in the following modal, the sim started, and the update window opened (I uninstalled it, as stated above - so had to download 150GB+ of data AGAIN). It also installed the new big update.
And then, after 6 hours of downloading, the game finally started and runs so far. Already installed the PMDG and some airports and its still running, also restarted the sim and windows many times.

The only thing that persists is the “safe mode” modal, which I get on every startup of the sim, even if I quit the sim regulary.

… But I still do not have a clue what was going on. My guess is, that there was a problems with initializing the big sim update. Knowing this, I’m afraid of running into the bug again…. So, it runs now but I’m sorry that I cannot present a valid solution.

PS: the support ticket I opened got closed immediately with the info to work through the checklist and check, if the xbox / MS services are online. In the bug report I had a list of 25+ items of what I already tried, stated that I worked through all checklists and said, that I had this issue for 5 days straight. So they (human or machine) did not read the report at all which is hilarious in terms of support quality… But tbh I expected exactly that.

So, happy flying and see you next time in the debug hell.