FSX has stopped working, Faulting module name: Unknown

[WebMaximus 372]

Guess I should consider myself quite lucky because I haven't had many problems lately with FSX but from time to time I still get CTDs, FSX just freezes and I'm presented with a dialog box telling me Microsoft Flight Simulator X has stopped working and all I can do when this happens is to confirm the message and at that time I'm thrown back to the desktop.

 

Looking in the Application log in Windows this is what it says

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61472.0, 
time stamp: 0x475e17d3
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 
0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x04246c81
Faulting process id: 0xf0
Faulting application start time: 
0x01ce49c9169d6909
Faulting application path: F:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft 
Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: a65f06b1-b5bc-11e2-9c4b-e954a1240769

Very annoying to say the least and since the faulting module is unknown I don't really know what to look for or how to troubleshoot what it is actually causing these CTDs and would really appreciate some help.

[pilot83 387]

Hi. Today my FSX stopped working too,  and im not sure if this is related to the FSUIPC issue issue or not. Cant help you much but personally i had to remove FSX and re install i know its a pain but for me i guess this was the solution after trying other options and this was all before knowing about the FSUIPC issue, Try to reinstall the FSUIPC new version and see what happens.

[nazethc 73]

If you are using Sweetfx or ENb series....remove their dll's and try again...had a similar problem with an unknown module crashing my FSX at startup. reinstalling their respective dll's and default settings kept my fsx from crashing again.

[WebMaximus 372]

Hi. Today my FSX stopped working too,  and im not sure if this is related to the FSUIPC issue issue or not. Cant help you much but personally i had to remove FSX and re install i know its a pain but for me i guess this was the solution after trying other options and this was all before knowing about the FSUIPC issue, Try to reinstall the FSUIPC new version and see what happens.

 

Thanks for your input but I've had this problem with random CTDs caused by this "Unknown module" way back before the current FSUIPC issue arised and as for reinstalling FSX as you say that sure is a pain to say the least. If I thought that would cure my problems I might considered going for it but I've already installed a fresh FSX a couple of times the last few years and I've had this (or similar) CTD problems in all those installations.

 

What I was hoping for was to find some way to troubleshoot what is actually causing these CTDs. Would have been great to have some kind of logging or debug tool to trace what is going on "behind the scenes" when this happens and what is actually the culprit.

 

If you are using Sweetfx or ENb series....remove their dll's and try again...had a similar problem with an unknown module crashing my FSX at startup. reinstalling their respective dll's and default settings kept my fsx from crashing again.

 

I am using Sweetfx and I used to use ENB but since ENB would cause lots of problems I was happy when SweetFX came around. But again as said in my previous reply to Toufic I've had these random CTDs long before using both SweetFX and ENB so I honestly don't think they are to blame...at least not in my case but who knows...maybe it could be worth trying some flying without using any of them just to see what happens.

 

Guess I'm not the only one in here wishing we one day will have a new and more stable FS that would not only solve all these kind of weird stability problems but would also make better use or today's hardware and would let all addon developers develop addons not limited by the old and inner workings of FSX.

[nazethc 73]

Agreed, FSX is a chore when unstable, but when all the bugs are ironed out, it is very enjoyable. Luckily ive had zero crashes since reinstalling Sweetfx.  Is it always at one location when you CTD or at random? Day/Night? With UTX/GEX?  Also do you ctd every time you use FSX?  

[WebMaximus 372]

Agreed, FSX is a chore when unstable, but when all the bugs are ironed out, it is very enjoyable. Luckily ive had zero crashes since reinstalling Sweetfx.  Is it always at one location when you CTD or at random? Day/Night? With UTX/GEX?  Also do you ctd every time you use FSX?  

 

I fully agree, when all is working FSX sure is a true joy and looking at all great addons we have today both a/c like the NGX I fly but also all other different kinds of great addons like FS2Crew, GTX, Aivlasoft EFB, OpusFSX just to mention a few it's almost like you were in the actual a/c for real. I really love this hobby!

 

Regarding my CTDs they are luckily quite rare, maybe every 10'th flight or so and totally random. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, location or situation. To find out what addons I'm using just click my 'My simulator' link which is up to date and same goes for my 'My PC' link.

[BilboBaggins 82]

Exception c0000005 (however many zeroes....) I remember from way back always meant either FSX had run out of RAM, or it had gone on a seek mission on the hard drive for a file/texture/whatever and not found it in time to remain happy.

 

Defragging can sometimes help if the latter, or shutdown/restart to clear out the caches on the hard drive.

 

[WebMaximus 372]

OK, so I decided to try flying for a while without SweetFX but boy FSX became ugly and milky looking without SweetFX when you're used to it!

 

To fix this I thought I would try adjusting my TV (a Samsung 40 inch LED TV) a bit to see if I could come up with a way to compensate for what SweetFX normally does and I'm more than happy to tell you I found two settings on my TV that together looked so good I don't think I will ever need SweetFX nor any other similar utility again For anyone with a similar TV (or maybe these settings exist on most TVs today) the settings I changed were

 

Dynamic Contrast from Medium to High

HDMI Blackness from Normal to Low

 

Now I'm very excited both to try flying without SweetFX keeping my fingers crossed this will result in no or at least fewer CTDs but equally much I'm looking forward to do some flying with this great new look in FSX I got by modifying the settings mentioned above!!

[WebMaximus 372]

Exception c0000005 (however many zeroes....) I remember from way back always meant either FSX had run out of RAM, or it had gone on a seek mission on the hard drive for a file/texture/whatever and not found it in time to remain happy.

 

Defragging can sometimes help if the latter, or shutdown/restart to clear out the caches on the hard drive.

 

Ok, thanks for the info. Is there any way I can check if one of the things you mention indeed was the reason for the CTD?

 

I always try to keep my FSX installation very clean so I would like to think all files, textures or whatever should be in place. As for the memory, exactly what memory is it FSX might run out of? I have 8 GB RAM and I'm running 64 bit Win7 and I have a GTX 680 with 2 GB dedicated video memory if my own memory serves :wink: I don't run any highly intense memory consumers like 4096 textures and so on but keep all textures including the cloud textures at the FSX default size of 1024.

 

As for fragmentation problems that shouldn't be an issue since I'm running FSX on it's own dedicated SSD disk.

[nazethc 73]

Run Procmon  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx  while running FSX, when and if you crash it will show if FSX is crashing because of a faulty texture, FX file etc....

 

When you first run procmon you will need to specify to look for FSX only....

 

In the filter screen  http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/442/result2gq0.jpg/?sa=0

 

select Process name, is, type fsx.exe, include..... Apply then OK

 

Start FSX, and if you have a crash it will show what faulted.

 

Has helped to find buggy files in FSX

[BilboBaggins 82]

That's the thing to be clear on: you can have 32GB of system RAM, an 8GB VRAM video card..... but, because FSX is 32-bit, it will only ever see 4GB RAM total.

 

It's good to have the RAM and 64-bit and all to keep that 4GB as clear of the rest of Windows as possible, but it won't increase the amount of Virtual Address Space (4GB) that FSX "sees."

 

The HD thing is mainly a bit shot in the dark; I just defrag frequently, and restart my PC if things start to get wonky (which, fortunately, hasn't been often on my new machine, yay).

 

There are occasions where nothing but full reinstall of both Windows and FSX will do, but I don't think you're there yet.

 

Also make sure you have Simconnect installed (it's the MS equivalent of FSUIPC, inter process communications for add-ons may rely on it), and if you do, doesn't hurt to go to Control Panel and issue a Repair every now and then.

 

Finally, more tricky and mysterious, make sure you have a good install of .NET Framework 3.5SP1 installed, and before going to full reinstall of everything, Google .NET Framework Repair Tool and make sure your 3.5SP1 install is okay; sometimes it, like Simconnect, can get corrupted, and thus also cause mysteries.

 

Hey, it's easier than learning to program an FMC!

Steve

[WebMaximus 372]

Thanks guys for all valuable input, will try what has been suggested and keep you posted.

[zmak 331]

Maybe try renaming your fsx.cfg file and build a new one? Some people swear by this since overtweaking on a high end systems places much to much strain on and old operating platform.

You could try just using a few very basic tweaks like highmemfix etc and run it like this for several days

[WebMaximus 372]

 

 

Maybe try renaming your fsx.cfg file and build a new one? Some people swear by this since overtweaking on a high end systems places much to much strain on and old operating platform.
You could try just using a few very basic tweaks like highmemfix etc and run it like this for several days

Thanks Zoran, that's always a good suggestion but in my case I don't think that would help. I don't have that many tweaks in my fsx.cfg, only the ones suggested by Word Not Allowed's FSX guide and I would say these are all pretty good and well proven tweaks. Part from this I've had these kind of CTDs caused by the mysterious unknown module also long before Word Not Allowed's guide was written and without using those tweaks.

For now I think my first step will be to use Process Monitor suggested above. That is actually a really great tip and can't understand why I didn't think of it myself since I already had that utility on my disk. Will be very interesting to see what that gives!

To be honest I would almost even more like to find a way to track down exactly what is happening "behind the scenes" when you get these type of CTDs rather than simply getting rid of the CTDs by doing some changes because then I will still not know what was actually causing them and I do want to find that out once and for all and I'll do my very very best this time to track it down.

So...if your name is 'Unknown module'...watch out :wink: !!

[WebMaximus 372]

 

 

Also make sure you have Simconnect installed (it's the MS equivalent of FSUIPC, inter process communications for add-ons may rely on it), and if you do, doesn't hurt to go to Control Panel and issue a Repair every now and then.Finally, more tricky and mysterious, make sure you have a good install of .NET Framework 3.5SP1 installed, and before going to full reinstall of everything, Google .NET Framework Repair Tool and make sure your 3.5SP1 install is okay

I do have SimConnect installed since I have both XPax and Aivlasoft EFB running on a second computer connecting to my FSX computer via SimConnect, at least I think so if my memory serves. When you suggest I should go to the Control Panel and issue a repair every now and then exactly what repair process are you referring to then?

Then regarding .NET 3.5 SP1 that's interesting because when I checked my installed programs I actaully didn't have that one at all but only .NET Framwork 4 Client Profile. What is it that would be using .NET 3.5 SP1 and would I still need that when I have .NET Framwork 4 Client Profile installed? And if something actually needs .NET 3.5 SP1 specifically I don't understand why I couldn't find it in the list of installed programs since normally all those kind of "extras" get installed automatically by the program relying on them...?

 

Edited to add I now did find .NET 3.5.1 on my system, was found under 'Turn Windows features on and off' rather than in the list of installed programs. However I haven't been able to find any SP1 for .NET 3.5 (or maybe 3.5.1 already indicate SP1 is included...?) Will have to do some reading about this I guess.