XAudio2_6.dll CTD and A2A 172 Crashes

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Again, Jim, Thank you so much for all your help and sticking with me. First flying in four months! I was beginning to think all was lost. So incredibly happy.

 

Of course it always makes me happy when I find a solution.  You really shouldn't have any problems with Windows for a while but, when you run into any problems, it does not hurt anything to run the repair program.  Windows can become corrupt and it is hard to see what went wrong.  Running Windows Repair is definitely much faster and easier than formatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows as it does not mess with any installed programs.  It just fixes Windows.  Anyone, a novice or computer expert, would be wise to use this program when they see a lot of events, especially critical events, in the Event Viewer.  I plan on adding this "fix" in my AVSIM CTD Guide as you're the second one who has had their problems fixed using this program.

 

You will probably see occasional crashes and freezes running FSX as the program simply is not perfect and it has not been updated since early 2007.  Addon developers who we all like for their outstanding products do not always program their products to work perfectly with FSX but they usually release an update when bugs are found that they know their program is causing.  Active Sky and the FSUIPC utility are two that continually receive updates. 

 

Another major factor for crashes/freezes is the lack of Virtual Address Space (VAS).  Microsoft only gave us 4 GB's and that runs out pretty fast when you have a lot of commercially developed aircraft, scenery, and other eye-candy producing addons.  Our computers are faster and rendering scenery and textures much faster and we have to be careful of running out of VAS.  When FSX was first released, we had few eye-candy producing addons and our Intel/AMD processors were not as powerful.  So, be careful and keep conservative settings especially when flying with the many outstanding commercial addons.

 

I personally am moving over to LockHeed Martin's Prepar3D which essentially is FSX but updated (I still have FSX and many addons for it installed).  The techs at Lockheed seem to be very active in trying to meet the demands of the flight simulation community.  It will be updated every two years (or that's the plan) and one will have to purchase the new version (Microsoft updated FS every two years too starting with FS2000 in 1999).  P3D Version 3 was released this year.  Dovetail is getting ready to release a new flight simulator too (I heard it will be released on 18 December).  Lots of exciting things are on the near horizon for this hobby but it can get expensive.

 

Thanks for your kind comments.  I certainly appreciate your letting me and others know your issue has been fixed.  We're glad to have you aboard AVSIM. 

 

Best regards,

Jim

[PACSFIXER 0]

I was happy too soon. It froz again today after 23 mins and then again at 11 mins. I guess I am back to the drawing board. I am doing a scan disk for bad sectors at the moment. Maybe I have a hardware issue. Talk to you late with details.

[PACSFIXER 0]

So I ran a full (took 5 hours to run) Check Disk.  There were no error or bad sectors.  I am going back to your CTD Guide and start at the beginning again.  I will need some help along the way.

[PACSFIXER 0]

Update:  I re-ran the repair portion of Tweaking.com tool.  Then took off again.  Flew over 2 hours with no freeze.  What ever is going on seems to be fixed after repair but as soon as I shut down my PC and go on the next day the freezing is back.. Have you ever heard of that?

[Jim Young 2,356]

Update:  I re-ran the repair portion of Tweaking.com tool.  Then took off again.  Flew over 2 hours with no freeze.  What ever is going on seems to be fixed after repair but as soon as I shut down my PC and go on the next day the freezing is back.. Have you ever heard of that?

The repairs program shows you all of the repairs that will be accomplished and there should be a log file that shows exactly what was repaired.  My only thought as to why your PC freezes a day or two later is the possibility of a bad Windows Update.  So the Windows Repair program fixes Windows Update errors when they are found and Windows Updates reinstalls the bad updates or modifies your system.  I would turn off automatic Windows Updates (only update when you tell it to update) and see if that fixes it. 

 

The other possibility is Windows Defender.  It has been known to scan FSX and quarantine files it believes is a threat to your system.  Same with anti-virus and anti-malware programs (Windows Defender is an anti-malware program).  So, Windows Repair repaired your system and Windows Defender or another anti-virus program is not allowing a file to work as it thinks it is a virus or malware.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[PACSFIXER 0]

I think you are onto something Jim. After my first successful 2 hrs flight the last thing I did was get antivirus updates for Microsoft Security Essentials then shutdown PC. The very next time I booted up and tried to fly it froze. So after yesterday's successful 2 hrs of flying with no connection to the Internet and Microsoft Security Essentials turned off I didn't do any thing else but shut down. (BTW I already have automatic Windows Updates turned off) Today I booted up PC with WiFi dongle pulled out and MSE turned off and had another successful 1 hr flight. I'm going to stay disconnected from the web and see if I can keep flying without freezing. It's a dedicated Flight Sim PC so I don't need Internet on it. I'll post updates in a few days. Thanks for your invaluable help.

[PACSFIXER 0]

I am still flying with no freezes. I just haven't connected to the Internet. So, the question that remains is, is it Windows Updates or Microsoft Security Essentials updates? Not sure how to proceed. The last freeze free flying before all went bad was July 1st. Should I delete all the windows updates back to that date or get rid of MSE? Any advice? Tx

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Any advice?

 

Before you can turn off any security for your computer you should first make sure it was or was not the cause of your crashes.  Windows Defender is Microsoft's freeware (okay, you had to pay for Windows) security program.  I have mine turned off as I use Anti-MalwareBytes Pro to protect me from evil people.  I told Anti-MalwareBytes not to scan my FSX, P3D and addon folders (all of my FSX/P3D programs/addons are located on 3 drives so I have excluded those three drives from any scanning).  You can do this with Windows Defender too.  Windows Defender would be at fault if there was a file or folder belonging to FSX in the Windows Defender Quarantine section.  If you have an anti-malware program, Windows Defender is really not needed as it duplicates.  I don't own an anti-virus program but some of the anti-virus programs have anti-malware protection too.  If you have an anti-virus program, make sure you are not having that program scan your FSX folders and addon folders.

 

If there was nothing quarantined in Windows Defender or any anti-malware or anti-virus program on your computer, then it most likely was not the fault (other than it could have been scanning your computer while you were in a flight session taking up resources). 

 

Windows Updates has been known to make FSX/P3D crash but on rare occasions.  Problem with removing bad updates is that they will be installed again and again as Microsoft wants you to have the updates. 

 

Make sure FSX is setup to run as Administrator for ALL users and User Access Controls are disabled (think I recommended these earlier but cannot see the first page of this topic anymore).  Use the guidance for fixing crashes and freezes in the AVSIM CTD Guide, page 10.  Other than that there is no "magic bullet" for fixing crashes or freezes. 

 

Best regards,

Jim