Hi there!

I recently ran into an issue where FSXSE was not launching. I'd click Play in Steam. It would run as admin, show up with the splash screen and error out. I've used the AVSIM CTD Guide. The error ocurrs in ntdll.dll. All fixes I've seen for this don't work.

 

No new RAM installed.

Timings are fine in mobo bios.

No CPU overclock.

Also done a complete reinstall based on the PMDG FSX re-install guide.

 

If you need more info, just ask!

Thanks,

David W

EDIT: Running Win10. Up-to-date.

Edited February 26, 20179 yr by mrjeeves
added OS

As indicated on page 10, AVSIM CTD Guide, there are procedures for investigating and fixing all crashes.  FSX-SE works perfectly w/o any addons and you can max out all of your settings and still no crashes.  When you add an add-on, the crashes begin if the add-on was not properly installed or you still have your settings maxed out. 

The PMDG uninstalling/reinstalling guide is excellent but not an assurance of fixing any crashes.  It shows you where the hidden files are located so you can delete them after you uninstall FSX-SE and then prepare for the reinstall.  The NTDLL.dll is common and it is a system error that is causing the crash and not FSX-SE.  As stated in the AVSIM CTD Guide, the military aircraft in MyTraffic6 will trigger the NTDLL.dll error.

The fact you crashed after starting up FSX indicates it is an add-on that is causing the crash.  When you first start up FSX, all of your modules for add-ons are loaded.  If any of them are corrupted or missing, the sim will crash leaving you with the task of finding the module that is bad.  The AVSIM CTD Guide tells you how to do this by moving the dll.xml to a temporary folder, restarting fsx, and seeing if your sim loads. 

The scenery in the scenery.cfg are loaded too (the enabled ones).  Not all, but the basic ones.  After you complete the info for you free flight, the scenery required for that will be loaded.  So, you could have a corrupted scenery.cfg.  In the guide I suggest renaming the scenery.cfg to scenery.old or moving it to another folder.  When you restart FSX, the config will be rebuilt with the basic scenery.  If the sim loads after doing this, then there is a problem with your scenery.cfg.

Most problems for CTD's are caused by a corrupted FSX.cfg.  Deleting the fsx.cfg and letting it rebuild fixes most problems.  If you used a tweak like AffinityMask or BufferPools, it could trigger the ntdll.dll error as you are messing with your CPU/GPU.

Best regards,

Jim

1 hour ago, Jim Young said:

As indicated on page 10, AVSIM CTD Guide, there are procedures for investigating and fixing all crashes.  FSX-SE works perfectly w/o any addons and you can max out all of your settings and still no crashes.  When you add an add-on, the crashes begin if the add-on was not properly installed or you still have your settings maxed out. 

The PMDG uninstalling/reinstalling guide is excellent but not an assurance of fixing any crashes.  It shows you where the hidden files are located so you can delete them after you uninstall FSX-SE and then prepare for the reinstall.  The NTDLL.dll is common and it is a system error that is causing the crash and not FSX-SE.  As stated in the AVSIM CTD Guide, the military aircraft in MyTraffic6 will trigger the NTDLL.dll error.

The fact you crashed after starting up FSX indicates it is an add-on that is causing the crash.  When you first start up FSX, all of your modules for add-ons are loaded.  If any of them are corrupted or missing, the sim will crash leaving you with the task of finding the module that is bad.  The AVSIM CTD Guide tells you how to do this by moving the dll.xml to a temporary folder, restarting fsx, and seeing if your sim loads. 

The scenery in the scenery.cfg are loaded too (the enabled ones).  Not all, but the basic ones.  After you complete the info for you free flight, the scenery required for that will be loaded.  So, you could have a corrupted scenery.cfg.  In the guide I suggest renaming the scenery.cfg to scenery.old or moving it to another folder.  When you restart FSX, the config will be rebuilt with the basic scenery.  If the sim loads after doing this, then there is a problem with your scenery.cfg.

Most problems for CTD's are caused by a corrupted FSX.cfg.  Deleting the fsx.cfg and letting it rebuild fixes most problems.  If you used a tweak like AffinityMask or BufferPools, it could trigger the ntdll.dll error as you are messing with your CPU/GPU.

Best regards,

Jim

I have no addons for fsx. Only freeware airplanes and these were all deleted when reinstalling FSX. That's ruled out.

It wouldn't be scenery.cfg because thsi would have been deleted upon reinstall.

The fsx.cfg has been deleted several times.

 

You say that it is a system error, but I had FSX:SE working, then I closed it, watched some YouTube and Netflix and tried launching again and it CTDed within two hours of it working. No restart, program installs or anything.

 

Best,

David W

You are making it very difficult.  One of the folders that is not uninstalled when you uninstall fsx is the scenery.cfg folder.  The hidden folder where your fsx.cfg is located is not removed either.  You have to manually delete it.

Again, it is impossible for FSX-SE to crash with a virgin install.  Only when you add addons or tweaks.  So, you are saying you have a virgin install and you are getting the ntdll.dll error at startup.  That's impossible.  I recommend going to the DTG forums and getting assistance from them since it is only FSX-SE that is loading and you have no addons.

Best regards,

Jim

4 minutes ago, Jim Young said:

You are making it very difficult.  One of the folders that is not uninstalled when you uninstall fsx is the scenery.cfg folder.  The hidden folder where your fsx.cfg is located is not removed either.  You have to manually delete it.

Again, it is impossible for FSX-SE to crash with a virgin install.  Only when you add addons or tweaks.  So, you are saying you have a virgin install and you are getting the ntdll.dll error at startup.  That's impossible.  I recommend going to the DTG forums and getting assistance from them since it is only FSX-SE that is loading and you have no addons.

Best regards,

Jim

The PMDG Guide, which I followed, informs you to delete that folder. The only file in that folder is fsx.cfg, which is empty.

Best,

David W

Your fsx.cfg shows 0 bytes.  You are also missing the Controls, SimObjects, Substitutions folders and the Cameras.cfg, fdr.dat, grantedrewards.bin, lwcfg.spb, scenery, tidy, wxstationlist.bin files.

1 minute ago, Jim Young said:

Your fsx.cfg shows 0 bytes.  You are also missing the Controls, SimObjects, Substitutions folders and the Cameras.cfg, fdr.dat, grantedrewards.bin, lwcfg.spb, scenery, tidy, wxstationlist.bin files.

I found the problem. My pc doesn't like to run fsx.exe in xp sp3 compatibility mode.

Glad you found the problem.  Hopefully you can enjoy the sim for a while w/o more problems.