Twin Otter for P3D v4 causes hang-up and CTD

[ilya1502 42]

It looks like posting on Aerosoft forums for help is as good as trying to get a reply from the kingdom of dead :(

Maybe someone had this problem and was successful in sorting things out?

Twin Otter Extended 1.21. It hangs or crashes to desktop in several seconds after engines shutdown. I've seen numerous threads on the very same issue, but no useful information. I tried to disable AS Flight Recorder, tried to disable Antivirus, and other add-ons, tried to reinstall from scratch, no luck. This happens only with the Twin Otter. I'm running P3D 4.1 on Windows 10.

I'm not sure if these technical details can tell anything, but here they are anyway.

From the Windows Event Viewer.

#1

Spoiler

Fault bucket 129584528079, type 5
Event Name: AppHangB1
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Prepar3D.exe
P2: 4.1.7.22841
P3: 59d67e95
P4: 0000
P5: 134217984
P6: 
P7: 
P8: 
P9: 
P10: 

Attached files:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7A3.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7B3.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7B4.tmp.txt
\\?\C:\Users\Ilya\AppData\Local\Temp\WERD278.tmp.appcompat.txt

These files may be available here:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppHang_Prepar3D.exe_7dbfdbe783a886a39b4204a944aeaa4ab578d_911d388a_145edc2c

Analysis symbol: 
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: d2ee2e05-f389-4e90-acde-a21c52377d1b
Report Status: 268435456
Hashed bucket: 67d6e0476771645646fd44e30e8461e6
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1001</EventID>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-11-29T21:21:02.208461200Z" />
    <EventRecordID>6208</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>IlyaProDesktop</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>129584528079</Data>
    <Data>5</Data>
    <Data>AppHangB1</Data>
    <Data>Not available</Data>
    <Data>0</Data>
    <Data>Prepar3D.exe</Data>
    <Data>4.1.7.22841</Data>
    <Data>59d67e95</Data>
    <Data>0000</Data>
    <Data>134217984</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7A3.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7B3.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERA7B4.tmp.txt
\\?\C:\Users\Ilya\AppData\Local\Temp\WERD278.tmp.appcompat.txt</Data>
    <Data>C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppHang_Prepar3D.exe_7dbfdbe783a886a39b4204a944aeaa4ab578d_911d388a_145edc2c</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>0</Data>
    <Data>d2ee2e05-f389-4e90-acde-a21c52377d1b</Data>
    <Data>268435456</Data>
    <Data>67d6e0476771645646fd44e30e8461e6</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

#2

Spoiler

The program Prepar3D.exe version 4.1.7.22841 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
 Process ID: 1ee4
 Start Time: 01d36956ef097cc8
 Termination Time: 24
 Application Path: D:\FSGW P3Dv4\Prepar3D.exe
 Report Id: d2ee2e05-f389-4e90-acde-a21c52377d1b
 Faulting package full name: 
 Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Hang" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1002</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>101</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-11-29T21:21:03.054211900Z" />
    <EventRecordID>6209</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>IlyaProDesktop</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>Prepar3D.exe</Data>
    <Data>4.1.7.22841</Data>
    <Data>1ee4</Data>
    <Data>01d36956ef097cc8</Data>
    <Data>24</Data>
    <Data>D:\FSGW P3Dv4\Prepar3D.exe</Data>
    <Data>d2ee2e05-f389-4e90-acde-a21c52377d1b</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Binary>55006E006B006E006F0077006E0000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

This is from the Security and Maintenance Control Panel.

Spoiler

Source
Prepar3D exe

Summary
Stopped responding and was closed

Date
‎29.‎11.‎17 01:39

Status
Report sent

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.
Faulting Application Path:    D:\FSGW P3Dv4\Prepar3D.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name:    AppHangB1
Application Name:    Prepar3D.exe
Application Version:    4.1.7.22841
Application Timestamp:    59d67e95
Hang Signature:    0000
Hang Type:    134217984
OS Version:    10.0.16299.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID:    1033
Additional Hang Signature 1:    00000000000000000000000000000000
Additional Hang Signature 2:    0000
Additional Hang Signature 3:    00000000000000000000000000000000
Additional Hang Signature 4:    0000
Additional Hang Signature 5:    00000000000000000000000000000000
Additional Hang Signature 6:    0000
Additional Hang Signature 7:    00000000000000000000000000000000

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID:    67d6e0476771645646fd44e30e8461e6 (129584528079)

 

[hs118 707]

The log files are showing only that P3D is not responding to Windows and is being forced closed. No good diagnostic info here.

My experience with this type of CTD is that it is being caused by an add on in dll.xml. You mention you disabled the flight recorder but it could also be caused by an adverse interaction between the Twin Otter and another addon.

Another common cause is if you are running an external program (that connects with simconnect) as an admin but are not running P3D as admin. It is pretty much all or none with running as admin...all communicating programs must match.

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

I agree with Henry's recommendation.  AppHangs, Freezes, and CTD's without a faulting module are impossible to fix unless you, the owner of your PC, P3D, and the Otter, investigate.  This is most likely why you have not seen any responses yet to the same post you posted at Aerosoft.  The AVSIM CTD Guide provides suggestions for investigating the "scene of the crime" starting around page 10, How to fix most crashes and freezes in P3DV4.  The lastest Windows 10 update, v1709, is known to cause some issues for some and many have gone back to the previous version, 1703.  However, I do not recall anyone else here at AVSIM reporting a problem with the Aerosoft Otter.  According to the developer, the aircraft is "old" meaning it has been around for a long time in various versions of simulators and was recently upgraded to 1.21 to be compatible with P3DV4.1.  I saw similar issues when using Carenado aircraft in version 4.0 and, in those cases, it appears the issues were navdata and maybe the fonts.  Carenado recommended the fonts in the P3D folder be also copied to the Windows/Fonts folder as Windows 10 has its security thing.  It's a recommendation that won't break anything if you copy those fonts to the main Windows/Fonts folder.  They also discovered the issue was with P3D and Lockheed was aware of the issue and it would be fixed in v4.1.  Well, in v4.1, it fixed all of the Carenado issues.

So, during your investigations, you need to rename your p3d.cfg to p3d.cfg.off.  Restart P3D and run your scenario with the Otter and see if this fixes the problem. You do not want to change any of the p3d.cfg settings.  If it does, then your settings were set too high and P3D struggled to render the textures you were throwing at it.  It could also be a tweak you might have put in the p3d.cfg that is not compatible with your computer system (the Affinity Mask tweak is the most common fault). 

If this does not work, follow Henry's suggestion and rename the two dll.xml's to dll.xml.off.  One dll.xml is located in the same folder as your p3d.cfg and the other in the same folder as your scenery.cfg (the new default).  When you rename them and restart P3D, P3D will create the default dll.xml.  This fixes most problems and, if it does for you, then it was a module or modules being loaded by the dll.xml's that need to be updated, are missing, or corrupted.  The AVSIM CTD Guide provides guidance for investigating which module it might be that is causing the problem.

The last possible solution is to open up the Addon Organizer from Lorby_Si and disable all of your addon scenery and any addons in the scenery.cfg.  I have found that my P3DV4.1 will just go to the desktop without any errors showing if any of my Add-on.xml's or my scenery.cfg is corrupted.  As you know, Lockheed has coded all of the xml's and the scenery.cfg and, if not coded properly, P3DV4.1 will crash suddenly without explanation.  When I go to the Addon Organizer and check for proper encoding and see the scenery.cfg is not coded properly and the Add-on.xml's are coded properly, I'll rename the scenery.cfg to scenery.cfg.off.  Restart P3D and a new default and properly coded scenery.cfg is created.  I'll then own up both in Notepad +++ (Google for the program and download) and copy the addon entries in the old config to the new config, save the new config and it will then be coded properly.  Once I do this, these unexplained crashed stop.

If there was something wrong with the Otter, I am fairly certain everyone who owns the Otter would be having these issues.  They are not.  So I think it is something in your setup that is causing the freezes and unexplained crashes w/o errors and not the Otter.

Hope this helps. 

Best regards,

Jim

 

[ilya1502 42]

20 hours ago, Jim Young said:

I agree with Henry's recommendation. <...>

 

Jim,

Thank you very much for the outline and for pointing out that CTD Guide for me. I wish knew about it earlier!

It turns out that it is Aerosoft custom sound engine asc.dll. As soon as I disabled it my CTD problem was gone and I could even make a flight. I then loaded a different configuration of the aircraft with the module enabled and the CTD was there. I now hope that someone here or at Aerosoft will be able to help me to rule things out.

My special thanks go to the creators of the Guide — what a tremendous amount of work and devotion!

By the way, I followed the guide and used Process Monitor to explore P3D behaviour. And I've found a pretty weird thing... What is this that Prepar3D.exe is doing? I have no Chinese locale on my system :) This happens for a very short period and then stops. Very strange. Do you happen to have any ideas on what this might be?

Spoiler

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Thanks for the kinds words on the guide.  The Chinese characters for some of the Windows directories P3D is calling is interesting.  Maybe you have Malware installed and you were not aware it's there?  I'll have to check it out and see if the same happens.  Here is a link I found that might apply (it's for Windows 7 but should apply with Windows 10 too) - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/1eea3d70-c29a-4a80-9dd7-87ec131f160a/chinese-characters-showing-as-blocks-on-windows-7?forum=w7itproappcompat

Glad you were able to find a solution to your problem!

Best regards,

Jim

[ilya1502 42]

15 minutes ago, Jim Young said:

Here is a link I found that might apply (it's for Windows 7 but should apply with Windows 10 too) - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/1eea3d70-c29a-4a80-9dd7-87ec131f160a/chinese-characters-showing-as-blocks-on-windows-7?forum=w7itproappcompat

I have checked once more — my Locale is set to Russian since I have to work with documents in this language a lot. I thought about Malware, too. Do you think it could affect P3D this way that it is actually trying to call some files so weirdly named?

Quote

Glad you were able to find a solution to your problem!

A probable cause to be precise. Hopefully, someone helps to find a solution. Even using the process monitor, I still couldn't figure out what went wrong right at the moment of the crash. Nothing really suspicious was happening there. There were calls to .NET though. I'll try to find a way to check if it is intact.

[Jim Young 2,356]

2 hours ago, ilya1502 said:

Do you think it could affect P3D this way that it is actually trying to call some files so weirdly named?

Hard to tell.  In the Process Monitor is reading and writing so fast that it could be the Process Monitor.  You should try again to see if it is continuing because the files do not exist on your system (with the Chinese characters).

3 hours ago, ilya1502 said:

It turns out that it is Aerosoft custom sound engine asc.dll

Did you install the Otter with Administrative Rights.  I saw that many people had issues with the dll too until they reinstalled their Aerosoft product with Admin Rights.

[ilya1502 42]

12 hours ago, Jim Young said:

Did you install the Otter with Administrative Rights.  I saw that many people had issues with the dll too until they reinstalled their Aerosoft product with Admin Rights.

Although I'm sure I did, I decided to eliminate all possible "what if's" and reinstalled it from scratch double checking that I used "Run as Administrator" when I started the installer. It didn't make any difference :(