There have been many articles regarding issues with p3d not starting properly and most seem to be related to xml and dll files. My PC developed and issue some days ago without my having altered anything in P3d to my knowledge, however, there have been a couple of updates to my Windows 10 operating system recently. When I try to load P3D now it hangs but by doing a "warm" reboot I can access P3D v4.2 which then works perfectly. All my add on's and aircraft can be accessed and flown normally.)PMDG 777 PMDG 737NG FS Labs A320.

Can anyone suggest what may be wrong with the P3D exe file? or is there some other reason for the odd behaviour. I am not very computer literate and would welcome any suggestions. I do not relish deleting and re-installing P3D and all my add ons as it appears that when I sucessfully load the sim all is well. The problem is in the initial loading.

I have tried deleting the P3d cfg file and the shader and letting the sim rebuild them but the problem still exists. I keep all my drivers up to date and any updates to programmes are loaded as soon as I become aware of them.

Any help or suggestions at all would be most welcome.

Allan Roberts.

My system is as follows:

Win 10 64 bit all updates installed

Intel i7 processor

Nvidia 980Ti video card

16GB RAM.

Three screens attached to my system. 

Allan Roberts

Are you sure about the version?  There is no P3D 4.2 yet.

He prob means 4.1. 

Without more info it is hard to say what it could be.  What do you mean by a "warm" reboot?   To me that means you reboot the OS thru the OS menu/aka start menu.  You're saying if you come home, pc is off and cold, turn on the cold pc, then your P3D locks every time?  Yet, after your rig has been running for awhile, P3D always starts? 

P3D V4.2?? where is it? share with us :)

Where you go again..."there have been a couple of updates to my Windows 10 operating system recently" i read it so many times that i lost count, flight simulators pc's vs windows updates is like Trump vs the fat guy from North korea, they don't get along, i have W10 updates disabled for more than 6 months now with zero problems.

Quick solution try to do a restore point prior to those updates, if not you a lot to dig in, but i would start to disable all the addons and go from there!

Hi All. My p3d version is 4.1.7.22841. My apologies for miss quoting on my original post. 

You are correct in assuming that I cannot load p3d from a cold PC start but if I use the restart button on my PC it loads and then works very well with all the aircraft I have loaded. A320 - x, PMDG 737NGx and PMDG 777-200 and 300 models operating correctly.

Restore point does not solve my problem. I have tried the usual deleting Shaders and Cfg file.I do have a lot of add-ons including Rex Skyforce latest issue, PF3  PRO_ATC, EFB PFPX flight planning. I also use FSUIPC latest version. When I am advised to deactivate Add-ons is that from within P3D or all addons including those in P3D add ons folder and stand alone programmes?