P3Dv4 First CTD after Clean Install

[John Pavey 2]

After a few weeks of experiencing CTDs (mainly due to TERRAIN.DLL faults) (with the only add-on being (AS for P3D4!), I bit the bullet - bought and installed a new Samsung 1TB SSD, installed Windows 10, Installed Drive Booster to ensure all drivers are up-to-date; downloaded and installed P3DV4; started up the simulator; made 1 change to the config (Sound - changed speaker output to my Sound card instead of the default speakers); selected a scenario using the default fighter jet and default locations, weather etc; the scenario was successfully loaded; took off and flew around for just over a minute and --- you guessed it - my first crash!!  The good news is that the fault (this time) wasn't TERRAIN.DLL - the reported module was D3DCompiler_47.dll; (Didn't think I'd need to download appcrashview this early in the game, so the only report I've attached is from EventViewer (see below).

I checked out the CTD Guide and the only faults close to what EventViewer reported appear of pp 32/33 (D3D9.dll and D3D11.dll) but I haven't installed SweetFX or ENBSeries modules so not sure if this applies.  Any suggestions as to how to fix this?

In the meantime, might as well install STEAM FSX - at least my experience with it has been more reliable than P3D (even if the frame rates are not as robust!) 

[John Pavey 2]

Here's the EventViewer report

Faulting application name: Prepar3D.exe, version: 4.4.16.27077, time stamp: 0x5bfdbb35
Faulting module name: D3DCOMPILER_47.dll, version: 6.3.9600.16384, time stamp: 0x5215f2ea
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000321f20
Faulting process id: 0x688
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4b7f15210e127
Faulting application path: D:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Prepar3D.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\D3DCOMPILER_47.dll
Report Id: 1bcaddfa-4637-46f5-81bc-0a788146a174
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

[Jim Young 2,356]

1 hour ago, John Pavey said:

After a few weeks of experiencing CTDs (mainly due to TERRAIN.DLL faults) (with the only add-on being (AS for P3D4!), I bit the bullet

I think a lot of people just were not meant to own or run P3Dv4.4.  I have had a couple of problems and one was so serious I had to contact Microsoft support.  It was a permission problem with my Username.  How user profiles get corrupted I will never know but, in my case, I think it was me going from my user profile on Microsoft and the local user profile.  It eventually wiped out everything on my computer including P3Dv4.  I couldn't even open up the Lorby_Si Organizer! 

I have never seen the faulting module as the d3dcompiler_47.dll.  The one that crashed is the one in your P3D folder and there's one in my WebSimBrowser folder for that Carenado Synthetic Vision System.  There's no reason to uninstall/reinstall as you have the right version installed properly.  Something triggered it to fault though.  You state you have no addons so I am totally clueless as to what might be the issue.  It is not the fault of LM's P3DV4 as you are the only one who has gotten this crash so there is something particular to your installation. 

Did you ever have add-ons installed other than Active Sky? When you uninstall P3D, the Add-on folder in the Documents\Prepar3D Addons folder remain.  This is on purpose so that if you ever reinstalled P3DV4, your addons would automatically show up and you do not have to ever reinstall them again.

Did you check the dll.xml?  Is it the default?  Is the active sky entries still there and Active Sky is not installed?  There may be two dll.xml for P3D, the default is located in the same folder as your scenery.cfg.  The other one is still used by Active Sky and some others and that's in the old default folder located in the same folder as P3D.cfg.  You do not want anything to be loaded that does not exist.

The error occurred after taking off from a default airport in the default jet.  It is literally impossible for a flight to crash with that scenario without something else being loaded that should not be there.  If your sim is calling for something, an object, a scenery, a gauge, and it is not there, then I can see the crash happening.

On page 10 of the AVSIM CTD Guide I provide details on how to troubleshoot every crash.  Renaming your P3D.cfg, dll.xml, and scenery.cfg and restarting the sim should fix 99% of the crashes as these are the cause of most crashes.  If you load a scenery not compatible with v4.4 (you cannot see what is being loaded by your sim) then it will crash.  Active sky has to be updated to be compatible with P3DV4.4.  Think FSUIPC has to be updated too to be compatible.  I remember I loaded Active Sky and they told me it was not compatible and I just hit okay and it still loaded.  Then after startup of the scenario, it gave me the warning again and made me shut it down.  I don't believe in warning message as those are for others.  LOL.

Hope you find a fix.

[John Pavey 2]

Thanks for your suggestions, Jim - will try the troubleshooting tips outlined in the Guide and update if I find a fix (hopefully this crash is a "one-off" and not symptomatic of the curse that's been laid on me!)  BTW - while I had Active Sky installed previouosly, I haven't had the opportunity to install it since I added the new SSD  - the only software I was operating at the time of the crash was Windows and P3D only - no add-ons whatsoever.

[Jim Young 2,356]

2 hours ago, John Pavey said:

BTW - while I had Active Sky installed previously, I haven't had the opportunity to install it since I added the new SSD  - the only software I was operating at the time of the crash was Windows and P3D only - no add-ons whatsoever. 

I understand.  I was just trying to cover many bases as some members have left remnants of an old installation on the computer and, when they start up P3D, it loads the ActiveSky module (or it could be a utility like FSUIPC) and they are no longer on your computer so P3D cannot find them and may crash.

Renaming your p3d.cfg to say p3d.OFF, and the dll.xml and scenery.cfg will not hurt your installation.  All of these files will be rebuilt when you restart P3D.  If you continue to get the crash then you can safely say, these configs did not cause it.  Then, if you want you can go back and rename the old files back.

[John Pavey 2]

Sad to say, I think you’re right that I wasn’t meant to run P3DV4!  The only positive was that over the past 2 days, I was able to successfully fly with 3 different default aircraft for flights lasting 30 or so minutes with no problems. And then the final straw occurred.  I downloaded and installed PMDG’s 737NGX, launched P3D, created a scenario, loaded it, programmed the FMC; pushed back, taxied and took off,  climbed beyond 12,000 feet and BINGO – crash!

This time Event Viewer said it wasn’t an app error but a system crash (Kernel-Power).  So I’m giving up on P3D for a while. I’m tired of wasting my time trying to problem solve – I just want to practice flying. It’s crazy that with a clean SSD with only Windows 10 and P3D loaded , no add-ons except PMDG, this should occur.  So it’s back to FSX and maybe try XPlane.  It just boggles my mind the LM can design complex systems to operate real sophisticated aircraft but can’t put the puck in the net for a 64bit flight simulator. 

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

33 minutes ago, John Pavey said:

an app error but a system crash (Kernel-Power)

This is a system crash, not a P3D crash.  P3D just happened to be running when the event occurred with your system.  See if the fixes at the following link help - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2028504/windows-kernel-event-id-41-error-the-system-has-rebooted-without-clean.  You need to do some repairs to your Windows 10 installation.  If you move back to FSX or X-Plane it will probably happen again there.  Your system power is shutting down suddenly and that should not be happening.  You may have to contact Microsoft and have a tech go into your system and try to fix it or you can try to do a Windows 10 reset too.  You will have to reinstall some programs but not all.  You might even get by without reinstalling P3D.

[188AHC 2,138]

Just a thought. Looking at your system specs, what size PSU do you have?  I had a problem like this sometime back with flying anywhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour and out of the blue my system would shut down or reboot.  It turned out my PSU was faulting.  Your load might be too large for your power supply causing it to overheat and shed loads.

 

[John Pavey 2]

OK Jim - will give it one more try as I really enjoyed the first 3 months or error free P3D flying.  Have done a quick review of the link you provided and at first glance, it looks like I may have to remove the overclocking of my CPU as an initial step.  Will have to read up on this to understand how to do - hopefully won't destroy my CPU in the process!!.  Will update this thread if I have any success.  Thanks again.  

 

[John Pavey 2]

To 188AHC - power supply is 1000W

[Jim Young 2,356]

11 hours ago, John Pavey said:

and at first glance, it looks like I may have to remove the overclocking of my CPU as an initial step.  Will have to read up on this to understand how to do - hopefully won't destroy my CPU in the process!!.  Will update this thread if I have any success.  Thanks again

 

 

It's impossible to hurt your CPU. Look at all the people who overclock beyond specs. Works great for a few weeks and then ctd. The CPU will simply not load at Windows startup if you try to hurt it. Too high CPU voltages or too low are common when trying to  overclock.  The ctd guide recommends optimal defaults which is a safe way to overclock. 

 

[John Pavey 2]

Good to know!...So if I understand this correctly, all I have to do in the Overclocking section of the Bios is simply press the F5 key which is the option for "Optimized Defaults"?

[John Pavey 2]

Well - happy to report that after setting my BIOS settings to Optimized Default, I have just successfully completed a 2 hour flight with no system crash or app crash!!  Here's hoping that this signals the end of what has been a very frustrating process.  Also frame rates were really no different than when my computer was overclocked (which makes me wonder what the whole point of overclocking was (may the story will be different with FSX?)  Anyhow, thanks for all your help, Jim

[Jim Young 2,356]

I totally agree.  I use to use the optimized defaults only but it is getting easier and easier to overclock.  You should also check if you have Hyper-threading and turn it off.  For me it has eliminated the blurries.  Have fun with your "new system".  You should have more enjoyment now.

Jim