P3D 4.4 CTD api.dll error

[daniel_pt 30]

Hi all...

I'm getting this error in a random basis and I'm failing to understand what might be the origin ad I don't that that many add on software.

Currently, my p3d 4.4 contains orbx global, vector and Europe and NA LC, envdir (envshade and envtexture), active sky, ASCA (dynamic theme),  fsuipc 5 and the aerosoft Airbuses. 

From what I read so far, the ctd due to api.dll is due to a bad or not up to date add-ons but,  seems to me that the ones I have are very common and are updated. I don't have the graphics sliders all too the maxed out and indeed in failing to understand what's going on. 

 

My system is an i7 8700k, HTC 1080ti, 16 GB ram and a 512 GB SSD Drive. 

 

Any tip would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

thanks

[Jim Young 2,356]

The two dll.xml's load modules when you first start up P3D.  Disable the two dll.xml's and see if that fixes the problem.

[daniel_pt 30]

Thank you Jim for the reply. If i'm not wrong the 2 dll.xml files are these ones, right?

 

My dll.xml @ "C:\Users\Daniel\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4", has this entries:

<Launch.Addon>
    <Name>FSUIPC 5</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>C:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Modules\FSUIPC5.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>as_connect</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>as_srv\as_connect_64.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>

 

The other @ "C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4" has only this one...

<Launch.Addon>
    <Name>RAASPRO</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>.\RAASPRO\RAASPRO.dll</Path>
    <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
    <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
  </Launch.Addon>

 

Gonna try to disable RAASPRO and see how it goes.

[Jim Young 2,356]

Yes, those are the two locations.  The same folder as your scenery.cfg is the new default location.

[daniel_pt 30]

Well, as I said,  I tried the same fight I was having the ctd (klas to ksan btw) and with RAAS disabled in the XML file, p3d ctd in the same point.  Oddly it was in between the mountains on my way to San Diego. 

I did the same flight route with a default aircraft and had no error...

 

So,  after seeing that some people was having ctd due to RAAS, I completely uninstalled RAAS  and was able to complete the flight I was trying to do. 

I'll have to test more, but if RAAS is the culprit for my ctd, I can easily live without it.

Edited April 3, 2019 by daniel_pt

[Jim Young 2,356]

30 minutes ago, daniel_pt said:

I'll have to test more, but if RAAS is the culprit for my ctd, I can easily live without it.

Make sure you have the latest update.  Think it is located in the FS Crew forum.  I also have a slightly different entry in my dll.xml:

<Launch.Addon>
        <Name>RAASPRO</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>.\RAASPRO\RAASPRO.dll</Path>
        <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
        <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
    </Launch.Addon>

[daniel_pt 30]

This is frustrating! When I think I was able to understand the pattern of my crashes, something different happens! 🙄 Think I'll have to get another airplane add-on to see if the ctd is replicated...

Anyway, this afternoon, it CTDed again, but now with no error listed in the Windows 10 Event Viewer. I googled for the cause and found some post from you, Jim, pointing to some bad scenery.cfg. So, I took the suggestion, downloaded Lorbi-Sy AddOrganizer and I can't see nothing wrong. All the "scenery", "other addons" and "packages" entries are all green... What am I missing?

[Jim Young 2,356]

2 hours ago, daniel_pt said:

Anyway, this afternoon, it CTDed again, but now with no error listed in the Windows 10 Event Viewer. I googled for the cause and found some post from you, Jim, pointing to some bad scenery.cfg. So, I took the suggestion, downloaded Lorbi-Sy AddOrganizer and I can't see nothing wrong. All the "scenery", "other addons" and "packages" entries are all green... What am I missing?

The scenery.cfg and/or Lorby's Addon Organizer are just one element that could cause crashes.  Take for instance Lorby's Addon Organizer.  All of the scenery entries (located in C:\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Addons have to be coded properly to work.  Any of them not in code and you could have issues. To check, open the Addon Organizer, go to the Tools tab and click on Check Encoding and the app will do all of the hard work for you.  I personally am not sitting in front of your computer and looking at the details of the coding and I always recommend one check that as part of their investigation into what is causing their crashes. 

On page 10 of the AVSIM CTD Guide, I wrote a section on how to fix any crash in P3D (or FSX).  No one wants to read it but it has been posted here often by others who have and were able to fix their issues using this guidance.  Certainly it is not a 100% sure chance it will fix your problems but you have to investigate and I am telling you how and where and what.  But, sometimes, even I follow my guidance in the guide and fail because it is something external to P3D that is causing my crashes.  The cause(s) for your api.dll crashes could be completely different than those members here at AVSIM who also get this error.  It is not a 100% surety that the fix will work for everyone as everyone has a different computer system and setup.  Some could be in tropical areas where the system was running in 115 degree heat or they have a lot of old components and the drivers are not up-to-date.

The api.dll is the module that makes P3D run.  Frustrated simmers have, in the past, taken the api.dll and modified it to make it work no matter what and are sometimes successful but then they encounter other issues and others who try to use this modified module continue to have crashes and hate the member who made their day even worse.  If only they could find them, they would fly there and make their day bad too.  Apologize for the bad humor.

The api.dll is just one module though.  Almost every application has an api.dll so the likelihood of it going bad in P3D is slim to none.  It is just shown as a faulting module as it is telling you there is something seriously wrong with your installation of P3D or a P3D addon or your Windows 10 installation.  Windows 7 and 10 have permissions and if you do not have the right permissions, you cannot play on this system.  I certainly had permission issues in the past and the only thing I could do was to create a new username and then move things from the old username to the new username and delete the old username.  To do this, I had to call in Microsoft techs who also had issues trying to figure out how to fix the permissions and spent two days inside my computer trying to fix it.  They just could not do it but they knew it was permissions that was causing my issues.  Permissions are beyond my expertise and I do not know how Windows screws them up but they do.  The only real solution (for me) is to wipe my HDD clean and reinstall Windows then every application and addon I own.  It takes days but I don't have the expertise to do anything else.  I have reinstalled Windows 7 and Windows 10 many times over my years using FSX/P3D.  It gets to a certain level of frustration and I cannot handle it anymore so I take the drastic action of reinstalling everything.

But, back to where I said on page 10 of the AVSIM CTD Guide, there is a section on how to fix any crash in P3D/FSX.  Out of memory, I'll try to explain it here:

First, rename your p3d.cfg to p3d.off.

Second, rename your two dll.xml's to dll.off (one is located in the same folder as the p3d.cfg and the other is in the same folder as the scenery.cfg)(the AVSIM CTD Guide shows you where too).  The one in the same folder as the scenery.cfg is the new default location for this file but some old-time developers still use the old location in the same folder as the p3d.cfg.  The default dll.xml will be rebuilt when you restart P3D to the default entries.  The one in the p3d.cfg folder will not be rebuilt.

Third, you go to C:/Documents/Prepar3dv4 Addons and move the contents of this folder to a temporary directory.  I go into Windows Explorer and, under the Documents folder, I name a new folder called Temp and use it to move things like the addon entries.  You want to leave the folder C:/Documents/Prepar3dv4 Addons as that is a default folder for P3DV4 and it may not like the fact you deleted it.

What have we done here?  We have pretty simply returned P3Dv4 back to the default after you restart P3D. Sure, there will be modules in the main P3D folder but they will be harmless. The P3D.cfg will be rebuilt, the dll.xml in the scenery.cfg folder will be rebuilt, and NO addon scenery will load.  All of these files get corrupted once in a while for reasons unknown.  You are investigating and you are making sure there is absolutely nothing wrong with the p3d.cfg, the scenery.cfg, or the dll.xml.

Optional: Instead of restarting P3Dv4 after renaming the above files, you can also uninstall P3Dv4... first uninstall Client, then uninstall Content, and lastly uninstall Scenery.  It will not wipe out your P3D.cfg, scenery.cfg or dll.xml folders, they will still be there, but you can then install the Client, the Content, and lastly the scenery and then load P3Dv4.  It should start up with no issues and you should be able to fly with any default aircraft anywhere in the world.  You might also be able to fly any payware you had installed, like PMDG, as the uninstalling should not have touched those aircraft folders (unless you went in and deleted the entire P3DV4 folder after the uninstall and that would be a serious mistake). 

Still, I would restart P3Dv4 and see if this has fixed the problem without having to uninstall all of P3Dv4.  You should have the default p3d.cfg, the default dll.xml, and the default scenery.cfg installed.  If it crashes now, then you really have serious issues but I believe the sim will work without any flaws and you will once again enjoy Valentine's Day.

If that is the case and you see no more CTD's, then I would move all of the scenery entries you moved from the C:/Documents/Prepar3Dv4 Addons folder back to this folder.  Restart P3DV4 and see if there are any crashes.  If not, then you know it is not a problem with the scenery you have installed.

Next, assuming no crashes, return the old dll.xml in the same folder as the scenery.cfg by deleting the one there and renaming the one you named with the .off extension.  Change the .off to .xml so it will show up as dll.xml.  Restart P3D and see if there are any crashes.  If not, then you can probably rule out the default dll.xml as the culprit. 

Next, go to the same folder as the P3D.cfg and rename the dll.xml there from dll.off to dll.xml.  Restart P3D and see if this causes a crash.  If it does, then there is a module in this dll.xml that is corrupt, outdated, or not working properly. 

That's about it for fixing problems with P3DV4.  If you have another crash, then you must seriously look at reformatting your HDD and reinstalling Windows and all of your applications, including P3D, and all of the P3D addons.

Another solution would be to go to the Lockheed P3D forums and follow their instructions on creating a dump file and sending it into them so they can see what went wrong.  I would strongly recommend you not do this as I believe it is simply a waste of your time and those at Lockheed.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Jim

[daniel_pt 30]

 Gee... that's one really long post that must have taken some of your free time and I'm honestly grateful for it! 🙂

I'm gonna dig it tomorrow and for sure I'll fix it! 

Btw,  is there any bug related to rain/ big thunder storms clouds that might be creating the ctd? I have the impression that my ctd have all been with bad weather. 

Before starting to change files,  I'm going to try to some clear weather flights just to see how it goes. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by daniel_pt

[Jim Young 2,356]

30 minutes ago, daniel_pt said:

Btw,  is there any bug related to rain/ big thunder storms clouds that might be creating the ctd? I have the impression that my ctd have all been with bad weather. 

There is a bug (unofficial) as it happened to me a few times.  If you have the CMeteoXml.dll loaded in the dll.xml, it could cause a crash in bad weather only.  The CMeteoXml.dll belongs to Carenado and I understand it is the weather radar for Carenado products.  I had the CS757 loaded once at KIAD in bad weather and it crashed within 10 minutes.  At first I thought it was ASP4 but it when I disabled the CMeteoXml.dll all of my crashes went away.  It only happens in bad weather.

[daniel_pt 30]

Oh... How I fell dumb! If I was in court of law, I'd swear to anyone I had P3D V4.4 when in fact I had V4.3. Dunno why I assumed that and checked all other software versions, but the main one... 

Since updating the client to V4.4 no more CTD and I just did a 7h30 flight with no hiccups at all!

Self major face palm!!

[Jim Young 2,356]

Glad to hear that is most likely the cause of your crashes.  V4.4 had a lot of bug changes and many developers had to update their addons to be compatible.  Thanks for letting us know how your problem was fixed.