Desperate for help... MSFS broken...

[KevyKevTPA 46]

OK, first, I'm not one of those whiny children who uses the word "broken" to describe a sim with graphics glitches or a GPS that doesn't work right. When I say "broken", it's literally that. Broken. As in will not run at all. This is also a long read, but I ask that if you think there's any chance you might be able to help, please go through it and HMU with any questions, suggestions, or other feedback you might have. I'm desperate, and I'm hoping maybe someone here might be able to help!  (Full disclosure:  I'm pretty much posting this, or some variant of it, wherever I can think of...)

So far the official tech support channels have been pretty useless, and they're probably gone until Monday anyway, so... here we go.

Sometime on Thursday, my sim just stopped working. There was no new patch, nothing new on my end (except a brand new Honeycomb Bravo that I haven't even taken out of the box yet), just out of the blue it would not start.

Since I've been having some other issues and thinking about reinstalling windows anyway (plus I take daily backups, and backup to Onedrive, so losing data is of no concern whatsoever), that's what I did. After that, I updated windows repeatedly until it was as up to date as it gets. Downloaded OXR, and updated windows store apps repeatedly until they were all as up to date as they get. (I'm a VR user, but that doesn't matter here, as I never got to that point.)

Figuring I must have solved whatever the problem was, I downloaded Steam, installed FS2020, and...

SAME problem! As soon as I enter my Gamertag login info, CTD. Subsequent attempts result in a CTD right after the copyright splash screen.

I reach out to tech support, and they gave me a list of things to do as long as my arm to do. Check that Gaming Services is installed right, logout of windows store, logout of XBox app (and a few others), uninstall and reinstall them all, log back in, and finally try starting the sim from the Xbox app instead of Steam, but it doesn't show up there. So I try from Steam, and the same thing happens.

I tried reinstalling the game files and stuff they hide in appdata from a backup, no help. Uninstall Steam, reinstall it, try the Steam files in the main app folder with the backups in the appdata one (and the other way around), and any permutation you can think of, and all result in the same CTDs.

Being a masochist, I figure I must have done something wrong, so I do all of the above (including reinstalling Windows) again. Like 3 times. Then I notice that the Windows reinstall isn't giving me a truly virgin, freshly formatted drive to work with, so I figure out how to do that, and go through all of the same steps, again, with the same results, yet again.

Meanwhile tech support is about as responsive as a glacier, and the official forum unfortunately hasn't come up with any ideas, either.

Anyway, that's where I am as of this moment. Desperate to have my sim back, at the end of my wits technically (and I have a long history as an IT pro), out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas all at the same time, and stuck with tech support that doesn't even have a phone number and won't be back until Monday anyway.

So, first, thank you for reading all of that. Now if you think you can help, have suggestions, questions, or just want to curse me out for whatever reason, by all means fire away!

Signed,
More frustrated than I should be over what is (hopefully) a simple fix

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by KevyKevTPA
Typo

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

Yeah, this is probably the biggest issue with software that is basically a service.

I assume you have already tried installing it with no controllers, VR software or other extraneous hardware? Just win10 and the game ?

Do you have a second pc or laptop that can run it even really slowly as a test ?

What if you install it then go offline before first trying to log in ?

[KevyKevTPA 46]

2 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

I assume you have already tried installing it with no controllers, VR software or other extraneous hardware? Just win10 and the game ?

I haven't and that's at least worth a shot.  Since I can't use the sim at the moment, I've disconnected all my physical controllers (basically 2 joysticks, 1 that was being used as a joystick/rudder, and the other that was being used as throttle and mixture, and that's it), so I suppose it's worth giving it another go.

As far as software goes, except for the OXR option, the rest is built into Windows 10, so there's nothing to uninstall.  Except OXR, I guess.

Let me play around a bit with your ideas and see if I can even get something different to happen, if not a full blown fix.  Different would be progress in a way.  Maybe.  I think.

[TENPATROL 138]

Turn off steam overlay

[KevyKevTPA 46]

1 minute ago, _Patrol said:

Turn off steam overlay

How?

[Nyxx 6,994]

Steam>setting> ingame

[TENPATROL 138]

3 minutes ago, KevyKevTPA said:

How?

Steam > settings > in-game

[ctdlg 106]

Hello,

In case steam overlay does not help :
- is your power supply powerful enough ? If no, unplug all unnecessary devices.
- do you use the latest graphics driver
- did you perform a memory test as memory sticks can become defective
- no electromagnetic interferences nearby ? ( a new fridge, machine...)

You will find your problem, and stop be desperate, j'en suis convaincu !

 

 

[David Mills 4,774]

Have you tried shutting off your modem, waiting 30 seconds, and then rebooting? 🙂

[KevyKevTPA 46]

OK, here's what I've done in the past few moments.

Tried starting the sim without my joysticks plugged in.  No change.

Turned off steam overlay.  No change.  

Logged out of my Gamertag account in the Store, and Xbox app.  No change.

Created a new Windows user not affiliated with a Microsoft ID.  It did result in the sim asking me for my Gamertag credentials, so that's at least different, but when I provided them, same CTD.

@ctdl, power supply should be more than enough, and has been working without incident until the game stopped wanting to run on Thursday.  Aside from that, I've seen no indication that it might be an issue.  As a sanity check, I'm currently downloading another Steam game to try, but it's 57.5 GB download, so it's gonna be about 45 minutes.  (And sadly, it's only running at 20-25% of the theoretical max bandwidth.)

Not the latest graphics driver, but one that's known to work well with FS2020, and was chosen because it seems to be the best performer specifically for VR.  Can you point me to any memory tests?  I'll try it, though I have absolutely no reason to suspect it, but hey, something is the problem, no?  But no, no new sources of EM radiation, unless the neighbors getting a new stove across the street counts.

[ctdlg 106]

Memory test ? write an usb key with clonezilla or any linux install image ... boot your fresh usb key, simply select Memtest

 

Did you check all your fans (power supply, motherboard and graphics card ?)

[ctdlg 106]

I have had a problem with a customer, the dev temp of his processor rose each wednesday. I changed temp sensor, heater board, motherboard, power supply - no result. We could not see any power supply spikes, problems with a powerfull recorder !
I changed the whole film processor -> next wednesday, temp error again. On wednesday only, an old printing machine was running at the far end of the plant. We stopped that machine -> temp problem solved.
The stove across the street ? most probably not, but not impossible !
If you use an inverter as a safety power device, unplug it from the mains and launch Fs 2020 ! Ctd will mean the stove is not the problem !

Edited February 6, 2021 by ctdlg

[KevyKevTPA 46]

4 minutes ago, ctdlg said:

Memory test ? write an usb key with clonezilla or any linux install image ... boot your fresh usb key, simply select Memtest

You say that as if it's something I do every day lol...  Even a quick bing search wasn't all that helpful.  Any other suggestions, perhaps something that isn't quite so, well, nerdy?  Like a memory test I can just download and run in my windows session?

As for fans, it depends on what you mean by "check".  Visually, they are working properly, and according the monitoring tools I have, they are spinning at the proper RPMs, and the temps are being kept where they should be.

[KevyKevTPA 46]

4 minutes ago, ctdlg said:

The stove across the street ? most probably not, but not impossible !

Made even less likely by the fact that while we don't know if the new owners are planning to live there, rent it out, or flip it and resell it as soon as the repairs and upgrades are done, regardless, nobody is living there now.  We don't even know if it was installed, but we *DO* know it hasn't been used.

[ctdlg 106]

Problem with memory tests is you cannot run it under Windows : you must boot  with a cd, usb key, otherwise, you cannot check memory already in use by windows !
Downloading clonezilla is easy, all you need is an usb key.
You can also download any linux distribution as they include a memory test option.
If you do use a Windows recovery / image toll that needs to run outside windows, you probably can also test your memory with it

Of course you can eliminate your neighbor's stove, I just try to think differently as I'm sure you did your best to solve your problem. Problem might be elsewhere !

Did you check temperatures of your Pc ? This will also eliminate a fan problem.
Many free temp software available with Google.

Edited February 6, 2021 by ctdlg