I've been keeping up with this thread, but I don't recall seeing this mentioned. Is your motherboard bios up to date?

If not, updating it to the latest version may help with your XMP issue. Might even help with your other issues as well.

And yeah, for troubleshooting, removing any peripherals that are not absolutely required for Win10 itself (basically just the main monitor, keyboard and mouse) would also help. It's entirely possible that one of the peripherals (such as the VR headset) has borked itself and is causing your issue. I understand it's a pain (for your better half) but it really is an essential part of the troubleshooting process.

...jim

 

Edited February 7, 20215 yr by JimBrown

XMP profiles come with a bunch of secondary timings associated with them.  Manually entering some of the timing may not be completely stable.  Intel will tell you that XMP is overclocking and the rated speed of the memory controller on your CPU is the non-XMP, JDEC speeds.

MSFS moves tons of data across the memory subsystem, PCIe bus (to load textures streaming from the internet onto the GPU) and stresses the system in ways regular games do not.  Problems with XMP RAM kits have been reported by multiple users.  It's entirely possible that a RAM test might not show this instability. 

I'd reset your RAM to JDEC SPD timings, whatever the default non-XMP settings are that the motherboard picks, and see if that helps.

I'd also disable the Intel Integrated Graphics in your BIOS, and remove the VR headset entirely. 

 

Edited February 7, 20215 yr by marsman2020

OK, an update of sorts.

I had my stepson use my Steam credentials to login to Steam, and download the 500MB "starter pack", and to use HIS MS credentials when the time came.  It took his computer forever to even run that, so he won't be using FS2020 anytime soon, BUT, and I suppose this is both good news and bad news, he crashed at the precise same point that I did.  Twice, as a sanity check.  Which means whatever the problem is, I can pretty definitively rule out it being *MY* computer, or my Gamertag for that matter.  Nothing too overclocked, no memory going bad, no need to go through my system piece by piece to find the part that's just bad enough to be the cause.  That's the good news, because trying to track that down might have been a significant PITA.

The bad news is that I'm sorta right back where I was, with a very strange and unique problem, but with a whole host of possible contributing factors crossed off the list.

So, now that we know that, and there's no need to test memory or turn off overclocks (I don't mean to imply that any of that was not good suggestions that I'm grateful for, we just now know it's not the problem), I'm reopening the floor to any other bright ideas that someone here who is hopefully smarter than me might have.

We are both on the same network, so I suppose I can use my phone as a hotspot to eliminate anything there being a suspect, and though it's nowhere near reliable or fast enough to adequately run the game, at this point performance is not the goal, simply getting past that crash point is.

So, I am once again open to suggestions...  And very, very grateful to everyone who has participated in this thread so far.  I would say we haven't accomplished anything, but the reality is that we have, because even eliminating potential problem areas definitively is accomplishing something.  Still frustrated, but progress has been made.

42 minutes ago, KevyKevTPA said:

OK, an update of sorts.

I had my stepson use my Steam credentials to login to Steam, and download the 500MB "starter pack", and to use HIS MS credentials when the time came.  It took his computer forever to even run that, so he won't be using FS2020 anytime soon, BUT, and I suppose this is both good news and bad news, he crashed at the precise same point that I did.  Twice, as a sanity check.  Which means whatever the problem is, I can pretty definitively rule out it being *MY* computer, or my Gamertag for that matter.  Nothing too overclocked, no memory going bad, no need to go through my system piece by piece to find the part that's just bad enough to be the cause.  That's the good news, because trying to track that down might have been a significant PITA.

The bad news is that I'm sorta right back where I was, with a very strange and unique problem, but with a whole host of possible contributing factors crossed off the list.

So, now that we know that, and there's no need to test memory or turn off overclocks (I don't mean to imply that any of that was not good suggestions that I'm grateful for, we just now know it's not the problem), I'm reopening the floor to any other bright ideas that someone here who is hopefully smarter than me might have.

We are both on the same network, so I suppose I can use my phone as a hotspot to eliminate anything there being a suspect, and though it's nowhere near reliable or fast enough to adequately run the game, at this point performance is not the goal, simply getting past that crash point is.

So, I am once again open to suggestions...  And very, very grateful to everyone who has participated in this thread so far.  I would say we haven't accomplished anything, but the reality is that we have, because even eliminating potential problem areas definitively is accomplishing something.  Still frustrated, but progress has been made.

 

 

If it is related to your ISP maybe try one of the free VPNs like Proton.

Can you install from the MS Store and avoid Steam altogether?

9 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

OK ...

 

How about as a test you buy a month of Xbox for PC Game pass under a new gamer tag with whatever trial offer they currently are doing..  That should only cost $1 or so for the first month and let you test if it really is your tag or not.  Just remember to cancel the game pass before the end of the month.

This is what I did while trying to figure out the solution to my Steam issue.

The sim ran fine from the Xbox pass installation, which told me it was nothing to do with RAM or Windows, etc.

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Can you install from the MS Store and avoid Steam altogether?

Good question.  My kneejerk reaction is no, I bought it from Steam, and that's where I have to download it from, but if there's a way to do what you suggest without flat out buying another license, I'm all ears!  At least that could potentially eliminate (or find) the cause!  OTOH, if Steam itself was the issue, I don't think I'd be the only one dealing with this, would I?  Especially considering the 7 or so times I installed from scratch?

I dunno, just thinking out loud here.

Oh, and I tested with my phone's hotspot, same result, meaning it's not my network equipment or ISP.

You said that you do not know what a controller profile is. MSFS has a screen where you map your commands onto your flight controller buttons. You then save your created mappngs in a profile. You can create as many profiles as you like.  All these profiles are saved in one folder on your hardisk. If you have steam find your Steam folder and then the path will be similar from there to the subfolder that holds the profiles. Copy that folder to your desktop and then delete the files in the folder, keeping the one on your desktop to reload them back later. I was not the only one with the same problem as you. I found this solution online and it solved the issue which has not returned for me just like it did for other people in that thread I found

--

Another unrelated but more likely solution is what Boeing_Driver said way upthread:  https://steamcommunity.com/app/1250410/discussions/0/3110267314124649440/

 

You empty that folder named Microsoft Flight Simulator by copying it and its subfolders somewhere, like onto your desktop, then delete the contents of that folder and subfolder (keeping the copied folder and its subfolders on your desktop). This is a lot of data to copy!

Then, boot up MSFS and MSFS will rebuild (i.e. it will erase spurious versions of files that it has before installed again and again). At that point MSFS should run. If it does not, then copy the folder and subfolders from your desktop back to where it was before and you are back where you started from, having lost nothing.

In File Explorer, you need to turn on View, Hidden Items to find these hidden folders

 

Hello,

You could try setting your FS 2020 computer ip address to your internet box DMZ (demilitarized zone), and remove it if the same problem occurs.

If someone knows what servers Fs 2020 uses and gives us this info, you could traceroute those servers or at least ping them : maybe connection is broken somewhere between your town and those servers !

Could you add a summary of your problem so that we do not suggest several times an idea that is already eliminated ?

10 hours ago, KevyKevTPA said:

Good question.  My kneejerk reaction is no, I bought it from Steam, and that's where I have to download it from, but if there's a way to do what you suggest without flat out buying another license, I'm all ears!  At least that could potentially eliminate (or find) the cause!  OTOH, if Steam itself was the issue, I don't think I'd be the only one dealing with this, would I?  Especially considering the 7 or so times I installed from scratch?

I dunno, just thinking out loud here.

Try Disable Steam Input

In Steam click on the Library button or right-click on Microsoft Flight Simulator and select properties

Click controller and select Disable Steam Input

    

Restart steam and run msfs

***********************************************

If that doesn't help, try these steps.

 

1 Unistall MSFS 2020. Once uninstalled, check to make sure that all the packages are deleted.

The default package installation location is

C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\

2 When done - restart system.

3 Create new e-mail

4 Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows

how to > Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows 7, 8, or 10

5 Log into new admin account

6 Signg up for a new Microsoft account via new e-mail

7 Create new xbox account (xbox live) and gamertag without letter-diacritic (for e.g. - ą,á, à, â, ,é, è, ê,ć,ę,ł, ú - e.t.c)

8 Buy 7 days Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (only €0.91) > Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – 7 Days Subscription (Xbox One/ Windows 10) Xbox Live Key GLOBAL

9 Log into your microsoft store app and reedem code.

10 Download and install Xbox Gaming Services app from the MS Store app

11 Download and install xbox app > https://www.xbox.com/en-US/apps/xbox-app-for-windows-10

(when done check for updates via ms store app)

12 Log into your new xbox account (via xbox app) and  download and install (for free) Microsoft Flight Simulator:Standard and Digital Ownership or download via ms store app

Good luck!

Here's an update I wrote for a different forum, so it may not address every point made in this thread, but it gets the important parts right!

For those who don’t know, last week my sim broke. And when I say my sim was broken, unlike many people on this very forum who use that term to describe a sim that has strange scenery anomalies, or a GPS that doesn’t work as they want/expect it to, or a dozen other examples, I mean it literally.

It was broken, as in WOULD. NOT. START.

You would not believe the steps I took to get it working again, countless emails back and forth to the zen desk (who was basically useless, and ended up sending me Reddit posts in a desperate attempt to help me when they lacked the skills to do so), at least 7 bare metal installs of Windows, including the final one or two where I finally figured out how to make certain I got a freshly formatted drive with no remnants of the previous OS or left over files. Install and uninstall Steam who knows how many times. Ditto for the sim itself. I restored backups of the directory structure under Program Files (x86), and also the ones they “hide” in AppData.

Tried to start with both directory structures restored from backups, then only one, then only the other.

Nothing worked.

So I finally contacted the XBox people for help (because the issue was thought to be somehow connected to my gamertag), and they had me delete it on my actual XBox (which I just happen to have, but once my Covid Relief government cheese money gets here, I’m buying a new TV which will make my XBox obsolete, as I only use it for VOD apps that any new TV will have out of the box, or at least be able to get, but I digress), uninstall all the XBox related apps on my computer, logout of the Windows store, reinstall all the apps (except one I was given a specific link for), and log back into all of them (with my new password, which was done during the delete and renew Gamerprofile step on my XBox), and even though I already have, I could go on and on and on some more.

Eventually I signed up for the $1 for 3 months of gamer pass, and was able to install the base version of the sim, and it RAN!!!

That’s the good news.

The bad news is they refused to do anything to restore all my licenses for what I had already purchased, despite spending hours with them in chat. So rather than extend the nightmare, I just gave in and started repurchasing licenses. I may be crippled and unemployed, but even my time has value, and I had long since passed the point that it was worth it to continue over a couple of hundred bucks in license fees, so I punted.

The bottom line is that my sim is now working, I am selectively repurchasing upgrades that I bought before (like the Key West scenery, the PA44, etc…), and I even have a new toy to use with all of it, pictured here:

 

Bravo TQS1200×900 102 KB

 

While I was away, some good things happened!

The first bit of good news is that somewhere along the line of my woes, between windows reinstalls, maybe fresh (if not the most recent) drivers, and the complete loss of junk files or whatever that a freshly formatted boot drive might bring to the table, or even my imagination, but the performance on my sim has increased. I’m using @CptLucky8’s instructions for VR, but only the base Nvidia Control Panel recommendations, and of course which version of the drivers to use, and things look FANTASTIC, especially out the window!

One other good thing that happened is that I bought CyberPunk 2077, and I do not understand all the fuss. It works great on my system, at maximum settings. No, I’m not getting 120+ fps or anything crazy like that, but I don’t need that to have a very positive gaming experience. 

Finally, you weren’t in some sort of dream, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl!!! And we’re building a trophy to celebrate the fact that the 2020-21 sports seasons in what we’re now calling “Champa Bay”, were downright astonishing. It looks like this:

 

Trophy Case900×1200 126 KB

 

Anyway, just wanted to let y’all know that I’m back beyotches!!! Should you have any questions, comments, statements, or just the desire to curse me out for some reason, fire away! I’ll be seeing everyone in the trenches!!!

PS… I advise against wasting your money on the new KPIE payware. You would think a payware company would offer a decent product, but it’s not. There are still taxi lights on stalks all over where they shouldn’t be, a runway that’s been closed for several years is still painted and active, and there are buildings just hovering a few feet off the ground. All this time I’ve been wanting someone to do this field, where I learned to fly (longer ago than I’m willing to admit), and they have to come in and do it wrong. Go figure.

See you out there in the trenches!

Signed,
Been through hell, but all is well now even if it is costing me a few Benjamins to buy things again that I’ve already bought

Glad you finally got it sorted even if you didn't actually get to the bottom of what the issue was. 

Glad you got things sorted out! As a total aside, I never realised that protective enclosures for collectors edition/rare baseball caps was a thing! 

It's great you got it worked out finally. For some, MSFS has been rock solid since release whereas others have lots of problems since a particular update.

What you say about not being able to restore your licenses worries me a bit, and might be a warning not to buy your products through the marketplace, although it is the most convenient way.