I typically fly with a dozen or more addons - moved into the Community using AddOnLinker (wonderful tool!)

From the time I start the Sim until I can see the plane on the runway is four to six minutes, depending on the addons I've selected.  It is therefore - impractical to test the addons one at a time. 

So - does anyone have a tactic for determining which addon causes the CTD that does not involve testing each (I have many hundred possible) as an individual?

 

Test in bunches: First in a big bulk the ones that are unsuspicious, then the ones that are rather suspicious.

Airports are rather unsuspicious, unless they are in the area of your flight. Planes also should make no difference, unless you fly with them.

If the CTD happens EVERYWHERE, it's probably some general mod like the season mod or pushback or whatever. Those you probably need to test one-by-one.

Disable half of your add-ons. If the sim does not ctd then the culprit must be in the other (disabled) half. Then disable that other half by a half ... and so on ...

Edited July 29, 20214 yr by Nemo

I hear the OP but I would do stability testing with no add-ons first. You need to make sure your system is stable before you start testing each add-on. I would also test them one at a time. The good news is if your community folder is cleared out loading times won't be that bad. 

SO - I am doing the binary search technique as suggested - deleted the suspicious half of the addons and was able to fly for two minutes rather than 30-seconds.  But, at one minute starting having the dreaded "long pause" where the GPU activity drops to 0% and the displayed frame does not update.  Twenty to 30-seconds later the sim starts updating the screen again.  Happened twice and then CTD.

I certainly appreciate the significant increase in frame rates (taking off on RWY 9 at KSAN and flying over downtown San Diego the FPS has increased from 18 -20 to 30 to 35) but the sim needs to keep running for that FPS increase to be of any value.

 

12 hours ago, RobJC said:

I hear the OP but I would do stability testing with no add-ons first. You need to make sure your system is stable before you start testing each add-on. I would also test them one at a time. The good news is if your community folder is cleared out loading times won't be that bad. 

Before I used any addons I tried three of my somewhat long involved GA flights around SoCal and everything ran perfectly for several hours.  The GPU never exceed 75°C and I saw NO stutters or pauses.  The memory usage was excellent and all 8 cores were in use 15% to 75% with stable temperatures. 

1 minute ago, TacomaSailor said:

SO - I am doing the binary search technique as suggested - deleted the suspicious half of the addons and was able to fly for two minutes rather than 30-seconds.  But, at one minute starting having the dreaded "long pause" where the GPU activity drops to 0% and the displayed frame does not update.  Twenty to 30-seconds later the sim starts updating the screen again.  Happened twice and then CTD.

I certainly appreciate the significant increase in frame rates (taking off on RWY 9 at KSAN and flying over downtown San Diego the FPS has increased from 18 -20 to 30 to 35) but the sim needs to keep running for that FPS increase to be of any value.

 

Try without any addons, it sounds like a graphics card thing.
If it still CTDs and if it's a NVIDIA card, try "debug mode" inside the control panel. That will remove any (factory) overclock and improve stability (if that is indeed the culprit).

EDIT: Ok I just saw that it runs good without any addons. So any airport/scenery near San Diego as the next suspect?

Edited July 29, 20214 yr by Fiorentoni

19 minutes ago, TacomaSailor said:

Before I used any addons I tried three of my somewhat long involved GA flights around SoCal and everything ran perfectly for several hours.  The GPU never exceed 75°C and I saw NO stutters or pauses.  The memory usage was excellent and all 8 cores were in use 15% to 75% with stable temperatures. 

That is definitely a good start. Unfortunately I think you need to add one add-on into the mix at a time. Otherwise the permutations will make hunting down the cause really difficult. 

2 hours ago, Nemo said:

Disable half of your add-ons. If the sim does not ctd then the culprit must be in the other (disabled) half. Then disable that other half by a half ... and so on ...

/Totally reminded me of a certain Columbo episode,

 

maybe give us a list of your addons and someone might have an educated guess, it can be a paid addon too !! (that tree stuff

needs updating).

but this is exactly why i use just a handfull of addons.

16 hours ago, Nemo said:

Disable half of your add-ons. If the sim does not ctd then the culprit must be in the other (disabled) half. Then disable that other half by a half ... and so on ...

OMG - This is an excellent tip - I just spent about 4 hours finding the cause of an incompatibility with Fly Tampa's YSSY! It ended up being Vertical sim's Norfolk Int causing the problem. If I used you half & half method I reckon I would have found it within 15 minutes vs the 4 hours!

16 hours ago, Nemo said:

Disable half of your add-ons. If the sim does not ctd then the culprit must be in the other (disabled) half. Then disable that other half by a half ... and so on ...

In general this is far and away the best method -- with one key caveat: if you have more than one addon causing CTDs, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, seems a big sim update like this week's is likely to have made a lot of addons potential CTD timebombs, so that caveat comes into play...