Just a small update on my recent problems, I uninstalled GAIST V3 and the problem continued, so it's not GAIST V3, I deleted (through MSFS addon Linker) my community folder addons, and the sim was fine. This could be a long process as I have 100's of addons in order to find the culprit.

17 minutes ago, Amon1973 said:

Just a small update on my recent problems, I uninstalled GAIST V3 and the problem continued, so it's not GAIST V3, I deleted (through MSFS addon Linker) my community folder addons, and the sim was fine. This could be a long process as I have 100's of addons in order to find the culprit.

I had an add on that was giving me problems but did not know which one it was so I de-activated them all with add on linker and then started adding them back in groups.  I could narrow down the culprit resonable quick, but, yes, it takes some time if you have no clue which one is at fault.

 

3 hours ago, Amon1973 said:

This could be a long process as I have 100's of addons in order to find the culprit.

I remember when MSFS launched in 2020 I was amazed at the almost immediate clamoring to buy or pick up as many addons as could be found which in my mind seemed like automatic legacy behavior from the prior sims where default scenery was absolute garbage so one had to install new content.  I thought this is the pathway to heightened risk for problems and it surely is (yes, of course you can cope with 100's of addons all you need is another tool to manage it all, like addon linker which I have no need for.)  I have a few choice airports I bought, 2 planes now, and a grand total of 23 entries in the community folder and hardly ever see CTD.  It seems like for some adding content is more meaningful than flying and for that issue I highly recommend A Pilot's Life v2 so you can focus on using this incredible sim versus the continuous quest to add content to satisfy oneself.  APL2 scores all flights and keeps you on your toes and focused on flying this amazing flight simulator extreme.   Critical in my Comm Folder:  FSLTL, AccuSeason, Subtle Taxi Ribbon (absolute perfect solution), AS CRJ, PMDG 738, B78X HD mod, and several liveries and that's it.  

34 minutes ago, Noel said:

I remember when MSFS launched in 2020 I was amazed at the almost immediate clamoring to buy or pick up as many addons as could be found which in my mind seemed like automatic legacy behavior from the prior sims where default scenery was absolute garbage so one had to install new content.  I thought this is the pathway to heightened risk for problems and it surely is (yes, of course you can cope with 100's of addons all you need is another tool to manage it all, like addon linker which I have no need for.)  I have a few choice airports I bought, 2 planes now, and a grand total of 23 entries in the community folder and hardly ever see CTD.  It seems like for some adding content is more meaningful than flying and for that issue I highly recommend A Pilot's Life v2 so you can focus on using this incredible sim versus the continuous quest to add content to satisfy oneself.  APL2 scores all flights and keeps you on your toes and focused on flying this amazing flight simulator extreme.   Critical in my Comm Folder:  FSLTL, AccuSeason, Subtle Taxi Ribbon (absolute perfect solution), AS CRJ, PMDG 738, B78X HD mod, and several liveries and that's it.  

I am with you, the less garbage that one loads into their sim, the more reliable it will be. 

4 hours ago, hansb57 said:

I had an add on that was giving me problems but did not know which one it was so I de-activated them all with add on linker and then started adding them back in groups.  I could narrow down the culprit resonable quick, but, yes, it takes some time if you have no clue which one is at fault.

Pete Dowson used a similar strategy. Binary Chop I think he called it. Move 50% of addons to another location. If the problem persists move 50% of the remaining addons to another location.

Repeat until culprit found.

If after first Binary Chop the problem is solved you know the culprit lies amongst the ones removed. By further processes of elimination the culprit can quickly be identified. Of course this only works if the problem is consistent and repeatable.

Yup, bubbled sort and binary search were early tools I used when I was programming. It was a good party game too - have someone pick a # between 1 - 100 and tell them you'll guess it in 10 tries

11 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Yup, bubbled sort and binary search were early tools I used when I was programming. It was a good party game too - have someone pick a # between 1 - 100 and tell them you'll guess it in 10 tries

It was my very first programming assignment ( in QuickTran) in 1968 when I took my first programming class in my senior year as a psychology major.  One computer class and I dropped my desire to be a clinical psychologist and went to work for NASA as a Fortran programmer.  Several years later did a graduate program in clinical psych and again decided I liked working with computers more than humans.   50+ years later I still like my Flight Sim better than humans!

37 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Pete Dowson used a similar strategy. Binary Chop I think he called it. Move 50% of addons to another location. If the problem persists move 50% of the remaining addons to another location.

Repeat until culprit found.

If after first Binary Chop the problem is solved you know the culprit lies amongst the ones removed. By further processes of elimination the culprit can quickly be identified. Of course this only works if the problem is consistent and repeatable.

Yes! However if problem would started all of a sudden I would remove newest add ons first before opting binary approach . Basically you roll back to earliest stable version 

24 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Yes! However if problem would started all of a sudden I would remove newest add ons first before opting binary approach . Basically you roll back to earliest stable version 

Yes, that works too.

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

I am with you, the less garbage that one loads into their sim, the more reliable it will be. 

Yes, wisdom cometh with age 😉

Interesting indeed. My setup has been running pretty good. I update drivers, and add on content when available. However December 29th I started getting repeated CTD’S, always just before the end of my flight, no matter how long or short in duration or aircraft. As usual, panic set in, check this, check that etc etc, taking away from enjoying my flight time. To make a long story short, last night, a half hour before the New Year, there it was! I found an unusually quick update posted ( DC3 Duck Works mod). Updated the mod, back to enjoying MSFS.

LESSON LEARNED (I knew it, but forgot it😞 in most cases when this happens, it’s an add on mod. Always check there first! In my case I only have about 14 or so add-on’s, so checking there first usually doesn’t take very long, and usually pays off.

Some possible CTD causes, that often are overlooked:

- Too long USB cables to controllers. I just had a case, when freezes and CTDs occured after I had multiple controllers plugged into a USB hub behind an extension cable of just 2 meters. Using a USB multimeter I saw the voltage occasionally drop to values close to 4V which apparently caused the issues. Without the extension cable the CTDs are gone.

- Bad contact somewhere in hardware setup.

Edited January 1, 20233 yr by mrueedi

I thought the same...Traced all my CTD to a Bridge timing out....

 

Although I must admit it is a very fragile program..

I took everything out of my community folder except the Shift-Z stats (which I updated to the latest version) and so far no CTDs.

Just spent two days downloading again and reinstalling. One clean startup, installed PMDG. Then BANG - freeze on fly.

Uninstall, clean up, still broken.

 

GARBAGE.