Couatl.exe issue

[flynryan692]

I posted this in a different thread earlier, but I think it probably needs its own thread.

I did a flight on the 9th from KLAX to KDFW to see the new GSX stuff, everything worked great. Didn't turn my computer on yesterday, and today I went to fly out of KDFW and it wouldn't load the terminals etc, couatl.exe didn't start with the sim (addon manager was working though). This happens from time to time, no big deal, just tried to restart the sim. That didn't work, so I downloaded the addon manager and installed it, now both addon manager and couatl will not start with the sim at all.

I searched around the forums and have tried the numerous suggestions for people who can't get couatl to start like the anti virus etc, that hasn't worked either. It's just dead and won't work. I decided to uninstall ALL of my FSDT and Flightbeam products, restarted, and then reinstalled the FSDT products. I tested it and couatl.exe was working again and the sceneries were loading right. I then installed my FlightBeam products and once again the couatl.exe stopped loading up with the sim and my scenery won't load.

I'm really not sure what it is doing or why. I do know that I get a warning telling me that SFO is out of date and to visit FlightBeam to update, but I don't know if that is causing the issue or not. The exe.xml and dll.xml are both fine as well...

I'm on Windows 10 and P3D v2.5

[manfredc3]

Haveing a similar issue here in FSX.

After the latest Cautl update the add-on sceneries are missing te termnal buildings.

All was working fine on Wednesday. Did not fly yesterday, but today, it asked to updaate cautl, and after that KLAS and KDEN are missing te terminal buildings. All default sceneries seem to be unaffected.

[manfredc3]

I may have fixed the issue in FSX. After re-installing GSX I was still missin terminals on add-on airports.

So I finally decided to uninstall GSX and the add-on manager one more time and rename the scenery.cfg file. That way FSX would create a new one at startup.

Loaded up FSX, and....... EURECA!! The terminals are back.

So I closed fsx, and re-installed GSX from a fresh download. Rebooted the computer, and fired up FSX.

It did not come with a message that Cautl needed to be updated, and all terminals are still there. The fact that untill I uninstalled GSX for the first time today, the update message popped up with every start of a flight makes me asume that somehow Cautl did not finish the update.

No idea why I didn't think about renewing the scenery file earlier. I wasted several hours trying to figure out what the issue was without having to go to the extreme of doing a complete clean re-install of FSX.

[RudiJG1]

I'm having the exact same issue as the OP. Running FSX-SE on Win 7 64 and have enjoyed FSDT products for years with no issues until now.

I am very leery of following advice to rename the scenery.cfg file...if you're going to try the advice in this thread - BACK UP that file first and foremost. I did try this (after backing up the file!) but had no success with any of the issues noted in the first post of this thread.

[flynryan692]

I tried the scenery.cfg mentioned and it didn't work for me either.

[virtuali]

If your scenery.cfg is corrupted, because of having hand-edited, it's very likely that Couatl.exe will not start (it's probably crashing).

However, that doesn't mean it's a common cause or a solution that should be tried by everybody. The most common cause it's the antivirus, mistakenly blocking it.

This thread here indicates all known causes for the missing menus (Couatl, Addon Manager, or both)

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,8428.msg68872.html#msg68872

[RudiJG1]

Thanks, Umberto...in my case, the first option in your referenced post worked. Oddly enough, I've never had to be that concerned about my anti-virus program (NOD32 by Eset) interfering with a FSDT installation until now.

All's well here and am enjoying the GSX updates, not to mention the airports. Please bring on KMEM...

[flynryan692]

Seems like it has to do with the scenery config, but I am not sure how to fix it.

Earlier when I tried the scenery.cfg I simply renamed the one in the root directory of P3D and nothing changed. However, after some digging around I discovered the scenery.cfg is in C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 and I moved both it and the one in the root directory to my desktop, then started the sim. It rebuilt the scenery config and when I loaded up both addon manager and couatl were running and options in the menu. GSX was working. I didn't have the scenery so I decided to manually add them to the scenery library. After doing so the scenery loaded up but not the terminals and both coutal and addon manager were still options. I restarted the sim thinking that was maybe the last step, but nope back to square one, no addon manager and no coutal.

Suggestions?

I'll tinker with it some more while I wait. I'm not sure what is causing this.

[virtuali]

I didn't have the scenery so I decided to manually add them to the scenery library.

Which scenery ? Scenery or sceneries ? Have you added just a single area, or you copied a whole block from a previous scenery.cfg ? In this case, you might have simply reintroduced the same problem you had before.

[flynryan692]

What I meant was, I loaded up at Las Vegas and did not see the Vegas scenery, it was default, so I readded all of the sceneries in the scenery library.

However, I just redeleted the scenery.cfg and then ran each of my FSDT and Flightbeam installers. Everything seems to be working now. I guess the solution was to delete the scenery.cfg AND reinstall each scenery.

[garrettprs]

Been having a bunch of Couatl troubles of my own starting a couple of weeks ago. Starting to become annoying. 1 out of about every 5 or 6 starts (P3D) I get a "Coutal has stopped working" warning before hitting the scenario load screen. I just now got some sort of memory read error in addition to the usual warning...

[virtuali]

I get a "Coutal has stopped working" warning before hitting the scenario load screen. I just now got some sort of memory read error in addition to the usual warning...

Please be more specific with an error message report. A "memory error" it's clearly nothing related to Couatl.exe which, being an external .exe, CANNOT read ANY memory from P3D so, it's likely your memory error caused by something else is *causing* Couatl.exe to fail, not the other way around.

One thing to check, is your installation of the VC++ 2013 runtimes libraries, which are being installed automatically by the GSX installer, but they might become missing/corrupted sometimes.

Ddownload the VC++ 2013 runtimes from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784

Download and install the x86 version and the 64 bit version (DO NOT install the ARM version!!). Restart Windows after you installed them.

[garrettprs]

Thanks Umberto. I wasn't really able to recall the subsequent error message but I got it again just now: it's a runtime error, not a memory error.

[virtuali]

it's a runtime error, not a memory error

What program generated it ? Please indicate the precise text of the message, possibly a screenshot.

[garrettprs]

Haven't been able to reproduce it. I deleted all Visual C++ libraries and then reinstalled Addon Manager which then just reinstalled what it needed (2013, I believe) and it's been fine. I will repost the error message (and a screenshot) if I get it again.