couatl constantly crashing after latest update

[Tombombadilly]

After updating GSX (this happens on 3.3.8 and 3.3.9 for me), it is no longer functional at all.

Since a few days ago I get "Waiting for couatl scripting engine to start..." when trying to open the GSX menu in MSFS2020.
After a little while, I get the "Couatl took longer than expected" message, and it never starts.

Upon inspecting the couatl64_boot.log, it looks like couatl is constantly restarting itself, but I am not sure why.

What I have tried (and did not work):
- Unlink & relink GSX via FSDT installer
- Uninstall GSX via FSDT installer
- Uninstall FSDT installer from control panel
- Manually delete Addon Manager folder from program files, and ensure there are no more gsx addons in MSFS community folder
- Reinstall FSDT installer
- Reinstall GSX via FSDT installer
- Update nvidia drivers to latest version
- Add 'Addon Manager' as exception in windows defender
- Adding all couatl executables to firewall whitelist in windows defender
- Updating nvidia drivers to the latest version

By the way, the only FSDT addon that I have bought and installed is GSX; so it is weird seeing lines like '[KIAH2] started' in the couatl.log (but maybe it is normal?).

None of it worked; the program is still giving the exact same error. I have tried running Live Update several times.

Please find the attached logs. No panic (.err) file was created by couatl.

[virtuali]

After updating GSX (this happens on 3.3.8 and 3.3.9 for me), it is no longer functional at all.

Since a few days ago I get "Waiting for couatl scripting engine to start..." when trying to open the GSX menu in MSFS2020.
After a little while, I get the "Couatl took longer than expected" message, and it never starts.

Upon inspecting the couatl64_boot.log, it looks like couatl is constantly restarting itself, but I am not sure why.

Your log doesn't show any errors, just that is being restarted because it was quit so, either you haven't been able to catch an error where the error happened, or the reason must be external, like the antivirus.

But it must just be an issue of not really having 3.3.9 entirely, because of the network replication delay, so your local cloudflare node still haven't got the latest file. In this case, you should try the OFFLINE installer linked in the Sticky thread of this forum.

[Tombombadilly]

I ran the latest 3.3.9 offline installer. However, the same problem still remains after.

I checked my windows event log to see if there might be errors there, and this is what is happening when I open the GSX menu (see attached screenshots).

It seems like couatl64_MSFS.exe is constantly crashing due to a .dll called igd12um64xeh.dll

[virtuali]

It seems like couatl64_MSFS.exe is constantly crashing due to a .dll called igd12um64xeh.dll

GSX doesn't have anything to do with this, it's a known bug of the Intel graphic driver ( igd12um64xeh.dll is part of it ). No idea how a graphic driver can affect GSX, we don't do any direct graphic calls.

Searching that .dll, returns lots of similar cases across many apps:

Corel Draw:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000093995/graphics.html#primary-content

Open Shot:
https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/5626

Some Steam games are also affected.

[Tombombadilly]

That narrowed it down. I updated my intel arc drivers to the latest version, but the crashes still happen.

The conclusion is that the last few versions of couatl are incompatible with intel Arc graphics. If anyone reading this has Arc grapics- the latest version of GSX may not work for you. Your solutions are:

Bad solution: Revert to an old version of couatl (not ideal)
Better solution (worked for me): Force couatl64_boot.exe and couatl64_MSFS.exe to use your dedicated graphics card (e.g. through NVIDIA inspector)

No idea why this should matter for a scripting engine that doesn't do any drawing... But heck at least it is solved. This took me a lot of time to figure out.

[alirayzaw]

@Tombombadilly Did you know you just became my hero?
You won’t believe how you saved me from a frustrating ordeal. I truly appreciate it.

I had bought the GSX a few days ago, and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to work or access the in-sim menu. Just as I was about to reinstall Windows, I read your comment. I immediately went to the NVIDIA settings and forced those two exe files to use the NVIDIA chip. Guess what happened? Suddenly, it unlocked and started working!

I can’t believe I finally succeeded. It was exhilarating! Thank you for rescuing me. I’m so relieved I didn’t have to reinstall Windows, and I saved a lot of time!

my topic regarding the issue :

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,32946.0.html

[virtuali]

Better solution (worked for me): Force couatl64_boot.exe and couatl64_MSFS.exe to use your dedicated graphics card (e.g. through NVIDIA inspector)

No idea why this should matter for a scripting engine that doesn't do any drawing... But heck at least it is solved. This took me a lot of time to figure out.

This is very interesting and useful to know, still no idea why changing the graphic card "used" by the Couatl engine would make any difference, considering it doesn't use any graphic calls. Maybe it's something we are getting from some of the libraries used by the UI, but it's surely not common, so I'll surely investigate why your system ended up in that situation.

It's maybe something related to power consumption profiles, so it can assign different video cards to different apps, perhaps automatically following some logic ?

[Hanti]

I followed the method you provided to update Intel Arc graphics to the latest version, and also added couatl64-boot.exe and couatl64_SFS.exe to the Nvidia control panel. However, there is still a crash issue. Can you tell me the specific steps to take? Help me, I am exhausted from this. I am using a 50 series graphics card and MSFS2020 platform

[alirayzaw]

I followed the method you provided to update Intel Arc graphics to the latest version, and also added couatl64-boot.exe and couatl64_SFS.exe to the Nvidia control panel. However, there is still a crash issue. Can you tell me the specific steps to take? Help me, I am exhausted from this. I am using a 50 series graphics card and MSFS2020 platform

did you try to run both of those exe files as admin? give it a shot and see what happens next.

[edu2703]

Unfortunately, this better solution basically only works if you have an Nvidia card. For those who have a discrete Intel Arc card like me, still have to resort to using the old coautl.

To me, it makes perfect sense for GSX to work if you force coautl to run on Nvidia card instead of the Intel iGPU.