Couatl having serious issues

[AaronMyers]

For some reason the afore mentioned exe is having some real problems. It does not load properly into FSX, although it really tries, over and over again. Looking at the processes I see it start up, then another one spawns, then goes away, then another spawns, and goes away again. Like some kind of loop.

I tried the standard suggestion of uninstalling GSX, having it remove the addon manager and coualt engine, then downloading and installing while no A/V running. Did not change the scenario. I tried just reinstalling the stand alone addon manager. No difference. Below are a few shots of the processes, again seems to be looping somehow with one spawning then another, then dieing, then spawning again. This is chewing up resources, and obviously preventing all addons that depend on it from running.

Any ideas?


http://www.digitalaviator.net/MiscPics/couatl1.jpg

http://www.digitalaviator.net/MiscPics/couatl2.jpg

http://www.digitalaviator.net/MiscPics/couatl3.jpg

http://www.digitalaviator.net/MiscPics/couatl4.jpg

[virtuali]

What you are describing doesn't happen, and nobody else ever reported this.

It's not Couatl that is "trying" to load itself. An executable can't load itself, it's Windows (under FSX control, since the module is on the EXE.XML list) that will load it and using ProcessExplorer, I can see only 1 Couatl.exe, correctly loading only once when FSX starts and correctly shutting down when it ends.

So, the problem clearly is something in your system and the most likely suspect that can alter the Windos loading strategy, it's an antivirus or a similar security program, like an anti-spyware.

We had reports of some antivirus that mistakenly continue blocking programs even when they are turned off, because their service is still running. And, if the problem is caused by another security program you have installed, you need to turn that off too, not jus the antivirus.

[AaronMyers]

My anti-virus is turned off just as it always is when I'm running FSX. I use AlacrityPC to stop the services entirely and I run no other security software at all.

In process monitor you can see endless processing by the couatl.exe executable which doesn't look normal to me at all, and in process explorer you can clearly see two instances running at the same time. Just as you can in the task manager shot. Then one of the two dies and a new one starts up with a new process ID. I understand that it SHOULD not happen, and it has not happened to me in the past, but it is happening on my system now. Consider me the first to report it.

This was found because the menu items for the couatl engine does not appear and none of the FSDT products are loading.

[virtuali]

In process monitor you can see endless processing by the couatl.exe executable

Well, I surely can't see it...

which doesn't look normal to me at all

No, it's not.

Then one of the two dies and a new one starts up with a new process ID. I understand that it SHOULD not happen, and it has not happened to me in the past, but it is happening on my system now. Consider me the first to report it.

Try to enable logging to see if at least it goes to print something meaninful, open the Notepad and type the following on a new blank file:

logFile=couatl.log

(please note logFile is written beginning with a lower case l and a capital F )

Save the file as couatl.ini in the FSX\fsdreamteam\couatl folder, so it stays at the same level of the couatl.exe

Launch FSX, go to any airport, when it finished loading, exit from FSX, check if you have a Couatl.log file in the fsdreamteam\Couatl folder, and post its content here. Be sure Couatl.exe process isn't already running. If it is, terminate it with the Task manager, and then start FSX.

[AaronMyers]

Ok, I've done that, and unfortunately it isn't telling us much:

Code: [Select]

couatl v2.0 (build 2309)
log started on Mon May 28 11:00:25 2012

connecting to SimConnect...

Then nothing after that even after loading a FSDT airport. In the FSX menu I see the addon manager, but no couatl. Really perplexing and I'm running short of ideas. I've removed any recently added stuff that I can think of, including the latest FSRecorder, but nothing so far is changing the behavior.

Also as a side anecdote, I can tell when I first load FSX when it is in the same apparent loop as the mouse cursor shows a "working in background" cursor. Then when I close FSX and the current couatl.exe process goes away, the cursor returns normal. I'm sure it's just symptomatic, but still interesting.

[virtuali]

Ok, I've done that, and unfortunately it isn't telling us much:

That's exactly what I've suspected, this means the problem is caused by something external to it. The message indicates it couldn't even find FSX to talk to, which seems to indicate a problem in FSX, either a Simconnect problem, a problem with runtime libraries or something like that.

Are you sure you are not running an antivirus or firewall ? I keep insisting about security software, because all users that were 100% sure they disabled them, eventually found out they weren't completely disabled, and the only solution was to uninstall them.

Also, check you haven't modified the "Compatibility" tab for both FSX.EXE AND Couatl.exe. Nothing should be checked in that page, which is the default setting.

[AaronMyers]

Perhaps it is something external, but darned if I can tell what. It's why I run AlacrityPC before fsx so that I can shut anything down that is not essential. I run Avast antivirus and AlacrityPC shuts the services off when it runs, I can see this in the services applet. Also, simconnect is working fine because I run Active Sky and Aivlasoft EFB from a remote laptop across the network that uses simconnect as well. They both are functioning normally.

[virtuali]

Also, simconnect is working fine because I run Active Sky and Aivlasoft EFB from a remote laptop across the network that uses simconnect as well. They both are functioning normally.

That doesn't tell much: there are 3 different versions of Simconnect installed (RTM, SP1 and SP2), and they can even run at the same time, if an addon requires the RTM or the SP1 and that is installed fine, it will run ok but, if another Addon (like our own) requires the SP2 version, and that is the only one that has a problem, only that addon will not run, so you will be mislead into thinking Simconnect is ok, just because other addons can use it.

However, do you see the Addon Manager menu, at least ? If yes, this indicates the problem is not Simconnect, because the Addon Manager also use it and requires the SP2 version so, that only leaves one possible explanation: something is blocking Couatl but not the Addon Manager, for some reason.

[AaronMyers]

Yes, I do see the add-on manager and can open it from within FSX just fine. Only couatl is an issue. Perhaps some program can be used to monitor file access... not sure how else I'm going to know what is blocking it when 80% of the processes and services have been shut off.

As a side note, not only are my Avast services stopped, but my entire FSX program folder is in the scan exclusion list.

[AaronMyers]

Here's a shot of procmon showing what appears to be the loop I've referred to:

http://www.digitalaviator.net/MiscPics/couatl5.jpg

[virtuali]

I'm sorry, but I can't replicate this in any way, nor anybody else reported it, so it's clearly something happening on your system, since you said yourself it used to work, and since we haven't updated the program since some weeks, the problem can't be related to couatl.exe, it's just being affected by it.

[AaronMyers]

Well, oddly it only seems to be only affecting your scripting engine. I'm not disputing that it could be an outside factor, but I go to more lengths than most to eliminate outside factors and it seems odd that I'm finding the needle in the haystack. Unfortunately since we've put all our proverbial eggs into one basket, I'm now without 13 add-ons that I've bought and paid for because this scripting engine refuses to run. That's not something that I am really inclined to give up on.

If you think of some additional suggestions I would love to hear them, as losing all those add-ons because they are tied to this one application isn't sitting very well.

EDIT: I also tried stripping out everything from dll.xml and exe.xml except for the core components such as fsuipc, addon manager, and couatl. Same issue so it does not appear to be related to a new addition there.

[virtuali]

Unfortunately since we've put all our proverbial eggs into one basket, I'm now without 13 add-ons that I've bought and paid for because this scripting engine refuses to run.

The engine is not refusing to run. Something else in your system is causing this.

Fact that all our addons needs a single executable, it's obviously made for efficiency reasons, imaging the waste of resources, if each single airport needed its own .DLL (yes, some developers do that, which is really un-efficent), and in any case, even if we had different modules, chances are they will all stopped working anyway in your case.

If you think of some additional suggestions I would love to hear them

I've already made some additional suggestions, but haven't heard back from you about them: be sure that neither FSX.EXE or Couatl.exe have anything checked in their "Compatibility" tab of their Properties. That page should be entirely blank with nothing enabled, which is the default setting.

You might *TRY* a System restore to a previous date when you didn't had the problem, no guaranteed it will work because system restore is quite tricky and potentially dangerous, but it's the last resort before reinstalling Windows.

Another thing worth trying, is to create a new user account, and try install under that one, hopefully what is causing the problem is not installed for all users, and might not appear under a new user account.

[AaronMyers]

I did check the compatibility page for both executables and neither of them have anything checked on that page.

System restore is an extreme measure that I'm not quite ready to risk, because as you said, it's potentially long reaching and can affect a lot more that flight sim add-ons. I would be nice to find the culprit that is causing the issue rather than a blanket attempt at a work-around. Did you yourself code this module? If not, can we take this issue to the developer and see if they may have some clues that could create this looping scenario?

In the meantime I will indeed create a new user account and try that. That will at least tell us if the conflict is with an application loaded specific to my normal Windows account.

[AaronMyers]

Seems to run ok with a new user profile. Guess I start killing processes one by one until I find the conflict...