couatl.exe crash FSX SP2 Win 7 Pro 64Bit **SOLVED**

[bpcw001]

Hi,

After the latest GSX update, I get couatl.exe crashes in FSX SP2 when doing the following:

- Load default flight with Cessna 172
- After all initialization has settled down, switch aircraft to FSL A320


What I then get:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          5/13/2018 01:31:27
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      FSPC
Description:
Faulting application name: couatl.exe, version: 3.2.0.3985, time stamp: 0x5ac56e9f
Faulting module name: ucrtbase.DLL, version: 10.0.10586.1412, time stamp: 0x5a64613e
Exception code: 0x40000015
Fault offset: 0x0008480a
Faulting process id: 0xe50
Faulting application start time: 0x01d3ea47ec68e903
Faulting application path: C:\FSIM\Addon Manager\couatl\couatl.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\ucrtbase.DLL
Report Id: 96cafdf4-563c-11e8-bb88-d8cb8ac03954
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Error" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>100</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-05-12T23:31:27.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>34563</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>FSPC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>couatl.exe</Data>
    <Data>3.2.0.3985</Data>
    <Data>5ac56e9f</Data>
    <Data>ucrtbase.DLL</Data>
    <Data>10.0.10586.1412</Data>
    <Data>5a64613e</Data>
    <Data>40000015</Data>
    <Data>0008480a</Data>
    <Data>e50</Data>
    <Data>01d3ea47ec68e903</Data>
    <Data>C:\FSIM\Addon Manager\couatl\couatl.exe</Data>
    <Data>C:\Windows\system32\ucrtbase.DLL</Data>
    <Data>96cafdf4-563c-11e8-bb88-d8cb8ac03954</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

I have to disable GSX, start FSX, load the default flight, then switch to the FSL A320, and only then re-enable GSX to work around that. When doing it like that, everything works.

I also did a fresh GSX install with the latest package from the FSFT website, but same error occurs when just switching aircraft without disabling GSX.

Please advise.

Thanks

[virtuali]

It's not clear from your message if Couatl.exe crashes ONLY when you switching to the FS Labs A320, or when you switch to every other airplane. Please verify this.

[bpcw001]

It's not clear from your message if Couatl.exe crashes ONLY when you switching to the FS Labs A320, or when you switch to every other airplane. Please verify this.

Thanks for your reply.
Same behavior occurs with e. g. PMDG NGX.

[virtuali]

Does it happen when switching to a default aircraft ? Also, the FSLabs A320 has a Windows service which is constantly running. Could you please check if the problem happens with that service stopped ?

You can temporarily stop a service from the Windows Control Panel "Tool and Services" page.

[bpcw001]

Hi,

tried with everything FSL disabled (just the service won't do, stuff in dll.xml has to be disabled too).
Crashes occur when switching even from stock C172 to stock Mooney.

However: I turned on the diagnostic log and found at the end stuff related to Aerosoft AES (which I also use). See below.
Thus, I turned off AES from the scenery dialog in FSX, and I can switch from stock C172 to stock Mooney without a crash.

Hence, I suspect GSX has "forgotten" how to play along well with AES installed (I've been using the latest AES 2.45a for quite a while now with GSX without any problems).

Log:
(...)

Loading aircraft data from Airplanes\C172
intelliscene.cfg provides aircraft data with priority 1
aircraftDb.py provides aircraft data with priority 2
Using aircraft data from aircraftDb.py
Section [contact_points] contains invalid data at entry point.4
User collision geometries reloaded
Loading airport EDSB from C:\FSX\Scenery\0601\scenery\APX50140.bgl
Added Menu SubItem "Customize airport positions..." (parentId 82, id 99)
User collision geometries reloaded
Loading aircraft data from Airplanes\Mooney_Bravo
intelliscene.cfg provides aircraft data with priority 1
aircraftDb.py provides aircraft data with priority 0
Using aircraft data from intelliscene.cfg
Section [contact_points] contains invalid data at entry point.4
Restarting Couatl...

The point is that intelliscene.cfg for stock Mooney Bravo as installed by AES only consists of:
[Descr]
Type=MB
[Geom]
Nosegear= 2

and no contact_point data.

[virtuali]

The invalid [contact_points] data is in the aircraft.cfg of the default Mooney. It's a known but of that plane.

[bpcw001]

The invalid [contact_points] data is in the aircraft.cfg of the default Mooney. It's a known but of that plane.

OK. The fact remains that the current GSX appears to have stopped working together with AES on my system, which it did flawlessly before, since when I disable AES, everything works.

[virtuali]

Your message is not very clear. What do you mean with "GSX appears to have stopped working together with AES on my system" ?

GSX never "worked" with AES to begin with, the interaction is that GSX reads the AES intelliscene.cfg file, if an airplane doesn't have any better source of data available. But it's best to configure the airplane with GSX anyway, and not relying only on an intelliscene.cfg file, since the GSX configuration is more precise and has more parameter we added during the updates.

[bpcw001]

Your message is not very clear. What do you mean with "GSX appears to have stopped working together with AES on my system" ?

GSX never "worked" with AES to begin with, the interaction is that GSX reads the AES intelliscene.cfg file, if an airplane doesn't have any better source of data available. But it's best to configure the airplane with GSX anyway, and not relying only on an intelliscene.cfg file, since the GSX configuration is more precise and has more parameter we added during the updates.

OK. I'll try to sum it up:

I have both GSX and AES installed. Up to recently, that was not an issue at all until I ran the FSDT updater/installed freshly from the installer from the FSDT website.
AES is version 2.45a and has been so for quite a while.
Now, switching aircraft results reproduceably in the crash as reported, which in the very same scenario it did not do previously.
If I disable AES in the FSX scenery config, restart FSX and try the same again, the crashes do not occur.


Thanks

[p3dx3]

The invalid [contact_points] data is in the aircraft.cfg of the default Mooney. It's a known but of that plane.

what is the correct entry for the mooney_bravo contact points section?

[virtuali]

It's a typo in the default aircraft.cfg, instead of this:

point.4=2,  -3.90   18.0, -0.67, 1574.8, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0

It must be like this:

point.4=2,  -3.90,   18.0, -0.67, 1574.8, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0

It was missing a comma after the 3.90 parameter. I must remind myself to report it to LM.

[bpcw001]

Well ...
I re-downloaded the full GSX installer from the FSDT website and just ran it again.

I don't want to speak too soon, but it appears that the crash issue is gone now. While the crash was reproducible on every aircraft change before, I haven't had any crash since.

Quite frankly, I have no idea what exactly could have fixed it, and why that crash occurred in the first place, since my entire FSX setup had been running without any issue for many months.

Sorry for having stirred up the hive here. Let's see if it remains all good.

Thanks for your support anyway!

[virtuali]

I don't want to speak too soon, but it appears that the crash issue is gone now. While the crash was reproducible on every aircraft change before, I haven't had any crash since.

Of course it has: see the May 17th release notes:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/couatl_liveupdate_notes.html

May 17th

Bugfix: Fixed disappearing GSX menu after switching airplane in FSX