GSX Not Activating

[johnsmith0508]

Hello,
I've recently been having an issue where all of my FSDT products are suddenly showing in Trial Mode. I've attempted to uninstall all FSDT products, remove the %APPDATA%/Virtuali and %PROGRAMDATA%/Virtuali folders, restart the computer, and reinstall GSX and the following happens:

When the simulator first starts up, GSX loads fine. However, after waiting for the airport cache to generate, I tried to close out P3D and restart P3D and GSX would show up in Trial Mode.

Additionally, sometimes when I close the simulator, the simulator won't close and Couatl will use 30% of my CPU and keep P3D open. I usually have to forcefully end the task for it to work.

Things I've Tried:
1) Full reinstall of FSDT
2) Disabled all antivirus including Windows Defender AND added exclusions to both Addon Manager, Couatl.exe, P3D folder, and Prepar3D.exe
3) Everything is run as an administrator
4) Installing GSX to another folder outside Program Files (x86) (Suspected that UAC might be the issue)

I'm out of ideas at this point. Any help is appreciated.

[virtuali]

When the simulator first starts up, GSX loads fine. However, after waiting for the airport cache to generate, I tried to close out P3D and restart P3D and GSX would show up in Trial Mode.

This sentence is not very clear.

GSX won't load until *after* the cache is regenerated, and you see the message "Airport cache loaded successfully". assuming the cache needs to be regenerated in the first place, which should happen ONLY after you install a new airport.

For example, if you see the message about the cache *being* regenerated at each start, it means the cache never completed successfully, so GSX never loaded successfully, not even once.

This is usually caused by either of these:

- The cache regeneration is unusually slow, because of the antivirus, which should be configured to exclude the Addon Manager but ALSO ALL folders that contains your sceneries

OR

- One of your .BGL is corrupted, so the cache regeneration cannot complete. The most common case are .BGL files with 0 length.

OR

- You quitting and restarting the sim while the cache is still being regenerated, possibly because it was too slow because of your antivirus, or because it cannot complete because of a corrupted .BGL

[johnsmith0508]

Sorry, slight clarification. It generates the airport cache just fine. I can use GSX as normal after it has completed. additionally, once closing the sim and restarting my computer, GSX/Couatl work as expected. The issue only arises once I have closed my sim and attempt to reopen it without first restarting my computer

[virtuali]

The issue only arises once I have closed my sim and attempt to reopen it without first restarting my computer

Then the issue is simply you are restarting it too fast. Try this:

- Run the GSX Control Panel with the simulator open. The button will say "Waiting to close the sim"

- Close the sim, and check the button.

- Note how much time AFTER you THINK the simulator is closed, for the button to change the message ? That's when is REALLY safe to restart the sim, which is always well after the sim own icon has gone.

[johnsmith0508]

Unfortunately I don't think that was the problem. Even after the button changes, Couatl.exe is still shown in Task Manager, and using about 30% of my CPU.

[virtuali]

Unfortunately I don't think that was the problem. Even after the button changes, Couatl.exe is still shown in Task Manager, and using about 30% of my CPU.

Couatl normally shouldn't take more than 1% of a spare core of your CPU. That 30% seems to indicate is STILL recreating the Cache, which is the only possibly reason for such large CPU occupation.

[johnsmith0508]

That 30% seems to indicate is STILL recreating the Cache

But after PC restart, it does not try to regenerate the cache again, so it looks like that is an unlikely cause. Additionally, it will stay like that as long as I care to let it (I've left my sim open overnight to be sure) but nothing changes. I think of more relevance is the fact that Couatl remains running after the simulator has closed. It almost looks like it's having trouble interacting with the sim, as even though GSX is listed as in trial mode by Addon Manager, the GSX sub-menu never gets added to the Addons menu.

[virtuali]

.Additionally, it will stay like that as long as I care to let it (I've left my sim open overnight to be sure) but nothing changes. I think of more relevance is the fact that Couatl remains running after the simulator has closed. It almost looks like it's having trouble interacting with the sim, as even though GSX is listed as in trial mode by Addon Manager, the GSX sub-menu never gets added to the Addons menu.

If the GSX menu is not added to the Addons menu, it means GSX hasn't completed loading. Note that, GSX will be completely loaded only *after* it has generated all the eventual replacement jetways for an airport, assuming there are any to generate.

If you try to use GSX before that, it *might* get stuck.

However, I cannot replicate in any way the Couatl.exe program not closing with the sim. It closes 100% of the times here. Be sure you have configure the antivirus correctly

When the simulator closes, it sends a command using Simconnect to all add-ons, asking them to close. Maybe a possible reason why this command is not received on your system, is too many add-ons sending too many commands to the sim, so we don't get the notification, because it was lost in the traffic.

Of course,  if you are unable to find the real cause of the problem, you can always Terminate Couatl.exe from the Task Manger between sessions.

[johnsmith0508]

Well thank you for your time. Your comment on too many Add-ons gave me the idea to temporarily remove all of my addons except for the FSDT ones. That seems to have fixed the issue, so now I am going to figure out which one is causing the issue