Couatl failed to load **SOLVED**

[jbcallender]

For some reason, none of my FSDT sceneries (DFW, JFK2, KIAH, KORD) load, stating that Couatl failed to load, check antivirus, add exclusion, etc.  But I have done nothing and changed nothing, I don't hav antivirus running and have run the Live Update numerous times.  I am running P3D 4.3.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff Callender

[Hipshot]

I have much the same problem.

In P3D 4.2 FSDT products and everything else worked just fine. In 4.3 i have only installed FSDT KLAX 1.7.0 and GSX 2.5.0.8 and I get the same message as Jeff. I have reinstalled GSX and Klax 3 times. I have excluded Addon Manager from antivirus and run Live Update and since then I can't load a scenario without P3D disappearing from the screen so I can't write out the Couatl message I'm seeing for you.

As I did in 4.2 I have the Addon Manager in drive C along with Lockheed Martin/Prepar3Dv4 in 4.3. Not in C\Program Files (x86). I did try them in (x86) but I still got the same message about Couatl not starting.

I have just uninstalled KLAX and GSX and now i get beyond the scenario screen and it begins to load but then P3D disappears. It worked fine until I installed KLAX and GSX.

Is there anything that can be done about this?

Richard

[Hipshot]

I just restarted my computer and now P3D is working fine again but without KLAX and GSX.

If you could get FSDT products working on my computer again it would be really great.

Richard

[virtuali]

This thread indicates all the known possibly reasons for missing menus and all the known solutions:

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

[Hipshot]

I must admit I had forgotten about that. I used to turn off antivirus as I installed FSDT products in p3d 4.2.

I just turned it off while installing KLAX and GSX and now everything is working beautifully. Thanks for the helpful reminder.

BTW this is the first time I have seen GSX 2.5 in action and it is just UNBELIEVABLE! I'll be buying this soon so I can use it at all airports.

Richard

[Rongor]

I followed that link in virtuali's post and did #1 and #2, repeatedly. My Real-time-protection is off all the time. Did the VCredist uninstall/install stuff. Didn't touch the Simconnect stuff so far, as it works flawlessly with other addons, SPAD.next for example. I can absolutely rule out #4

Note that this is a totally fresh setup. This computer was assembled my me last weekend, with a clean, activated and updated Win 10 Pro installation, Prepar3D_v4_Academic_4.3.29.25520 was setup and now I am adding scenery. For the record, yes, P3D worked so far, did first flights already. Now I am trying to add FSDT addons today. At first I had only JFKv2 installed. Fired up the sim. Ran just fine, Couatl and activation process were good, so I did some orbits across JFK and NYC (enjoying my new hardware above heavyweight scenery...).
Then I installed GSX and LAX. Started up P3D again, start location LAX active runway. This was the time when Couatl started to deny service, with the aforementioned message.

After checking the linked thread http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,8428.msg68872.html#msg68872, I worked my way through #1 and #2, multiple times, right after switching the Win10 Real-time-protection off. In between I checked even "manually" on the disk, verifying everything, including AddonManager folder was wiped off.
Did reinstall GSX from a fresh downloaded installer once, same problem. Did uninstall. Reinstall second time, same problem.
Same for the Visual C++ 2005 runtimes, did this twice. No chance.

Did I forgot to say I am in admin role and also manually launched everything with admin rights?

Problem persists. Sad.



If you insist me to try that simconnect wipe, please advise how to "repair" it back, since unlike in the #3 description, I don't use FSX.
What I also found a bit confusing was the wording

- DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL with the antivirus entirely OFF

- Uninstall GSX. Reply YES when asked if you want to remove the Addon Manager and the Couatl Engine. Reply YES to both questions.

- TURN OFF your antivirus.

Since according to the first hyphen I have antivirus entirely OFF, I can't really turn it off any further as demanded after hyphen #3...


Any help leading to a solution would be appreciated.

[virtuali]

Any help leading to a solution would be appreciated.

try the Couatl test mode manually, by doing this:

- Open a command prompt ( Start->CMD->Enter ) and go to the Addon Manager\Couatl folder

- Type the following:

Couatl.exe --test

If there's a problem with missing system libraries, you might see some kind of error from Windows, saying something about it.

[Rongor]

Hey there, thanks for the reply.

I did what you said. Unfortunately, there wasn't any info returning. Nothing really happened...
https://i.imgur.com/kfFtgyp.png



btw these are my VC runtimes (and Simconnect...)
https://i.imgur.com/IRZUZeB.png

[virtuali]

I did what you said. Unfortunately, there wasn't any info returning. Nothing really happened...

This means the program works fine. If there was a problem with some Windows libraries, you were supposed to see an error message. Check this:

- Right-click on Couatl.exe and select Properties->Digital Signature.

- Check if the Digital signature is valid.

[Rongor]

Well, I am not really surprised that the couatl.exe works, nor that the certificate is valid.

But how do we tell P3D to launch it correctly?

[virtuali]

Well, I am not really surprised that the couatl.exe works, nor that the certificate is valid.

Well, now it's clear the problem is not couatl.exe, or some kind of corruption, or that you untrusted it (although your screenshot covered the page that said if the digital signature was valid or not)

But how do we tell P3D to launch it correctly?

I'm sure P3D is trying to launch it correctly, but it's possible something else is blocking it from starting from the sim. Have you tried reinstalling the VC++ libraries and then RESTART WINDOWS ?

[Rongor]

I can confirm it was shown as valid.


Regarding the PC restart, yes, I did. But I will do so again now.

1. uninstalling all VC 2005...
2. downloading all the x86 and x64 files behind those 4 microsoft links you provided
3. installing them
4. reboot
5. launch P3D

[Rongor]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=32BC1BEE-A3F9-4C13-9C99-220B62A191EE&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=766a6af7-ec73-40ff-b072-9112bab119c2&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26347

So far, no luck. I now reinstalled all the x86 installers from all 4 provided links. I even rebooted after each one of them and fired up P3D. No change.

In the bottom two links are also x64 installers to find. Should I try them as well?

[Rongor]

Meanwhile I also reinstalled SimConnect.
Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.

For all other readers who want to reinstall SimConnect: You find the installer in [Drive]:\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\redist\Interface\FSX-SP2-XPACK\retail\lib
Optionally you can visit your Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs and features, find the "Microsoft Flight Simulator SimConnect Client" in the list, once click it and then use the appearing "repair" function.

Sadly, here it still doesn't work.

[virtuali]

In the bottom two links are also x64 installers to find. Should I try them as well?

Yes, try the x64 versions too, and always uninstall and reinstall each version.