DCS Freezing entire PC on startup

[SPARE 11]

 

 

When I try to launch DCS via the MT shortcut on my desktop it will load for a literal second and then freeze my entire PC. I can't ALT+TAB or anything like that. I have to reset my PC to make it unfreeze. I tried re-installing the game on my C drive and there it was working fine. So I again re-installed on my brand new F drive and it was done I tried to join Heatblur Cold War sever... midway into the loading process it froze everything again. I then tried to join The "Through the Inferno" Syria map and the same thing happened. On the next attempt to launch DCS it froze immediately after running the program. I couldn't even get into the launcher.  It won't give me a log when I try to start but I have one from the 2nd I tried to get into DCS and it loaded before having the same issue when trying to join an MP server. 

 

 

dcs.log

Edited September 24, 2024 by SPARE 11

[sleighzy]

One thing I note from that log file is this:

2024-09-24 17:57:33.351 INFO    ASYNCNET (Main): Server version: 2.9.7.59074
2024-09-24 17:57:33.352 WARNING ASYNCNET (Main): App version mismatch. Client version: 2.9.7.59263

You're on the latest version of DCS, but that server isn't it.

Given it's working on your "C:" drive fine, but not your "D:" drive are you sure there isn't an issue with that drive? Can you run Windows hard-disk tools to verify that there's nothing wrong there.

Can you also try deleting the below directories and trying again:

%TEMP%\DCS

C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\DCS\fxo

C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\DCS\metashaders2

Drop another log once you've done that and tried again and it crashes or hangs again, before restarting the game as it will overwrite the log.

 

[SPARE 11]

I scanned my drive and it said I had no errors. It's brand new and I got it just for DCS. I also tried deleting the directories you mentioned but the issue persists. When I go to my log folder its shows the same logs from hours ago, it's not writing new ones. I would like to note that the same thing happens when I try to run the updater, just immediate freeze.

 

 

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3880]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.

WARNING!  /F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
  782080 file records processed.
File verification completed.
 Phase duration (File record verification): 7.09 seconds.
  42352 large file records processed.
 Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 17.77 milliseconds.
  0 bad file records processed.
 Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.18 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
  78675 reparse records processed.
  1042614 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
 Phase duration (Index verification): 11.04 seconds.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
 Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 723.02 milliseconds.
  0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
 Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 0.17 milliseconds.
  78675 reparse records processed.
 Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 116.52 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
 Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 54.68 milliseconds.
  130268 data files processed.
 Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 0.28 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  33746744 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
 Phase duration (USN journal verification): 123.27 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

 976000551 KB total disk space.
 477330316 KB in 380104 files.
    302372 KB in 130269 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    933311 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 497434552 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 244000137 total allocation units on disk.
 124358638 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 19.17 seconds (19174 ms).

Edited September 24, 2024 by SPARE 11

[sleighzy]

Can you run the Windows dxdiag tool and then save the file and then drop it here. This may help identify any underlying issues when running these process, e.g. driver issues etc.

Also remove any custom mods you may have and run a slow repair, you may need to run from the commandline from within the bin dir of your game installation directory: "DCS_Updater.exe repair"

Rename your Saved Games\DCS directory to "DCS.old" so that it creates a new one when the game is started again. Do a rename (not delete so you can copy back in any config, e.g. key bindings, once we get this going again).

[SPARE 11]

I scanned my drive and it said I had no errors. It's brand new and I got it just for DCS. I also tried deleting the directories you mentioned but the issue persists. When I go to my log folder it shows the same logs from hours ago, it's not writing new ones when it freezes. Also tried to repair and re-name the file. When I check my C drive after the restart Dcs.old is still there and it never made a new folder.

Edited September 25, 2024 by SPARE 11

[sleighzy]

Can you try installing this and choosing the install or repair option. https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

EDIT: removed the above as the game is running fine on your "C:" drive, and presumably this would have been an issue for that as well.

Jump into the official DCS Discord server https://discord.gg/JzEAYHne in the #dcs-help-room channel with the info you've provided so far. There may be deeper technical issues here and folk there can dive further into those, likely SpecialK. The dxdiag output will be good as well to see if there are any other Windows issues.

Edited September 25, 2024 by sleighzy

[SPARE 11]

I tried using an HDMI port and now when I launch it tells me this. I also tried to reset my pc all together and it’s saying there was a problem resetting your pc. 

[rob10]

That looks like you might have problem with your new drive.  I had an intermittent CTD that slowly became a consistent one that turned out to be a bad sector on the drive where Windows was trying to write stuff.  If you're getting a full CTD that's more likely hardware than DCS most of the time.

[sleighzy]

@SPARE 11, you ran the disk tools above as I requested, but I think you've only run chkdsk against your "C:" drive and not your "D:" drive, based on that scan log you pasted above earlier.

Can you run this against "D:" as well please. (believe you need to specify the drive letter after the command).

Edited September 26, 2024 by sleighzy