DCS Crash and Windows Crash simultaneously

[Tango777]

This began after two updates ago. Not the most recent update, but the update before the most recent update. Sometimes this happens only 10 minutes into the sim. DCS and Windows both freeze and the only option I have is to hold the power button down on the computer. The computer does not even respond to Ctrl Alt Del.

After I reboot the computer, I can usually run DCS with no problems.

Windows does not crash with any other software from my computer.

The log from the most recent crash is attached.

My computer specs are:

Windows 11 Home 64-bit
13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700F
32 GB RAM @ 2 x 16 GB DDR5-4800
16 GB RTX 4060 Ti (running the latest NVidia driver 565.90)
2 TB SSD

CPU cores: 16, threads: 24, System RAM: 32579 MB, Pagefile: 32768 MB

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dcs.log

[sleighzy]

One thing I note in the log, not saying it's the issue, is a few problems around the F14, including messages that it is a different version than the latest build. Can you remove all custom mods from your game, (including the lottafGameGUI.lua from your Scripts/Hooks directory which I'm not familiar with), and then run a slow repair. Delete your fxo and metashaders2 caches from the Saved Games\DCS folder as well, and then see if you can replicate this issue.

If this continues to crash can you also run the Windows dxdiag tool, save the report, and attach here as well, along with the latest log.

[Tango777]

I do not have any custom mods as the only things I have downloaded are missions from the DCS website, but I do not download missions that require custom mods. I just looked and in the Mods folder in the Saved Games\DCS subdirectory there are two folders titled aircraft and tech, but both are empty. The F-14 files (wherever they are located) have never been touched as I never touch any files in any DCS directory. 

I have ran the slow repair, but that has never helped anything.

This problem with DCS does not only happen while flying the F-14.

But I will do as you say and report back.

[Tango777]

Well it happened again and I was not even flying yet. I was just looking at a map.

Could it be a RAM issue?

Attached are both the latest log and the dxdiag report.

dcs.log DxDiag-Report.txt

[Kanelbolle]

7 hours ago, Tango777 said:

Well it happened again and I was not even flying yet. I was just looking at a map.

Could it be a RAM issue?

Attached are both the latest log and the dxdiag report.

dcs.log 96.79 kB · 4 downloads DxDiag-Report.txt 94.65 kB · 3 downloads

See you have a Intel 13Gen, have you updated your BIOS for your motherboard to the latest version with the last microcode? And of course use the Intel default settings.

 

Do you experience any crashes in other programs?

You can try running Cinebench and Memtest86+ to test your system stability.

[sleighzy]

The dxdiag report shows that of the last 10 crashes, 4 of them were for "pppd.exe" (internet says this is for your UPS software, so something with the power supply?). There are another 3 for "fsx.exe", so I'm assuming you're using Microsoft Flight Simulator X as well? Do you experience any crashing issues with that too? The final 3 are StoreAgentScanForUpdatesFailure0 which can be related to a few different reasons, including issues with software and corrupted system files. Can you open a command prompt as an administrator and run the below two commands as well to confirm whether or not there are issues and they get fixed.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

sfc /scannow

 

[Tango777]

Thank you both for your replies! Much appreciated! My replies are:

@Kanelbolle I do have the latest BIOS for the mobo. I have never touched the Intel settings, so I do use the Intel default settings. However, according to the MSI Center, there is an update available for the Intel chipset drivers. The reason I am reluctant in running that install is because it took forever for the BIOS update to finally work correctly and update.

 

@sleighzy I run MSI Center which has a feature called FROZR AI Cooling before running a sim, DCS or FSX and one other program. The people at MSI, a few months ago, recommended that I run it because they claim that it does a very good job in running the fans on the computer, balancing software so that a sim will run at its optimal level regarding heating, etc. while I run any simulator, but it should only interface with the fans you can see, in other words all of the fans except: the CPU liquid cooler pump fan, the CPU fan, and the video card fans (the video card fans should not run all of the time but they do regardless of running FROZR AI or not) throttle up from their current state as needed. FROZR AI should not interface with the power supply, but for the time being I will leave FROZR AI off and see what happens.

It does not have an effect when running Microsoft Flight Sim X. The reason that program has a history of ctd is because I was running an addon for FSX before starting FSX first as I should, if I start FSX first and then start the addon program FSX has no problems. So that ctd one is on me.

What is important to note is that when DCS crashes, so does Windows. It is the only program that crashes Windows at the same time. When FSX ctd, I simply restart FSX immediately and it runs smoothly.

I just ran the two commands in CMD as administrator as you suggested, so let's see how that effects things as well. After running sfc /scannow it did find corrupt files and it said that it successfully repaired them.

Will keep you posted.

[Tango777]

Well, that was a fast test. The moment DCS began populating the different servers after clicking on Multiplayer, DCS crashed and Windows locked up again. Something now has to do with the Multiplayer aspect of DCS because that is when it crashes. Attached are the latest DxDiag and DCS log.

DxDiag.txt dcs.log

[rob10]

If you're getting a complete freeze of Windows, that's almost always a Windows issue or a hardware problem.  It's pretty rare that DCS can cause a Windows crash from what I've seen.

[Tango777]

It only happens after clicking on Multiplayer in DCS.

Edited October 14, 2024 by Tango777

[rob10]

11 hours ago, Tango777 said:

It only happens after clicking on Multiplayer in DCS.

Yes, and maybe that's because MP is calling a corrupted Windows file that doesn't get used in SP or a file that's on a bad spot on a drive or MP just pushes the hardware overlimit somewhere.  I can't guarantee it isn't some really obscure bug between your system and DCS, but almost always when it's completely locking your system or BSDing it's not DCS that's the actual culprit.

[Tango777]

Some guys that I fly with in a squadron are experiencing some of the same issues, and other problems as well in DCS more recently as well. Sometimes we reboot 3 times until everything works as it should.

After running sfc /scannow there are now no more problems found on the entire drive.

[rob10]

55 minutes ago, Tango777 said:

Some guys that I fly with in a squadron are experiencing some of the same issues, and other problems as well in DCS more recently as well. Sometimes we reboot 3 times until everything works as it should.

Since that's not general problem, I'd start looking at what mods you have in common.

[Tango777]

2 hours ago, rob10 said:

Since that's not general problem, I'd start looking at what mods you have in common.

I do not have any mods. The Mods folder in the Saved Games\DCS subdirectory have two folders titled aircraft and tech, and both are empty.

[lee1hy]

 this game is native unable to fix its multiplayer ctd. This game is more about the developers attitude than bugs.

I've done the report (auto-include) several time yrs and yrs

but it's a waste of time