DCS Crashes at "Waiting for pooled tasks - 1" Every time, reguardless of Aircraft/Map/Mission

[sabreman]

Good Afternoon,

Like the title says, my game crashes at this step regardless of what aircraft, mission, server, etc I'm using. I'm able to get into the game and use the mission editor, but trying to actually start anything results in this outcome. Attached is my crash log.

This is on a brand-new (clean formatted) and fully updated windows 11 install with a brand new DCS install. The only module I have currently enabled outside of the default free ones, is the hornet. 

I have ran memtest and verified that my RAM is fully functional. I'm on the Latest BIOS drivers and NVIDIA drivers. Page file is system manged. Both the Saved Games, and the main DCS folders are exceptions in windows defender. This computer with the same hardware, used to work flawlessly a few months back. 

 

Please let me know if you need more information. 

 

Edit: I've now confirmed this is a hardware issue. See page 2 for more details.

dcs.log-20251016-205211.zip

Edited yesterday at 02:45 AM by sabreman

[Rudel_chw]

Looks like an authorization issue, check that your computer date, time and time zone are correct, and that you are using the correct dcs account password.

[sabreman]

I've done that, and have the same result. Attached is the new crash log.

dcs.log-20251016-215945.zip

[Rudel_chw]

50 minutes ago, sabreman said:

I've done that, and have the same result. Attached is the new crash log.

not the same result, the authorization error is gone and there is a new error:

 

EDCORE (15212): # C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION at 00007ff837d8eff3 00:00000000

 

your windows has a very small swapfile, try your increase it to at least 32 GB, here is a guide if needed:

 

https://www.windows-tweaks.info/en/guide/set-swap-file-in-windows-10-11/

 

 

 

[sleighzy]

Error is the same as the one in the first log you provided:

2025-10-16 21:59:45.510 INFO    EDCORE (15212): DCS/2.9.20.15384 (x86_64; MT; Windows NT 10.0.26200)
2025-10-16 21:59:45.511 INFO    EDCORE (15212): C:\Games\DCS World\bin\edterrain4.dll
2025-10-16 21:59:45.512 INFO    EDCORE (15212): # C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION at 00007ff837d8eff3 00:00000000
2025-10-16 21:59:45.513 INFO    EDCORE (15212): SymInit: Symbol-SearchPath: 'C:\Games\DCS World\bin;', symOptions: 532, UserName: 'YOOB'
2025-10-16 21:59:45.516 INFO    EDCORE (15212): OS-Version: 10.0.26200 () 0x100-0x1
2025-10-16 21:59:45.517 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000002deff3 (edterrain4): assets::lLinked::save + 0xEE53
2025-10-16 21:59:45.518 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000002d564b (edterrain4): assets::lLinked::save + 0x54AB
2025-10-16 21:59:45.519 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x0000000000276e86 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0x6DD6
2025-10-16 21:59:45.519 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x0000000000274844 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0x4794
2025-10-16 21:59:45.519 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x000000000027106a (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0xFBA
2025-10-16 21:59:45.520 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000002710a1 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0xFF1
2025-10-16 21:59:45.521 WARNING LOG (15180): 6 duplicate message(s) skipped.
2025-10-16 21:59:45.521 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x0000000000275b07 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0x5A57
2025-10-16 21:59:45.521 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000002729c3 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0x2913
2025-10-16 21:59:45.522 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x0000000000277f9f (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::querySceneObjectsTris + 0x87F
2025-10-16 21:59:45.522 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000002716c9 (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::verticalIntersection + 0x1619
2025-10-16 21:59:45.522 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x000000000027758d (edterrain4): landscape5::Surface5File::queryRuntimeSceneObjects + 0x10D
2025-10-16 21:59:45.523 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000000e4f18 (edterrainGraphics41): createInstancerRenderable + 0x353A8
2025-10-16 21:59:45.523 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000000e4291 (edterrainGraphics41): createInstancerRenderable + 0x34721
2025-10-16 21:59:45.523 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x0000000000034959 (edCore): ed::SyncTaskQueue::push_task + 0x489
2025-10-16 21:59:45.524 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000000493d6 (edCore): ed::SyncTaskQueue::push_task + 0x14F06
2025-10-16 21:59:45.524 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000000331e1 (edCore): ed::thread::_get_current_thread_id + 0x71
2025-10-16 21:59:45.525 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x00000000000037b0 (ucrtbase): wcsrchr + 0x150
2025-10-16 21:59:45.527 INFO    EDCORE (15212): 0x000000000002e8d7 (KERNEL32): BaseThreadInitThunk + 0x17
2025-10-16 21:59:45.769 INFO    EDCORE (15212): Minidump created.

Your page file is fine, you have 64Gb RAM.

Based on the DCS log analyzer, and yes I realise this is a new install but things can get corrupted, it has the following advice:

• Run a slow repair, including the option to remove files
• Delete Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 and try again.
• Next, delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\TEMP\DCS and try again.
• Next, try renaming Saved Games\DCS to DCS.old and try again. Make sure to rename and not delete so you can get your bindings back from the Config\Input folder

The DxDiag report also shows some issues:

Windows Error Reporting (WER)

Application Errors

DCS.exe: c0000005 (edterrain4.dll)

Memory Timing Issues

Remove any overclocking (XMP) from your RAM.

Try the above and then provide another log file.

 

EDIT:

I see you're on Windows 25H2. Was your previous install on this as well? Haven't seen any reports of issues with this as yet (there's a forum thread here with people stating theirs is fine so far), but something to be mindful if folk see similar issues / stack traces.

Edited October 17 by sleighzy

[sabreman]

I have completed all of the above steps to no avail. XMP was not enabled. And yes, my previous install was also on this update.

Attached is the most recent crash log. 

dcs.log-20251017-030541.zip

Edited October 17 by sabreman

[sabreman]

Any ideas? I've been unable to play DCS for a few weeks now because of this issue. 

 

Edit: Out of desperation I've un-installed the hornet and reset all my settings to the lowest possible, and the game loaded! I got like 4 frames of gameplay before it crashed again. Note, this was the first frogfoot instant action mission, which I've tried before. 

However, this is definitely progress and the new crash log is attached. Seems to be the same terrain engine error as before. I'll keep editing this post as i keep troubleshooting. 

dcs.log-20251018-174927.zip

Edited Saturday at 05:53 PM by sabreman

[rob10]

Have you tried RENAMING your DCS Saved Games folder (re-install won't have touched it).  You've got some weird errors showing up in it (even in the latest log) that could be causing issues.

[sabreman]

I've reinstalled my whole OS friend, which included a full drive wipe, and yes I have ALSO tried renaming the folder. 

As a follow up to my last post, it seems that the crash is now somewhat random. The same mission now crashes on lodaing world assets or whatever. Seems like a race-condition of some kind. 

[corn322]

On 10/16/2025 at 10:59 AM, sabreman said:

I'm on the Latest BIOS drivers

This computer with the same hardware, used to work flawlessly a few months back. 

Please let me know if you need more information

Did you update BIOS before these issues started?

[sabreman]

No. These issues started on my previous install with outdated BIOS drivers. I hadn't fired up DCS for like, 2-3 months and when I tried this whole shtick kicked off. I thought a complete wipe would solve it, but here we are.  Quite the problem.

[sabreman]

Just as a troubleshooting idea, and because I have literally no idea what else to try, I made a brand new DCS account and tried the game with it (and everything but the base free modules removed). Same outcome, no dice. 

[sleighzy]

Latest log contains the following during startup. You had a similar one around vc_options.lua in the first log. I'm looking through the others.

2025-10-18 17:48:00.843 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): [C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua] CreateFile(REWRITE): The system cannot find the path specified.
2025-10-18 17:48:00.843 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): Can't open file 'C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua' from real path fs.
2025-10-18 17:48:00.843 ERROR   LuaGUI (Main): Cannot save disabled devices into file[C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua]! Error can't open "C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua" for 'w'
2025-10-18 17:48:32.516 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): [C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua] CreateFile(REWRITE): The system cannot find the path specified.
2025-10-18 17:48:32.516 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): Can't open file 'C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua' from real path fs.
2025-10-18 17:48:32.516 ERROR   LuaGUI (Main): Cannot save disabled devices into file[C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua]! Error can't open "C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua" for 'w'
2025-10-18 17:49:02.539 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): [C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua] CreateFile(REWRITE): The system cannot find the path specified.
2025-10-18 17:49:02.539 ERROR   EDCORE (Main): Can't open file 'C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua' from real path fs.
2025-10-18 17:49:02.539 ERROR   LuaGUI (Main): Cannot save disabled devices into file[C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua]! Error can't open "C:\Users\YOOB\Saved Games\DCS\Config/Input/disabled.lua" for 'w'

Can you check if that file actually exists. It does for me so don't know if it's a permissions problem. You don't run DCS, and have never run DCS, as an administrator right? Never even ticked the box "Run as administrator" under the Compatibility tab of your properties on the shortcut or exe file in the bin folder?

Edited Sunday at 02:05 AM by sleighzy

[sabreman]

I ran it once during this troubleshooting process as admin. I got into the game both before and after that, and have wiped the saved games folder many times. No, I did not have that file, though creating it did not have any effect.

 

[BJ55]

You own a 4090 but the DxDiag Notes say "There is a problem with AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics device. For more information, search for 'graphics device driver error code 43'", quite strange... edterrain4.dll crashing with memory access violation seems a driver related issue, try with disabling the iGPU (integrated graphics).

Edited Sunday at 04:39 PM by BJ55

[sabreman]

Disabled it, but no dice still. Here's the newest crash log. 

dcs.log-20251019-165852.zip

[BJ55]

Have you disabled HAGS, Game Mode and Core Isolation? Maybe try with and older NV driver? (btw, latest W11 release is plenty of bugs, like every NV driver since 50 series release)

[MAXsenna]

2 hours ago, sabreman said:

Disabled it, but no dice still. Here's the newest crash log. 

Pretty sure you have incorrect file access settings.

You have excluded DCS in your anti-virus solution, right? Made a repair after you did this?
is your Windows account member of local machine admins? Which Windows account did you use to install DCS?

 

Log analyzer suggests this, which I believe you already did. Tricky one this one.

Errors

Your DCS has crashed

The crash occurred inside edterrain4.dll.

• Try a !repair.,
• Delete Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 and try again.,
• Next, delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\TEMP\DCS and try again.,
• Next, try renaming Saved Games\DCS to DCS.old and try again

 

[rob10]

It really looks like you have either AV interfering or possibly a drive failing.  There are a number of files reported either not opening (or in last log, corrupted).  Some of what you're seeing is "normal" background issues in DCS logs, but there are a number of ones that aren't normally there.

[MAXsenna]

@sabreman Could you take a screenshot of your Anti-Virus exclusions? Silly as it sounds, someone yesterday told a user in a similar thread they should exclude DCS in the Firewall and not the AV. I'm not saying you have done it wrong though.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[BJ55]

From the "I got like 4 frames of gameplay before it crashed again" and no WER other than DCS and Flightsimulator I can only suppose that it's not disk/AV/FW related, it's crashing while rendering terrain, so if a full repair with "check all files (slow)" + "search for extra files" + reboot don't solve the issue it could only be a Win11 conf/Win11 bug/driver issue... Or maybe a .Net bug introduced whith the last cumulative update? (how I miss Win7, it was so easy to solve problems) 

( Damaged disk example: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/379011-what-the-latest-procedure-to-repair-an-installation/#findComment-5694880 , does't take much to check S.M.A.R.T. data for issues)

Edited Monday at 09:57 AM by BJ55

[sleighzy]

There are more errors in the WER than just DCS and FlightSimulator. The majority of the reported crashes in the Windows DxDiag reports are LiveKernelEvents with error code 1b0, I don’t see any other error codes in the few DxDiag reports I’ve look at so far.  This error code is likely why the DCS log analyzer is reporting memory timing issues (and to disable XMP as a possible solution, although this is apparently already off). This code indicates a critical hardware failure, or corrupted drivers. I also see the AMD Radeon Graphics failed to start with a post failure. I don’t know if you have disabled this (not sure how that shows up) or is related. You can check your devices and see if there is an exclamation mark or something for this.

Can you check Windows Event Viewer for the 1b0 errors and see if it provides any more info on that  

What is definitely interesting is that it crashes in the exact same place each time. I’d think it would be more inconsistent, unless it’s trying to access something that goes through this path and fails. I’m not familiar with FlightSimulator but there are crashes there too, do you notice this, are there logs, is this also consistent?

Given the Windows reinstalls, DCS reinstalls, etc. is this possibly just a hardware issue (or driver we’re not aware of)? From an earlier comment you’ve said the bios is on the latest version and the chipset drivers have all been updated as well.

Yes, I may be off-base and wrong, just reporting on what I’m seeing in the WER log. 

Edited Monday at 11:29 AM by sleighzy

[sabreman]

So, just for fun I did another full wipe + reinstall, this time actually wiping the disk with zeros instead of just deleting the partitions. Still no dice.

To answer the previous questions:

• Originally this was a local account. On re-install I used a microsoft account, then switched it to local. Both times the games crashed. Yes the account is an admin.
• I've properly set the exclusions, you'll find a screenshot of the windows defender menu attached.
• The drives SMART checks good, also attached (I've also manually checked for trouble codes in device manager, there are none)
• My old windows install, before all this happened, was on a different drive. It started having these issues, so when I reinstalled windows it was on this new drive, so this problem is following the Windows + DCS combo, not the drive. 
• I didnt see any 1b0 errors, but attached is a screenshot of the most recent event viewer output for the DCS crash.
• My IGPU is currently disabled in the BIOS.

Attached is the newest crash log from my new new install. This continues to get a big fast shoulder shrug from me. At this point the only thing I can think of to do is to start swapping components with other machines in my house, which I would MUCH prefer not to do because everything else runs linux and this computer is packed tight. 

I'll keep fiddling with things and report back.

Edit: just noticed I accidentally ran MT version last time, ran the normal one just to be sure and obviously no dice. 

dcs.log-20251020-193948.zip

Edited Monday at 08:00 PM by sabreman

[sabreman]

An interesting development: While messing with the mission editor, I can use it in "SAT" view mode all day, scroll, zoom, place units etc. But DCS continually generates "DCS has Crashed" dialogs in the background as I do things. The attached log for instance has like 10+ "crashes" in the ED terrain dll, while I was able to use the mission editor without issue.

 

Edit: For <profanity>s and giggles I tried multiplayer again, and the game actually loads in and connects. I can actually spectate, and as long as I dont move around too much It runs. If I hit F2 to try and spectate a player it'll usually crash, though one time I managed to spectate like 3 different players for about 2-3 minutes before trying to load into a su-25 and crashing then. Attached is the new log file. Still seems to be crashing due to the terrain access violation. 

 

 

dcs.log-20251020-204528.zip

Edited Monday at 08:47 PM by sabreman

[MAXsenna]

@sabreman I assume you let DCS send the crashlogs every time? If you haven't done so already, I would throw in the towel and make a support ticket now.