Ticket Nos. 18985 & 18964

[David Rance]

A reply to my support requests posted on 23.1.2013 ticket No.18964 & 24.1.2013 ticket No. 18985 would be appreciated being now over 17 days old. Please also see my posts in the forum about the issues encountered to which there are no resolutions to-date nor does there seem to be any fixes for the particular issues in the foreseeable future.

[EtherealN]

18964- When you say "I have the same auto updater error message as posted by a number of others on the forum", which specific error do you mean?

 

To launch without the updater, simple change your shortcut to launcher.exe, for example from:

 

Target: "C:\Games\DCS World\bin\DCS_updater.exe"

 

to

 

Target: "C:\Games\DCS World\bin\Launcher.exe"

 

To know what is causing a crash, we would need to know what kind of crash it is - not just that it crashes. You can hopefully find crash logs in C:\Users\XXXXXX\Saved Games\DCS\Logs\

 

If there are no logs in there, you should be able to find logs in windows Event Viewer: http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=74227&d=1354107803

 

With such logs, hopefully I'll be able to find the solution for you.

Edited February 9, 2013 by EtherealN

[David Rance]

Firstly Thank you for replying to my support request. You can find a lot of information about this issue in the forums - see' DCS World' 'Bugs and Problems'' Installation Problems' 'David Rance ''Support times? There are a number of posts there relating to this problem.

 

I had already tried re-assigning the target box before contacting you. I have tried a number of re-assignments including from the bin directory with short cuts to desktop and re-targeting but nothing solves the issue of the error message which relentlessly appears' 'The application was unable to start correctly(0xc000007b). Click O.K. to close the application'.

 

There are no logs in saved games for DCS World presumably because as the application never opened there was nothing to save!

 

Strangely there are no 'DCS World' application error reports in the Event Viewer. One would have expected a full report but there are none that I can find. I have run a number of system health checks but no errorrs were reported including Chkdsk and I have the O&O defragementer programming running all the time.

Edited February 9, 2013 by David Rance

[EtherealN]

When you have bypassed, you should find the errors logged under "Launcher.exe", not anything called DCS World.

[David Rance]

I have tried to force an error report as I cannot find a laucher.exe error report. Here is the best I could do which is a windows error report.

 

Fault bucket , type 0

Event Name: PCA2

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: Launcher.exe

P2: 1.2.2.7570

P3: DCS

P4: DCS

P5: Eagle Dynamics

P6: 200

P7: -1

P8:

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

C:\Users\David Rance\AppData\Local\Temp\{fc4df887-bcd2-40a9-8cc4-1618423efe8b}\appcompat.txt

C:\Users\David Rance\AppData\Local\Temp\Tab2485.tmp

These files may be available here:

　

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 91fc438b-72fd-11e2-9441-00235480b4e1

Report Status: 0

 

Is the fact the the application will not open preventing an error report being generated?

[EtherealN]

Windows usually should generate a report itself, that is the strange thing.

 

Autoupdater might not generate a report to the Logs folder, what I'm not getting is when you start launcher.exe directly without firstd going through dcs_updater.exe, anything going wrong there SHOULD generate a report - if not from DCS, then at least from Windows. Windows simply should not ignore an application not launching properly.

 

What happens when you try the multiplayer shortcut? This goes directly to dcs.exe.

[David Rance]

Well I guess windows did generate a report which is the one I posted which is the launcher.exe as I went into bin and started the application from there to bypass the updater. I just can't get the application to open to generate the report in the way you wanted as described in your 1st post thro' Event Viewer. The multiplayer won't open either with the same error message generated. At first I thought the problem was with the license not being activated that was causing the problem but the application won't allow me to get into the license part as the error code comes up before the license window opens!

[EtherealN]

Only dcs.exe is protected, so licensing cannot affect launcher.exe. So yeah, that's not it.

 

Summary then is that dcs_updater.exe, launcher.exe and dcs.exe all error out, and so far the error code is 0xc000007b ?

 

Do you have any other hard drive on that computer? I'm asking because that error code from windows indicates hard drive failure; it might be that DCS has been installed onto bad sectors, causing some of the sectors the relevant files are installed on to be unreadable. Installing onto another HDD should hopefully be an easy way to verify this. Also a CHKDSK C: /F might help you check this. (Though I agree it's weird to have many people install onto bad sectors in a short amount of time.)

 

Could also be a VC++ problem. Have you run the updates linked for crashes in the A-10C FAQ in my signature?

Edited February 10, 2013 by EtherealN

[David Rance]

Thanks for responding to this difficult problem. You are right in your summary of the errors. I'm afraid I don't have another harddrive installed so this is not an option for me. As I said previously I have already done a Disk check and also run O&O hard drive checks and this is showing no bad sectors or issues. Dxdiag shows no problems. I have installed and re-installed umpteen times and I would have thought the application would not have installed into bad sectors every time even if this was an issue which so far as I can see it is not. I run FS2004 with a host of add-ons some using C++ with no installation problems also CFS3, Il Stormovik, COD with add-ons, A-10C Warthog from your site, Lock On modern Air Warfare, Flaming Cliffs 2 and other sims with no installation problems whatsoever and my system is stable so why should DCS be the only problem to instal? It seems to me that the problem lies with a conflict between the installer/launcher and the OS but why this should only effect some systems and not others I really don't know but I do know others have exactly the same issue and we can't all be installing badly or have corrupt systems. I have tried uninstalling all the microsoft C++ programmes and installing DCS World with and without the C++ box checked and also installing incrementally with VS C++ from 2008 onwards but again this makes no difference. I don't know what more I and others can do to make this work but if it is not going to work and if it is going to take some time to resolve if in fact the problem can be resolved then in the meantime I would much appreciate a refund for my purchase of Flaming Cliffs 3 which as you know will not run without DCS World.

Edited February 10, 2013 by David Rance

[David Rance]

As a follow up to my last post here is the details of a Chkdsk run just completed

 

Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS. WARNING! F parameter not specified. Running CHKDSK in read-only mode. CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)... 1152512 file records processed. File verification completed. 1209 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 0 EA records processed. 90 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)... 1292378 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... 1152512 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 7662 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9. Cleaning up 7662 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9. Cleaning up 7662 unused security descriptors. Security descriptor verification completed. 69934 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 36097616 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. 488384511 KB total disk space. 431076140 KB in 1076328 files. 296720 KB in 69935 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 1275167 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 55736484 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 122096127 total allocation units on disk. 13934121 allocation units available on disk. 00961100A27D1100F948120000000000480700005A0000000000000000000000

Binary data:

In Words

0000: 00119600 00117DA2 001248F9 00000000

0008: 00000748 0000005A 00000000 00000000

In Bytes

0000: 00 96 11 00 A2 7D 11 00 .�..¢}..

0008: F9 48 12 00 00 00 00 00 ùH......

0010: 48 07 00 00 5A 00 00 00 H...Z...

0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

[joey45]

Was the checkdisk run in Dos [ before windows loaded ] or in Windows?

[David Rance]

Thank you for drawing attention to the checkdisk options. I have run both versions viz. from the desktop and as scheduled from startup. In all cases no file errors, bad sectors or inconsitences were found.

[David Rance]

As an update to the issues raised in my post concerning system integrity, here is a list of the Microsoft Visual Studio applications on my system.

 

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x64 9.0.30729.6161

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x86 9.0.30729.4974

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x86 9.0.30729.6161

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable - x64 - 9.10.0.40219

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime - x64 - 9.10.0.40219

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable - x86 - 9.10.0.40219

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime - x86 - 9.10.0.40219

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime (x64)

If this is the complete list required by the DCS World installer and the programme refuses to open as in my case then I think I have confirmed that the problem lies not with the endusers' hardware but with some other issue so far remaining a mystery.

 

If I do not have the necessary Microsoft Visual Studio applications then I should be most grateful for advice as to the necessary files.

[EtherealN]

I will try to figure out if there is something to do about this. I am not in a position where I can say yay or nay to refunds unfortunately, but I'll do what I can to either find a fix for you or get your ticket handled ASAP. I freely admit that I am baffled, but hopefully a programmer might have an idea.

 

Obviously, we are very sorry for the inconvenience. I do think there is something going on here, but it seems mysterious since the errors reported are of the nature that Windows shouldn't give them at all unless it was Windows itself (or associated component) that is at fault.

[David Rance]

Once again thank you for replying to my posts about all this. Obviously I paid for the programme because I wanted it and a refund is a last resort that is way I have spent a good deal of my time trying to get to the bottom of the problem not just for me but for others with the same problem who I know are really frustrated that it will not work.

It is interesting that you think that the issue might lie with Windows itself as I believe the issue is software related but not being any sort of expert I have no idea what this might be. I have tried to show that the matter is software rather than hardware related as I know a number of others are desperately seeking a hardware solution and this does not seem to be the problem.

If you think that the matter can be resolved with the developers than I am prepared to wait a fortnight or so before requesting a refund to give further time for investigation but if the developers have no more idea than we do as to the source of the issue than a refund is all that is left.

Another thought crossed my mind that perhaps the Windows error message is not in fact indicative of the programme failing to open but a bit of a' red herring' as in the case of the 'English text 'error message in BoBII which had nothing to do with 'English text' but came up as way of showing a programme fault.

I do not mind at all trying further fixes or exploring Windows issues but I'm afraid I would not know where to start looking as Windows knowledge base is so vast one could spend weeks seaching for a Windows based solution and come up empty!

[EtherealN]

Regarding Windows: the error code windows gives basically says "Hey, I messed up", but it's weird for a lot of people's windows to all mess up at the same time... But of course, if all windows says is "yeah, my fault" it becomes harder to track the error down if it really is DCS that's doing it and in this case which part exactly. :(

 

But I'll try tp find a dev that might know what's going on. Ideally I would have a way to replicate the issue, and then I could just test it against coming 1.2.3 version to see if it's already fixed, but since I cannot replicate I have to check around first.

 

Again though, we are very sorry for the problem. While it's not my place to promise refunds in specific cases (as Tester I am sort of middleman), policy is to give them if there is a problem that prevents use of the product at no fault of the user and that ED cannot fix.

[David Rance]

I think we may have progress! I have uninstalled everything again after yet another registry cleaning following the Chkdsk and the following error message came up whilst re-installing.

 

'Microsoft Visual C++ 2010x64 Redistributable setup (box)

'Setup has detected that this computer does not meet the requirements to instal this software.The following blocking issue must be resolved before you can instal Microsoft Visual C++ 2010x64 Redistributable setup Software package (box)

Please resolve the following

A newer version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable has been detected on this machine

Please,see the Microsoft Visual Studio website for more information'

 

I went to the microsoft website but this lists a host of packages and I have no idea which package is the right one to resolve the issue. I thought I already had all the files as listed in my earlier post!! I already removed all the Microsoft Visual C++ applications and re-downloaded them one at a time and installed using each of them separately but this did not resolve anything so I'm now completely confused.

 

Please advise which is the right package if you know what it is and advise on installation. Hopefully this may yet be resolved!

Edited February 11, 2013 by David Rance

[David Rance]

Following further research in your forums I followed advice and un-installed DCS World. Then uninstalled Microsoft Visual Studios C++ 2010(x64) Redistributable together with associated Runtimes and then re-run DCS World with the Microsoft Visual Studios C++ 2010 (x64) Redistributable box checked whereupon the error message 'unable to start application' appeared. I checked back in the Control Panel and the earller version Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2010 (x64) Redistributable - 10.0.30319 had been installed. I then went to Microsoft autoupdater and downloaded the later version Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable - x64 - 9.10.0.40219, tried to start DCS World but the 'unable to start application' error message appeared again so it seems nothing that I can see to do with the microsoft Visual C++ 2010 resolves the issue. I can't find any other Microsoft Visual Studio Redistributable packages other than the latest version which seems to be Visual Studios C++ 2012 has any connection with DCS World and since I had earlier installed Microsoft Visual studios C++ 2012 with no beneficial effect I can't see how the Microsoft setup box error message noted in my earlier post applies. Could it be that the Microsoft Visual Studios C++ 2010 in the DCS World installer doesn't work with the latest Windows 7 Service Pack?

Edited February 11, 2013 by David Rance

[joey45]

You are installing with Admin rights.......right?

[David Rance]

Thanks. Yes with admin rights! I'm wondering if runtime components could be an issue as I noticed that the Visual Studio C++ 2010 (x64) Redistributable - 10.0.30319 package does not have any separate runtime components although I guess they could be either not needed or included within the package installation. Just a thought!

Edited February 11, 2013 by David Rance

[joey45]

Is this Win7 64bit??

 

I'm fully up todate on my system and can run all DCS World modules.

 

and your specs?