COUTL Freezing after adjusting parking position details

[airbumps]

Hi,

Just wanted to highlight an issue I'm having. I've just installed UK2000's EGLL and noted that with GSX alot of the parking positions don't reference the correct details. Ie, they indicate no jetway when in fact there is and convor belt loaders for heavy gates.

In any event, no issue I thought, I'll just adjust the details for each position. When I go into the settings for the GSX aircraft position I can indeed adjust each detail. I can change the loaders, parking size, jetway details as you would expect. However when I press the X to close the dialog box I'm unable t to return to P3D. Trying to click anywhere on the P3D screen just results in the windows 'DING' that you would normally get if you had a dialog box open.

A check of task manager indicates that whilst this happens, COUTL Scripting Engine is using around 30% of my CPU. Force closing COUTL allows me to return to P3D, but of course it disables GSX and usually requires me to re sun addonmanagerX to get it working again.

Am I doing something wrong here or is this an issue? Is there a log or something I can upload?

Thanks,
AB

[virtuali]

The problem might be the scenery instead. Are you able to customize another (for example default) airport with no errors ?

[airbumps]

Thanks for the reply. I've done a little more testing.

 - I've been able to reproduce the problem at various payware airports, including FSDT KLAX/KJFK and UK2000 EGLL, however it does NOT appear to be happening at default airports.

 - After clicking the X box to close the parking space customization screen the P3D screen goes black. ALT-TABing allows you to bring up the P3D screen however there is no menu bar across the top. However, P3D continues to run. Aircraft can be seen taxing etc. There is just no menu bar at the top and clicking anywhere on the screen results in a DING like there is an open dialog box somewhere on the screen.

 - On some occasions, if I let the sim sit for between 2-3 minutes, the problem sometimes resolves itself. The sim will reappear and I'm once again able to control the sim and can click anywhere. That said, this is rare and happened only 3 times out of my 30 odd test airports/positions.

 - The problem occurs with any aircraft (so it doesn't matter what A/C you're in when you customise the position).
 
 - Force closing P3D results in no COUTL/GSX menu items being present upon restart, requiring a reinstall of AddonmanagerX which fixes the problem

It's not a show stopper for using GSX. But it is a pain in the backside knowing that anytime I go to customize a parking position I stand a good chance of having the sim crash. Happy to send any logs or do any form of testing you think might be of value.

Cheers,

[virtuali]

From your description of the problem, it doesn't seem related to GSX in any way.

There's a discussion on LM developers forum, of a difficult to trace bug that seems to crash the video driver when the device it's lost, which might happen when displaying another menu. It has been reported by FS Labs to LM, and they are looking into it.

Does the problem happens if you edit a parking while in Windowed mode ?

Also, LM suggest to try this: remove all the following folders:

%PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
%APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Prepar3D v3 Files

And then restart the sim, which will regenerate all the files from scratch.

[airbumps]

I don't believe that this is the case. A further three hours of testing today

 - This only occours at NON default airports. Occuring at all FSDT airports and UK2000 airports. All default airports are fine to modify.
 - Force closing COUTL from Task Manager ends the 'hang' and allows me to return to P3D. Doing this however crashes COUTL and requires a reinstall of addonmanagerX
 - Uninstalling and then reinstalling GSX had no success in changing the issue.
 - Occurs regardless of in windows mode or full screen. I've confirmed in windowed mode there are no other dialog boxes open.

It's weird that the sim continues to run as normal, you just can interact with it in anyway.

I'm keen to try and find a solution but really don't know what else to try and isolate.

[virtuali]

- This only occours at NON default airports. Occuring at all FSDT airports and UK2000 airports. All default airports are fine to modify.

I can edit every airport just fine.

Force closing COUTL from Task Manager ends the 'hang' and allows me to return to P3D. Doing this however crashes COUTL and requires a reinstall of addonmanagerX

No, it doesn't. Reinstalling the Addon Manager will install exactly the same files, so it's not possible the installing will fix anything. A reboot might obtain the same result, since what the installer does, it's just trying to close automatically Couatl for you, because after the crash, it could still running in the background.

Uninstalling and then reinstalling GSX had no success in changing the issue.

Of course, which seems to indicate the problem is happening in the sim and it's *affecting* GSX, which is not the cause, but the victim.

I'm keen to try and find a solution but really don't know what else to try and isolate.

You have't said if you tried the solution proposed by LM, to refresh all the P3D settings and let the sim rebuild them.

You might try doing the same to the GSX preferences. Remove the following folders:

%APPDATA%\Virtuali
%PROGRAMDATA%\Virtuali\Couatl

Note that, by removing the %APPDATA%\Virtuali folder, you will lose ALL your airport and airplane customization so, you'll probably want to backup that folder first.

After you remove the GSX preferences, you MUST reinstall GSX with the full installer.