FSDreamTeam forum

Products Support => GSX Support FSX/P3D => Topic started by: wegerlee on February 10, 2020, 10:29:34 am

Title: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft **SOLVED**
Post by: wegerlee on February 10, 2020, 10:29:34 am
Hi Umberto.

I have been running P3D with GSX level 1 and 2 for several month without any problems after doing a complete fresh Windows install and p3D.  Since yesterday though I get the following issue:

Star p3d with default scenario the GSX menu shows in the dropdown box. Change to different airport with default aircraft (from Lockheed) the GSX menu is still visible. Airport Cache also regenerates ok.
As soon as I change aircraft type to AS A330 or PMDG 747 for example the GSX menu is no longer available. I uninstalled GSX - reinstalled it (with AV off) problem stays.  All p3d folders incl. Virtuali are excluded from AV (Windows defender).  No additional Software installed except for the PMDG 737 expansion pack last week. I tried out numerous airports and can reproduce this every time. All products are active and installed.  Although I noticed yesterday after starting up p3d again for the third time, that some products oddly are in trial mode.  Any thoughts

Thanks Elmar 

This is actually my first problem post for years...:)


Update...the loss of GSX comes with aircraft change
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: keithgiannoni on February 10, 2020, 01:05:57 pm
Hi,

Interesting as I have noticed this problem too but only recently. The aircraft change is possibly the issue for me, too. I have only been aware of this since installing the new PMDG 737-700 package. An example was with this aircraft I positioned it in Chambery LFLB. I then used GSX to position the vehicles etc. Then GSX disappeared from the drop down. If I restart the sim (P3D), GSX is no longer there. I have to reinstall it.

Regards,

Keith

PS I have just seen another thread with similar issues that suggest possibly due to the latest GSX update. So I suggest this topic is linked.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: wegerlee on February 10, 2020, 02:38:56 pm
I just seen the other post as well.  I did re-install VC++2005 and seems to have solved it.  Having said that the problem only materialized after the FSDT update yesterday
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: wegerlee on February 10, 2020, 02:40:37 pm
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,23048.0.html (http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,23048.0.html)

linked to a similiar thread now
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: wegerlee on February 11, 2020, 01:38:20 pm
On another thread I posted the VC++ solves the problem.  Yesterday I did on a longhaul BOS to DUB.  Today I have the same problem again
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: virtuali on February 11, 2020, 03:19:36 pm
I'm sorry, but I cannot reproduce the problem.

GSX loads fine, and I can switch from an airplane to another with no issues, tried it now, switching from default A321 to PMDG 737-600, and back to default 737, and it always load normally.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: wegerlee on February 11, 2020, 07:08:06 pm
Hi Umberto.  I guess there are others who havn't got that problem either. Then again there are some who have it.  As indicated in the other thread. This item is a bit of a hit and miss.  I am at the end of wisdom since I had now windows updates and the only other thing I changed was my monitor which should not have any impact.  At times when this problem occurs some of the FSDT products also show in trial mode.  Then restarting the sim again it active and installed.  I don't really want to uninstall every FSDT product since I own almost all of them.  Could it be the registry??
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: virtuali on February 11, 2020, 07:27:22 pm
From your description, it seems that sometimes Couatl doesn't start, which will also result in all products in Trial. If it doesn't start when the simulator starts, I'm fairly sure it's the antivirus. Less likely, but still possible, an issue with the VC++ runtimes, sometimes a Windows restart is required after a Live Update.

If, instead, it starts with the sim, but doesn't RESTART, than it's likely another issue.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: wegerlee on February 12, 2020, 02:01:05 pm
Hi Umberto

I will continue posting on the other thread.  VC++ libraries were installed fresh with reboot.  I would think if it was the VC++ then I would have a permanent problem.  The only thing that updates daily is the AV from Defender.  One never knows what they are up to.  As posted in the other thread I included ALL SIM related files to exclude. 

Many thanks  Elmar
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: keithgiannoni on February 12, 2020, 02:27:00 pm
Hi,

Here is an example. First picture, DH8D first flight of the day. Second picture, I load the FS Labs A321, without closing the P3D sim, no GSX. I have tweaked the AV settings. There must be something that has happened recently to those of use being effected. Odd for sure.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: virtuali on February 12, 2020, 06:02:21 pm
Second picture, I load the FS Labs A321, without closing the P3D sim, no GSX.

Enable logging in the troubleshooting section if the GSX Settings and, when the GSX menu disappear, exit the sim and do as follows:

- Check your %APPDATA%\Virtuali folder and if there's a Couatl.LOG file there, post its content

- DO NOT copy the file in a message, but use the "Attach" function of the forum to ZIP the log file and Attach it to a post.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: keithgiannoni on February 12, 2020, 07:27:18 pm
Here is a log.

Keith
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: rdlepage on February 12, 2020, 08:33:40 pm
here's my log. got similar problems.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: Vieira12 on February 12, 2020, 09:16:25 pm
I am having the same issue it’s obvious that it’s something to do with the last update done to it I don’t even own the pmdg 700 series no new add ons added and I don’t use anti virus this problems started after the last update hope for a fix soon as there is a lot of stuff I can’t use at the moment
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: rdlepage on February 12, 2020, 09:53:47 pm
Yes i agree. Its the update 7 Feb that's causing the problem. Was working fine before that. Like you I have alot of Fsdreamteam airport that are completely useless due to this issue. Also don't use antivirus, only windows defender and have all the appropriate folders excluded. This has been going on too long now and we need a fix. Im going to uninstall all my Fs dreamteam airports plus GSX and start again intstalling everything again and hope it works but I think until they realise there's a problem and get it fixed were stuffed.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: virtuali on February 12, 2020, 10:28:17 pm
Yes i agree. Its the update 7 Feb that's causing the problem. Was working fine before that.

No, it's not, otherwise it would cause problems to everybody ( several ten of thousands of users ), not just the handful of people that posted in this thread.

Quote
Also don't use antivirus, only windows defender

Then you ARE using an antivirus. That's what Windows Defender it.

Quote
and have all the appropriate folders excluded

Antivirus is not the only issue. The other might be a firewall that is blocking the update to download *ALL* files. If some files are download and some not, a mixup between old/new files will very likely prevent the software from starting.

Quote
This has been going on too long now and we need a fix.

We cannot fix what we cannot reproduce, and what nobody except just a few people are experiencing. We surely need more data. I'll ask the same:

- Is GSX not STARTING up, on the first start of the sim ?

OR

- Is GSX not RE-STARTING after switching an airplane ?

They are totally different things, and knowing that it's important to understand what's the problem, on your system
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: rdlepage on February 13, 2020, 12:03:36 am
Just did a complete uninstall of all FSDT airports and GSX plus addon manager. Also deleted any left over folders and files related to virtuali and addon manager.
Re installed GSX only and it loads on P3D startup every time using default F22 flight or Saved third party aircraft flights.

GSX crashes if I select restart Couatl although not every time. Before GSX wouldn't start on the first start of the sim 9 out of 10 times.
Much better now although not perfect, at least I can use GSX again as long as I don't restart Couatl. I wont attempt the live update at the moment as that was what caused the problems last time.
Hopefully when the Live update is next updated it will work as it did previously.

What would cause the restarting Couatl crash? Seems more likely to happen with third party aircraft eg. PMDG or FSLABS than default aircraft.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft
Post by: virtuali on February 13, 2020, 12:11:59 am
I wont attempt the live update at the moment as that was what caused the problems last time.

You said you reinstalled GSX. The installer runs Live Update at the end, so you already ran the current Live Update, clearly proving the Live Update wasn't the problem to begin with it ( I was sure of this ).

The only thing different the GSX installer does, it recreates the add-on.xml and calls the P3D command-line services to add it to the list of packages in the add-ons.cfg ( the Live Update doesn't do that, since it's assumed you already installed something ) which means, if something altered/corrupted either the add-ons.cfg or the add-on.xml for GSX, the GSX installer would fix it, since it created it again from scratch.

That the only explanation compatible with your report that running the Live Update didn't fix, but reinstalling ( which is the same as Install + Live Update ) did.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft **SOLVED**
Post by: rdlepage on February 14, 2020, 08:52:23 pm
Just ran the live update. Appears to be working correctly now.
Just done about 10 restarts and no crashes. So this problem only affected us users in the UK then.
Many thanks for eventually getting the problem fixed.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft **SOLVED**
Post by: Captain Kevin on February 14, 2020, 10:00:28 pm
So this problem only affected us users in the UK then.
Wasn't just UK users, but several others around the world. Looks like some people in Germany and Switzerland also had this issue.
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft **SOLVED**
Post by: wegerlee on February 19, 2020, 05:29:40 pm
Loaded the lates update and working without a problem.  Just to let you know.  Thanks Elmar
Title: Re: GSX Menu disappears after change of Aircraft **SOLVED**
Post by: virtuali on February 21, 2020, 07:38:23 am
Wasn't just UK users, but several others around the world. Looks like some people in Germany and Switzerland also had this issue.

It affected all users that had their regional settings set to a country that has a certain language, but it's not the "original" country that language comes from. So, for example, German (Switzerland) had the problem, but German (Germany) didn't,  Italian (Switzerland) had the problem, but Italian (Italy) didn't.

The real reason it's what looks like a Windows bug: those countries all use the 24 hours time format, but Windows incorrectly sets the AM/PM postfix to the hour format, which is wrong if a country uses the 24 hours format, and this likely confused some part of the code that checks the time, most likely not even in our own code, but in the 3rd party library that handles online activation.

UK setting was also affected, either because it's not universally accepted if the 24 hours is used there, or simply because Microsoft might consider English as "originating" from the US, at least from the point of view of Windows, so English ( UK ) was considered a variant, like Swiss-Italian, Swiss-German, Swiss-French, etc. so it was affected by the same bug, because UK is also set as using 24 hours time format, but there's the AM/PM added to it.

Since most of our users are in the US ( with Germany possibly the 2nd ), and those two settings weren't affected, and I couldn't replicate the problem, because even if I'm located in Switzerland, I'm using Italian ( Italy ) as my settings, because my keyboard has the Italian layout, it took a couple of days to find it, until an user found what it was, so we fixed it.