resolved P3Dv4 going to background process

[Swissdani]

Hi there

 

I used the Halloween sale and got myself

 

- open LC South America

- NA Southern California

- USMV Monument valley

- ESNQ Kiruna

- LDPL Pula

-KPSP Palm Springs

 

Installation was fine via FTX Central as always. After installing I wanted to have a go and check my new beauties out in the sim. However my sim does not start anymore. It passes the splash screen as normal, bringts up my UT Live AI icon but then just nothing (no icon in task bar), I noticed in the task manager that P3D doesn't start as an app as normally, but as a background process.

 

Any ideas what could have gone wrong with the installation? The Orbx products are the only thing I installed into the sim until I last worked 2 days ago.

 

Kind regards

Dani

[Stewart Hobson]

I've had this happen a couple of times myself.  Turning off the computer, then turning it on again and starting P3D fresh usually solves the problem.

 

Good luck!

[Swissdani]

Hello Stewart

 

This did not help for me. I had it switched off over night and tried again today, problem still there.

 

Dani

[Stewart Hobson]

Sorry, Dani, I can't be of more help, since this has worked for me and I haven't had to try something else to get P3D to start.  I will defer to someone else who might have a better idea what's going on.

 

Stew

[Swissdani]

Thank you anyway Stew. I really hope someone from ORBX can help me out.

[Smudger]

Hello Dani, is it possible to disable your UT Live AI before starting P3D ?

[Stewart Hobson]

Smudger,  Probably not.  The program is activated via an add-on.xml entry, unless you somehow deactivate it.  Besides, I very much doubt UT Live is the culprit--it's fairly benign in its interaction with the sim.

[Smudger]

Stew, if it is an add-on.xml entry then moving that out of Documents - Prepar3D Add-ons folder onto the desktop will disable it, easy to put back after.

It just seemed significant that UT Live AI precedes failure to load properly.

[Stewart Hobson]

7 hours ago, Smudger said:

Stew, if it is an add-on.xml entry then moving that out of Documents - Prepar3D Add-ons folder onto the desktop will disable it, easy to put back after.

It just seemed significant that UT Live AI precedes failure to load properly.

Thanks, Sumdger, that's good to know.  My SimStarter NG allows disabling any add-on.xml entry--it's difficult to know what additional software folks might have that would allow manipulating such add-ons.  Still, I can't imagine how UT Live has anything to do with the op's issue.  But anything is possible.

[Swissdani]

Hello Smudger

 

I could give that I try, however the UT Live start up looks as always and normal.

[Smudger]

Dani, it's worth a try, no harm will be done and all options must be explored.

It is probably something very simple causing non startup.

An FS9 rogue aircraft is known to create this scenario.

[Swissdani]

I know that may things can bring up these problems. However I am a bit confused since I only changed ORBX products since the last time the sim worked fine.

 

[Swissdani]

Hello Smudger

 

I deactived UTLive in the add-ons.cfg (value ACTIVE=false). The problem is still the same.

[Smudger]

1 hour ago, Swissdani said:

The problem is still the same

Dani, I may have confused you.

You do not need to edit the add-ons.cfg.

In your Documents - Prepar3D Add-ons folder, move the whole UTLive folder out onto your desktop, then try P3D again.

If P3D runs normally then UT Live is the problem, if it is still running as a background process, then move the whole UT Live folder back to Documents - Prepar3D Add-ons folder.

 

[Swissdani]

Hello again

 

i tried that as well. I even took all the folders from Documents / Add-Ons out without any improvement.

 

What i found out, if i delete my add-on.cfg then the sim comes back to App (away from background process) for a moment. But still doesn‘t start.

 

Is there any support from ORBX available at all? Which files are effected by your installation?

[Doug Sawatzky]

Hi Dani

 

Sometimes your fellow simmers here are more helpful than Orbx.... Smudger and Stewart seem to be doing a great job of helping. 

 

Your issue is not likely created by Orbx products, but if I were you I would cut and paste to my desktop or delete the entire C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 folder and restart the sim at which point it will build a new folder and see if it starts normally.

 

Cheers

 

Doug

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

as the Orbx product support team we do not offer support for potential problems

with other developers' software and as Doug pointed out, your fellow  customers

were being very helpful already.

Please go to C:\programdata\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\ and rename scenery.cfg to scenery.cfg.off.

Start P3D and it will create a new default scenery.cfg file and this will effectively remove

all the Orbx scenery. If it starts, closeP3D, run FTX Central and let it activate Orbx scenery.

Start P3D again and see if it starts.

If this doesn't work, you can try Doug's suggestion and if that doesn't work,

go to your P3D root folder and run "Delete Generated Files", this will remove all the P3D configuration files.

This is the last resort and if you do it, some addon software will have to be reinstalled.

[Swissdani]

Good morning guys

 

Thank you for your replies. Well I am not agreeing with you on the point that it is not an ORBX problem. I had a perfect working sim and then I installed the 6 ORBX products and since then my sim does not start anymore. I haven't touched anything else on my flightsim drive. The only other thing I did was installing Microsoft Office on an other drive. I had similar problems once before when I got stuck on the splash screen, this also came up after I used FTX Central. So I am pretty sure that the ORBX installation has screwed up one or more files in my flight sim directory.

 

I always keep an backup of my last working scenery.cfg, so I tried this and the problem is still there. So the problem is not in the scenery.cfg I also already tried the "Delete Generated Files" also this did not sort the problem. However it also didn't help in the passed when I got stuck on the splash screen.

 

What I read from google that this mistaskes is most probably by a faulty .dll file. I tired the option Doug was suggesting. Once I start the sim does start to Generating scnery file indexes as you would expect. But in task manager it still sits in the background process and does not start as an App.And it will get stuck at generating scenery files indexes at 98%.

 

What I tried as well. I desktoped the User/Documents/P3D/Add-ons folder. When i start the sim then I does come up as an App. It asks me then if you want to active my add-ons again. I tried both ways, all yes or all no, still can't get a good start so far.

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

the advice was to remove your scenery.cfg file and let P3D generate another.

You seem to have chosen another course of action instead.

[Swissdani]

Hello Nick

 

I tried this as well, same result.

[Nick Cooper]

Thanks.

As far as I can see, P3D stays in the background processes of the Task Manager

until it has finished loading, so I think your problem is not that is goes to be a

background process but that it never finishes loading.

The fact that this behaviour does not change when the Orbx scenery is deactivated

would suggest that whatever is preventing P3D from loading is not related to Orbx

scenery.

If you read that this can be caused by a faulty .dll file, there are no such files in any Orbx product.

If you read that this can be caused by a faulty dll.xml or exe.xml file, then you can also rule

them out by running Delete Generated Files, which you will find in your P3D root folder.

[Swissdani]

Hello Nick

 

As I said earlier, I already tried the Delete Generated Files without any success.

I did now a windows system restore prior to the ORBX installation and my sim came back to a normal start.

Yes ORBX does use .dll files. At least I have them under AppData\Local\Orbx\FTXCentral\v3.3.1.4\Orbx_ObjectFlow_x64_PRE43.dll

 

I am trying now out further what actually did cause this strange behavior. I see a possibility that the problem could also be connected with the newly installaed MS  Office 2016 Home&Business. I don't see the connection from the sim to office yet, but it might be an option.

 

Dani

 

[Nick Cooper]

Sorry, yes there is one .dll file.

That can also be ruled out by unticking the objectflow box on the FTX Central settings page.

If you are using P3D v4, you need to be using Orbx_ObjectFlow_x64.dll but it is not known for

causing the problem that you have.

What else did you install apart from "Orbx and MS  Office 2016  after your restore point?

[Swissdani]

Nothing else. Just doing all the reinstalls from ORBX at the moment.

[Swissdani]

Hello Nick

 

I did some more testing. I was able to install all new ORBX products without a problem. So it looks now, that the problem seems to come from the combination of Microsoft Office and RAAS from FS2Crew. Somehow this two seem not to get along very well :-)

 

So from the ORBX side the topic can be closed and I can confirm that the problem was not at all an ORBX problem. And I remember for myself, never install 2 softwares after each other without a double check if P3D is still performing.

Thank you anyway for your much appreciated support.

[Chris.D]

So, this may be crazy.  I have just switched over to P3D V4.4.16.27077 and I only own 2 Orbx products, Australia and Hervey Bay + some Orbx freeware.

 

P3D was running perfect until I downloaded FTX Central, then the above problem raised its head. 

 

I spent hours chasing this problem and now I believe I have it fixed.  P3D was starting and was running in the background as process. Eventually,  after trying all solutions I found on line, and none worked, I resorted to my own dying computer skills. Working backwards.

I removed the folder Orbx ObjectFlow 2 from "My Documents" and bingo, P3D started in an instant every time out of dozens of attempts. 

I replaced it, and the problem came back.

Next move was to check the xml file within, add-on.xml, can't see a problem there, so off to the  v3.3.3.0 folder and I could turn off Orbx_ObjectFlow_x64.dll by using Central, and I left it off and still the problem remains.

So, back to the add-on.xml file, renamed it to off and the problem persists. Delete the xml file, problem remains, delete the Orbx ObjectFlow 2 folder, problem gone. Rename Orbx ObjectFlow 2 to ObjectFlow 2, replaced add-on.xml in the folder, turn on the Orbx_ObjectFlow_x64.dll file and sim boots every time without fault.  Rename  ObjectFlow 2 to Orbx ObjectFlow, problem returns.

 

So my conclusion is that P3D does not like long folder names or with a space or something, not an Orbx problem ?? or is it !!

I have another addon, A2A in a folder just named "A2A" and i works every time too.

 

So, there it is, for what its worth, hope it helps out.  Maybe it was just my installation.

 

Chris.

 

[Dmitriy Kozyrev]

On 1/10/2019 at 8:24 AM, Chris.D said:

Rename Orbx ObjectFlow 2 to ObjectFlow 2, replaced add-on.xml in the folder, turn on the Orbx_ObjectFlow_x64.dll file and sim boots every time without fault.  Rename  ObjectFlow 2 to Orbx ObjectFlow, problem returns.

 

 

Sorry for necroposting. Came here from Google. Years later, with P3D 5.2, but your solution still works.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Dmitriy Kozyrev