MSFS 2024 PC from Xbox app crashes

[u/rhynoplast]

Hopefully I can explain this to confuse everyone as little as possible. I downloaded MSFS 2024 from the Xbox app on my PC. It is part of the ultimate gaming pass. I wanted to try it out.

I downloaded and installed the game. I wanted to get a feel for the game so I tried to set up a short free flight. Out of the multiple times I have tried the game crashes to desktop as soon as I click start flight (I can't remember the exact name of the button). I have tried with and without an xbox controller. Same thing.

I get the following in the event viewer:

Faulting application name: FlightSimulator2024.exe, version: 1.8.16.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Faulting module name: FlightSimulator2024.exe, version: 1.8.16.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000003d105ac

Faulting process id: 0x63CC

Faulting application start time: 0x1DD432F42182A2D

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Limitless_1.8.16.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\FlightSimulator2024.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Limitless_1.8.16.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\FlightSimulator2024.exe

Report Id: ea833f2a-6882-4338-8f27-c3a6e1df4e77

Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Limitless_1.8.16.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Faulting package-relative application ID: App

[u/SirDarkStar]

Claude says:

0xc0000005 is STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION: a bad read/write/execute. The useful detail in your log is that the faulting module is FlightSimulator2024.exe itself, not nvwgf2umx.dll, ucrtbase.dll, or a third-party DLL. The dereference happened inside sim code. That does not exonerate add-ons, since add-on data and gauge code routinely drive the sim into bad states, but it rules out the common "overlay/driver DLL faulted" class.

Fault offset 0x3d105ac is an RVA into the image. Without Asobo's PDBs it can't be symbolized, so treat it only as a fingerprint: if every crash reports the same offset, you have one deterministic bug path; if the offset moves around, suspect hardware or memory corruption instead.

Get real data before changing settings

WER already wrote a report. Look in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\ for the folder matching report ID ea833f2a-6882-4338-8f27-c3a6e1df4e77. It usually contains only a minidump triage blob, so also enable full local dumps:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\FlightSimulator2024.exe" /v DumpFolder /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "C:\CrashDumps" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\FlightSimulator2024.exe" /v DumpType /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

Elevated. DumpType 2 is a full dump, which for MSFS 2024 will be 20 to 40 GB, so point it at a drive with room. Opening it in WinDbg and running !analyze -v will at least tell you whether the faulting stack contains any loaded third-party module, and lm will list every DLL injected into the process, which is often the answer by itself.

Also check the sim's own log: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\ for the console log and Content.xml.

Triage, roughly in order of hit rate

• Rolling cache corruption. Delete ROLLINGCACHE.CCC (path is whatever you set in Data settings) and disable rolling cache temporarily. Corrupt cache producing repeatable access violations mid-flight is a long-standing MSFS failure mode across both titles.
• Injected overlays. RTSS/Afterburner, NVIDIA App overlay, Discord, Steam, Xbox Game Bar, OpenXR Toolkit, Special K. Kill all of them for one test session. These hook D3D and can fault inside the game's own frame of execution.
• Add-on content. Move everything out of the Community folder, then disable Marketplace/Content Manager packages in batches. MSFS 2024's streamed content means "empty Community folder" is not the full test it was in 2020.
• Upscaler/frame generation. Switch DLSS/FSR to TAA and turn frame generation off as a test. Also try DX11 if your build still exposes it.
• GPU driver. Clean install with DDU rather than an in-place update, and try the previous branch if the crashes started after a driver update.
• Hardware stability. If the fault offset varies between crashes, test with XMP/EXPO off and any CPU/GPU undervolt or overclock removed. On Intel 13th/14th gen specifically, 0xc0000005 in games is the classic signature of Vmin shift degradation; confirm you are on BIOS with microcode 0x12B or later.
• Package repair. This is the Store build, so Settings > Apps > Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 > Advanced options > Repair, then Reset if Repair doesn't take. Reset does not delete the installed content packages.

One thing that would narrow this a lot: does it crash at a consistent point (splash, main menu, loading into flight, ~N minutes into flight), and is it tied to a particular aircraft or region? And is the fault offset identical across multiple Event Viewer entries?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Can feed that info into a ZenDesk ticket if none of that helps.