SimConnect -- Unhandled Exception

[Henrik Sonstebo]

I'm having a big problem. This is the fourth time in 24 hours that I have completely reformatted my PC (absolutely all of the drives) and reinstalled Windows. I am having problems when starting up vPilot. I get an error message (see the img below):

 

 

I have installed absolutely all SimConnects that follow with P3D v3 as well as the dotnet 3,5 redist (along with all other redists required by SimConnect, vPilot, and P3D). This problem also occurs when I only have FSX:SE installed.

 

Now here's the interesting part:

When looking at the Details tab in the Properties window of Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll inside of the vPilot directory, I see that the File Version is 10.0.61637.0, but on the error message it clearly states that version 10.0.61259.0 is required. I tried replacing the DLL with a friend of mine's DLL without success... Same version, same problem:

 

 

Soooo, any suggestions? Because I am about to give up on this...

Edited June 29, 2017 at 09:01 PM by Guest

[Bradley Grafelman]

Ross hosted the installer for the correct version on the vPilot website. Try downloading and running that installer: http://vpilot.metacraft.com/[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ets/Files/SimConnect.msi

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Ross hosted the installer for the correct version on the vPilot website. Try downloading and running that installer: http://vpilot.metacraft.com/[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ets/Files/SimConnect.msi

 

Thanks for an ultra-fast response, I really appreciate it.

 

I forgot to mention I'd already attempted this (I've done quite some research on this on the internet the past 24 hrs) with no luck. I attempted it once more and got the exact same message. (I restarted Windows in-between the uninstall of the same SimConnect you provided, and the reinstall of that version of SimConnect, as well as one more restart of Windows and a clean reinstall of vPilot on top of that again.)

 

I also doubt that there is anything wrong with my P3D or Windows installation as both have been installed and reinstalled numerous times with clean configurations etc.

 

Again, thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

[Ross Carlson]

When you go into the control panel and choose "Uninstall a program", in the list of installed programs, what version does it show for "Microsoft Flight Simulator SimConnect Client"?

[Henrik Sonstebo]

When you go into the control panel and choose "Uninstall a program", in the list of installed programs, what version does it show for "Microsoft Flight Simulator SimConnect Client"?

 

 

It'd seem that I have the correct version (10.0.61259.0) installed, but yet vPilot refuses to start up, and just gives me this error message. It should also be said that I've tried to start up vPilot with only this version installed (without the version, vPilot just says that SimConnect isn't installed), but still with the same error.

[Bradley Grafelman]

Despite the screenshot... It would appear that Windows can't find that specific version installed (hence error code 0x800736B3 - ERROR_SXS_[Mod - Happy Thoughts]EMBLY_NOT_FOUND).

 

Try navigating to C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly . Rather than files, it should show a slightly different view (and you might need to make the columns wider so you can read the full [Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly Name and Version fields). Scroll down and see if you find "Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect". Can you post a screenshot of those entries?

 

For example, mine looks like this (note the matching entry from your error message - version 10.0.61259.0):

 

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Despite the screenshot... It would appear that Windows can't find that specific version installed (hence error code 0x800736B3 - ERROR_SXS_[Mod - Happy Thoughts]EMBLY_NOT_FOUND).

 

Try navigating to C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly . Rather than files, it should show a slightly different view (and you might need to make the columns wider so you can read the full [Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly Name and Version fields). Scroll down and see if you find "Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect". Can you post a screenshot of those entries?

 

Mine is identical to yours (in addition to the ESP one, which I'm guessing you didn't incl. in your screencap):

 

[Henrik Sonstebo]

The version can also be found in the Windows Side by Side-directory (\Windows\WinSxS\):

 

[Ross Carlson]

Note that the error message says "or one of its dependencies" ... so it may be a native SimConnect DLL that the .NET DLL is trying to include, and that's what can't be found. I'm afraid I have no idea what dependencies the DLL has, so I wouldn't know where to tell you to look.

 

Normally a reinstall of SimConnect fixes this, but you've tried that ... I'm stumped.

[Bradley Grafelman]

Note that the error message says "or one of its dependencies" ... so it may be a native SimConnect DLL that the .NET DLL is trying to include, and that's what can't be found. I'm afraid I have no idea what dependencies the DLL has, so I wouldn't know where to tell you to look.

Good point... Dependency Walker showed the dependency tree was quite tiny:

 

 

However, there is one that stands out...

 

@Henrik: Do you have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed and, if so, have you tried performing a repair or reinstall of it? Download for it can be found here.

 

EDIT: Also, you may find a helpful log entry if you open Event Viewer and look in the Application Log. You're likely looking for a "SideBySide" event.

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Note that the error message says "or one of its dependencies" ... so it may be a native SimConnect DLL that the .NET DLL is trying to include, and that's what can't be found. I'm afraid I have no idea what dependencies the DLL has, so I wouldn't know where to tell you to look.

 

Normally a reinstall of SimConnect fixes this, but you've tried that ... I'm stumped.

 

Yup, that's the part of the error message I've been trying to figure out for the past 8 hours or so. I found out that this probably has something to do with dotnet 3.5 redists, but since the only way to install this in Win10 is to activate it as a Windows Feature, and it was activated from beforehand, I de-activated it, restarted Windows, and re-activated it. And guess what: Nothing happened (other than my PC apparently re-downloading dotnetfx35sp1 from Win Update).

 

I've even tried to manually download dotnetfx35sp1 from Microsoft, opening the executable installer with WinRAR and installing it from within there (it extracts, but then it nags be about me having to activate the feature from within the OS, which I already explained doesn't help much).

[Henrik Sonstebo]

@Henrik: Do you have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed and, if so, have you tried performing a repair or reinstall of it? Download for it can be found here.

 

EDIT: Also, you may find a helpful log entry if you open Event Viewer and look in the Application Log. You're likely looking for a "SideBySide" event.

 

Neither EventViewer not Dependency Walker helps much -- Dependency Walker just gives me the errors it usually gives for pretty much all applications ever to have existed on a Windows machine :\

 

I'll try the C++ 2005 Redist once again and let you know ASAP.

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Yeah, reinstalling the C++ 2005 redist did not work either :\

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Sorry for spamming, but I found something interesting in Dependency Walker when checking on the microsoft.flightsimulator.simconnect.dll file:

 

https://i.gyazo.com/bce38c12fd3e52b9af953ae6bf95106f.mp4

 

Am I supposed to have a simconnect.dll in my system32 or vPilot directory?

Edited June 29, 2017 at 04:08 AM by Guest

[Bradley Grafelman]

Sorry for spamming, but I found something interesting in Dependency Walker when checking on the microsoft.flightsimulator.simconnect.dll file:

That's just further supporting the notion that Windows really doesn't think it has the SimConnect library... which seems to contradict the screenshots you've posted of the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly and installed programs screens.

 

As a last ditch effort... try seeing if the files themselves are at least in the correct folders using command prompt. Navigate to C:\Windows and execute: dir /s /b *SimConnect.* - output for me was:

 

C:\Windows>dir /s /b *SimConnect.*
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.60905.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.61242.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.61259.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.flightsimulator.simconnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.60905.0_none_dd92b94d8a196297\SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.flightsimulator.simconnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.61242.0_none_e079b46b85043c20\SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.flightsimulator.simconnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.61259.0_none_55f5ecdc14f60568\SimConnect.dll

[Henrik Sonstebo]

I get slightly different output:

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd..

C:\Windows>dir /s /b *SimConnect.*
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.ESP.SimConnect
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.ESP.SimConnect\1.0.20.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.ESP.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.60905.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.61242.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\10.0.61259.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly\GAC_32\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect\v4.0_10.0.62615.0__5f523ae7e6e1b389\Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect.dll
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.esp.simconnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_1.0.20.0_none_27a6545ce93c81e5\SimConnect.dll

 

Edit: This confirms my suspicions about missing Side-by-Side entries... Notice that I have only 1 WinSxS entry for SimConnect.

[Bradley Grafelman]

Curioser and curioser... sure seems like a botched install of SimConnect, not sure why reinstalling wouldn't have fixed it.

 

If you search for *SimConnect* inside C:\Windows\WinSxS, do you get more hits? Perhaps empty directories?

 

You could try uninstalling the 10.0.61259.0 version from the control panel, ensuring that version is no longer listed in C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly (right-click and select Uninstall if so), and then searching C:\Windows\WinSxS for all files/folders related to SimConnect with that version number (deleting them if found). Then try re-running the installer (e.g. the one from the Metacraft website). I don't think I've ever seen someone have to go through this in-depth process to remove/reinstall SimConnect, so YMMV, use caution, caveat emptor, etc.

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Curioser and curioser... sure seems like a botched install of SimConnect, not sure why reinstalling wouldn't have fixed it.

 

If you search for *SimConnect* inside C:\Windows\WinSxS, do you get more hits? Perhaps empty directories?

 

You could try uninstalling the 10.0.61259.0 version from the control panel, ensuring that version is no longer listed in C:\Windows\[Mod - Happy Thoughts]embly (right-click and select Uninstall if so), and then searching C:\Windows\WinSxS for all files/folders related to SimConnect with that version number (deleting them if found). Then try re-running the installer (e.g. the one from the Metacraft website). I don't think I've ever seen someone have to go through this in-depth process to remove/reinstall SimConnect, so YMMV, use caution, caveat emptor, etc.

 

 

Oh God, I'm the stupidest man on Earth...

 

Everything should've been self-explanatory from when I saw Dependency Walker not finding SimConnect.dll (meaning it needs that DLL either in the vPilot directory or in System32). Inside of WinSxS I found a file called SimConnect.dll, and I just copied that over into the vPilot directory. Shouldn't have any more problems with that.

 

A part of me tells me that this is only a short-sighted solution, but whatever. It works for now, I'm happy

[Henrik Sonstebo]

Thank you both so much for your efforts, I really appreciate it! You keep doing you!

 

Sincerely,

Henrik