Tragic news! FS9 won't work on my new computer...

[Saitek]

This is Ben's Dad.  ;) When I install the drivers for the video card the instructions say first to install the standard PCIgraphics adapter (VGA) driver. Windows is supposed to build a driver database and then a new hardware wizard appears.  
The wizard then says 'search' for the best driver for your device and click 'next'. But after clicking next the wizard can't find the driver. I've tried to find a driver for this and can't find one anywhere, strange? Any idea if this is contributing to the trouble? It used to load in with the Win. 98 setup, but not with XP.

Mark

[Sterk]

I really dont want to give any advice or suggest solutions-I'll just say that I never use "searching the best driver wizard" in WinXP.It seems to me a bit glitchy...

But...what daz it mean-cant find any driver?You must set a path to driver in order the wizard can find it.

But the best way is:

Install standard driver first just to get the mashine able to display picture.
Then  download the latest driver for your card from
nVidia's site.
And than just  launch downloaded driver's installation .exe.
Thats all-without using any wizards...

[MattNW]

[quote]This is Ben's Dad.

[Gixer]

I have always had that slider fully to the right hand side, even with my old TNT2 32 graphics card, though it wasnt in quite as high a spec system!

From what you are saying it doesnt sound like you have properly installed the vid drivers if that message appears everytime.

Go here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=820

I checked through a few drivers and even though I am pretty sure the 66.71's will work all that was added in those was support for the new generation cards so there is no point getting those really.  I have posted a link to Guru3d.com and the 61.72 drivers.  I remember they worked well for me and my brother (He had an FX5600) so same year of card as you have.

Use 'Driver cleaner 3'  make sure you have got rid of any little bits of graphics drivers that have installed (You must do this in safe mode)

Re-boot PC into normal mode, when it says 'New Hardware Detected' hit the cancel button and let it finish loading windows.   Now go and run the 61.72 file you have downloaded and install the vid drivers.  

[beaky]

Before I begin, I have to say I'm no expert- these are suggestions, not to be taken as "gospel"...

For some reason every driver install is difficult with XP... however, I'm running FS9, CFS3, and IL2/PF with XP Home (w/SP2) on an AMD-based system (1.2 CPU)  with only 512 RAM and a 40GB hard drive, and although it's not perfect, I can run FS9 at 24 fps with all settings near 80% of max (and hardware accel. at max). This machine is my first build and my first PC: If I can make it work, so can you. Believe me!!
 But I'm using an  AGP video card... that may be part of the problem ("pipeline" limitations of PCI). Not sure about PCI Express, though- I may be wrong there.
A lot of good advice precedes my post here, including comments about 64-bit compatibility with FS9. You may be sitting pretty for FS10, but getting FS9 running well with what you've got may take some compromises...
Anyway, don't be quick to assume it's bad hardware; sounds like you need to keep experimenting. Definitely clean out previous driver installs, and definitely give MS a heads-up.
 Another thing that helps in general, esp. if you're mainly going to use this machine for simming, is to disable just about  every automatic function that XP likes to run- they slow things down quite a bit. Of course, you want to think carefully about this- you might want some of them enabled. You can restore all that, but it'll save time and hassle to take it slow, there.
 One more suggestion would be to make sure you've disabled any onboard video your mobo has- audio, too, if you have an outboard audio card . That would definitely cause conflicts.
Anyway, you've got a very nice machine there... if it is not a bad piece of hardware, you should be looking good very soon.
 Good luck!

[Gixer]

Having a 64bit capable CPU does not effect how FS9 performs at all, I can guarantee that and so can many more.  The CPU of course is not used to its full potential as FS9 isnt programmed to take advantage of it but I can guarantee it causes no problems with the way FS9 runs.

[Clipper]

Nvidea has a toll free number on their packaging. You could try calling them as well for advice on drivers. Your problem is definately not a pci card compatability issue!

[Gixer]

Clipper he has an AGP port on his new mobo.  If he swapped for another G/card it would be an AGP one.

[Clipper]

You're right Gixer. I didn't realize he had an agp slot available

[Saitek]

Well Hi folks (Ben's Dad here), thanks for further advice but nothing seems to be working yet. I tried to install new 4in1 mobo drivers again buy doing as advised and putting in the old drivers expecting a request to uninstall my present drivers, instead it just reinstalled the old mobo drivers, which wasn't what I wanted. So I Take from that, that the new drivers had probably gone in on the first attempt.

This what I came up with on the event viewer.



I don't feel this is anything although I could be wrong surely this is just a record of crashes.

I did a chkdisk and found some disk errors which it corrected although I had to restart the pc twice. Then I did a defrag. Alas the pc freezed up before the boeing left the ground.

[Saitek]

My eyes are going square  no flying    

[RollerBall]

Ben, I'm afraid that buying a PCI graphics card a year ago was a VERY bad move at it was obsolete even then for power gaming (which is what FS9 is). Regrettably you are now reaping the rewards of your decision and whatever you do now can't change what you did then.

Just because a PCI card works OK with an AMD64 cpu in another motherboard doesn't mean that it will with yours.

Motherboards that take an AMD64 PCU are not supposed to work with PCI cards - at least not efficiently in

[Saitek]

I just knew it.......  :(
*Big cry*

Ben

[RollerBall]

Ben - don't cry yet. Look at the bit I added on to my last post.

[Saitek]

Hi, (Ben's Dad here) the driver properties show that it has a nvidia display adapter installed version 6.1.7.2.
It's just that according to the instructions and the way it worked with win98  I had to install the vga display adapters first then shut down and then install nvidia drivers . It seems though as if it just does it in one operation with xp. I was just a bit confused when it didn't go according to the instructions, but it seems to be installed correctly.
Thanks again.

Guess it looks like Dad's going to get even larger gaps in his pockets.