Simviation Forums

So I have to reinstall my entire Flight Simulator to fix the stupid activation problem, and I get this after waiting over an hour for the dang program to install:



And it didn't install!! I really do not want to call Microsoft again and try to figure out what the lady is saying for 2 hours! Has anyone ever had this happen?? What can I do!?

[smiley=dankk2.gif]
Jimmy

I'm not really sure why it does this, but you have to download this "Software Licensing Reset Tool" from MS. You can find it here close to the top of the page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928080. That should fix it. I'm assuming since you're trying to reinstall that there was no way to insert your product key or something into the game to fix the activation problem?? Hope that helps.

Wow, thank you for that link. I think that might have done it. And no, I never found a way to re-enter the activation code  :-/

Why can't Microsoft just make their software stable like Apple!!?  >:(

[quote]
Why can't Microsoft just make their software stable like Apple!!?

I still haven't reinstalled (was thinking about waiting for SP1 to see if that would fix the activation deal/was going to call MS, but never got a chance), so I'll try that stuff, and post what happens here I guess. Thanks! I love having smart people around who know what they're doing.

I still haven't reinstalled (was thinking about waiting for SP1 to see if that would fix the activation deal/was going to call MS, but never got a chance), so I'll try that stuff, and post what happens here I guess. Thanks! I love having smart people around who know what they're doing.

The one thing I do want to warn you about in the MS instructions for using the reset tool are these items:


7. Type cd MicrosoftKB928080 at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Darn. It didn't work. Tried both of them, but got nothing different.

[quote]The one thing I do want to warn you about in the MS instructions for using the reset tool are these items:


7. Type cd MicrosoftKB928080 at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

[quote]Darn. It didn't work. Tried both of them, but got nothing different.

[quote]The one thing I do want to warn you about in the MS instructions for using the reset tool are these items:


7. Type cd MicrosoftKB928080 at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Have a read here:
http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az= ... ype=search

Doug

Have a read here:
http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az= ... ype=search

Doug

Hmmmm
So what it is saying Doug is perhaps since he ran the reset tool and it was successful (no error and it did reset) he could simply run the repair option and it should display the activation GUI?


The poster indicates his problem was the reset process was throwing a constant error and he fixed that by adding admin to the Users group and log out/in to enable that change. So I am wondering if the reset tool ran fine and confirmed sucess, if a simple FSX repair run then would reset the activation popup. That is what one of the replies indicates should work.

As far as Microsoft making stable products, I dont think its really a matter of Apple vs. Microsoft (although I am a Windows user that hates microsoft-go figure).  Its really a matter of the size of the file, and how much it requires to run correctly.  Microsoft pushes the limits to give the gamers with the upper crest systems what they want, and within two years, the majority of people will be able to get decent performance.  The complexity makes it prone to errors.  Anyone have any experience with X-PLane or another simulator which we could compare?

OK-the FSX Repair-doesn't it reinstall everything in addition to what is already on the hard drive, because it says on the description "Reinstall all program features installed during the last installation" or something like that. Does it take 15 GB again? I have a TINY hardrive, so I don't really have 15 GB to spare. Is this close to what happens, or am I that naive? I started to do it a couple days ago just to see what happened, but it froze, so I quit. What exactly does the repair do? :-/

OK-the FSX Repair-doesn't it reinstall everything in addition to what is already on the hard drive, because it says on the description "Reinstall all program features installed during the last installation" or something like that. Does it take 15 GB again? I have a TINY hardrive, so I don't really have 15 GB to spare. Is this close to what happens, or am I that naive? I started to do it a couple days ago just to see what happened, but it froze, so I quit. What exactly does the repair do? :-/

Small had drive may be a problem if it allocates space and the space is not available. All it should do is replace the critical files and go through the rest. I do believe if it finds files that are mismatched in type, size or date it will overwrite them with the ones from the disk, then clean up the temp space it used. It will not install another 15gb of files, just temps which it dumps.

The freeze may have been related to low disk space or possibly the issue at hand but if the reset tool said it was successful, I would do as Doug's link suggests and try the repair install again. Make sure you put the files back which you backed up earlier from my suggestion and just for giggles perhaps after doing that you should run the reset tool again. Then reboot and try a full repair of FSX.

It may take some time. If the processes freezes again I would suspect low disk space if your hard drive is very small and has less than 20gigs of free space available before you startwd the repair.

Ok, I put back the files from earlier, but don't have time to do the other stuff tonight, so I'll try to do it after school tomorrow . BTW, is only 1.2 gigs free when starting the repair bad?? We have a lot of stuff on our hard drive, and it's only 30 gigs to begin with (HP took up a 10 gig partition for their recovery software). May be time to get a USB external hard drive.

Ok, I put back the files from earlier, but don't have time to do the other stuff tonight, so I'll try to do it after school tomorrow . BTW, is only 1.2 gigs free when starting the repair bad?? We have a lot of stuff on our hard drive, and it's only 30 gigs to begin with (HP took up a 10 gig partition for their recovery software). May be time to get a USB external hard drive.

1.2?

yes, not good

Not good for anything and especially any performance. A hard drive needs at least 25% of it devoted to free space for things to work right. Less than 10% and all sorts of problems will happen, especially with programs that are trying the allocate space or Windows trying to work the page file and MFT (hidden area) correctly.

You do have a problem.


I never run more than 50-60% full on mechanical drives. If I hit 70, I either get rid of items or buy a new hard drive. Right now I am running 50% on a RAID 0 array (2 hard drives in a special configuration)


A USB extrnal would be good for storing music, pictures, .zips, ISO's, movies, etc and leave the main drive for Windows and installed programs only.


I would not install FSX on an external and fly it.. bad move.