Problems Again

[Flying Trucker]

Goodly afternoon all...

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day at the bugsmasher field with a flight or two thrown in for good measure.

It did me good as this electronic gizmo did no end up in the river...
Listening to those Old Retired Rocking Chair Flying Geezers took my mind off this electronic gizmo AND I even took the old girl out to dinner.

Last week I purchased a WD...My Book Essential External Hard Drive (3 TB/To) (USB 3.O).

I started the computer and plugged it in.

I lost everything.

System Repair and System Restore would not bring the Windows 7 System back on line.

As there are no family members nearby I called a chap who has helped me with computers since FS98 or before.

He said that should not have happened and took the entire unit including the External Hard Drive to his shop and tried to get it going.

There was nothing wrong with the External Hard Drive as it is working right now.

The computer however had to be I think he said wiped/cleaned and a complete reinstall had to be done.

Yes...this dam electronic gizmo cost me FSX again.

My Documents and Downloads are okay but I have lost FSX.

With the help of so many here I just got FSX up and going very nicely I thought and without a lot of Payware.

The problem now is there is no Sound.

[Daube]

Hi Doug,

There are several points in this story that sound strange to me.
First of all, I fail to see why plugging an external USB hardrive could cause any harm to your main harddrive...
Then, even if there was a problem, the first thing that should have been done is an error checking (the deep one, the one that forces you to reboot the computer and wait a looooooong moment)
Finally, you said the sound card is ok but you get no sound nevertheless in the game ? So how can you tell that the sound card is fine then ? You get sound from other applications and only FSX doesn't produce any sound ?
Last point: you have reinstalled Windows 7 and FSX both completely, if I understood correctly ? Did you run Windows Update several times (with several reboots) until no more important updates could be found ?
Did you also reinstall DirectX runtimes (from microsoft website) and C++ runtimes (from microsoft website) ?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions I know :/

[Steve M]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder


                                  8-)

[beaky]

It is a head-scratcher... I could see a unit like that gumming up your USB, maybe, but crashing Windows? Weird. Sorry to hear of your loss...

Can't advise you on why that happened, Doug, but here's a tip: never, ever keep anything important in the default "My Documents", etc. folders. Keep that stuff on a separate partition from the OS, if not a separate hard drive. Usually, one can easily choose where you want to put anything you download. And back up all FS add-ons outside the default FS folder, preferably on another hard drive. Now that you have that humongous external drive, you could back up everything with ease.
I've had to re-install Windows and FS9 few times, myself, but
with no tears (since I learned my lesson the first time). It's still a pain, and yes, I may have to spend some time periodically putting things where they belong, but at least I won't lose a bunch of FS add-ons, photos, installers, etc., etc. when I have to do it.

[Steve M]

Another thought is to run the repair function on your FSX disc and see what happens. You might lose some CFG changes though.

[Ang2dogs]

Did you try running the directX diagnostics from the Run command? Type dxdiag into the run open slot, click ok, and then you can run a sound check from there.

[ozzy72]

Have you got the correct sound drivers installed Doug?

[Flying Trucker]

Good morning all...

Still no sound.

I have not installed FSX yet as I am waiting for the repair person to come back with either a solution or a new sound card.

Windows 7 should make a sound when it starts up and it does not even do that.
All I get is static.

We have checked the drivers and they all seem okay.

Have run Windows Update many many times and there are none.

We know the external hard drive is working fine.

Well I am in my Hurry Up and Wait Mode Again...

[Flying Trucker]

Good morning...

Just ran "dxdiag" and there are no problems.

Myself I think it is the sound card but the repair person will be here later tonight...after supper...

[Daube]

Strange issue... Also, strange that the sound card stopped working after plugging that disk...
The more I think about it, the more I hope the power supply of your motherboard is not damaged...

[beaky]

If you have onboard sound on the motherboard as well as a sound card, there may be a conflict. If you have sound outputs on the mobo, try removing the sound card. If it works, that will at least tell you that sound in Windows is OK; whether or not your sound card is bad or causing a conflict is another matter.

[Flying Trucker]

Thanks Stephane and Sean...

The person that was supposed to pop over tonight after supper can not make it so will have to wait until next week I guess...

[Flying Trucker]

Goodly morning all...

Will not have a new sound card until late this week...probably Thursday or Friday.
He is going to Toronto Wednesday to pick some computer stuff up and that is where he will get me a new sound card.

Still have not installed FSX again as with no sound I do not see the point.

I am wondering if I should just install FSX and the Service Packs rather than FSX Acceleration Expansion Pack as I do not fly the aircraft in the Acceleration Pack.

Also am waiting for MS Flight to become available and I might forget about FSX altogether....not sure....

Oh the joys of these electronic gizmoes....

[CHUCK79]

Hey, Doug.....

Did you somehow accidentally disable your speakers? Check in Start/Control Panel/Sound/Speakers and make sure they are enabled


P.S.

[Flying Trucker]

Hi Chuck....

One of the first things we did...

Darn thing is the computer says everything is OK and there are no red flags anywhere...