FS2004 won't run

[CharlieTango]

Argh.  I pop in the FS2004 CD, I click the icon on my desktop, I wait, I wait, I wait... I go into Windows Task Manager and sure enough, under the Applications tab I see Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 Not Responding.  

I have no idea what is going on.  The only recent change I've made to my system was the addition of 512mb more RAM, and that was several days ago; FS2004 ran perfectly fine until this point.  I tried popping in other games and they ran without a hitch - heck, I was just playing LOMAC a few minutes ago.  FS2004 refuses to run.

Any thoughts?  :-[

[Politically Incorrect]

Try installing the No-cd patch found in the download section and see if that helps.

[Skittles]

... I pop in the FS2004 CD, I click the icon on my desktop...

I've heard this before, You're running WinXP right? I believe it's a conflict between autorun and you clicking on the desktop.

But, you say you've played before and I assume you've done the same thing everytime.

I agree with Pollitically Incorrect, get the No-cd patch.

http://www.anadrac.com/Flight/nocd_cof.zip

[CharlieTango]

Yup, I'm running XP, and let me tell you, when issues like this crop up, I start to miss '98 rather fiercely  ;)

But ack.

[CharlieTango]

AHAHA, argh, I think I may know what's going on.  On a suspicion I ran dxdiag, and under the Network tab I found this information:

The registry information for the service provider 'DirectPlay8 Modem Service Provider' is missing or damaged.
The registry information for the service provider 'DirectPlay8 Serial Service Provider' is missing or damaged.
The registry information for the service provider 'DirectPlay8 IPX Service Provider' is missing or damaged.
The registry information for the service provider 'DirectPlay8 TCP/IP Service Provider' is missing or damaged.

... sure enough, if I look in the next column under Registered Lobbyable DirectPlay Applications I see 'Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004".

I have NO idea when this happened.  I tried uninstalling FS2004 and the uninstall won't run.  I tried going into the Control Panel to Add/Remove the program, and THAT won't work either.  Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Skittles]

Fix what? The fact that FS2004 wont install or that it won't play?

This is a new one to me.

You could try installing DirectX9C??? Maybe then FS2004 would work.

Or you can manually remove FS2004. The tricky part is clearing the registry.

[Mozz]

Have you got the latest Directx, the same thing happened to me when I had an old directx installed. Also try running fs9, wait for about a minute on the splash screen and hit ctrl+alt+delete a bit (maye three times, with intervals) and that might work. Also happened to me before. Had to do the ctrl+alt+delete thing and 2 error messages would come up about add-on scenery that I had installed and not uninstalled properly.

[Fox_Molder]

Fix what? The fact that FS2004 wont install or that it won't play?

This is a new one to me.

You could try installing DirectX9C??? Maybe then FS2004 would work.

Or you can manually remove FS2004. The tricky part is clearing the registry.

Not tricky at all there is a tools called Format. it take a while but you sure have a clean reg after.... I believe upgrading to dx9 should be your first step.... then the big F word I mean Format.(you need to get DX to work correcly or all other effort will be wasted).

[JBaymore]

Woah!!!!!!!

Watch the "Format" command.  

That completely wipes the drive involved to a "clean slate".  Make sure that is what you want to do before doing that.

best,

..................john

[neodug]

[quote]AHAHA, argh, I think I may know what's going on.

[CharlieTango]

Thanks for all the help, guys - I finally got it to uninstall .  And argh, guess what?  It looks like an update for MS Service Pack 2 was the culprit:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=884130

Those are EXACTLY the updates I got hours before FS2004 stopped running for me.  Windows' ever-so-helpful Automatic Update installed them for me, despite the fact that I had my settings arranged so that it wasn't allowed to install anything without notifying me first.  Apparently the new update to the Automatic Update itself reset those options, allowing it to cheerfully usher all sorts of SP2 updates onto my machine :/.

This may be a good thing to warn people about - I had to do a full reinstall of Windows XP SP1 to get rid of those updates.  One of them even warns that it is not removeable once it's installed.  What a pain in the butt all around; I'd love to give Auto Update a good hard punch in the *HONK*.

Thanks again for the help!

[codered]

This happens to me now and then.  I am thinking it is my CD drive more than anything else.  If I look at the task manager and see the FS9, but nothing is happening, I will end the FS9, eject the CD, put it back in and restart FS9.  This does the trick for me.

I am not using SP 2 or a fancy no cd patch.

I know my CD drive is getting old, and probably needs to be replaced, but I will run that thing into the ground.  

[JBaymore]

I have learned my lesson in the past (the hard way) about being the "first kid on the block" to install new releases of video drivers or patches and such..... so I'll wait a while to get the new and improved SP2 for XP.

Hearing too many people having problems.

I manually go to the Microsoft site and download the patches that I want to install.  I have autoupdate OFF.  Every few days I go to check what is new ...read a bit... and make a decision.

best,

..............john