Advice needed please

[alanmus]

Hi Nav.  Thanks for your reply. The last time I did a reinstall of FS9 I used the "add or remove programs" facility in Control Panel to uninstall FS9 ( I forgot about the uninstall option on the disc   )  and when I reinstalled FS9 only the default aircraft were there and I had to reinstall all the add-on aircraft which were stored in my zip files. Are you saying that if I uninstall from disc the add-ons will still be in FS9 when I reinstall? Regards.....Alan

[Nav]

Are you saying that if I uninstall from disc the add-ons will still be in FS9 when I reinstall?

Yes, Alan.  But I'm afraid that I'm not insured for giving advice (not in this field, anyway!).  So try it 'at your own risk'!

Seriously, I've reinstalled that way a couple of times, and all my downloads etc.  have survived.  I think you'll be OK.

Whether it solves your problem or not is open to question.  I have a 'gut feeling' that it may be an add-on that is causing your problem.

One other thing - are you changing the settings in the middle of a flight?  If so, the game will presumably revert to the previous settings on re-start.  If you are, try going to the 'Settings' page on startup, and changing the settings before you start a flight.  My guess is that, that way, the new settings will 'stick'.

[alanmus]

Hi Nav.
   Unfortunately the settings don't "stick" anymore when I change them at start up

    I think you are probably right about an add- on causing the problem!

    I am going to run the uninstall from the disc as you suggested and see what happens. I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks..........Alan

[Saratoga]

Well I will throw this in, it helps but is very underused. I hear of people burning their entire aircraft folder and gauges folder onto a disc to save it while they reinstall. If they want to keep ALL their aircraft and ALL their gauges, it would be easier to just rename the folders to aircraft1 and gauges1, then when FS is deletin' itself and gets to the aircraft folder, it happily shrugs it's shoulders and goes on to the next thing. Worked for me in 2002, will it still work now?

[Hagar]

I don't think it will make any difference using the Uninstall option on the CD or from Add/Remove programs. They will both run the FS9 Uninstall program so use whichever one suits you. This should only remove the files it originally installed so your addons will be safe enough, except for repaints & other tweaks involving editing default files. FS9 is different from other versions of FS as it installs files outside the FS9 root directory. Unless you remove these manually after Uninstall is complete the problem could still be there after you reinstall it. One drawback to doing an ordinary Uninstall/Install is that one of your addons is most likely causing the problem so it still remains afterwards. The only certain way is to manually remove all traces of FS9 from your system after Uninstall is complete. Then do a completely fresh install. You can back up your addons first if you wish but it might be better to start from scratch.

Another method which worked for CFS1, CFS2, FS2002 & all previous M$ sims was the "duplicate install". This apparently works with FS9 but I haven't tried it myself. Rename the FS9 root directory folder to any other name to hide it from the setup program. Then insert CD-1 & install in the usual way to the same location as before. This effectively backs up the original install which can be safely deleted once you transfer your addons to the new one. If this is done carefully & systematically you might even find out what caused the original problem.

[alanmus]

Hi. Thanks Saratoga and Hagar for your input.

 Well, I deleted ( using disc ) and reinstalled and, guess what?, I still have my add-ons, and the problems are still there,    but my add on scenery and terrain has gone!! So back to the drawing board. The suggestion that you both gave about renaming folders sounds the way to go! and as Hagar said, if I check each add-on after transferring to the new installation I might find where the problem originated- Brilliant!  ;D  Thanks guys....Alan

[Hagar]

I just remembered something that might or might not be important. Burning files to CD usually changes the file properties to Read-only. This is fine unless you wish to edit the files after reinstalling them. The file properties can easily be changed back but it's a better idea to zip them up first - before saving them to CD.

PS. If the saved file happens to be a CFG, INI or other format that's automatically updated while a program is running this could cause a similar problem to the one we're discussing.

[Nav]

Alan, I assume that you've done a full maintenance, Scandisk and Defrag and so on?

The only other thing i can think of is that it must have been something you downloaded recently?  One idea might be to delete things in reverse date order until you maybe find the one that caused the trouble?  A lot of fiddly work, though.  :)

[alanmus]

Hi.  Well,renaming fs9 didn't seem to work for me so I made a back up of the entire FS9 and saved it to the desktop ( Thats a 16gig backup  ;D ) I then deleted FS9 and reinstalled it from disc so now I have FS9 with default A/C only and can transfer add-ons from the back up.....The only problem is that I still have exactly the same problems as mentioned in my first post   so it doesn't look like an add-on was causing it. I did a search and there seems to be a lot of stuff left over from the original installation still on the HD so I am going to delete FS9 (again  :) ) and every single reference to FS9, except for the back up, on my HD and do a reinstall. If that doesn't solve it then I might just go out and buy a hammer  ;D.   Cheers.......Alan

[alanmus]

Hi Nav.  Yes all maintenance is up to date. I think you are right about a recent download causing the problem but which one????? Beats me!
 I am hoping that deleting all reference to FS9 and Flight Simulator 9 - except the back up- from the HD will have some effect.     Regards............Alan
 

[Hagar]

Alan. I'm sure you know this already but I'm going to repeat it anyway. Make sure you Uninstall FS9 before deleting anything.

PS. I can't think why renaming the FS9 root directory folder didn't work for you. This would seem to confirm that the problem lies with FS9 files located outside the root directory or incorrect registry entries. It's quite possible there's a 'ghost' of a previous install of FS9 still on your system.

[commoner]

[quote]Hi Nav.

[alanmus]

Hi Hagar. Thanks for that. I did uninstall FS9 before deleting everything else. The odd thing is that athough my Sim is installed on "G" drive, after deleting it from "G" I found some "application data" files still on "C" containing the fs9.cfg and all the A/C including the add-ons. I would have thought that these would have been deleted along with FS9? but it does add credence to your "ghost" files idea. Anyway they are all gone now, all that is left is the back up folder so I am off to try another restall!!  Cheers...........Alan.

[Hagar]

athough my Sim is installed on "G" drive, after deleting it from "G" I found some "application data" files still on "C" containing the fs9.cfg and all the A/C including the add-ons. I would have thought that these would have been deleted along with FS9?

Two comments. Uninstalling FS9 does not remove files outside the FS9 root directory. This is the basic difference between FS9 & previous versions of FS & often catches people out when trying to reinstall it. I didn't realise your FS9 is installed to a different drive from your OS. Those extra files will still be installed to your C: drive. I've seen various problems reported with running FS9 on different drives before & this might well explain yours.

[alanmus]

Hi Commoner, thanks for joining in! the more the merrier, as they say  
 I am not really having a problem uninstalling FS9. The trouble is, that reinstalling it doesn't get rid of the problems I mentioned in my first post. Anyway I am about to try again after clearing my HD of anything relating to FS9. Thanks..........Alan