How to Delete 'NO CD Crack'?

[Andi]

Hagar,

I'm using Mozilla Firefox, not IE, if it makes a difference (?)

I tried your  suggestion of deleting the desktop shortcut and creating another from fs9.exe in the root file .... no go, I'm afraid: still got the same symptoms as before.

I now have a sharp pain in my forehead from banging it against the screen  :(  (before any comedians tell me - yes, I've taken a couple of Aspirin and am about to lay down in a darkened room for several days).

Uninstalling FS9 really does effect any add-ons, inasmuch as they are not loaded with the new instal.  You then have to spend endless hours re-installing aircraft, scenery, etc, etc .... assuming you have discs or can find them again on a site such as SimViation.  I say this from painful experience, having had to do it in the past.  

This is the one thing I was hoping to avoid in this case, hence my question about copying, zipping, and then pasting back into the new instal, all the major files (everything except the root file, which is where the problem seems to be - ).

Andi

[garymbuska]

Andi I have had the unfortunate tasks of having to uninstall FS9 a couple of times, The best thing to do is to copy any folder you want out of fs9 into a temp folder like AIRCRAFT ADDON SCENERY EFFECTS SOUND AND GAUGES.If you do not wnt to have to worry about activateing your addonscenery again then copy the scenery.cfg file over as well. It is not necassary to zip the folders up.Once you are done copying folders then go ahead and remove FS9 DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE FS9.CFG FILE Just rename it to FS9.bak
After you have reinstalled FS9 just move the folders back into it. [glow=yellow,2,300]MAKE SURE YOU MOVE EVERY THING FROM THE TEMP FOLDER INTO FS9 BEFORE YOU START IT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME[/glow] 8-)

[Hagar]

After you have reinstalled FS9 just move the folders back into it. [glow=yellow,2,300]MAKE SURE YOU MOVE EVERY THING FROM THE TEMP FOLDER INTO FS9 BEFORE YOU START IT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME[/glow] 8-)

Why would you do that? It's quite possible that some of those files caused the problem in the first place. It would be much better to start off with a completely fresh install of FS9. Make sure it's set up & working properly before installing any addons.

The easiest way to back anything up is to make a copy of it. Take a backup copy of the complete FS9 directory if you have the HDD space. In FS2002 you could simply rename the root directory folder to back it up, insert the CD & do a fresh install. I'm not sure this is possible with FS9.

[garymbuska]

Hagar You can do the same thing with FS2004 if you remove the FS9.exe file it will allow you to reinstall another copy. And the reason behind my statement is if you start up fs9 before moving the copied folders back then you will have to rebuild the scenery cfg file. The aircraft gauge sound and effect folders would not cause the problem he is having here. I suspect that there is a bad or corupt dll file in the root folder. Of course A once of prevention is truly worth a ton of cure here so by all means if you feel uneasy doing what I suggest then by all means go one step at a time by putting back things one at a time and re checking to make sure it works.[glow=yellow,2,300]It will take a while this way but all in all it is the safest way to make sure the problem does not duplicate itself again.[/glow] 8-)

[Hagar]

Hagar You can do the same thing with FS2004 if you remove the FS9.exe file it will allow you to reinstall another copy.

Thanks. Not sure why you would need to remove FS9.exe. The only way to be certain is to try it myself.

And the reason behind my statement is if you start up fs9 before moving the copied folders back then you will have to rebuild the scenery cfg file. The aircraft gauge sound and effect folders would not cause the problem he is having here. I suspect that there is a bad or corupt dll file in the root folder.

The point is that nobody seems to know the cause of the problem. That's the reason for doing the fresh install. If you have enough 3rd party scenery installed for re-activating it to be a problem I suggest taking a backup copy of Scenery.cfg along with the other files. This would be automatic if you backed up the complete FS9 directory first & it could then be replaced at any time. Unless it's done carefully this could lead to all sorts of problems. I would certainly not recommend installing any addons or other modifications before running a fresh install of FS9 for the first time. Unless you know exactly what you're doing you could easily end up worse off than when you started.

[Andi]

Hagar and Gary,

Thanks, fellas, but don't go falling out over this - play nice (as my mother used to say)  ;D

Let me approach this from a slightly different angle .... I know exacty what caused the problem (er, I think).  The symptoms occured the minute I installed the No-CD Crack, so my befuddled brain suggests that any files that the crack altered would be where the problem lies.  The question is ... are there any other files within FS9 that the crack would need to mess with, other than fs9.exe?  If so, then replacing these files ought to cure the ailment (famous last words ... ).

Andi  

[Hagar]

Just a difference of opinion. We don't fall out here. LOL

[quote]The symptoms occured the minute I installed the No-CD Crack, so my befuddled brain suggests that any files that the crack altered would be where the problem lies.

[Andi]

Hagar,

It may sound confusing, but it all makes perfect sense to me.  Just to summarise, here is the sequence of events to date:-

1.  Installed fs9.1 update.

2.  Installed No-CD Crack.

3.  Experienced loss of a/c image in 'Create Flight' preview screen and suffered CTD on exit or minimize.

4.  Deleted fs9.exe containing crack.

5.  Installed original backup copy of fs9.exe.  Problems persist.

6.  Deleted original backup copy of fs9.exe.

7.  Installed fresh copy of fs9.exe from FS2004 Disc1.  Problems persist.

8.  Created new fs9 desktop shortcut from fresh copy of fs9.exe (above).  Problems persist.

9.  Deleted all copies of fs9.exe, both in root file and in recycle bin.  Deleted fs9 desktop shortcut.  Deleted fs9.1 update.

10.  Installed fresh copy of fs9.exe from FS2004 Disc1.

11.  Created new fs9 desktop shortcut from fresh copy of fs9.exe (above).  Problems persist.

12  Re-installed fs9.1 update.  Problems persist.

So, if the 'No-CD' file was 'wrong' or corrupted, why do the symptoms persist when that crack (within the fs9.exe file at step.4) has been deleted and replaced with a 'good' copy?  

Again, I ask the question: what other files - if any - could the 'N0-CD' crack tamper with?  If it had potential to change other files then surely these other files will need replacing too?

"I'm not sure this is correct as I've never had to uninstall FS9."

If you've never had to uninstal FS9 then count yourself lucky.

"If it's like other versions of FS uninstalling the sim will only remove default files leaving your addons right where they are."

:-?  Assuming you have copies of every addon you've ever installed into FS9 and can spare the time to re-install them all over again.  Anything you don't have a copy of will be deleted, because 'right where they are' is inside FS9.  Unfortunately, re-installing the sim' won't automatically restore the gigabytes of addons and tweaks that I've painstakingly crafted over many months.  This is the reason I wondered if it's possible to cut-and-paste most of the files into a fresh install and (hopefully) have them overwrite the default stuff (the very point that you and Gary seem to disagree on).

Andi

[Hagar]

[quote]Hagar,

It may sound confusing, but it all makes perfect sense to me.

[Hagar]

OK, I found my FS9 CDs & carried out some experiments. Here's what I did.

1. Renamed the Flight Simulator 9 root directory folder to Flight Simulator 9x. This backs it up & hides it from the setup program on the FS9 CD.

2. Backed up FS9.cfg.

3. Inserted FS9 CD - 1 & installed using the default path & the Express Install option.

I now had two separate versions of FS9, the backed-up original & a brand new one. Both ran independently apart from using the same FS9.cfg that is located outside the FS9 root directories. To overcome this I renamed the original FS9.exe to FS9x.exe & also renamed the back-up copy of FS9.cfg to FS9x.cfg & pasted it alongside FS9.cfg. This is unnecessary if you don't wish to run both versions of FS9.

After running the brand new version of FS9 & setting the display options I copied the complete contents of the backed up Addon Scenery folder & pasted them into the new install. To save activating it all I pasted a copy of Scenery.cfg from the backed-up original to the new FS9 & also copied/pasted a few aircraft & gauges over to check them out. To save setting everything up I replaced FS9.cfg with the backed-up copy. All worked perfectly.

To check out the uninstall I inserted CD - 1 & selected the Uninstall option. This uninstalled my brand new FS9 leaving me with the backed up original which still functions perfectly. I can confirm that uninstalling FS9 will not remove addon aircraft, gauges or scenery or affect the files in any way. The only thing removed will be default files. This will include any repaints of the default aircraft & any other modified default files.

The way I see it you have two options. Either uninstall FS9 & reinstall it to the same directory or do a duplicate install as I described above. If you decide on the former please make sure you back up any important files first.

PS. If you have the FS9.1 update installed this must be uninstalled before attempting to uninstall FS9.

[FsNovice]

For everyones information the no-cd  crack doesnt affect any other file within Fs Folder.

All it does, in a much simplified manner, is create a new .exe without the line that checks for the cd in it. There is nothing on the cd it looks for, just the fact that the correct cd is in.

I don't create cracks, my friends informed me of this, as he is more technically minded than i am. But then so is my dog for that matter!!!

[Andi]

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!  PROBLEM SOLVED!  

Many thanks to all those who replied: fs9 is now running normally again.  It turned out to be nothing to do with the update nor the No-CD crack.  I'm embarrassed and ashamed to say that the problem was correctly identified by Microlight in the very first reply.  I checked my graphic card's driver and found it was one upgrade behind the latest spec'.  Upgrading this cured the blank preview and CTD straight away.  

Apologies, Microlight .  The reason I overlooked your suggestion initially was because, (a) the problem only began after I loaded the crack; (b) the graphics in the sim' itself ran normally, apart from the preview screen; and (c) no one else confirmed that this could be the source of the trouble.  Ah, well ... I learn something new abut fs9 every day (usually because something goes wrong every day - slight exaggeration).

Hagar & Gary:  I'm still puzzled by a few points.  I only installed the crack because my DVD bought the farm; and I only installed the update because the info' on the crack said it would only work in the updated version of fs9.  Now, I didn't recall installing the update previously, and when I did, it loaded OK (and didn't say I had the updated version already).  As I said earlier, my Disc1 gives the version I have as 9.01xxxxx, which suggests it's already updated at manufacture, so why was I able to load my downloaded update on top?  As an experiment, I tried loading the update again now, and got a message straight away saying that I already was updated and didn't need it (confused? ... how d'you think I feel?)  ::)  

Hagar: I understand what you said about making a duplicate copy of fs9 and then cutting/pasting files from the old to the new.  But - I still can't get my head around it when you say that uninstalling fs9 won't delete all the addons and tweaks along with it.  I think we're talking at cross purposes here.  Did you mean, make a duplicate first, cut/paste, and then uninstall old version?

Andi

[Hagar]

[quote]Hagar & Gary: