FSX reinstall help, please

[Hotshot]

Acceleration is a disaster for me.  Frequent CTDs, corrupted VCs, solid prop discs, blank instruments...the list is endless.  The one plus is better scenery - but flying is such a hassle that I'm deleting and going back to square one, a fresh install of FSX.  However, I do need some expert advice.  [1]  I believe I've read somewhere that on reinstalling, the addon scenery list remains intact, so it's just a question of putting the folders back into the library?  [2]  Aircraft:  can I, before reinstalling,  do much the same thing - ie, copy the folders in FSX/Airplanes somewhere else - CD? - and then paste them back into FSX/Airplanes once the reinstall is done?
[3] I'm not bothered about keeping rewards, but it would be helpful to be able to keep Flights. Is that possible? It seems to me thqt the sensible thing would be to reinstall, add SP1, then wait for the SP2 download, in the hope that it will give me the scenery improvement without the addded complications of Acceleration.

Any comments from Simviation's gurus would be be much appreciated by this nervous reinstaller...

[Werd]

had the same impression about acceleration and sp2  :-/, so I reinstalled everything


My addon scenery was kept (just had to add it again in the game) and the additional planes were kept as well. I've lost both rewards and flights. (to be more precise i've lost flights when installed acceleration)

oh wait, I'm not sure about aircraft - make a copy just in case

[Brett_Henderson]

List your computer specs, and operating system  

[Hotshot]

My specs -

XP Home
250 MB Nvidia Geforce 6800GT
2 gig RAM
AMD Athlon 64  4000+
300GB hard drive

[Brett_Henderson]

OK.. that's most likely a V-card issue. The modifications in Acceleration (elements of SP2) that improve performance aren't getting along with your 6800GT. Try getting the latest drivers for that card and your mo-bo... but be advised that a 6800 series  card is two (almost three) generations old, and might not be up to the FSX+Acceleration task.

As for the add-ons..  Yes.. you should be able to back them up and re-add them. But don't do it all at once. Add one thing at a time, just in case there's a problem with any one of them.

This is just my opinion... someone more knowledgeable will come along soon  :)

[Hotshot]

Thanks to one and all. Very helpful.  Brett is right: high time I updated. I'm considering a Geforce 8800 GT or GTS. What do you think, Brett? And I should really hock the family pig and get a new processor as well. Which would you recommend? I'm sadly ignorant about duos and quads ...

[Brett_Henderson]

I can't decide for myself on what's a good upgrade..  Check out the hardware forum.. lotsa talk there..

I do think it would be folly to build a new computer today that wasn't a quad-core, though..