Win7 -FSX - No startup after Acceleration install?

[Moparmike]

Hmmm...

Anyone else see this problem? What do I need to do to straighten it out?

New machine, Win7 Home Premium.
Installed FSX and activated it as per normal (the phone call runaround since this was the 4th time I've installed FSX). It ran fine...

I installed Acceleration and now I get the following message when I try to start FSX.

[harleyman]

I t6hink as its Win7 and DX10..You also need the base DX9 too!

Try MS site for DX9.25 EndUser and run that and see...

[Lewis-A2A]

Very strange runs A Ok on mine.

Try what the error says and download latest dx9.

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Moparmike -
FSX Acceleration has a higher hardware-specification requirement
than that of FSX default, (all versions).

Some integrated videocard chipsets are no longer supported,
(particularly DX 8 cards).

Please post your videocard details,
as there may be a config tweak workaround.

HTH
ATB
Paul

[Gdavis101]

Installed it last night and it worked for me, that is strange!

[Moparmike]

Hi Folks

Moparmike -
FSX Acceleration has a higher hardware-specification requirement
than that of FSX default, (all versions).

Some integrated videocard chipsets are no longer supported,
(particularly DX 8 cards).

Please post your videocard details,
as there may be a config tweak workaround.

HTH
ATB
Paul

Oops, forgot the vidcard details. It's a GTS 240 Dell (not onboard).
Not the best card out there, but that's upgradable down the road.

What puzzles me is that FSX (pre-SP, right off the DVDs) ran good after install. It seems that Acceleration uninstalled any DX9 files that FSX would've installed.

Attached is the DXDiag results file if that's of any help.

[harleyman]

Line 17 seems strange...No parameters..

I still say download and install DX9 End user from the MS site.

DX10 is based from that, and without 9 it may not work....



Or just install your vid drivers again as they should have 9 also.

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Moparmike -
That generation of card shouldn't be a problem,
so isn't relevant to my original reply info.



Just some suggestions -

From your DXDiag,
looks like it's a dual GPU card.
You're also currently running two monitors
both at different resolutions.

This might be causing a problem for the hardware detection code.
There appears to be a fair chunk of capabilities identified as UNKNOWN.



Firstly -
Ensure that you're using the latest Nvidia drivers,
yours appear to be from June, (6/26/2009)

And that Win7 has any/all updates applied.
Particularly as harleyman says, those DirectX runtimes.



Then -
Try disabling the second card & external monitor,
then running an FSXAcceleration repair.

Once acceleration is working,
then try reenabling the second card & monitor.



PS
You could also try running the FSXA setup in compatibility mode,
which may allow the hardware detect to run correctly.
(Though doesn't explain missing data in DXDiag report).



HTH
ATB
Paul

[Alexraptor]

There is a very simple solution to the problem.

Download and install DirectX, Problem solved.

[b52bob]

I also just installed win 7 and FSX appears, at least to me, to run lots better. However,

Everytime I start FS it asks me for the serial number for acceration! I've entered it about 5 times and it works, but the next time I start it, the same thing!

[crashaz]

try turning off the UAT before you start up FSX.

Yep enter the serial number again if asked... and then watch it open. Now close it again... and the second time you open up FSX you should not get prompted.

Then turn UAT back on... when you register FSX writes some info to your registry... UAT may be preventing that.

If you don't know how to turn off UAT... just click on Start - Help..... type UAT and one of those heading is for turning on/off.

[harleyman]

Do you mean UAC ?

[hey_moe]

Mike, download the newest Video Driver from there site but don't install. Download the current DX drivers. Download this program >> http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D---Driver-Sweeper-(Setup)-download-1655.html and install it. Now go into the Add and Remove program and remove the current video driver. Reboot and hit the F8 key and go into safe mode and start that Driver Cleaner Program and remove the left over video drivers. Reboot and first reinstall the DX drivers, reboot again and install the current video drivers. BTW, make sure you aren't hooked up to the Internet cus W7 will DL and install a video driver. Post what happens now...Mike

[Moparmike]

All info accepted welcomely and will be put on my to-do list!

This is getting put to the back burner for now though. I'm not touching anything else until I get an OS recovery disk from Dell and a spare HDD to play with. I don't trust the on-board recovery partition and it seems that Dell no longer ships the OS disk with their systems, just driver & additional software CDs. (At least on BestBuy purchased systems anyway).
I am going to dd the current drive onto a spare so I can start dropping XP and Linux onto this rig too without wiping the original.

Besides...I can't find my FS9 disks either...FS9 ranks higher on my priority list than FSX does. But that first FSX test hop was looking very promising even with a low/mid-level vid card.

Thanks! I'll be back when "backup" arrives. :d

[harleyman]

Let us know how it all pans out please....

[Moparmike]

Update...

Recovery discs from Dell have arrived so I got brave and started attacking this "no DX9" problem again.

Completely uninstalled FSX and Acceleration from the computer and then I reinstalled both using the Run As Admin option on the setup EXEs. (I didn't use Run As Admin the first time...maybe that was the key).
I fired up FSX after install (it worked fine), rebooted the computer and installed Acceleration. Rebooted and fired up FSX again. This time it worked. I just had to activate Acceleration since I hadn't done that on the first install.
Apparently the activation does not get erased if you uninstall from the Control Panel???

Still using the stock video driver that shipped with the machine for now. that'll get tweaked later.



Now all I need to do is wait for my copy of Acronis True Image to show up so I can get a backup of the HDD. I did do a "dd" copy of the drive onto an older drive, but I'm curious about the rave reviews that Acronis has been getting here and other sites. I used to used Norton Ghost back a few years but found it kinda buggy compared to the disc imaging commands available in most Linux distros so I had given up on Ghost.

[crashaz]

Do you mean UAC ?


LOL yes thanks... too much QA going on with my CRM application I built.