Frustrating issues with FS9 on Win7 64bit

[Fnerg]

I have issues with FS9 on Win7 64 bit. I've searched the entire net ( well, almost) and can not find someone with a similar problem...I'm at a loss. Almost to the point of throwing in the towel. What's happening is when I load up the flight sim, everything goes fine. When I get to the rotating aircraft screen, there are pink lines running through the window. When I open the starting airport, either the computer freezes then crashes, or if I start at a smaller airport I'm fine for a second, then the aircraft falls through the pavement and is suddenly at 99,999 ft spinning out of control with trees flying past and flashing colours. Then the sim crashes, or freezes and I have to force a reboot.

I also can't run any video editing(freezes) or photoshop. To many mouse movements and the program freezes. This is an absolute clean install of Win 7 Ultimate 64bit legitimate copy, a brand new quad core computer , Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz and a brand new GeForce GTX 550ti graphics card, all updated to current, all drivers and distributables installed. Patched to 9.1, 4gb patched, running as the administrator.

I did have the sim running great once after installing a new drive, then the registry became corrupted and now I'm back to this again. Anybody have anything like this happen? Can we start a group support here.( sniff) I've been without my sim with all the years work I put into it, for about 5 months because of all this. I'm getting a taste of life without the sim, and I don't like it!! Sorry for the rant, hopeful somebody can tell me where to look on the comp for answers.

Thanks

[vonernsk]

Fnerg,

I cannot be authoritative because I am running WIN 7 on 32 bit. However I have been caught out when installing a new game or sim where it has replaced DX 9 with a later iteration ie 10 or 11.

Check that as your first IA.

Rgds Mal

[patful]

I don't think it's a 64-bit-Windows-7 issue. I haven't had any trouble at all on my machine (with onboard graphics, no less) since I bought FS9 last winter. Sounds more like a video card issue?

[glh]

Go down to the bottom of the page to "Similar Threads". Read the OBIO posts under "FS9 crashes, Compatibility issues ??". See how he resolved it.

[Fnerg]

Fnerg,

I cannot be authoritative because I am running WIN 7 on 32 bit. However I have been caught out when installing a new game or sim where it has replaced DX 9 with a later iteration ie 10 or 11.

Check that as your first IA.

Rgds Mal

But my sim ran fine on DirectX 11 before.

[Fnerg]

I don't think it's a 64-bit-Windows-7 issue. I haven't had any trouble at all on my machine (with onboard graphics, no less) since I bought FS9 last winter. Sounds more like a video card issue?

Brand new graphics card, works great on all other applications. Really great.

[Fnerg]

Go down to the bottom of the page to "Similar Threads". Read the OBIO posts under "FS9 crashes, Compatibility issues ??". See how he resolved it.

Did all that. Several times. No luck... thanks for helping everybody, I'm still going to check back for other suggestions. I hope someone has had this issue and knows the fix.

[modelr]

Sounds more like a corrupt installation file somewhere. Have you tried uninstall and reinstall, or better yet, a second installation to a new folder? Just rename your original main FS9 folder to anything other than the default name, and you can do another installation.

Also, do not install it to the default Program Files (x86) folder, even if installing to another HDD. That's not the cause of your problem, tho'.

I am having problems on my new machine with sim freezing/locking up, but that mostly occurs with FSX, not FS9. Seems to be a cooling problem. Removed the side panel, and haven't had any lockups since.

[OBIO]

I was having issues with my system after I updated the Nvidia drivers for my GTX470 to the latest drivers. The video drivers would crash many times a day. I uninstalled those drivers, went back to the older driver set that came with my video card and all the problems went away. Something the latest and greatest video drivers cause more problems than they fix.

OBIO

[rich12545]

Nick Needham at Flight1 recommends staying with the 175.33 driver. He is the best expert/guru on this stuff I've seen anywhere. Perhaps you could try that?

[Fnerg]

Nick Needham at Flight1 recommends staying with the 175.33 driver. He is the best expert/guru on this stuff I've seen anywhere. Perhaps you could try that?

You mean 275.33? I will definitely try this. Wouldn't it be great if it was just an incompatible graphics driver... I'll report back, thanks for the tip Rich.

Doug

[Tako_Kichi]

I run both FS9 and FSX on Win 7 64 bit with no issues at all. One thing I did have to do though was run all the related exe files as an Administrator before things ran smoothly. Navigate to the exe file for the sim (and any other related software you run along with the sim like TIR, FSDat etc.) and right click on the exe file(s) and select 'Run as Administrator'. That forces the program(s) to run in Admin mode every time you start them which gives them more control over what files they can access and how.

Incidentally none of my flight sim apps are located in the 'Program Files' or 'Program Files (X86)' folders. I have a second HD that is for my flight sim stuff only and everything resides on that drive totally separate from the OS C:\ drive (except for the various .cfg files of course).

Having said all that your issue does sound like a graphic card/driver issue rather than a permissions issue.

[Fnerg]

Thanks everybody for your comments. I'm glad to say I've solved the issue. When I bought my new comp it came with 2 low end video cards in SLI mode. The Asus MB has a slot for a tiny card that you insert one way for 2 video cards, and then you would take out, turn it around, and reinsert for 1 video card. I was in 2 video card mode, after switching it around, everything is back to normal and better. The thing is I didn't see the little card because it's hiding behind the gigantic graphics card housing. So, pleased about this, however I can not get the time I invested, or the hair I tore out back. Onward and upward I guess..

Cheers
Doug