Worrying Situation

[IanHenry]

Having just been looking for Nath's re-paint site, and finding it unavailable, I followed a link to his Facebook site and found the following message from Nath:
<o:p></o:p>
"Nathan has been experiencing some problems with FSX. Having had to uninstall and re install both the game and theAcceleration Pack yesterday he has been unable to register them online or over the phone. He has rung Microsoft support in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> only to be told that FSX is an obsolete product and there is no support for it. Needlessly to say he ended the call abruptly.

Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? It maybe that if this cannot be solved and sadly this journey may have to end after 4 years......"<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>
Does this mean that you will no longer be able to register FSX after a fresh install? That's a worrying prospect, we might all have to switch too Prepar3D sooner than we thought!.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Regards,<o:p></o:p>
Ian.

[airattackimages]

Oh that's a bunch of bull crap! :angryfir:

If that's the case, then someone would be rightly justified in making a code crack in my opinion. We bought this product, and whether they want us to buy their new stupid titles or not they need to allow us to use what we purchased from them. (I've even bought two versions of FSX, as well as two copies of Acceleration because I had lost one box -- found it later). So they have made ample money off of us on FSX and this would be a bunch of horsecrap if they did this.

[Bone]

FSX is still being sold, and I'm pretty sure that MS still recieves their share of the sale. Hanging buyers out to dry is unsat. I think if that's the way they want to be...ie taking money on the sales and then hanging the support phone up...I think it's high time someone came up with an FSX 'crack'.

In making this statement, I just want it to be clear I do not support piracy. But after spending alot of money on FSX, I don't believe MS has the right to give all of our FSX purchases an artificial shelf life.


EDIT: I must have been writing my tirade while AirAttack was posting his, lol.

[CodyValkyrie]

Personally, I see no wrong doing in utilizing a crack for a bought and purchased game. I do however find what is being said a bit odd. I had to reactivate my copy just a week or so ago via phone.

[wbuchart]

...How to do this simple task. Flight Simulator X is still up on the Microsoft site and I didn't see anything there with the available downloads saying it is no longer supported...

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/product_info.html

I would try calling back in a few hours and see if you get a better answer from another support person.

[Dain Arns]

Someone must have rolled out the mat... :icon_lol:
62856

[Bone]

I had to reactivate my copy just a week or so ago via phone.

that makes me feel better

[falcon409]

With this last virus, I ended up having to do a fresh install of FSX and Accel. Activation was flawless via the internet. About a day into the fresh install I started having trouble with it locking up and so I uninstalled and started over a second time, including having to register a second time in two days. Again. . .no problem via the internet.:salute:

[Naismith]

I had this several weeks back, FSX would not validate online. I called MS, the op strated there is no longer tel support for this product, although he did check my serial no and announced I had a valid product but he could do no more. I hung up. 20 mins later I tried again with online validation and it worked. Clearly there was some shananigans going on after I closed the call and he must have flicked a switch or something.
I seem to recall that every few months MS will clear out their database of held registrations for FSX and as a result will permit new reistrations.

[elcamino]

I had the same thing happen to me. I couldn't use the serial numbers that came with fsx
because as they say, had been used to many times. Tried the phone call and couldn't get
any satisfaction nor a new serial number.
So you buy a piece of software at a computer store. It isn't yours. Microsoft still owns it
even though you paid for it.
I found Fsx Gold on the shelf at a local staples store. So I have bout it twice now and I bet
you a doughnut it still isn't mine.

[Prowler1111]

I just reinstalled FSX (it was a vanilla instal, so no problems) in one of my computers just for the heck of it (mainly after reading this) and used the online activation, went flawlessly..then installed acceleration...same results, no problems on my end, and i´m in South America!
Best regards

Prowler

[Lionheart]

Tell him to get Prepar3D! Installs nicely, they have a forum for help, only $9.95 USD per month for a developer.


I am so #)T#)($^T$ with FSX. The last install last month took one full week trying to get the SP1 and SP2 updates to work.

[Bone]

When Natural Point get's TrackIR working in P3D, I'll certainly start converting to P3D. Until then, no-can-do.:gameoff:

[airattackimages]

EDIT: I must have been writing my tirade while AirAttack was posting his, lol.

LOL! :icon_lol:

[ColinT46]

FSX Gold is currently on sale at Amazon.co.uk for £16.99. Acceleration is included and no need for SP1 or SP2. I installed both on 6th April wih no problems with online activation.

[pilottj]

I reinstalled FSX a little while ago and had an activation problem. Turns out it was a registry issue that could be fixed with an MS tool. Can't remember the name off hand tho.

[OleBoy]

I reinstalled FSX a little while ago and had an activation problem. Turns out it was a registry issue that could be fixed with an MS tool. Can't remember the name off hand tho.
Generally that's the whole problem with FSX or Acceleration not wanting to install or activate.
Even in cases where the drive was formatted, the registry information is still there telling the install/activation process that it's already there.
If there's a problem with either, clean the registry, reboot and try again. Ccleaner is a free program that does the trick rather well.

[Mickey D]

I reinstalled FSX a little while ago and had an activation problem. Turns out it was a registry issue that could be fixed with an MS tool. Can't remember the name off hand tho.

The name is Windows Intaller Clean Up downloadable from the MS site. It has worked many times for me.

As P3D is the FSX engine I won't be updating just to make airfield scenery.

[Bone]

This may be a dumb question, but does the registry analyzer in Ccleaner do the same thing as the Windows Installer Cleanup tool?

[Mickey D]

This may be a dumb question, but does the registry analyzer in Ccleaner do the same thing as the Windows Installer Cleanup tool?

In my experience the MS tool goes in deeper and removes everthing associated with the original install. CCleaner didn't and FSX wouldn't even re-install let alone re-activate. WARNING! Heed the warning on the tin use with caution.

[vonstroheim]

Microsoft has an online "fixit" service, may be a solution?
http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/

The tool you're looking for is here...
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall/

[tommieboy]

Seems odd in that MS has stated this about Windows XP.....

"Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout its life and will likely provide an update that turns activation off at the end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be required to activate the product."

I guess the keyword in there is "likely", but that withstanding, why not do the same for FSX?

Tommy

[falcon409]

This phenomenon has always been a curiosity to me, yet just shows how no two systems are the same. Thousands of folks (probably more) have purchased FSX/FSX Gold and Accel. Install the software and it runs for a given number of months or years before something causes them to have to do a fresh install. The activation, I would assume for the original installation is basically the same for everyone, you install the program and at the end you type in the activation code and it accepts it and you move on. The subsequent activation can be quite different. . . .maybe you just needed to do a fresh install, so you go to control panel, uninstall, reboot, make sure the original directory is gone and do a fresh install. Maybe, like in my case you have to re-format the HDD and start over. . . . .but the activation should remain the same. . .at the end of the installation you are asked for the activation code, you type it in and it accepts it.

At this point I get lost though because all things being relatively the same (installation and activation), why then do some folks play hell trying to get the code to work, get the third degree by Microsoft or in some rare cases just go out and buy a new copy just so they can get it installed correctly?

I've had FSX since it was about 3 months old, I've actually reinstalled it, for one reason or another about 5 times now (including the last two, last week) and all I've done is uninstalled through the control panel, reboot, confirm that everything is gone and reinstall. Finally activating it with the code I've always used and went right back to flying. I don't use any registry cleaners or any other software to root out any left-overs. So what is it about some folks system or techniques for installing software that make them vulnerable to the problems discussed here?