Well, I broke down and bought the 800NG and installed it over the existing 600NG. It seemed to go well. I am impressed! The birds are beautiful and the STYLES choices are just fantastic. I tested the 800 and 900 and both look great. Frames are very acceptable in 2-D and fairly decent in VC mode as well.But a couple of issues:1. Every time I load the NG, the PMDG Nav/AIRAC data gets re-loaded in that little center window and it takes about 60 to 90 secs. to complete doing this. The engines sound funny inside the cockpit while this is going on. When the data has been loaded, the engines still sound funny. So after this process, I re-load the same PMDG a/c and the sound is normalized and all looks and sounds fine. Is this a normal procedure?2. When I crash any of the PMDG NG types (like smash them into the ground or overstress them in the air--purely for testing, not for fun!), FS9 still crashes totally with blackscreens and the situation does not re-set. I had this issue when I had just the 600/700 series, but it seems to persist with the 800/900 series. I was in any event thinking of disabling crash realism permanently because of AI traffic issues (!), but nonetheless I'd been hoping that if I got the 800 series, it might fix the crash of FS9 that seems to be caused inexplicably when I crash any PMDG a/c. I'd thought about deleting my FS9.cfg file and rebuilding it by rebooting FS9, but when I shifted the Fs9.cfg file out of its home onto the desktop for backing up, and then clicked to boot up FS9, I got separate messages from FS2004 asking if I wish to activate (or not) FSSound.dll and then SOARRec.dll. I have this entry inside my FS9.cfg folder and it's been like this for ages (as a result of some add-ons, I forget which):[OldModules]FSsound.dll=1SOARRec.dll=1Anyway, for some reason, I only get the blackout and crash of FS9 when I crash a PMDG a/c and I have hundreds of add-on a/c and dozens of panels. So I remain mystified and any advice or info would be gratefully accepted.Thanks!Jonathan

Sorry, brief addition. with regard to the two dll files listed above, the full field in Fs9.cfg reads:[OldModules]FSsound.dll=1SOARRec.dll=1Thanks!JS

Hmm, this is getting stoopid! For some reason, this stuff does not come out right when I post.Before the file names it says"OldModules"And those words are in brackets.JS

Well remember my word of caution yesterday regarding the 800-900 solving your crashing issue ;-)? The AIRAC has much data to load, this takes a tremendous amount of resources so what ever you, do not not click FLY NOW until it is loaded otherwise you will be waiting longer than normal. It sounds like to me that you do not have enough ram. How much do you have? A minimum of 512 for this bird IMO is needed although you can run it with less but wait times will increase.Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/Animation1.gifCaution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

Yeah, Randy, I did heed your word of caution and quite honestly, I hadn't expected a miracle on FS9 not crashing. That said, in my direct communication with PMDG previously, they did say that the release of the 800/900 had fixed some sort of timing crash with the 600/700 and I'd hoped it might be my particular crash. I just find it so perplexing that I've had about 500 add-on a/c in my FS career and nothing like this has ever happened in five generations of FS. (On the other hand, it's a miracle that ANY of this stuff works!)I have 1024MB of Rambus RAM.JS

Ok this should fix your issue (99% sure) with crashing, if you chose to do it, if not that is ok.1] Un-install your add-on aircraft (PMDG etc)Un-install flight simulator.a: Go through windows explorer and "manually" remove the flight simulator folder left over that the un-install did NOT REMOVE! Right-click on the flight sim 9 folder and delete it. Re-install everything in proper order. I believe you have something messed up in your flight sim settings-config etc. Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/Animation1.gifCaution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

Randy:Thanks. No way ! I'll be busy till 2009 doing that. I have a couple of hundred add-on aircraft in FS9. OK, one other point. You wrote this above:"The AIRAC has much data to load, this takes a tremendous amount of resources so what ever you, do not not click FLY NOW until it is loaded otherwise you will be waiting longer than normal."I already am on the runway when I load the PMDG NG. Or do you mean I should not attempt to re-load a PMDG flight that I have saved until this AIRAC loading process is completed on the ground ?Thanks again.Cheers!Jonathan

Well I never start from a saved senario, I always start a fresh flight from the FS create a flight menu. So when you select an aircraft (PMDG) it will load the airac while you are in the aircraft selection menu. Then I hit Fly Now!Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/Animation1.gifCaution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

Aha, I didn't think of that. I have hundreds of saved situations as well (I had almost 1,000 in FS2002). I may try that, thanks.Jonathan

JSTo go back to your FS9 Config file issue. When FS creates a new config file it will not create the "OldModules" setion you will ahve to do that yourself. Either retype it or cut&paste from the original file.