I posted the message below on the Active Sky Forum this evening, but think it also belongs here, as I am having problems with the 737NG. As I say below, it doesn't seem to me to be directly related to Active Sky, but I'm not sure. I quote the whole message to give the context."Just bought and installed ActiveSky 2004.5 tonight and followed the setup instructions regarding FS and FSUIPC to the letter( AFAIK), but am experiencing what I hope are just teething problems.Active Sky is having problems downloading weather from its server. The first few times I cancelled the download because there was no activity on the line at all. After a number of tries, and a longish wait, the download seemed to work. However, I got a message saying "decompression error" when download finished. This problem also occurred when I chose the Custom (METAR) download.I realise that the above could have been caused by a poor internet connection, but I had no problem connecting to other sites, such as AVSIM.Secondly, and for me, far more seriously, I am having widespread sound problems with my beloved (he says!) PMDG 737NG. For example, none of the click sounds on the overhead panel are working, nor the bell sounds for the passenger signs. Also, the panel seemed differently set up than the usual cold & dark scenario I am used to (for example, as soon as I had power, I noticed window heat switches were on, which was never the case before). The problem may go further than this, but I haven't checked anything else yet(I do have the ambient sounds after power is switched on).I don't know what is causing this problem, but I suspect I may be having some issue with FSUIPC 3.4(installed with Active Sky)? Having said that, restoring my older version(3.3) did not restore the sounds to the panel. I should point out that I have NOT installed the FS9.1 update (nor the Windows Service Pack 2, for that matter), because they both seemed to be causing problems for flight simmers. The cause of the sound problem is, of course, speculation on my part, but I cannot think of another possible reason just now.In any case, I don't know how to fix the above problems, so I would appreciate your input. I am guessing that the download issue can be resolved quickly, but am a bit less optimistic about the sound problem on the 737NG overhead. I am just hoping that I will not have to re-install the PMDG series aircraft? :-("Many thanks,Frank

Frank,I've been using Active Sky since the release of wxRE. ANd been a beta tester for HiFiSim since Active Sky 2004. Granted I run Active Sky over a secondary computer with WideFS and have not had any of these problems. I also know that many of the beta testers, as well as Damian, is flying the NG for testing purposes and I have not seen these reported on the beta team mail list.With this in mind I think you are seeing some other FS9 anomaly and not teething problems. It could include using saved scenarios with errors. I don't think the download issue and your sound issue are related. The download issue could be any firewall device blocking service. Or a minor glitch at the server side. If the latter you should see more reports on this as it should affect all users and not only you.As far as reinstalling the NG goes. That's not as big a chore you might think. Use the removal tool found on the pmdg download page and then reinstall:1. 600/700 v1.32. 800/900 base v1.03. 800/900 patch v1.14. 800/900 Model update for 600/7005. Any liveries6. AIRAC, PMDG procedures and user defined SID/STARs in that order.This is a procedure the beta team is well familiar with and it works as long as you have a healthy FS9 installation and OS.Sorry I can't be of more help, but I'm sure others will chip in here as well.Cheers,

I use the new Active sky 2004.5 plus I used the Beta 2004.5 prior to that, and FS9.1 and no problem, so they do work together correctly.

Hi Mats,I fixed the PMDG sound problem by doing a System Restore, which brought back the sounds, and then undoing the System Restore, which brought back my AS installation, but also kept the sounds. Yeah, really! I have no idea why this should work, but am not complaining. However, the problem remains with trying to download AS weather from the HiFi Data Net. It connects, but doesn't download any wx (tried again this morning before coming to work. Same problem). Damian thinks it is a firewall issue, which I didn't think of(I did manage to download wx twice last night, but with "decompression errors"). I have McAfee virus Scan, but not Personal Firewall, so any firewall I might have is default. Not sure how to check this? I did a virus scan just to see, but it came up clean.Many thanks for your detailed reply. Fortunately, it seems I won't need the bit about restoring the NG(but I'm keeping your mail handy, just in case!).BR,Frank

Thanks, Bob.I have no doubt the programs work fine together(otherwise, we'd have heard before now). Anyway, solved the PMDG bit of the problem. I'm confident the AS issue will get sorted with the support on the Active Sky forum and here on PMDG. It's just a bit frustrating not to be able to use AS right now :-(.Best wishes,Frank

I'm sure I saw ActiveSky saying they were having one or two problems with their server (for the first time). You may want to check this out - I may be mistaken.