How to turn on PFD and EHSI on 747-400

[Guest Night Rider]

Hey guys & gals! I am a new owner of the PMDG 747-400, but the PFD and EHSI on the Captain's side are both dark, even when engines are all started and I'm even taxiing! How do I get them to come alive?

[Guest Hawkeyeted]

There are several reasons that they may not be on. I'm betting you had a resgistration error when you installed the aircraft. If your displays come on, then go out after about 2-5 minutes, then this is your problem. The solution is to COMPLETELY uninstall the Queen and reinstall. Another is that you don't have the battery on and the standby power switch in the proper position. This doesn't seem, to me anyway, to be you issue considering you can start all the engines.Let us know how you make out!

[Guest Night Rider]

Well, I completeley uninstalled the Queen, rebooted, and reinstalled all over again, and the problem still remains. The Captain's PFD and EHSI displays do not come on at any time, but the FO's displays without any problem. And, oh yes - I did disable the virus scanner before trying to reinstall the software.What now?

[Guest capntom]

Make sure you have properly setup the electrics panel before start, especially check standby power and Battery.Best regards: Tom

[Guest Night Rider]

I wouldn't have been able to start the aircraft without turning on the battery power, since I didn't use standby power to start the aircraft. Besides, the FO's displays work fine, so the Captain's display should be working also.So, anyone have any ideas on what to do?

[markadeane 272]

Battery ONStandby power selector AUTOIf this doesn't fix the issue then you may have a registration issue. If it DOES fix the issue, I would say to you (without ANY disrespect intended) that this is all included in the manual. This is one add-on where the manual is a mandatory read and the procedures given are also mandatory.Hope you're on the way to the before start checklists from here on in, good luck!

[Guest Night Rider]

Well, I have to say that you could have knocked me over with a feather when it turned out that it DID fix the issue. You have to admit though, that it is totally illogical that the standby power selector switch not being set to AUTO would cause the Captain's side PFD and EHSI only (not the EICAS) to be dark, but the FO's PFD and EHSI and EICAS would work fine. Unless somebody tells me otherwise, I have to believe the real plane does not do that. Unless there is a failure mode being triggered, both the Captain's and FO's instrumentation should both be operational (or not operational, depending on the cockpit state) at the same time. If both sides were non-functional, you could bet that I would have solved the problem already.Anyway, thanks very much for the tip. Everything else seems to be working fine, so I don't expect much more trouble from here on in.

[markadeane 272]

Hi Colin,Yes as strange as it sounds at face-value, the real aircraft does that. The two 'sides' are powered independently, the captains is deemed to be more critical so is subject to standby power if required.Qavion is our inhouse expert so I'll defer to him for the detials of it all but in short, yes it does work that way!

[Guest Night Rider]

OMG. Well, my humble thanks for your help and your explanations. Although, being a logically minded guy, I cannot beat myself too much for not following strict printed procedure. I've had much better luck in life trying to do things by understanding them so far that to just follow step-by-step rules. This is one of the few times it's failed me. Yes, if the expert can shed more light on the details, please, by all means he is welcome.

[markadeane 272]

Colin, I tend to be the same, in that I tend to try things without reference to checklists according to how they logically ought to work. However I have come to realise that this is NOT a good approach to flying the 747, or any advanced add-on for that matter. :-)Put it this way, if you do things by the book and want to know why or how something does what it does, searching / asking here will almost always provide the answer you require. After all, this forum is most likely the biggest and most comprehensive source of 747-400 technical details available online!