Guys,I've been using the 747-400 for some time now with no problems. However, just the other day after loading the aircraft and configuring a flightplan into the fmc, the whole instrumwent panel glass screens went dark for no reason. Try as I might, I couldn't get them on again. Is there an instrument power switch on the overhead somewhere?My last resort was to delete and re-install the aircraft completely. The deletion was done properly via the installation CD, but when re-installing, I got the error message :-"Installation cannot continue. You do not have Flight Simulator installed"Funny - I've had it installed for 4 years !!This message comes after the license screen, after selecting the accept button and clicking "next"The error massage cannot be removed, and I have no alternative but to use ctrl+alt+delete to exit the install program.My fs9 is installed on E drive, rather than the usual C, but this shouldn't matter since the drive selection should come after the license screen. If I then selected the wrong drive, it would all make sense, but I can't understand why it freezes up.All help would be appreciated.Thanks.Ron

The dark panels point to an authenication problem. I suggest emailing PMDG support with this one, be sure you get an automated response to make sure there's no blocked messages.

Ron,The reason for the installer to tell you it can't find FS is because of a FS bug sometimes screwing up the registry entries for FS9. There are simple tools to correct this. Do a search on AVSIM or google for 'registry fs9' as I can't remember the locations off the top of my head.Hope it helps,

Many thanks fellas.I also e-mailed PMDG support and Paul Gollnick followed up with the message below.I hope this helps others.Ron"When MS released FSX, they made an error in their installation that causes the registry entries in FS9 to corrupt. Since, like most all products that are installed using industry standard installation tools- PMDG's products look to the registry for current information on your FS9 installation- this corruption creates a problem.The solution to this problem is pinned prominently at the top of our customer support forum. I'll copy it below for your simplicity: Captains-As more of you are finding copies of FSX at your local software store- we're getting a few reports that in some instances FSX may delete some registry information related to FS9.We've been working with FSX for some time and find this not to be a normal condition- but it seems that a few of you are running into this- so I thought we'd post a notam here to help you out.The problem is essentially thus: All PMDG installer check for FS9.1 before installation. If the FS9.1 installation path is not present- then the installer will tell you it cannot run. The only way to fix this is to correct your registry.Another user this morning pointed out that our friends over at Flight1 have a useful freeware tool that will fix this for you- so rather than re-invent the wheel or tell you how to do it manually- I'd recommend using their tool instead: http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library Run this tool- then you SHOULD be okay with your FS9.1 installs.... And pass your thanks for this tool along to Flight1." Regards,Paul GollnickPrecision Manuals Development Group