Hello simmersI just got the ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 mb. I also just got FS2004. The graphics are absolutely spectacular!! However, there are two MAJORLY ANOYNING BUG with Catalyst 3.6 drivers. 1) When ever you press the alt button to access menues there are about 6 on/off screen flashes EVERY time which is increadily anoying and gives headaches. It might cause seizures which is NO joke. 2) When accessing emmbeded windows such as kneeboard with text scrolls within the text is increadily streched and unreadable which is quite anyoying for the nav log on the kneeboard.Has anyone (Beta Testers) wish FS9 FS2004 been able to find a fix for these two problems?Can someone running FS9/FS2004 please post both driver setting and fs setting for best image quality / fps?On the upside the graphics especially with full AA and AF which will bring even your 3.06 to a crawl!! but I've been able to do some quick teeking and can get 15fps with real life image quality especially at DUSK!!! Clouds are spectacular!Help would be greatly appreciatedBillyBob

I get the same problem on my ATI 9700 pro. Any help would be appreciated.

IT's a commonly known bug now. ATI has been advised. Microsoft probably already knows about it. We'll either get a driver fix or a game patch. Cure; for the time being; run the sim in windowed mode. No more flashing menu screens. You'll have to set your desktop at the res you want to run and set AA & AF in the card menu. As for text bleeding, the F5 key cleans that up until you scroll again. I set my taskbar to autohide and hardly even notice the bar on top of the screen at high res. Guess I'm getting used to it.The problem has been reported by users in all drivers back to the Cat 3.2. No problems with that driver. Better image quality with the newer drivers though. I'm currently running the latest Omega drivers. They are fast with great image quality. No stability problems that I've noticed. My computer is dedicated to gaming so I just switched my desktop to 16x12x32@85hz. Sim looks awesome.

Hi.I do not know of a fix, and I agree that could be a very serious problem for some people.A workaround, until they fix it, maybe to run it in Windowed mode, I know that this is not something most people want to do, including myself, and you probably thought of that.Another thing that may work for some people, it does not work for me, is to disable the Acceleration, texture 3D etc. with DXDiag.A third may be to disable Fast Writes in the Display>Properties>

If it makes you feel any better, Nvidia has a similar problem with the menus and kneeboard with 2xAA enabled. The simplest workaround is to hit alt-enter to get into windowed mode before accessing the menus..As a matter of fact, I now start up and close down FS in windowed mode and only switch to full screen for the actual flight..Ti4200, 44.03 drivers.. 2xAA, 4xAF, 1280x960x32.

Cat 3.6 here on 9700Pro, 2.8, 1 meg ram, running refresh @ 85MHz, 1280x1024x32 Have had same issues as above. FYI - I've just gone through new driver install sound & video, and P4PE bios - did not affect issues at all. Also used different refresh rates (75 - to 120), deactivated "auto" refresh monitor system, still no help. Have fast-write off, AGP is 4X. Ran FS with clean booted system - no change. Glad to read others are similarly concerned. Next (only) step if not reolved - going to NVidia based card but which one.... ? Hope ATI /MS comes through for us. Frustrating - as if I can't fly full screen mode, I don't fly.Ron

Hi RonSorry to hear all this. I'm in the same boat - I've a purpose built PC using the exact same components with the same results! Only I had to contend with a duff stick of RAM and all that did - freezes, blackouts and uncommanded re-boots and alterations to the registry. What a mess! It took me a while and a lot of help from my VA buddies to unravel it all. I'm gonna stick with ATI 9700Pro - I was tempted down the Nvidia path but reckoned I might just get a heap of new problems. You and I just picked a combo of stuff that doesnt work well together.When Fs2002 came out I seem to remember all kinds of probs - then there was a patch. Gradually all the glitches melted away as new drivers came on stream and new equipment got sorted out. So that by the end - you never heard anyone complaining about anything! So I'm gonna be patient and just fly in windowed mode for a while.

HI,I just wanted to add something to the discussion ( and to bring the thread UP again).I just purchased a Connect3D Radeon 9600 Pro card and have installed the lates drivers (3.6 I think...)I'm experiencing the same problems with some flickering when pressing the ALT-button. But even worth, sometimes FS9 is just hanging up and I have to reset the PC. After one such incident Windows XPs error reporting system told me it's an error in the graphics driver (lucky me...) I'm aware about, that there's a know issue with the drivers from ATI.But since I haven't seen any reports about FS9 crashing with a Radeon card I'm wondering if i'm in even bigger trouble than just having installed a faulty video card driver.My question to the hardware gurus is: If my graphic card would be defect every other 3D application would give faulty results/crashes as well, am i right? So far I tested Battlefield 1942 and Chaser and had no problems.My other system specs are: P4 3 Ghz, 1 Gb PC3200 DDR, SBLive!5.1 digital, MSI MS-875P-NEO-LSR i875P Mainboard, Windows XP Prof. Service Pack 1, nothing overclocked.Sorry for the rather lengthy reply and the poor english. What can I say...I'm german, it's late (4:00 a.m. local time), too much beer, wine and whiskey...Cheers and happy landings!

Well, while we are on the subject of the ATI Radeon series, I have a 9800 Pro 256. Of course, I'm seeing all the bugs the rest of you are, BUT, has anyone seen this one:http://home.cogeco.ca/~gdavy/Scrdist.jpgThis has occurred on bootup several times now (not consecutively, but randomly). It seems like it happens if I leave a CD in the drive (as you are supposed to do with FS9), and forget to take it out before shutdown. The system then boots up with the CD in the drive and this is what I sometimes get. It has happened once when a CD was not in the drive though, so that part may be just coincidence. My card is made by Gigabyte, and I have emailed them, but in the interim I was wondering if anyone else had seen this. Oh, a reboot will often clear the worst of it, but it seems I have to run the test for the Direct 3D in dxdiag before all the distortion disappears from the icons. I think it has to do with going to and back from full screen mode. I'm using the Catalyst 3.4 drivers, and downloaded newer drivers from the Gigabyte website, but the download exe file came up using WINRAM and apparently XP doesn't know about winram?? Anyway, the resulting window was not one I could read, so I've downloaded but not installed the CAT 3.6 drivers from ATI. Not sure if I should try those or not though. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all "eyes" :-).Thanks!Glenn

Glenn,I have had the same problem with my ATI-card, and I had the impression that it had to do with the heat. As you know, we have had a long heat-wave in Europe (constantly temperatures of about 35