I have enjoyed very good overall performance with my system using complex sceneries and aircraft such as PMDG. My frame rates were always in high tens at least. No stutters.I attempted to plug in my other monitor and that was the point when the hell broke loose. It was like a pandora's box. It hang my computer, so I was unable to reboot it. Eventually I got into the safe mode, reinstalled my drivers and directX. Performace dropped tremendously. Then I reinstalled my WinXP Pro system (over the existing one not to loose my complicated settings) and defragmented after that. Still bad. I have even erased FS9.cfg and rebuilt it by starting the FS again, but no luck.I am getting close to formatting my hard drive and reinstalling WinXP and FS from the scratch. Before I take this radical step I would like however to hear your kind comments or suggestions what to look for before I do it.I am desperate - any help will do.By the way - after installing my new ATI catalyst drivers in the DXDIAG options my AGP acceleration is blank. I cannot turn it on.Another weird symptom I just noticed is that trying to install the latest nVidia chipset drivers for my mobo I double click on exe file - it unpacks the files into temporary folder and nothing more. This procedure used to be starting up an install dialog window to install mobo components. Now I get nothing - looks like it is going to be drive format after all.My system specs:ASUS A7X8N deluxe512 MB DDRAM PC3200 memoryAthlon XP 2700+ processorATI Radeon 9700 Pro with new 3.8 catalyst driversOnboard vVidia sound plus Soundblaster PCI cardFlatron 19' flat panel monitorThanks a million,Dom

Hi Dom,are you sure, that both your monitors are plug and play? I would try uninstalling your monitors as well as the ATI drivers, then try again. The XP repair option leaves most of your drivers intact, so there may still be some old ones around that are causing problems. Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg