Hi,Here's a new tip for those that do not use FSAutoStart(I assume it shuts down Terminal Services). Or you might want to do this even if you use FSAutoStart. ;) If you don't know whether or not you need Terminal Services, chances are extremely high that you don't need it. You might want to write in notepad what all these settings are before changing them so that you can restore them to the originals if the need should ever arise.To disable Terminal Services:1. Run 'regedit'. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerTSEnabled = 02. Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Services: Terminal Server = manual3. Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy --> User Rights Assignment:- Allow login through Terminal services =- Deny logon through Terminal Services = EveryoneIn other words remove everything from 'Allow login through Terminal services' so that it is completely blank.How-To specify 'Everyone': Double-click 'Allow login through Terminal services' --> 'Add User or Group' --> 'Advanced' --> 'Find Now' --> Clcik on 'Everyone' --> Click 'OK'.4. Run 'regedit'. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsInstaller"EnableAdminTSRemote"=dword:000000005. Reboot and check the services, it should be on manual and not started.Cheers,Jim

hi Jim,how's the new system performing for ya with FS9? btw, thanks for the TS tip. happy flyin, fm

Hi fm,Thanks for asking. It's doing well. Not a lot different than my old system. I gained about 1.6 to 1.8 FPS. I think I need one of the newfangled video cards. ;) The slight gain is with framerate locked at 24. I never checked or even ran FS2004 with framerate set to unlimited. One of the sticks of RAM I received was bad. Fortunately Mushkin is located in the Metro Area I live in, Denver. So I gave them a call and they told me to come on down. I waited about 20 minutes while they tested it, and before handing it over, tested the one they gave me in exchange. Works good now. If it wasn't for that bad stick I would have been able to say that the system was all hooked up and working properly on the first boot. On that first boot I had a floppy disk in the drive with the latest BIOS on it and I flashed it.For those who are curious, the motherboard went bad on my Alienware system. So I ordered a new mobo, cpu, and ram from Newegg.com, pulled out my old mobo and put in the new components.Old Specs:3.06 GHz Intel P4 on Asus P4T533-C(533 MHz FSB), 1 GB PC1066 Samsung RDRAM, NEC MultiSync FE2111SB 22" Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Videocard w/ v4.4 Catalyst Drivers, DirectX 9.0b, Creative Audigy2 Soundcard, 120 GB w/8 MB Cache Western Digital HD, WinXP Pro SP1New Specs:Intel 3.4C(Northwood) on Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, 1 GB Muskin '222' Special PC3200 RAM, NEC MultiSync FE2111SB 22" Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Videocard w/ v4.4 Catalyst Drivers, DirectX 9.0b, Creative Audigy2 Soundcard, 120 GB w/8 MB Cache Western Digital HD, WinXP Pro SP1

Jim,glad to hear your enjoying your new system. i have a question for you. do you have 1 of these 2 fields in your BIOS? "Video Memory Cache Mode" or "USWC Write Posting"...according to Rojakpots bios optimization guide description their the same thing basically.the reason i ask is i don't know if you were aware of it or not but the "Video Memory Cache Mode" field was in the BIOS for the P4T533-C mobos. the 2 settings were USWC & UC. my default setting was UC. i changed it to USWC and got a nice little performance boost in fs9. a couple of things that i noticed with the USWC setting selected in fs9... 1. with the fps slider locked at 25 (as always)in 2d cockpit mode in the default 747 fps stayed at 24.9 to 25 vs. 22-25 2. at Meigs field in default 172 in "spot view" fps was 22-25 vs. 18-23i have the Intel 875PBZ mobo and turned the bios upside down and i can't find the Video Memory Cache Mode or the USWC Write Posting fields. if your BIOS has either field i highly recommend trying the USWC setting. here's the link to the BIOS optimization guide if you want to read up on it. dont't worry about your 9700pro supporting the USWC setting as that's the card i first tried the USWC setting with and had no probs. www.rojakpot.com happy flyin, fm

Hi FlinMisfit,If you read my 'FS2004 and WinXP Optimization Guide V2' I mention that you should try turning on USWC. I had USWC enabled the entire time I had my P4T533-C. ;) I will take a look in the BIOS of my new mobo and tomorrow I'll post what I have. IIRC, I do not have the USWC option. Can't remeber at all if I have the "Video Memory Cache Mode" but if I don't have the USWC option then I probably don't have the Video Memory Cache Mode option.There has been a lot of controversy about what you should set your AGP Aperture size at. I just got the latest issue of my favorite magazine, Maximum PC. Here is something they said that I found to be a little interesting. They were pitting the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra against an early version of the ATI X800 XT to see which was faster. They were not concerned about anything except which card had the best FPS."We initially had some problems with 'Halo' on our test NV40. We were getting scores as low as 22 FPS, which just isn't right. It turns out that our motherboards AGP Aperture was improperly set. Once we adjusted the AGP Aperture to half our test systems memory (512 MB), the card performed better, but not as well as we anticipated. We fully expect that any kinks with Halo and the GeForce 6800 Ultra will be worked out before the card ships."Cheerio Misfit,Jim

hey Jim,i haven't gotten around to reading your fs9 & winxp optimization guide yet-i will do that today. in case you don't remember the USWC setting was found in the "Video Memory Cache Mode" field in the p4t533-c bios. the "USWC Write Posting" field was not in the 533-c bios so you might have the USWC setting in your bios after all. i'd appreciate you letting me know as i was considering getting the p4c 800e deluxe mobo. btw, i'm a maxpc reader as well. just got the new issue yesterday. great magazine happy flyin, fm

Hello fm,Well, I took a look and like I thought I don't have that setting in my BIOS. Not much at all in the way any VIDEO settings at at all in my BIOS except the APG Aperture setting. Could be that these settings are now handled automagically in newer mobo's as my sim doesn't seem to be acting any differently fps-wise than it did on my old P4T533-C other than I gained about 1.6 FPS.Regards,Jim

thanks for the info Jim. much appreciated. happy flyin, fm

Sure thing FM. One last thing to keep in mind, I believe the maker of the BIOS for my old P4T533-C was AMI, American Megatrends, Inc. The maker of the BIOS for my new P4C800-E Deluxe is Award. Why Asus went from AMI to Award I'm not sure. But I thought you might find that of interest and so I thought I should mention it.Jim

hi Jim,not trying to sound like a know it all here but our old P4T533-C mobos had the Award BIOS while the P4C800-E Deluxe mobos have the AMI BIOS. i found out about the P4C800-E Deluxe BIOS by seeing someones post here at Avsim or Flightsim posting some questions about a few BIOS settings for their Asus P4C800-E Deluxe mobo and noticed that they referred to their bios as my "AMI BIOS". i too wondered why Asus dropped Award in favor of AMI. happy flyin, fm

You're right, I had it backwards. :-doh Sorry. I stand corrected. *:-*Cheers,Jim