k thanks guysso its sorta out of the option to fly at Amsterdam (with NL2000 and with traffic cause i get 5fps)....reformating wont help or will it?? Its just wierd because with my old MSI FX5600 128mb i was getting the same performance (that i could remember) and the performance at schiphol (ams) didnt change at all and that was very dissapointing for me since it is my home country and in real life i go there alot...So today i will try to probably reformat, or first instal XP and FS on that other hard drive and see what happensstay tunedp.s how the heck does that intel application program work??cheers Nick

Hi Nick,Any chance you could hang in there a bit longer and try my suggestions as outlined in my reply to response #38?Reformatting, as a solution, should rarely be necessary in an otherwise stable system and should only be used as a last resort. It is disappointing to hear that you are now considering throwing in the towel. I know you say you have a lot of clutter on your HD after 2 years of operation but just think for a moment about the work involved to get you back to where you are now - I know, I've done it pre-XP and resolved never to do it again if at all possible...and it is. My current system is now 2 years old and despite 34GB used space on one drive and around 26GB on my other, it still seems to be performing as well as it did at the beginning.What you need to do is to invest in a few utilities, develop a logical approach to system maintenance and cultivate a willingness to become a little obsessive about regular cleanup operations. I had worked out a basic plan of operations for you last night and as part of my activity I had 2 instances of Internet Explorer open - one with my next reply to you and the other I was using for research of links to various tools you could use to get you back on track. I should have followed your example and gone to bed :( I was on the point of hitting the Post Message button when, yes, you've guessed, I inadvertently closed the wrong window :-grrI'll do it again if you want me to but if you've made your decision I'll call it a day and wish you the best of good luck.Cheers!Mike

After 2 years of operation you really should reformat problems or not. You will notice everything becoming significantly smoother after because of the degree of fragmentation on your harddrive :).I see a huge difference really. But a lot depends on how you use your computer of course. How much you install/uninstall and sch.

heywell im going to keep my card but im not going to format yet...if you can give me the things you want to (IF YOU HAVE TIME!!!) then offcourse be my guest....i will see how it will work when i get the second hard drive and instal FS on there wonder what FPS i will get...um i already have the FSW clouds and i installed the sky but not alot is different...so i dont know maybe its because i have p4 2.26 of something i have no clue.....its very frustrating...so let me know what programs u get!cheers mate and thanks for all the help!!Nick

Mike, thanks for the explinations. Maybe I can add something again... Nick, some things still don't look right system-wise. I.e: There might be a newer 'bios' available for your mainboard. Since I'm not a Dell connaisseur, I wouldn't know where to point you for a newer Dell bios... BTW, make notes of your current bios settings in case you can upgrade. Equally important, the latest Intel 'infs' (Intel's mainboard drivers) seem to be missing. From my reading too, you don't have the IAA installed. This one is easily verifyable thru --> OS' Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs: Is the IAA listed? Here's another link to Intel's IAA utility in case: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/I'll try to explain why I believe the IAA is missing. This is your DX9 readout: Name: Intel® 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CBDevice ID: PCIVEN_8086&DEV_24CB&SUBSYS_01321028&REV_013&267A616A&0&F9Driver: C:WINDOWSSystem32DRIVERSpciide.sys, 5.01.2600.0000 (English), 8/23/2001 14:00:00, 3328 bytesDriver: C:WINDOWSSystem32DRIVERSpciidex.sys, 5.01.2600.1106 (English), 8/29/2002 10:27:48, 23680 bytesDriver: C:WINDOWSSystem32DRIVERSatapi.sys, 5.01.2600.1106 (English), 8/29/2002 10:27:50, 86912 bytesNow, with IAA installed, the drivers would read 'IdeBusDr' and 'IdeChlDr' etc. In your 'running services' department you'll then also see a 'IntelIde' is running. Also, the date-stamps of the other devices (USB, etc) would read later dates than 2001 and 2002, if you had the latest mainboard drivers installed. So, download the latest mainboard drivers from Intel too, once you're there. Note: These are TWO seperate downloads. Ideally, you'ld first install the mainboard's bios (if available), then the mainboard drivers (Intel's infs) followed by the IAA. Before you do the Intel bit, make sure your IDE and specially optical devices have DMA enabled. Here's a brief walk-through: --> OS's Control Panel --> System --> 'Hardware' (or so) --> Device Management --> IDE/ATA Controllers (or so) --> You'll see a primary and a secondary string. Check whether both mention 'DMA if available' and there's no mentions 'PIO only' under both parts of the IDE controller. IMHO, you should first finish setting up your system properly. BTW, do you have two soundcards? Either of them doesn't seem to trigger the sound tests in the 3DMark... What's also noticable, are all those items in your lower right desktop corner. You've got many 'autostarts' there! Type 'msconfig' in the same box you typed 'dxdiag' and you'll find an interface which is almost self-explinatory. Specially concentrate on the last tab, you might find many an autostart you could surpress. You'll perhaps need to lean out your system to give your CPU everything it can get. An outstanding, practical tool is 'our guru' Ken Salter's FS Autostart (FSA), available here in Avsim's file library. FSA can start and close services and programs on the fly. Finally, keep on going Nick! The nice thing about the Ati, you won't be 'killed' in clouds anymore. A wise decision to keep it. Good luck for now and kind regards Jaap PS: When you go for a new install on a seperate drive: Perhaps do it like this more or less: Install the OS, update your OS with the latest fixes from MS (I have them saved on my PC, so I don't need to go online). At this point, (I) install DX9.0b for the first time. Then enable all instances of 'DMA if possible' in your OS' IDE-device management. Then install Intel's 'inf' file (the mainboard drivers). Thereafter the IAA, which is self explinatory. Then all your other hardware components and their apps, except for your display adapter. Finally, top it off by installing your display adapter's drivers. Personally, I finish everything by installing DX9.0b a second time. At this point you could install FS (if you like! Hehe). On a sidenote, since your mate is coming w/ a second HD: Ideally, you would prepare your second HD with your running OS and give the new one as big as possible cluster sizes. AFAIK, windows defaults to 512 Bytes clusters upon installing from the CD-Rom. Partitioning and formatting the new drive with your current OS, will allow you to choose i.e. 4096 Bytes. Only other tools like Partition Magic will allow even bigger cluster sizes (i.e. 8kB, 16kB or 32kB). I saw you turned off the aircraft shadows, a good idea with mucho AI! P

Hi Nick,Okay, here goes! My apologies if you are already familiar with some of what follows but I thought I should supply the detail in case others less knowledgable should be reading this.The first thing to bear in mind is that Windows XP is a VERY capable operating system and comes with several built in utilities. For example, it is quite unnecessary to use 3rd party products for performing routine Error-Checking and Defragmentation of your hard drives. ERROR-CHECKINGDouble click "My Computer". Right Click the hard drive you wish to check and select 'Properties'. Click the 'Tools' tab. Click 'Check Now...' and 'Automatically fix file system errors'. When you click 'Start' you will be asked a question. Respond 'Yes'. Now, shutdown Windows and turn off the power for 20-30 secs before rebooting. The error-checking routines will now run automatically before returning you to Windows.DEFRAGMENTATIONWhat is not generally known is that while XP's defragmentor does an excellent job you do need to run it several times in succession for best optimization. If you have not done this for a while then this is likely to be a somewhat lengthy process. However, once first completed the subsequent runs will be much faster. I suggest you do it 3 times in succession, one immediately after the other.NORTONFor many years I was a Norton diehard supporter and, certainly, the suite of utilities proved to be life saving while struggling with earlier versions of Windows, and for that I will always remain grateful. However, I have found that with XP this is no longer necessary and so I made the decision to remove all traces of Norton from my System (I was using Norton SystemWorks 2002). That single act produced an immediate and noticeable improvement in the general responsiveness of my system and as a bonus FS9 seemed to be performing much more smoothly. It is known that a Norton installation is very deeply rooted in the operating system and consequently it is quite hard to remove all references completely. Fortunately Symantec have recognized that this need exists in certain circumstances and have posted detailed instructions to aid the end user:How to manually uninstall Norton SystemWorks from Windows XPhttp://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nsw.n...=&osv=&osv_lvl=How to uninstall Norton AntiVirus 2003 or earlier by using the Rnav2003.exe removal utilityhttp://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.n...001092114452606Manually uninstalling Norton AntiVirus 2002 from Windows NT-2000-XPhttp://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.n...001083014161306Using the Norton SystemWorks

Hi Mike,Very interesting and informative. After reading your previous post I've come to the conclusion that our systems could almost be twins. Many of the tools you use are on my system as well. The one I found most interesting is RegHealer... very nice and easy to use.Further evidence on Norton... like Mike I used Norton for many years. It saved me numerous times, and I had come to believe it was a must have utility. But many of XP's features, as well as numerous add-on packages available today, simply leave Norton in the dust. Simply put... Norton is a liability to any and all gamers.Six months ago I removed Norton (2002 Suite) from my system. I used Symantec's tools and then meticulously searched the registry for any and all keys pertaining to Norton. My system definately ran better once my cleaing was done, and I was confident I had removed it all. But this past weekend I upgraded my 37Gig Raptor to the 74Gig version, and of course did a fresh reinstall of XP Home and all my apps. I recall before the upgrade that at boot-up my old system used 150-160Mb of memory. With the new install (all the same apps) my system now boots with only 80-90Mb used at desktop. I have configured the XP services exactly as they were on the old system. The only app I didn't install is Norton. Nuff said!Thanks for the info... your post should be a sticky (that's a very strong hint, mods :-) ),Greg

Hi Greg,As ever thanks for your generous support.:) However, nothing is perfect and while I was washing the dishes this evening I was mulling over the advice given in my previous post and suddenly realized I'd forgotten to mention XP's 'Disk Cleanup' utility!!Nick, hopefully you are reading this. I will repost my updated instructions under the heading: "Routine System Maintenance - Windows XP"Thanks again, Greg.Cheers!Mike

Wow, great thread! For Nick I have to say welcome to the world of funky frame rates! You prooved your system is very capable in those test shots. You are seeing what we all see when it comes to add-on scenery/AI/ and weather. This sim just wont do it all really well. I have found a happy medium and have two different big picture settings which allow me some fun and realism. I have a bad weather motiff and a fair weather one which is set up by hand in the weather settings menu. I dont fly with AI when I use the smaller general aviation aircraft but I do with the big jets. I fly with reduced vis and limited clouds when flying the heavies along with about 35-45% AI traffic. I have a PIV 3.0ghz box with WIN XP, 1G of DDR, a fast defragged HD, and a Radeon 9800 pro. I get about 35-40fps most of the time if unlimited and I lock it most of the time at 33 here. Seems pretty good overall with only an occasional stutter as it loads a texture here and there. If I go to an add-on scenery with AI and weather, my system can easily get down into the low teens and single digits sometimes. Its just the way the sim is and Ive come to accept it. I dont even put up the frame rate counter anymore unless Im tweaking for a new driver or checking out scenery. So If I was you i would not go the reformat route, doesnt look like you need it. Cut back that scenery complexity slider a notch or so along with autogen and live with a bit less AI and weather. It works!Hornit

Guys,would like to say thank you for your troubles and help i really appreaciated it! This is what FS is about (as in the community!) Yesterday i flew with IFDGA320 Silkair from Singaproe - Lankawi - Singapore - Cambodia - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur...all real time haha dont worry i was watching a movie when i was flying :) haahhere is also a shot of an A340 by posky with some wierd cloudshttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/87008.jpgcheers guysNickp.s i might reformat but i dont know...depends if my friend will help and if he's gonna bring another harddrive...makes it easiercheers!!!