Hi,Oh please, don't groan...lol :)(Note to Moderator - please move this to the MSFS General Forum if you feel it to be more appropriate. I couldn't make up my mind and decided that, in the end, this post was more likely to 'hang around' here for a while and consequently be of more use to the community at large.) The FIRST finding may be of interest to those of you who have not yet applied all the fixes and updates to BEV.It all started when I installed BEV Vol4 (Hard Winter). Following the installation I fired up BEV Configurator II and immediately was confronted by a message:Cannot find one or more images: DProgram FilesBirdsEyeViewVOL1TEXTUREAUTOGENGTHUMB.bmpAnticipating a little detective work I proceeded to write this down for future reference in case I had to post on the BEV forums for help. As I was doing so, I became aware of a change in the note of my PSU cooling fan - you know the sound you hear while FS9 is running full pelt. I then started to notice that desktop operations were starting to become decidedly sluggish and this was confirmed by the fact that my temperature monitoring program took a lot longer to load and display as did the Windows Task Manager. It was almost as if BEV Configurator II had been assigned a high tasking priority.Usually my idling temp is around the 46

"The moral of the tale: If you update DirectX it is always a good idea immediately afterwards to reinstall your graphics drivers."Thanks, Mike. For those whose graphics rely upon the GART (all you folks who are using AGP cards) it wouldn't hurt to reinstall your motherboard's chipset drivers too after installing a new DirectX.Regards,Greg

"For those whose graphics rely upon the GART (all you folks who are using AGP cards) it wouldn't hurt to reinstall your motherboard's chipset drivers too after installing a new DirectX."...yes, Greg, very good point. I didn't on this occasion because I noted the screen blanking that occurs on first reboot and reloading of XP after the graphic driver reinstall. This, I believe, is indicative of SMARTGART activity. Once before, after a graphic driver update (preceeded by a full cleanout of previous driver remnants), this did not happen and it was apparent that all desktop operations, including redrawing operations, became very sluggish. Reinstalling the chipset drivers fixed that. Omega makes this clear in his Readme which he encourages everyone to read while d/l his drivers.I ran Advanced SMARTGART, again using his supplied shortcut, and it confirmed that PCI Write and Read were both ON and ditto for AGP Write and Read.I wonder whether it's better to follow his guidance by simply installing on top of a previous driver set in his series?One further question, if I may:I should perhaps have mentioned that even though 3DMark03 and 05 refused to run following the DX9.0c December 2005 update whereas Aquamark3 did run to completion, albeit performing below par, I somewhat tentatively (and with all appendages firmly crossed for luck) fired up FS9 thinking this would be scuppered as well. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it loaded and seemed to be running as usual without apparent problems. I did only test for a short time. Does this observation confirm that FS9 does not use DX9 (which was updated with the December 2005 update) and, in fact, was using the DX8 API as per usual?Cheers and best regards,Mike Glossary (for those who would like to know a bit more):AGP: "improves the process of storing texture maps by allowing the operating system to designate RAM for use by the graphics card on the fly. This type of memory is called AGP memory or non-local video memory. Using the much more abundant and faster RAM used by the operating system to store texture maps reduces the number of maps that have to be stored on the graphics card's memory. In addition, the size of the texture map your computer is capable of processing is no longer limited to the amount of RAM on the graphics card. "The other way AGP saves RAM is by only storing texture maps once. It does this with a little trickery. This trickery takes the form of a chipset called the Graphics Address Remapping Table (GART). GART takes the portion of the system memory that the AGP borrows to store texture maps for the graphics card and re-addresses it. The new address provided by GART makes the CPU think that the texture map is being stored in the card's framebuffer. GART may be putting bits and pieces of the map all over the system RAM; but when the CPU needs it, as far as it's concerned the texture map is right where it should be."SMARTGART: "Tests the functionality of each AGP command and determines whether your system is capable of supporting each one, and will only enable if system stability is maintained. SMARTGART does not disable or turn off AGP support in your actual hardware; SMARTGART only ensures that the ATI CATALYST driver will not use an AGP function that has deemed to be unstable."

Does this observation confirm that FS9 does not use DX9 (which was updated with the December 2005 update) and, in fact, was using the DX8 API as per usual?Actually, Mike, FS uses the DirectX7 API for it's graphics.Do you fly in windowed mode (2D)? If so that would explain why the sim performed well for you after installing this DX update. If not, I haven't a clue.Yeah, FS9 doesn't take much advantage of the DX9 graphics capabilities. Folks like you are wise to have stayed with your 9800 generation cards. Upgrading a VC for this sim will only mean perhaps greater speed in texture loading. I've updated cards twice since my 9800, although one was a gift and the other was the transition from an AGP motherboard to PCIe.I agree with you about FSX... it's exciting to see what we could experience in the graphics element of the forthcoming sim.Cheers,Greg

"FS uses the DirectX7 API for it's graphics.Do you fly in windowed mode (2D)?"...blimey, I hadn't realized that, and no I fly full screen...always (1280x1024x32), except when I'm setting up before my first flight of the day and then I usually start (and end) from a 'Restore Down' window :)"Folks like you are wise to have stayed with your 9800 generation cards"...that's always been my gut feeling backed up by the fact that the sim continues to run very nicely most of the time and I won't budge from AAx6 and AFx16 (forced) ;) Don't understand why others don't take advantage of the 9800 Pro's ability to handle AAx6 as well as AAx4. I was amazed when Michael Greenblatt of FSGS persuaded me 18 months ago to give it a try - something to do with the way the algorithms for AAx6 have been written apparently.Cheers,MikeP4 2.4GHz (400FSB), 1Gig PC2100 DDR Crucial, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Omega 3.8.205 (6.01) / Catalyst 6.1), SB Audigy (5.12.0001.0443), Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" TFT LCD 20ms Monitor (1280x1024x32), Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBo, Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 (160GB) + IBM Deskstar 120GXP UDMA100 (40 GB), Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W, Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse, WinXP Home (SP2), DirectX 9.0c, AGP Aperture = 128MB

I think that update is just a new SDK for developers, not for us.Cheersflygirl

"I think that update is just a new SDK for developers, not for us.".....See Reply #13 in "DirectX 9.0c (Dec. 2005 update)"Mike

Since installing the update, DirectSound does not work with my external USB sound card :-(( There are no updated drivers.George

Hi GeorgeHave you tried removing and then reinstalling the sound driver anyway? Maybe that'll do it, as for the graphics cards?- Dasher7

Yes Dasher, I tried that but no joy.George

Hi George,Your current difficulty is making me feel guilty. :(However, if you take a look at this other thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=set...page=show_topic(Page 2 - Reply #15, 17 and 18)You will note that the December 2005 update appears to have updated DirectX components which form part of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Its difficult for me to understand, therefore, why this should have affected the operation of your external(?) sound card. Maybe there is a reason. If so, I do hope someone more knowledgeable than me can chip in with an explanation and offer you some help. Mike Edit: This might help - http://www.driverguide.com/

Thanks Mike.DXDIAG reports DirectSound test results: Failure at step 3 (DirectSoundCreate): HRESULT = 0x88780078 (No driver).I have uninstalled/reinstalled the driver from CD but I still get the error.The music test of DXDIAG works ok :( George

Hi George,I do appreciate just how frustrating this must be for you.Did you create a Restore Point prior to the December 2005 update? In fact if you check you will see that a Restore Point should have been created automatically. If so I would suggest you try going back by Restoring to that point. Now try your sound card and if all's well, you have a choice. Either you stick with a known functioning setup OR you could try reinstalling the full version of DirectX on top of your current version:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=enRemember to make liberal use of the Restore Point creation function. You really can't be too careful, it only takes a moment and you can always delete the unwanted restore points in a week or so once you are satisfied all is well. You probably already know how to do that, but for the benefit of others who do not you carry out this action using the Disk Cleanup utility. Once selected, all the Restore points will be removed except for the latest. Useful for freeing up space on your HD.Fingers crossed!Mike

Hi Mike,Problem solved. After several uninstall/re-install, I finally realised that there was an entry under Sound, video and gamecontrollers for an MS driver ("something WMV something") which was marked with a query. I tried updating the driver but it said that it was the latest available and was still queried. I then uninstalled this driver and the USB sound card now works fine Thanks for your assistance,George

Hi George,That's great. What a relief!Regards,Mike