FS2002 sucks after installing Windows XP

[Guest]

Well, I made the big plung in to Windows XP. One of the first things I did after installing Windows XP and the Service Pack and all the wonderful windows updates was to install FS2002. It looks about the same, while in the game it has a nasty framerate issue, or I'm not sure what to call it. The framerate seems about the same, maybe a little faster, but the whole thing pauses for about 1 second every 3 or 4 seconds. Its quite regular and it happens all the time. Needless to say it has made the experience quite unjoyable and has pretty much made the simulator unusable.I'm running on a Pentium II 450mhz, 384mb of ram. NVIDIA GEForce2 Mx/Mx 400. Its the same hardware I was running on Windows 98 except I upgraded my ram by 64mb and I installed a SCSI card with a new CD burner.A secondary note: my sidewinder joystick no longer works. It goes via the gameport, and the microsoft website says that Windows XP doesn't support the sidewinders via the gameport anymroe, gee thanks guys! the bloody thing is barely three years old. But thats another issue and i'll probablly just get a new joystick.... if I can get the weird pausing problem fixed. Any suggestions?p.s. -- How do I change the email address I use on this forum? (to get email notifications) I can't seem to find the option in preferences.

[Guest]

tcreagh2Mistake #1...installing the Service Pack...there's not too much wrong with XP but the service pack slows FS down significantly.Mistake #2...not making a processor upgrade a priority...FS is processor dependent.So my sugestion would be to invest resources in a processor upgrade ASAP min P4 1.7Hope this is of assistance.TedCYQT

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess its too late for the Service Pack :(as far as the processor, when I get the money... when I get the money... which won't be for a long long long time as I'm saving up for other things. The 'new' parts that got thrown in to the box were cannibalised from another box that I recently acquired without payment, so there wasn't any money involved.On another note, the problems with the strange pausing phenomenon *and* the joystick have both fixed themselves. strange huh?

[Guest RonB49]

Windows XP is a hog! 384 MB of RAM is on the low side of minimum I expect. I just got a new system with 256 MB and the st-st-stutters in FS2002 were awful. I'm up to 512 MB now and it's much better.Here's something that should help; reboot, then press Ctrl+Alt+Del and see how many processes are running and how much memory they are using. Mine started 23 processes and used over 100 MB just to display my desktop. I'm now in the process of using msconfig to stop the unnecessary progs that use up my valuable system cycles. So far I've eliminated 11 and the only noticeable difference is that the volume control buttons on my keyboard don't work after I disabled kbd.exe (HP system).If you want to try this approach, be advised that the system will still boot up and load Windows with all of the "Startup" items disabled; things won't work right but you can always get to msconfig to undo what you did. My method is to disable about three items at a time, reboot (required after you massage msconfig), and check to make sure that some complex programs, such as FS2002, load up and work properly. If they do, I disable three more items and repeat the process. If the don't, I reenable the last three items, one by one, until I find the one that cause my problems and leave it enabled.Next I'm going to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and start shuttin' down "Services" that I don't use. R-

[Guest]

thanks for the suggestions, I'm going to try out the ctrl-alt-delete trick and see what I can dump. Overall I think fs2002 is running better, at least smoother, than it was on Windows 98, which wasn't ever all that smooth, never more than 10fps. I know such a nasty framerate is abhorant to most people in this forum. But I'm used to it so I don't mind so much :( And since I'm not rolling in cash like many people in the forum, I don't complain about the limitations I know I'm forced to live with. Hey, when I bought the computer three years ago it was smokin'! ;)The problem I'm having now is with the sound, it sounds like a record 'crackle' noise while flying some planes, seems like mostly 3rd party stuff. Isn't there some trick I have to do with the FSSound.dll file or something like that?

[W2DR 1,859]

A couple of things to try. The SW is probably OK. WinXP does have the SW drivers but XP won't automatically configure the stick. You have to add it via the Control Panel/Game Controllers. Just tell it to add the Sidewinder and it should be auto-detected. Also, be sure to turn off all the XP indexing on the HDD's and use My Computer/Properties/Advanced to set the visual options to Performance. You're a little short on RAM (another 128MB would really help) and CPU but playing with the XP options should at least allow elimination of the pausing. Doug

[Guest flightpro08]

Windows XP is a resource hog, but overall is the best Operating System on the market right now. But, in order to see its "true beauty", you have to have the necessary hardware, and you're current specs not quite what XP wants. If you can save up the money to get yourself a new CPU, motherboard, RAM, and a video card, you'll be in great shape with XP. :-)Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)ASRC (Advanced Simulated Radar Client) Beta Tester-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 42.01 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click Here to Download my American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

[Guest]

What Mother Board do you have? Don't know if this will help but I had the same "pause" issue in all 3D programs with my system.Every 5 seconds, like clockwork. I visited the forum at www.guru3d.com and they helped with my BIOS settings. Now I have glitch free 3D.

[Guest Bjorn]

The service pack does NOT affect my system anyway!In fact, if you are flying on-line, you must have theSP1.Best regards Bj

[Guest jason2112]

Sorry, but I have to object! Installing the XP service pack 1 is a very good idea, as long as you do it before you install FS2002. There have been reports of problems from people who installed SP1 on an older installation of WinXP with FS2002. Reinstalling FS2002 normally seems to solve the problem, but can take quite some time for people like me who install loads of addons ;)Just my 2c (EUR),VOlker :]

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Just out of curiosity, does Win 2000 also have the msconfig utility or an equivalent?

[Guest Barney1]

To satisfy your curiosity, why don't you go to Start/Run and type msconfig in the box and hit Enter? Or you could try Help and see if it comes up in the index; it's amazing what can be found using the Help link.

[Cruachan 705]

Being one of, I imagine, the vast majority of FS2002 obsessives I can testify to the fact that FS2002 continues to work just fine AFTER installing SP1 on a system with FS2k2 installed prior to the SP update.Once again the assumption must be that this is all system dependent.My System Spec:Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBoIntel Pentium 4 2.2A512MB Crucial PC2100 DDR Ram3D Blaster4 Ti4400 (Creative's 30.82 driver variants tweaked with RivaTuner LOD -0.1 and Anisotropy forced level 4)Sony Multiscan G200 17" MonitorSB Audigy Player (Drivers version 5.12.01.0253 Signed)Deskstar 120GXP UDMA100 HDs x 2 (60 and 40 Gig)CH Products USB Yoke, Pedals and FighterstickPlantronics Headset and Mike comboPlexWriter 40/12/40APioneer DVD-106SWindows XP Home Edition (SP1)DirectX 8.1AGP Aperture = 128MBMike

[Guest PhilipManwaring]

I've also found that having Whazzup running in the background can give me slight pauses every 3-4 seconds. I'm also running XP and SP1 and other than the need to turn of Whazzup when actually flying, I don't have any issues with it.

[someone 0]

384MB is plenty to run XP and FS2002. I don't get why everyone says XP is a memory hog. If you run with all the default service on it sure is. I suggest turning off all those unneeded services to free up some mem. I have 384MB of mem and I just did some testing.Just after a fresh reboot, I have ~270MB of free physical mem.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e218ab63883b048.jpgI could free up more mem by not running the themes service.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e218ad33921d8f4.jpgI loaded up FS and did a quick flight around the pattern an Meigs, alt tabed out and I still have ~50MB free.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e218ae23979d115.jpgNote FS is only using ~170MB. Even on longer flight's I've never seen it go much higher than this.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e218b013a31e809.jpg