What the #### is going on ????

[Guest Coneman]

Seems that FSX will only leave kicking and screaming. }(

[jfri 42]

>Active Cam working??? I've already purchased it twice over the>past two years, so I am not going to do that again. I wouldI have purchased it once. Why purchase it twice?>back to you anytime soon. I don't even bother running the sim>unless active cam is present. Your help is appreciated. Sorry>for the rant, but I'm extremely angry about this issue.Why is active camera a must? I don't like it that much and I have heard there are better options. For example walk and follow.

[moss1 11]

Good morning, the first time I purchased it, my system drive got messed up and I didn't have any info to get it again(at least that's what I thought at the time) For the price, I figured what the heck, it wasn't alot of money. As far as walk and follow is concerned, I have been looking at that program for a while now. It seems to offer more options with out the issues that are present with AC. I do have AC working now, so I still have not decided what to do yet. Thanks again for your reply.

[Bigmack 29]

I had the same problem. I removed FSX completly to try the new SP1. FS9 was installed on my C drive and FSX was installed on my D drive. After removing FSX, FS9 became crippled. I lost adv dsp and I kept getting startup errors. 2 days of trying to figure out what FSX messed up, I finally got FS9 running again.So I thought, why should I install FSX back on my system just to have it scerw it up again. There;s really no great features in FSX at this point to consider making the change. (ok round world,animals running around), But the same AI control, ATC and terrible modelling for turbo props,I don't see a reason to invest more time ina dressedup version of sofeware I already own and works great. I'm not a fan of FSX at this point. But I'll take a look at it again maybe in 6-8 months. Until then FS9 will be my choice of flight sims.Bill M

[Guest JTEK99]

>I had the same problem. I removed FSX completly to try the>new SP1. FS9 was installed on my C drive and FSX was installed>on my D drive. After removing FSX, FS9 became crippled. I lost>adv dsp and I kept getting startup errors. 2 days of trying to>figure out what FSX messed up, I finally got FS9 running>again.Bill:So what did you do to "uncripple" FS9?

[Bigmack 29]

>>I had the same problem. I removed FSX completly to try the>>new SP1. FS9 was installed on my C drive and FSX was>installed>>on my D drive. After removing FSX, FS9 became crippled. I>lost>>adv dsp and I kept getting startup errors. 2 days of trying>to>>figure out what FSX messed up, I finally got FS9 running>>again.>>Bill:>>So what did you do to "uncripple" FS9?Luckly I made a restore point before I installed FSX, which help me to start FS9.(I went back to the point before FSX install), but you lose settings from software installed after FSX install. Because the Flt1 reg fix did not work. I had to email active camera to get new key. FSX wipe out AC settings.Bill M

[Gavin 99]

Back to the original poster; I'm curious as to whether you got your PMDG stuff up and running again.Bill M seems to have done the right thing setting a restore point. I did this before I installed FSX and SP1 - I'm now away from home and can't check if I've got any probs, but am curious to see if I have or not when I get home.

[Ingo 0]

Hi,I

[JDWalley 354]

>Is there a solution to the problem?Good news and bad news: Yes, I believe there is a solution. But, to have it work correctly, you have to do it before installing FSX SP1. If you've already installed FSX SP1, then you're probably too late.Basically, it involves exporting (saving out) the registry entries for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator9.0 before installing FSX, then re-importing them after SP1 is installed.I'm going to test out my hypothesis in the next hour or two. If I'm right, I'll post detailed instructions.In the meantime, try getting that Flight1 Registry Fix program from the link further up the thread and try it out. It won't solve all the problems that result from this conflict, but it may fix the ones in which you're interested. More later.

[JDWalley 354]

O.K. This is downright weird!From my first tests, I determined the following: in the registry, there is an entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator named "9.0" -- this key not only holds a number of entries for FS9 itself (including the path to the EXE, the Product ID, the number of the CD-ROM drive from which it was installed, plus a number of entries that are likely meaningful to Windows, but not to me), but other add-ons (in particular ActiveCamera) apparently put their own keys, with their own product information, into the "9.0" key.For some reason, on occasion, either FSX itself or SP1 deletes the entire "9.0" key. This eliminates information that FS9 needs, but also wipes out any information add-ons store in that key. The "registry fix" program made available on Flight1's website recreates the "9.0" key itself, and sets the "EXE Path" entry within the key to the proper location, so that some add-ons that need the path (such as PDMG's Load Editors) will now work properly. But anything that relies on other information that might originally have been stored in the key will be, as the saying goes, s**t out of luck. (This most definitely includes ActiveCamera. Even though you can re-enter your registration key, and have the program tell you it's now successfully registered, it won't have an entry in the "9.0" key anymore -- and can't create a new one, since the key itself is gone -- and thus will behave as an unregistered demo anyway.)The key phrase above is "on occasion." I originally assumed this happened every time, and, after uninstalling FSX and resetting the "9.0" key values from an old registry backup I just happened to have on a backup drive (see below for instructions), tried reinstalling FSX and SP1 to see which of the two was nuking the registry. Would you believe that, this time, neither install touched the "9.0" key, and FS9 and add-ons ran perfectly thereafter? At this point, I don't know what is causing FSX and/or SP1 to play havoc with the registry, especially since it seems to happen on an intermittent basis, so I would recommend following the procedure I detail below, since it won't harm things if the install works perfectly, and may save your bacon if it doesn't. (And, by the way, don't rely on System Restore -- I did the first time, and whatever wiped out the registry entries did the same with my restore point! Which is why I had to do the digging to find these answers in the first place.)Anyway, here's how to work around the problem. My apologies to those who might find these instructions too simplistic, but I'm trying to write this for a user who has never worked with the registry before. In any event, try this at your own risk -- I'm not responsible for anything that might go wrong on your own computer.BEFORE INSTALLING FSX AND/OR SP1:1) Select "Run" from XP's Start menu, type "regedit" and hit return. This will bring up the Registry Editor.2) I'm assuming you're starting the Registry Editor from a "cold and dark" cockpit ;-) where "My Computer" is the only entry in the left-hand pane. Click on the little "plus" symbol to the left of "My Computer" to expand the list to a number of confusing-looking entries starting with HKEY_.3) Similarly, click on the plus by HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to get another sub-list of entries directly below it. Click on the plus next to SOFTWARE to expand it again; this time, you'll get a very long sub-list under it.4) In that sub-list, click on the plus sign by "Microsoft" to expand one more level. Then, click on the plus sign by "Microsoft Games" in the new sub-list. There should be a "Flight Simulator" entry in the sub-list beneath -- click on the plus sign by it, and you should see a "9.0" folder. If there's a plus sign by the "9.0" folder, you might want to click on it as well to see what add-ons you have that are storing information in sub-folders there, but it is not necessary.5) In the left-hand pane, click on the "9.0" folder. From the "File" menu, choose "Export..." You'll get a standard Windows file dialog -- figure out where on your disk, desktop, etc., you wish to save this file. If you have more than one hard drive on your system, I would save it to the one that isn't the Windows boot drive, just to be safe. Name the file something like "FS9 to FSX" -- you'll also notice a couple of buttons at the bottom of the dialog, under the heading "Export Range," of "All" or "Selected Branch." The latter should have a path listed under it, and that path should read "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator9.0" -- if this is the case, choose "Selected Branch," click "Save" and Registry Editor will save your FS9 settings to the file you named.6) Now, just to be on the safe side, choose "Export..." from the "File" menu once again. This time, we're going to back up the entire registry at this point, just in case something goes really weird hereafter. So, this time, choose the "All" button under "Export Range" and save the file under a name like "Everything before FSX" -- trust me, if worst comes to worst, you'll be very happy you have this file!7) Now, quit the Registry Editor, and install FSX (if it isn't already installed) and SP1. (Don't do anything else with your computer, like downloading other files or e-mail, until you've finished these procedures -- in case something goes haywire, we want to be able to roll back the changes with minimal damage to other data.)AFTER INSTALLING FSX AND/OR SP1:1) Follow steps 1-4 in the "before" section to open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator. Is the "9.0" folder still there, and does all the data, including folders from add-ons, look the same as it did before? If so, you may be one of the lucky ones. To be sure, exit the Registry Editor and try loading FS9 and working with the add-ons. If everything works, congratulations...you didn't need to go through this procedure after all (but aren't you glad you did?).2) However, let's assume that you found a new "10.0" folder under "Flight Simulator," but no sign of "9.0" -- now, the fun begins. From the "File" menu, select "Import..." and you'll get the standard Windows file dialog again. This time, navigate to wherever you saved your backup files in the "before" section, and click on the "FS9 to FSX" file (or whatever you named the smaller file that only included the "selected branch" instead of the whole registry). Click on the "Open" button in the dialog. You will get a second dialog asking you if you want to add this information to the registry. Click "O.K."3) Now, look at the display in Registry Editor. Is the "9.0" folder back under "Flight Simulator"...? If not, press the F5 key to refresh the display, and check again -- it should be there! If it is (and it will be), check the values to see if they look reasonable, then close the Registry Editor and test out FS9 as suggested in point 1.4) But let's assume, for the sake of argument, that things don't work at this point -- FS9 won't start, or the add-ons still don't run, or whatever. In this case, to set your machine back to the idyllic time before FSX was introduced, uninstall FSX via the Control Panel's "Add and Remove Programs" option. Once it's well and truly gone, open the Registry Editor, and use "Import..." to load the "Everything before FSX" (or whatever) file that you created in step 6 of the "before" section. This will reset your registry to where it was before you started this whole procedure (which is why I pointed out that you must not do anything else that might change your system between the "before" and "after" sections, or you might mess up your computer in ways that would cause you to lose data or find your system behaving erratically). At this point, assuming you have followed these instructions precisely, your computer and FS9 should be fully functional.Hope this helps! (And, by the way, if you are in a "already installed FSX/SP1 and everything's hosed at this point" situation, but happen to have an old registry backup somewhere, write to me and I'll explain how to extract the relevant keys from the backup and re-import them into your current registry.)