Can anyone tell me what FS9 is doing when I get the splash screen up - before the progress bar appears showing terrain loading etc.? It takes an age to get from the blank splash screen to the loading progress bar showing: if I knew what FS9 was doing at that stage, I might be able to lighten its load a bit, shortening startup time.Thanks,Martin

If I had to guess, I would say your fleet.When I had a fresh install it would no time at all.As my fleet grew it became a longer process.Just a guess someone might have a better answer.

I concur with Mr. Lee....er...Mr. Kruger, if you want to speed up that part of your startup I suggest a 3-prong attack.1) Make certain your AI traffic does not show up in the create-a-flight aircraft menu. If it does then go to the library and search for bbqhideai to take care of that.2) Move any airplanes you will not fly out of ...FS9aircraft into a holding folder.3) Uncheck any addon scenery in the scenery library for parts of the world you will not be flying in.I try to follow this regimen and the sim loads pretty fast for me.Hope this helps.

Easy, download 'filemon' and see for your self. It will make your eyes spin.AMD Opteron DC 185 @ 3GHz, Zalman7700Cu cooler, Corsair XMS 2GB DDR, 7800GS-OC, Asus A8V MoBo, RaptorHDD, TrackIR4, CH FSYoke+TQ+peds, Eclipse RED KB, WinXP-sp2

In non-technical terms, FS is verifying that everything you have installed (aircraft, scenery, textures etc. etc.) is really there.Sounds like it is time for some Spring Housecleaning!Removing aircraft you never fly, removing airport enhancements of airports you never visit will make a noticeable difference in load times.Also hiding AI aircraft (which you don't fly anyway) from the aircraft list does wonders.

I don't think I have any aircraft or sceneries that I never use! I do have an awful lot of aircraft (and addon airports), it's true - mostly because I have liveries for pretty every country of the world: if I fly in Jordan, for instance, I like to fly a Royal Jordanian aircraft.I have tried 'spring cleaning' in the past - but I found the neccessary reactivating of sceneries and aircraft I wanted every time just too much of a hassle; at least, not compensated for by decreased loading times. I may have another look at this - but if FS is just checking that everything is in place, I'll just have to put up with the wait!Thanks,Martin

(As an English teacher, I cannot leave "neccessary" uncorrected!! It was a typo, but even so ....):-)

I put up with the wait, from the fresh reboot, with lots of sceneries and addon aircraft (also with lots of liveries), my FS boots in about 50sec. And about 15sec if I close it and reopen.