I have had the B737NG-600/700 in my "stable" for about 5 months now and have nothing but praise for it. I fly it under Southwest Colors. I also recently joined Delta Virtual and discovered in the interest of realism Delta's colors weren't available for the 600/700 so I purchased the 800/900 upgrade as well. Obviously, with a new airframe I flew Delta almost exclusively for awhile and the 800/900 performed flawlessly. However, an upcoming VA Event has me back in the 700 cockpit under Southwest's colors. When I load the PMDG 700 of any livery, not just Southwest, there is an odd "ratcheting" sound from the speakers and the 2D cockpit view has all the gauges blacked out. If I click "T" or "R", nothing happens. I do not see either the Throttle or the Radio. When I click "L" or "A" I see the normal display for these selections. If I click "O", the overhead is displayed, but when I try to go back to "M" or "Z" I see one of two displays and they appear to show up randomly. The first display I have seen is the remains of the Overhead display out the front windscreen with the gauges still blacked out. The second random view is the scenery outside the cockpit as it would normally appear, but the entire cockpit interior is now blacked out, just a big black rectangle.If I select the 800 or 900 from the aircraft list, everything displays properly and I can move from display to display without any problem. Things display as they should. If I go back to the 600 or 700 everything is as I described above. Go back to the 800 or 900 and everything is great again for them.I took drastic steps since it was late last night that I discovered this so I removed the PMDG's from FS9 with the removal tool. When I restarted FS9 I got a warning that FS9 could not intialize PMDG 700 Southwest with wingtips and FS9 would close to desktop. So, I completely removed FS9 and then reloaded it. Then I loaded the PMDG 600/700. Then I loaded the AIRAC from Navigraph. All was fine at this point so I quit and went to bed. However, once I reload the 800/900, if the result is the same as I've described in previous paragraphs, what will your recommendations be as to a permanent fix?I have FS9.1, Windows XP Media Center Edition. I'm writing this from work, so the specifics of my system beyond that escape me, but prior to loading the 737-800/900 I was running online on VATSIM with several airport scenery addons, maybe 10 or less aircraft addons besides the PMDG (some freeware, some payware), FSInn, FSCopilot, Teamspeak all with no problem and getting Frame Rates of 35 up to as high as 75 FPS.Any help will be appreciatedRandy Tyndall

Do you have the latest patched version of the 600/700? You can check the PMDG website and download if needed.If it's the right version then try sending PMDG support a message, they should be able to help.

Hey, thanks for responding. Yes, I have version 1.3 for the 600/700 loaded. I see this when I go to the "Select Aircraft" screen in FS9 and also in the acft.cfg file when browsing files in windows explorer. Here's something wierd, though. When I change the paint skin from the PMDG default to the Southwest skin, the version changes from 1.3 to 1.0 in the aircraft description box in the upper right window of the "Select an Aircraft" screen.By way of update. After flying several flights with only the 600/700 loaded I reinstalled the 800/900. This time I only get the blacked out gauges in the 600 airframe. 700 seems fine and both the 800 and 900 are of course fine.Thanks again,Randy Tyndall

Unless it has changed, when changing 600/700/700W liveries there is a .bat file that needs to be executed in each folder for the 600, 700, and 700W. It is named:Run_Me_After_Installing_A_Livery.batIf in Vista you may need to run it as an admin. This only applies to aircraft installed in the proper order (600/700, any service pack, 800/900, any service packs.See if that helps.

Unless it has changed, when changing 600/700/700W liveries there is a .bat file that needs to be executed in each folder for the 600, 700, and 700W. It is named:Run_Me_After_Installing_A_Livery.batIf in Vista you may need to run it as an admin. This only applies to aircraft installed in the proper order (600/700, any service pack, 800/900, any service packs.See if that helps.

I downloaded the SWA livery from their site and saw no such .bat file. I to had weird issues after buying the 800/900 series as far as views going black. PMDG was very helpful and recommended replacement of the FSUIPC.dll file, but that had no effect. Ultimately htey had no answer as to my problem. I uninstalled everything from PMDG and then just installed the 600/700 series and all has been fine since.I do occasionally get black DUs when starting up and I just cycle through the views until I return to the 2D cockpit and they are all working just fine.I am running under FS9 using 4 monitors and the Saitek radio panel and throttle quadrant along with the CH flight yoke. I suspect the 800/900 series has some issues. Here is the text from my response from PMDG:John, Unfortunately, when we designed the 737 800/900 back in 2003, I don

Here's a bit of an update on the situation. I intend to send PMDG Support an e-mail asking for their help. Here's what I have after removing and reinstalling both the B737-600/700 and the 800/900.Before installing the 800/900, the 2d, VC, and VC&Cabin dispay units of the 600/700 all functioned normally. After installing the 800/900, here's what I have:Please note: Once inside the cockpit I can press the "B" button on my joystick to display in sequence the 2D view, the 3D view, the Tower view, and the Spot Plane view.600-Selecting 2D Cockpit aircraft yields normal DU operation in the 2D view, tower view, and spot plane view. When selcting 3D view, nothing shows but the outside scenery, which is to be expected, i.e. everything works as it should.600-Selecting VC or VC&Cabin aircraft shows Black gauges when in the 2D view. If I press the M, Z, A, or L buttons the window changes to the expected view, but gauges remain Black. Pressing "O" does not reveal the Overhead. Instead it is the normal cockpit view with a large black rectangle where the interior would be and a normal exterior view. There is no way to return from this screen. M Z A L O T R and C are gone. Pressing T, R, or C yields nothing. The throttle, radio, and clock view does not appear.Selecting the 3D view shows black gauges in the DUs. Obviously, there are no MZALTR or C buttons in the 3D view. Tower and Spot Plane views work fine.700-Identical to the 600 in all respects800-Selecting the 2D Cockpit aircraft results in normal Display of 2D DUs, but if I look to the left, left forward, right or right forward with the hat switch of my joystick, the entire monitor screen goes Black. Releasing the hat switch to forward view returns the display to normal. (Note: this does not occur in the 600/700)800-Selecting the VC and VC&Cabin aircraft from the Select an Aircraft menu results in all views working fine. No issues.900-Identical to the 800 in all respects.I am using a registered version of FSUIPC3 (4 doesn't work in FS9). After seeing the post about deleting the FSUIPC.dll file from the modules folder in the FS9 directory, I did so. I then downloaded a new copy of FSUIPC3 and copied the new .dll file into the modules folder per the installation instructions. I then registered the new copy of FSUIPC3 and restarted FS9. There was no change in the above problem. Everything occurred again exactly as I described above.I have PMDG's email address and will be contacting them tomorrow. Thanks for all your posts. I can use the aircraft, they just don't operate at 100%, which is frustrating. Before purchasing the 800/900 I had nothing but praise for the PMDG 737. If it weren't for Delta's use of the 800 I never would have bought the 800/900 upgrade. Now I'm kinda sorry I did.Randy

Just to update my update so everyone is aware I have sorta solved my own problem with help from folks in my VA. I didn't realize there was a PMDG Download that updates the entire 600/700/800/900 series all at once specifically to correct a known VC problem. I ran it and now the 600/700 issue is resolved. I still have a black screen when looking right or left from the 2D cockpit of the 2D version of the 800 and 900, but that issue too goes away when I use the 2D view of the VC version of both. Problem solved.Thanks for listening.Randy Tyndall

Thanks for reporting the fix... certain to help someone in the future.

I still have a black screen when looking right or left from the 2D cockpit of the 2D version of the 800 and 900, but that issue too goes away when I use the 2D view of the VC version of both.Randy Tyndall

Then there is still something wrong. I came across this when a colleague of mine added the 800/900 to his 737NG at about the same time as I did and we both had the same problem. This was with CD versions of both from Aerosoft. We researched and found a patch on the Aerosoft site that corrected it. However it is important to uninstall both the 600/700 and 800/900 and re-install in the correct order (600/700 plus any updates then 800/900 then the patch). I assume that the same patch is available from PMDG for d/loaded versions. If you follow this procedure all will be well.It also installed into each aircraft folder the batch file mentioned above that you have to run after installing a new livery. This replaces some of the VC bmp files with updated ones. I hope this helps.Iain Smith

I saw the patch you are referring to and the way I read the details, it would only work on the CD version of the aircraft. PMDG Support is aware of the issue (other people have reported the same problem--they're working directly with myself and one other reporter trying to duplicate). The e-mail I got said they were researching the problem and would let us know what the fix was when they got it all sorted out.Thanks for your help, I sincerely appreciate everyone's input to help me resolve this issue, cause the 737NG is awesome, even when less than 100% as is my case.Randy