Black Screens & Missing Textures in Windows 7? Here's the FIX!

[Guest FlyingBits]

Paul, I totally understand your point. When I post something, I usually provide some 'test case' scenario and support any claims with technical information than can be crosschecked by anyone trying to investigate the issue further and check the facts to satisfy their own curiosity.The post assumes a 'healthy' FSX config. there are so many factors involved in FSX stability that I won't have time to list them all.. IF for example, your video card is slightly overclocked, or your PSU is not powerful enough or your CAS settings are over agressive or your GPU or CPU is not properly cooled you are looking for trouble, because a math calculation gone wrong on the GPU will cause a behavior similar to a 'Black screen' or corrupted textures, so NO MATTER what advise people give you, your setup will fail under ANY circumstance if ANY component is defective, rendering any advise USELESS.Will I stop from offering the advice as a solution when I'm 100% confident it IS a solution to a DRIVER ARCHITECTURE change? nope... however, you are right.. to you, I'm just an enthusiast offering Holy grails :) If I were an ex ACES employee you'll believe me, even if I were talking nonsense. I understand that, I can live with that and its part of being just a mortal on the AVSIM forums ;)

That it is a "DRIVER ARCHITECTURE change" has been known for quite a while now and I 100% agree with that, but as was mentioned Vista compatibility mode just as Vista-64 has had similar issues in the long haul does not offer the same 100% fix that a real XP-64bit OS really does offer. Not to mention you havent addressed the performance loss that has been reported. That XP-SP3 compatibility mode may offer a better solution is a question I would explore...but like I am trying to say, should be tested more thoroughly than quickly reporting it as a fix.Next thing you know, we will get posting of the latest DX runtimes and latest drivers that fix everything.....everytime, regardless if they are actual updates to DX9 or not etc.And no, just because you might be an ex-Aces employee doesnt mean I would just believe, I have had plenty of go arrounds with PT, Adam as well as others and have dug into FS and done my own uncovering and posting of tweaking guides back in the day, been there, done that...etc

[bojote 20]

Paul,check your PM's

[duckbilled 310]

So you are 'Right clicking' on the FSX icon, THEN you need to click on the option (at the bottom) that says properties, THEN you'll see the compatibility tab. Weird, should be there..

I have general, shortcut, security, details and previous versions tabs. No compatibility.I am using Windows 7 Pro 64 RTM, not upgrade. I'm admin and UA is off

[bojote 20]

I have general, shortcut, security, details and previous versions tabs. No compatibility.I am using Windows 7 Pro 64 RTM, not upgrade. I'm admin and UA is off

then, the icon you are 'right clicking' is not the actual FSX icon, but probably FPS limiter? easiest way would be for you to go into the FSX directory and find the fsx.exe file and right click on it.. make ABSOLUTELY sure when you change the compatibility options you select the tab that says to apply it to ALL users

[duckbilled 310]

then, the icon you are 'right clicking' is not the actual FSX icon, but probably FPS limiter? easiest way would be for you to go into the FSX directory and find the fsx.exe file and right click on it.. make ABSOLUTELY sure when you change the compatibility options you select the tab that says to apply it to ALL users

Got it by clicking on the exe and not the desktop shortcup.

[David Roch 1,982]

Very interesting info and well documented topic.Thanks *******!

[tfm 169]

Anyone following the PMDG Forum on Avsim will know about this problem. I'm glad the "compatibility" fix works for you, but in my case it's one of many solutions which offer hope for a while but don't provide a 100% solution. I still think the problem almost certainly has something to do with changes to DirectX audio (yes, really!) in Vista and Windows 7, not specifically the change to WDDM 1.1.Tim

[Turbine777 13]

I agree with Tim on this one. The main thing here is the fact that I experienced this issue for over a year on Vista 64, so the last thing I want to do is run anything in Vista mode (I think I rather take a whiz on an electric fence :( ). The only documented fix is running XP 64, how do I know? From countless people saying they fixed it with XP64 I had to see myself and bought a copy a couple months ago. Not once did I have any problems with several hours (over 100) of testing, well ok not really testing, but I should say, enjoy no problems is XP64.A couple of weeks ago I got Win7 and since it is in all actualality the same Vista Kernel and more importantly the sound thing that Tim touched on, have the same problems I did in Vista64. I will be staying with Win7 though since as much as I sim, I also enjoy games that use DX10 and the future release of more DX11 titles. There are some that swear buffer pools helped them including myself, but had to have them fairly high and lost too much eye candy in the distance. Some others are having great luck in Vista64 as well as 7 using DX10 preview, of course there are some tweaking involved to overcome some of DX10 preview issues, but most are posted in the PMDG forum. Personally I haven't tested that one since I have different issues with DX10 preview that doesn't seem to allow me to run my 5040x1050 res. Finally, others have reported success with using Creative Alchemy, and others that have sound cards (normally only seen on onboard sound) that have been able to run their sound at 8000hz.I don't know exactly about the sound issue enough to explain it in detail at the moment (way past my sleep time) but what I've heard is that with DX10 & DX11, there is no more Direct sound support so your CPU is working overtime. One reason why DX9 users are not seeing this issue. This is another reason people that can guarentee duplicating this have prooved that they don't see it once they disable their sound complete, even after 12hr flights. I can only say what I know, and I know from my time with XP64 I had 0 issues and from the amount of time I simmed with it, I would have seen this issue 1000's of times with Vista64 or 7.There are several threads in the PMDG forum on this, but the most active at the moment is this one.Good luck peops, hope we can someday find a solution in Vista/Win7!

[nrunning24 151]

I had problems with Vista with textures and black screens so I to was skeptical that this would work however I turned all my sliders up using UT2 100% AI and flew from KFLL to KORD (both FsDreamteam) with CS757 and had no problems with texture loss and black screens even through the flight i tried before this i couldn't even get off the ground. So far this looks good, even though I had the same problems with vista it seems so far that this could work. Its to early for a final answer however, I'm excited for the possibilities (I told myself I wouldn't buy any more add ons till this problem was fixed) so i hope this can be the answer for me.

[bojote 20]

The main thing here is the fact that I experienced this issue for over a year on Vista 64

Then your problem is clearly not related to a WDDM change, and the contents (FIX) proposed in the post, doesn't apply to you. However... keep reading because, I think this concerns you:In the past (when I built my Win7 machine) I had several problems with audio (I also seemed to have this problems in my laptop, which ran Vista). Games used to CTD a lot on my desktop for NO REASON and it was finally when I started looking into the audio as the source of the problems that I was able to solve it. So, how do you make sure Audio is NOT responsible for your crashes? disable all kinds of 'software' acceleration in Win7/Vista disabling 'Effects' & sound enhancements, also (if using the SoundMax integrated audio) make sure you update your drivers immediatly, there are problems with the one provided with the original Win7 install as they are UNSTABLE. Do not let Vista or Win7 run ANY kind of process at startup related to audio (services are OK) in short:1) Disable Audio enhancements for ALL Playback devices2) Disable Signal Enhancement for all your RECORDING devices.3) in the (sound options) Communications tab: Tell windows to 'Do NOTHING' when communications are detected.3) run MSCONFIG and check what programs are starting in your Vista/Win7 setup. Check for those related to 'Sound' and don't let them run.4) Use the latest video drivers available for your Sound Card

I still think the problem almost certainly has something to do with changes to DirectX audio (yes, really!) in Vista and Windows 7, not specifically the change to WDDM 1.1.

and I bet you that if you DISABLE sound, EVERYTHING works fine. correct?

[bojote 20]

Paul,you may want to check this:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=276058

[tfm 169]

Paul,you may want to check this:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=276058

I don't want to discourage people from finding out for themselves, but you should be aware that a lot of us have already trodden these paths.For people running the really heavy add-ons (PMDG MD-11 or 747X and the like, with UTX Europe and night lighting and lots of layers of clouds in Active Sky Advanced etc) who like using Nick_N's nHancer settings, the only "fixes" that consistently work are (i) go back to XP 64-bit, (ii) use the DX10 "preview" if you can bear it, or (iii) reduce the speaker playback sound quality to "8000Hz telephone quality" (and not everyone has a driver that will allow such low quality sound).Tim

[bojote 20]

I don't want to discourage people from finding out for themselves, but you should be aware that a lot of us have already trodden these paths.Tim

Understood. Now, just out of curiosity, how much Video Ram does GPU-Z say you are using when running FSX?

[ulisses 1]

I'd like to add that compatibility mode is not available in all Windows 7 version, I think it is only in Ultimate and maybe Professional.Ulisses

[bojote 20]

I'd like to add that compatibility mode is not available in all Windows 7 version, I think it is only in Ultimate and maybe Professional.Ulisses

I have the home version on my laptop (which I think is the most basic form of Win7?) and it is there... I've noticed that right clicking the 'shortcut' and not the actual fsx.exe inside the FSX directory seems to be the most common cause for not finding the compatibility tab.