Hi,Installed FS9 last night, finished the full installation without any hiccup. However, no matter how many times I tried, the program wouldn't launch. I couldn't even see the splash screen. It kept telling me that CD4 cannot be located.I tried both of my CD-ROM drives, no luck. I tried restoring My Documents to default location... still wouldn't work. Finally I had to resort to the no-cd crack. The game plays well but...It's very frustrating to say the least.I'm wondering if any one else has the same problem. Is it a known issue? Any solution other than using no-cd crack?Any help would be much appreciated.Jonathanps. Please note that I bought the retail version. So for those pirate ######, please don't lament me for using bootleg.

Jonathan - Unfortunately, you are not alone. It is not uncommon for drives to not be able to cope with SafeDisc copy protection. There have been several such posts in the past few days - with a couple that couldn't even get it to install. And some "advice" from MS tech support to contact the drive manufacturer. Nothing to be done except stay with the No_CD patch and complain to Microsoft.Doug

Hi Jonathan,have you tried selective startup? My machine won't read the CD under normal conditions either.Cheers,Gosta. http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Doug,Thanks for the prompt response.I'm glad that I'm not alone. However, I truly believe this is ridiculous. I'm an avid PC gamer and I own numerous games with SafeDisc protection. None of them gave me any grief as FS9.Well...I guess I will stick with the no-cd crack. I was planning to use it anyway :-)Thanks again.Jonathan

Gosta,Do you mind elaborate on what do you mean by selective startup?Thanks.Jonathan>Hi Jonathan,>>have you tried selective startup? My machine won't read the CD>under normal conditions either.>>Cheers,>>Gosta.

Hi Jonathan,go to start menu/run, type 'msconfig', check 'selective startup', deselect everything except 'system services', then go to 'services', select 'Hide all Microsoft Services', then click on 'Disable All', and restart your computer.Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Gosta - my 2004 arrives tomorrow. Just in case I run into this problem, how do I find and use selective startup? Which, presumably, solved the problem for you? Advice would be very welcome ...

Hi thereI get this as well sometimes. Generally I can exit COF and restart about 3 or 4 times with no problems then suddenly I get the "cannot locate the CD-ROM" message. As I am trying to design scenery I need to keep going in and out of COF to check my results, so this is very annoying. The only way out is to restart the computer and all works well again, for a while anyway.Colin

Hello,You can also try the "EnditAll 2" programhttp://www.pcmedixwebs.com/enditall.htm

FS2004 uses safedisk ver 2.8 as protection. Safedisk 2.8 have blacklisted alot of burnerprograms like clonecd, blindwrite, alcohol etc. another program on the blacklist is Deamon-tool ver. 3.29 or older. If safedisk finds blacklisted programsinstalled on your computer, it will not recognize cd4.Jan Roar R

Errr, nope...I have trial versions of Blind Write and Alcohol installed and the full CD version of CloneCD, no problems whatsoever on both my machines.May it be that the issue only occurs on the first set of CDs pressed in US? Mine is the first from Ireland.

I don't have any of these programs on my computer. After 18 months of using my computer I only got this message after COF was installed.Colin

Yep! I ran into the identical problem with my system as described below and was with MS tech support for many hours over a period of two days.Tried everything in the following tech article on the issue including the "clean boot" with no luck:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;228985As my Teac-W58 CD-R/RW is more than a two years old (should that matter?) I threw in a Lite-On 52x24x52 burner but had the same poor results.I reported to the Tech support manager that the only success has come from the community in the form of the No-CD crack; MS is sending me a complete new set of discs with different anti-piracy that I will try as soon as it is received.I would recommend that you call MS tech support for more help and see what MS provides, after all they have your $$$ and you have software that wont load. :(

Hi Emile,THe problem is, that End-it-All can't kill certain processes, so it may not work (it didn't on my machine).Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Using Virtual CD here with no problems .I've got 2004 installed in both WinME and XP Pro(Dual boot ).Runs fine in both using CD image.