>Mine was that date and size. Still haven't had any more>problems since removing the crack.>>Steven.Where can I find that NoCD crack? And yes I'm to owner of original copy of FS2004 and I think I shouldn't have the inconvenience of having the CD in the drive.I think people who are really interested in FS will buy an orginal product.

AVSim policy proibits posting location of said program or any other programs designed to circumvent copy protection (no matter which software it is).Thank you for your cooperation.http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

>Is your noCD replacement 516,096 bytes? (Mine has a create date of July 27,2003, 7:39:14)

I have recently downloaded the updated version of NoCD and have not had any problems other than ones that were their brfore installing it. Not having to have disc 4 handy all the time is a big plus with a wife and three small boys all ready to trash Daddys PC disks at the first opportunity.

I just tried out the 504kb cracked exe and I got two fs9 program crashes tonight. FS9 has never crashed since I got it the day it was released.Speed

I've had it installed since the first week I bought FS9 and have never had a problem. Doing scenery work all the time I often have to slew around alot and turn on and shut off the program.

One of the more common problems with 'no-CD cracks', 'patches' or whatever you like to call them, is that the authors may get a bit over-enthusiastic, and not only remove the copy protection itself, but also instructions used by the program itself. For example, a 'memory leak' can occur by removing an instruction to load a vital program file only once (as opposed to the instruction to load it in the first place). So, the executable, which is running the whole time you play FS, is giving instructions to load a file a zillion times per minute, which is then loaded into your memory multiple times, removing texture files and what have you. This results in those textures having to be reloaded from the hard drive, thereby causing stutters.This was a bit long-winded and not very technical, but I guess you got the gist of it :). So, whatever moral or legal concerns there may or may not be regarding the use of no-CD cracks, the fact is, that due to sloppy programming they can produce exactly those effects as were seen by the original poster.Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

This may indeed have been the case ... but, I also had a severe frame-rate drop when using the "NoCD". I have deleted it and am back to using Disk 4, but I recall it was considerably larger than the "stock" FS9.exe. It appears that, perhaps, the author added code.

I have the no-cd crack & haven't had any problems with it. The sim runs perfectly with no fps/reliability problems at all. I think the CD in the drive thing is rubbish; ludicrously inconvenient and very fraught. On the other site, theres already someone complaining that FS doesnt recognise CD#4 - Which is what happened to CFS2 for me. I could go begging to M$ for another cd? No, just ditched the game.Surely protecting the CD from being copied is a better defence against pirates - but then, they do that too, further frustrating legitimate users who want to back up CD4.Ultimately the best defence against piracy is to make the product great - and affordable. At $50, FSCOF is great value. Why bother trying to pirate something so cheap?Where to get the crack? Avsim prevents people saying for some reason (didn't Avsim host the FS2000 no cd crack in their libraries?) but a search of the major sites will turn one up fairly quickly.PS The one I found is 504k, created 27/7/2003 10:40am.happy landings allLonelyplanetXO

Hi all.As a side note, the no-cd crack could be named "fs9_nocd.exe", and it will run fine... it will also create a new CFG file called "fs9_nocd.cfg", that is separate from the "fs9.cfg"! That way the original "fs9.exe" can be left alone in the main folder.This would allow you to quickly build multiple CFG files for testing, all called by differently named cracks... you could have different files for low-n-slow.exe and high-n-fast.exe and ifr.exe, all having their own unique CFG settings.The only drawback is that saved flights will load only fs9.exe when clicking on their FLT icon... but you can access the flight from within the sim in the normal manner, and still control which CFG file is used in that way.Dick

>AVSim policy proibits posting location of said program or any>other programs designed to circumvent copy protection (no>matter which software it is).>>Thank you for your cooperation.>>>http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg>"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."true, im sre everyone is aware, but obviously we all bought the game before cracking it. the crak is just so you dont have to ptu the cd in the drive everytime you play.

504 KB is the same thing as 516,096 bytes so it appears the no_CD file length is the same for all.FYILarry Jones

Hi,I made an image of the CD #4 with Virtual CD and deleted the no CD files. Since then, crashes & reboots went away completely. That and the patch for those exposed ports that M$ so kindly left opened in Win XP! So thanks for that suggestion, it works! :)Regards,JureBush Flying Unlimited]"At home in the wild"[/i

Just as an aside, have any of those who've had the problem with FS not recognising CD4 (as I did pre-NoCD) found Virtual CD to work? I guess I'm trying to say that if Virtual CD 'fools' the PC into believing there's another CD drive with the disc in, then what's the difference for those that have the "please insert the correct CD" problem?Cheers,Paulhttp://www.strontiumdog.plus.com/sbird.jpgOfficially licenced by British Airways plc for use of name and logo[p]AMD XP2800+ Barton, Gigabyte GA-7NNXP nForce2, 1Gig Crucial PC3200 DDR 400MHz, Gainward 128 MB GF4-4200, SB Audigy, 3 x WD Caviar SE[/p]

How is it obvious everyone bought the game? Maybe you just downloaded the isos and you need the crack to play?Since there is no way to be sure, that is why we prohibit posting locations for this type of software.http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."