Thanks Chris & Kurt, I think that Win XP is my answer for sure. I've set my Sound acceleration to Basic in DirectX and to Medium in the Sim. I don't hear any degredation in the quality of the sound at these levels. I did try one flight with the sound in the sim to "OFF" and I still had the stutters. That rules out the Soundblaster Live card, I believe.

"I did try one flight with the sound in the sim to "OFF" and I still had the stutters. That rules out the Soundblaster Live card, I believe."The device needs to be REMOVED from the system in order for this soundcard test to be valid. Either disable it in Device Manager or physically remove it from the system.I agree with Hornit... I would do clean reinstall (format HD and install) of Win 98 before I go off and poor more money into an OS. JohnCi mentioned to you last week that he believed something is amiss in your OS install... and I bekieve a fresh install of Win98 will prove him correct.

Hi Hornit, "My dad has XPhome and I honestly have never noticed a truly measurable increase in frame rates over my 98 system with like games etc. he just got a new dell, and frankly in several games etc, his frame rates are not as good as mine with a very simlar set-up.I think 98 gets a bum rap on a lot of occasions because the average user just doesn't know how to keep it healthy.`It`s depend what`s you are doing also,I have used WIN98 SE full updated in the past for many years, I never have program running in background, I can`t accept a Os when the ressouce drop after couple of paint, music application, games used, windows opened and the ressource drop to 75% or lower, the entire Os performance degrade alot, not acceptable when you use for many hours, the performance degrade even lower and lower with more time, you will see when you do a right click on my computer, properties and see the ressource available, need to restart again for having at least 90%, it make no sens at all. None of these problems where available with windows 2000 and XP. Opens tons of application with windows XP, no problems on ressource after 2 weeks running Windows XP with no restart.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

Hi Chris, I'm using an Nvidia 4200Ti 128MB card which is not DX9 compliant. Also, with Geoffa's little FS9.cfg trick I am getting fps of 15-25 most of the time with 3d clouds 80% and get this I have autogen slider all the way to the left because I find my frame rates go down as it is moved to the right. Don't understand that one, but I'll take it. Scenery complex is Very dense to get the most out of airports. For bigger centers (city's) of course my fps drop considerably to 6 -14 or so. But all in all I'm happy with the normal flight fps. Autogen turned off...hmmmm....wow. I love it.Tom Stewart

I have an old TNT2 card and would like to upgrade to Nvidia Ti card, but I can't find then any were. Looked at BestBuy and CompUSA. Or are the FX cards better.Want to spend $100 -$150.Any other suggestions

Yep I am running winXP Pro... I used to run Win2000 pro should have mentioned that.

check www.newegg.comgreat service!Den

Thanks! That'll save me a bundle of $$$... :-wave

>The device needs to be REMOVED from the system in order for this soundcard test to be valid

Steve,Before you go to the expense of XP and reformats etc check 2 things.If you are happy about going into your PC case check that your sound card is not in the slot next to the AGP port. If it is it needs moving because it is sharing the IRQ with the graphics card and that is not usually a good thing.You can also check what IRQ it is using by opening Device Manager and checking in there.It is while since I ran Win98 but I think you can see the IRQs of each device by double clicking on the 'computer' (or 'My Computer') icon at the top of the list in Device Manager.HTH and best of luck.

I'll do that. I'm also going to try one other thing before I bite the bullet and buy XP: I've ordered a 256 Mb stick of DDR333 to install along side my 512 stick. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee so I can always return it to A2Z Computer. According to a conversation with my PC builder, 98Se will only handle up to 768 Mb of RAM -- even though conventional wisdom says 1Gb. Remember, he told me, that 512 + 512 = 1,024 which is, technically, more than 1 Gb. So, here I go again.If I move my sound card -- and I really think that it is at the opposite end of the case as the video card -- does the PC automatically adjust the IRQ? I really doubt if it's next to the video card but if it is, I'll move it.Thanks. ---- I'll solve this puzzle yet 'cause I am an engineer and that's what we do. *:-* Steve

Steve... I've read in another of your posts that you have other hard drives available to test with. This one is easy... pull the hard drive from the system, install, format, and load 98SE and FS9 on another of your drives. Simple test to rule out the possiblity that your 98SE install on the existing hard drive is corrupted in some way. This would be a very cheap troubleshooting step.Test with the system as it is now (except check that sound card location as Vulcan recommended... it should never be installed next to the AGP slot).

>98Se will only handle up to 768 Mb of RAM does the PC automatically adjust the IRQ?