Clearly, with a view count in excess of 2000 there has been a great deal of interest shown in the recent thread. So, in case any confusion has crept in, I thought it would be useful if I summarized the advice, as I see it. You may wish to cut and paste it for future reference.I will tackle this by simply describing the steps I think may be necessary to ensure that any new or updated driver set is being properly recognised by FS2004.1. Make sure your graphic card is recognised by the sim and appropriate switches are being applied to its driver components:a) Check for a reference to your card in display.cfg (location: Flight Simulator 9 - root folder)by opening the file in Notepad. Most current popular cards are listed but there may be a few, like the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro that are absent. With the passage of time there are likely to be several more.If your card is present check the card's Plug and Play Device ID is correct by running msinfo32.exe. Under System Summary expand Components and click on Display. In the right hand pane under Value you will see something like "PCIVEN_1002&DEV_4E48 ...etc" The values you are interested in are '1002' for the Vendor, in this case ATI, and 4E48 which is the hex code for the graphic device, in this case the Radeon 9800 Pro. If everything checks out you need do nothing more for this step.:( Now, using this example, I know there is no reference to my card in display.cfg and the Radeon 9700 Pro is the closest match. So, it is reasonable to assume that the switches Microsoft felt should be applied to the 9700 Pro, to ensure compatibility with the sim and DirectX, should also be applied to the same driver components of the 9800 Pro. With driver evolution there may come a time when this is no longer true so you may wish to have 2x display.cfg files, one with the modifications and one with the default information that came with the original installation of the sim. That way you can experiment by switching between the two and witness any changes in the sim's performance. Don't worry, no harm will result from doing so. The sim runs without any reported errors, even in the absence of display.cfg.c) I need to add a section and I do so by using the entries for the Radeon 9700 Pro as a guide. All I do is copy and paste the Radeon 9700 Pro section, change the header (which is just a reminder) and, more importantly, change the Plug and Play Device ID information, as described above.In my case, this would be:;----------------------------------------------------------------------; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 2k/XP;----------------------------------------------------------------------[00001002:00004E48:ati2dvag.dll]Disable=1[00001002:00004E48:ati2dvag.dll.1]MinDriverRev=6.14.0001.6307Disable=2Just position it below the section you have modeled your customized entry on.2. OPEN fs9.CFG in Notepad.If you don't know where it is located just run a search, but before doing so make sure you will be able to see hidden files and folders. If you do know its location the chances are it is full of your previously applied tweaks and these you will certainly want to preserve.You will see a section similar to the following (again using my card as an example):(DISPLAY.Device.RADEON 9800 PRO.0) <-------- (N.B. these must be square brackets)Mode=1280x1024x32 <--------- (this is my chosen resolution as set in the simulator)TriLinear=1Now check to see whether there is a duplicate entry. If so delete one and reposition the other if necessary, although I doubt whether the position of the section in the file really matters. Just make sure you are left with the correct Device reference in the header, in this example 'RADEON 9800 PRO'. I believe the '.0' extension refers to the fact that this is the Primary Display Device.SAVE the amended fs9.CFG file back to its original source location.3. Browse again to fs9.CFG, right click the file and select COPY and then PASTE in the same folder.4. DELETE fs9.CFG ( don't worry, remember, you made a copy)5. RUN the sim and allow it to load fully by selecting any flight.6. Once fully loaded select Options - Settings - Display - HardwareYou should see the Device Name as appeared in your original tweaked fs9.CFG.Change the Display Resolution to your usual preferred setting.Change Filtering from Bilinear to Trilinear if that is your preference.Okay the changes and exit the sim.You have now forced the sim to look again at your card's current graphic driver set, as if you were running the sim for the first time after installation, and any switches Microsoft felt should be applied to selected driver components to ensure compatibility will be applied. I am assuming that steps 4-6 serve to fully reinstate the low level interfaces between software, graphic drivers and DirectX.7. Browse to the folder containing the newly created fs9.CFG and the previously made copy.DELETE the new fs9.CFG. I know this step may seem a bit strange and illogical but it has served its purpose and my experience has confirmed that it is needed no longer.Now, RENAME your previously copied fs9.CFG (with all your hard won mods) back to fs9.CFGYour done. Go Fly!Mike :-wave

Hi Mike,Thanks. :) I copied and pasted all this into my 'FS2004 Tips and Tricks.txt' file I that I have. As I have serious doubts that I would remember all this off the top of my head when it comes to installing a newer video card in the future. Right now, I don't feel to much a need to do this as I have a Radeon 9700 PRO which is listed in the Display.cfg file. And I have not noticed any performance degradation after installing newer drivers and then deleting the redundant driver reference that was left in FS9.cfg. Really my system is behaving about as I would expect it to with the way I have everything set and I'd be quite surprised if I saw any difference after doing this. But I may just go through this process in the near future anyway to see if anything happens out of curiosities sake. But I have no doubts that this info will come in handy in the future, especially after I get a newer video card, like say an ATI 9900 PRO. Woot! :-lolThanks again Mike, and take care.Jim Richards

Hi Jim,Thanks for your post. As I have stated, the beauty of what I am proposing is that it is non-destructive, only takes moments to try out and if it doesn't work then nothing will have changed. Can't be bad..eh?If I have helped just one person then it will have been worthwhile.....I think! ;)Mike

I have a problem doing this.Whenever i past into the brackets the new name of the device, the fs9.cfg puts back the old one each and every single time.Inside the hardware page in the sim it also only mentions the old driver referral wich in my case is "NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0"I can for the life of me not get it to show "NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP"This is what i have in my display.cfg that refers to my card:;----------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP;----------------------------------------------------------------------[nv4_disp.dll]Disable=1AntiAlias=0[nv4_disp.dll.1]MinDriverRev=5.13.01.1241Disable=2;----------------------------------------------------------------------; NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0;----------------------------------------------------------------------<000010DE:00000250:nv4_disp.dll>RenderToTexture=1MultiTexture=1Disable=1AntiAlias=0<0000010DE:00000250:nv4_disp.dll.1>MinDriverRev=5.13.01.1241Disable=2Even removing the last one (wich is the one the sim is probably using) it still only shows the line that says 4600.0 not the new one.Any advise?

Hi,.... I am assuming you have a GeForce Ti 4600, in which case this is your primary display driver and the reference in the sim's hardware page is correct, i.e. it has been properly detected.**************************************************RenderToTexture=1MultiTexture=1Disable=1AntiAlias=0<0000010DE:00000250:nv4_disp.dll.1>MinDriverRev=5.13.01.1241Disable=2(???) I am assuming this is a genuine entry in your display.cfg and has not been added by you. If so, then this is something I was not expecting. I have been assuming that the contents of this file, unless modified by the individual user, were the same for every installation of FS2004. It may be that I am wrong, in which case, and because there appears to be an accurate reference to your card in the commented header, you need to check the Vendor and Device IDs as described in my initial post in this thread and, if different from the above, change them to match the values as reported in the System Information module.However, I am guessing you have changed the header to match the entry in fs9.CFG as it does not follow the section header naming convention as exhibited throughout the rest of the file. If this is the case, before I can comment further, I need to know what the original header was. Be wary of manipulating the situation in case you may be needlessly forcing the application of switches to your drivers. Again I am speculating but I imagine that this could lead to unexpected and unwelcome results.Mike

I am absolutely lost :(If anyone has a working GF4 Ti4600 128MB entry for my FS9.cfg I'd be very greatful ;)

Phew that was large bit to read (3 times to make sure i understood it lol), but I really appreciate you taking the time for write it :)Alright, here's the deal. The second bit I have put in manually quite a while ago - i think it was posted in the first big thread to mention this tweak and I used the "000010DE:00000250" code from reading the info in DXdiag tool that came with DirectX 9.. The title I gave it is what the hardware page in FS9 has always said my driver was named.Right so i deleted that whole bit only leaving me with the default one, namely this:NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP(nv4_disp.dll)Disable=1AntiAlias=0(nv4_disp.dll.1)MinDriverRev=5.13.01.1241Disable=2Following ur instruction i put (DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP) into my FS9 where it should be making sure no other references was there. Fired up the sim, changed res, trillinear in hardware page - and still the driver in the list was named "NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0" and not the new line i put it.Exit FS and checking FS9.cfg and it has put a new line further down with formentioned NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0. It seems to be a generic thing build into the driver somewhere I guess Im unable to change it.I've changed drivers quite often to try and get rid of stutters but at no time has change of drivers put more references into any of the cfg's. Im currently running with the newest 45.33 (installed today).This is all very confusing I know and sorry to add to the confusion for all the readers here.

Hi,Don't worry, I do understand - it's quite hard for me to keep up particularly when folk throw unexpected problems at you ...LOL!I think I see what's happened.YOU POSTED:"Following ur instruction i put (DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA Drivers on Win2K/XP) into my FS9 where it should be making sure no other references was there. Fired up the sim, changed res, trillinear in hardware page - and still the driver in the list was named "NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0" and not the new line i put it."DON'T CHANGE THE HEADER in fs9.CFGWhat you have done is substitute it with information that is meaningless to the sim. The header info in the Display.cfg file are merely comments placed there by the MS guys who wanted to remind themselves what switches were applied to which card's drivers. I am assuming they encountered some compatibility issues with certain cards and so they placed these switches in Display.cfg to ensure that those affected cards would achieve an acceptable level of compatibility at the time of the release of FS2004 pending future driver updates. Only the switches under the matching Vendor and Device identifiers will be applied. Again, I am assuming that future updates that manage to resolve such issues will include a method to disable those Display.cfg switches as they would be no longer required.I should quickly qualify all this by emphasizing that this is just me attempting to work out what is going on and what may have been the intentions of the sim's development team. It may be that those more aware than myself know this to be nothing but fanciful thought on my part, but since they have not contributed to this or the previous thread, all I can do is indulge in some reasonable and, hopefully, logical speculation.Now, back to your problem...The relevant header in fs9.CFG is, as you suspected:'NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0'Your card has been correctly detected by the sim as the 'GeForce Ti 4600' and it is recognized as the Primary Display Device, as the '.0' extension indicates. This is also shown on the Hardware page within the running sim. Any duplicates are irrelevant and should be deleted. The additional entry appeared only because, as far as the sim was concerned, there was no existing valid entry in fs9.CFG (the header was wrong) and so the detection routine was reactivated.When I suggest you delete the fs9.CFG file (after making sure you have made a backup/copy), what you are doing is applying a simple method whereby you force the sim to detect your card/drivers again. This is similar to there being no proper reference to your card, as explained in the previous paragraph. The sim will create a fresh reference to your card and that reference will then appear also on the Hardware page.Before you subsitute your previously made backup/copy of fs9.CFG, containing all your customized settings, you should compare the DISPLAY entry in the newly created file with the entry in your previous backup/copy. The basic entry should contain the correct header, the display resolution and the method of filtering (bilinear or trilinear). Unless you have changed your card or drivers (Omega to nVidia or vice versa) these basic entries should match. If they do not, then copy the entry from the newly created fs9.cfg over to your backup/copy. This is the entry you want for you know it to be correct.Now, briefly back to the Display.cfg fileIn your case, I don't believe you need to make any changes to this file as there are no specific references to the earlier GeForce cards. Logically, this tells me that the sim was most probably built around these cards and their unified driver sets, most probably the GeForce4 series. Once again I could be shooting wide of the mark here but I believe Microsoft have been working closely with nVidia over the past year or so and this may provide an explanation.I hope this has helped to clarify your understanding of the reasoning surrounding my observations.Mike

Right, backed up the cfg and had FS9 rebuild a new one, and the device display name was exactly the same (NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.0).I then went back n removed the new cfg file and put back in my "old" cfg. I will investigate later tomorrow if this will have a positive effect on my sim - for now, my eyes have grown tired and brain is fried lol :DI guess cfg editing isnt for the faint of hearted :)Thanks a bunch again for all the help you provided, Mike..

How important is it to have your card listed in the display.cfg?My GEForce 6800 isnt listed.Sim runs fine

Neither of the two cards I've used had entries in the display.cfg that referenced them. I deleted the display.cfg and have not had any problems.Kurt M