Hi all :-)Had probs with my system/Fs9 ever since I installed it, after many changes and 'tweaks' along with reformats and heaps of :-8 I have now come to a sim that runs nice and mostly smooth, very slight occasional stutters, which I can live with, this is wot happened:Crashing to 4bit desktop, found my AGP Fast Writes to be the cause.Hard Lock-ups, 'Video Bios Shadow' was to blame.-------------------------------------------------FS9 running with huge stutters and at times FPS running from 2-20,cause was Realtek on-board sound driver, press 'Q' and FPS would rise to a better level but it still stuttered. Fresh format with XP, installed Realtek sound, seemed ok for a short while but 'degraded' each time I ran the sim, wierd..!!,uninstalled sound, put in old SB card with XP own driver, still stuttering and sound flat with crackles. Took out SB card installed Via Combo sound driver, stutters gone but sound very 'dead'.Reformated with old SB card, sim smooth but sound flat, took the SB out, re installed Realtek with latest drivers, BANG, stutter, stutter, BIG TIME, 2D panel with addon POSKy 743 running at 8 or less FPS, maybe 15 with only the 2 CRT's in view, with wx ( clouds )running it was utterly hopeless and only fit for the trash-can :-(Re-loaded the Via Combo sound driver, BINGO.!! sim smooth, 2D 747 panel running at 20+ FPS with wx ( sim Ultra high setting ), even sitting at Seattle with 50% Jets only AI, scenery Dense, Auto-Gen normal in full 747 2D panel ( 1280/1024.32 no AA ) it sits at 18-20 FPS.Re-formated with Via Combo/AC97 sound, sound very nice indeed ran two long haul flights, one 8 hours the other 10, sim running sweat with FS own real time wx....:D ( no FSMeteo or FSUIPC ) I've got a stutter prob with them....:-(May seem strange that I reformatted each time but being a non techie guy I wanted to feel confident that there was nothing left 'hanging around' to affect things. So it would appear that all my sim woes have been hardware related,hope maybe someone will get benefit from my post..:D I think it wasMatt Zagoren ( hope I spelt your name right ) who suggested the ViaCombo driver, cheers bro..:Dcheers all,Steve

I did not reformat before installing FS9 and now know that had I done so, I could have avoided low FPS related to the sound card issues you mention. I had previously installed SB Live when I was running FS2K2 and noticed immediately that my FPS were cut in half. Thought I'd try it again in FS9, but got the same results. Don't know what causes this, but it does happen. Removed the card and used a driver cleaner, but wondered just how effective it was/is.I now noticed a weird occurence in that when I changed views, my sound frequency level got notched up a level, kind of like going from an F to a G on a music scale. So ATC voices and engine RPM levels were higher than default. Started out OK when you loaded the sim, but once I cycled views, up went the frequency sound level. ATC sounded like Mickey Mouse. Thought perhaps it was a driver conflict issue, but then, the driver cleaner should have taken care of that, or at least I thought. I also now wonder about AC acceleration on the runways. Was never completely sure, but it appeared that AC were accelerating just a little too fast from what I thought should be "reality".I decided to do a complete re-format and the results yielded were a revitalized FS9. All corrupt info gone and I'm amazed at the results.Previous to the re-format, I was getting between 2-18 on a lock at 20 FPS with the accompanying stutters. Over NYC was a severe slide show as well as any congested airport (KSEA, KORD, etc). I now have almost a constant 23-25 FPS with the lock at 25 and the stutters only appear as VERY,VERY tiny occurences over NYC and those airports previously mentioned. And this is with my onboard AC97 sound card and default drivers. Sound frequency levels are normal once again and this sim is running VERY nicely on my low end system.I also applied several Windows XP tweaks as found on the PC Aviator site. I suspect these had an influence as well as most of them were in re-allocation of memory resources.For informational purposes, here are my specs for what I can remember. I'm not at home.1.4 AMD Athlon512 PC2100 DDR RAM40 Gig HDATI 9000 PRO 64MB - Control panel settings are "Application preference". AGP 4X & Fast Write "Off" in SMARTGARTXP HomeFPS locked at 251024x768x32Terrain Density - 90Terrain Complexity - Mid or NormalAutogen - DenseScenery Complexity - DenseDynamic Scenery - Normal (not sure it makes any difference)Lens & Sun Glare not checked.Land & Water Detail - Land only.AI at 70%AIRCRAFT window - all boxes checkedWEATHER window - User definedObviously, nothing is "maxed" out here due to my system capabilities, but what I have for results is a very fluid sim with GREAT graphics and wonderful haze. Add "TableFog=0" to your display config file to get the haze for the 9000 PRO. All in all, very satisfied. As we all have different goals, YMMV.