I have enjoyed very good overall performance with my system using complex sceneries and aircraft such as PMDG. My frame rates were always in high tens at least. No stutters.I attempted to plug in my other monitor and that was the point when the hell broke loose. It was like a pandora's box. It hang my computer, so I was unable to reboot it. Eventually I got into the safe mode, reinstalled my drivers and directX. Performace dropped tremendously. Then I reinstalled my WinXP Pro system (over the existing one not to loose my complicated settings) and defragmented after that. Still bad. I have even erased FS9.cfg and rebuilt it by starting the FS again, but no luck.I am getting close to formatting my hard drive and reinstalling WinXP and FS from the scratch. Before I take this radical step I would like however to hear your kind comments or suggestions what to look for before I do it.I am desperate - any help will do.By the way - after installing my new ATI catalyst drivers in the directX options my AGP acceleration is blank. I cannot turn it on.My system specs:ASUS A7X8N deluxe512 MB DDRAM PC3200 memoryAthlon XP 2700+ processorATI Radeon 9700 Pro with new 3.8 catalyst driversOnboard vVidia sound plus Soundblaster PCI cardFlatron 19' flat panel monitorThanks a million,Dom

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Hi Dom,I assume you have deleted (in C.P. / Add Remove Programs), both the ATI control panel and the video card drivers? If so, have you tried all the tricks in the doc linked to by Mike Adamo? You might try those too. And re-run Direct-X (I assume you have too).If all else fails, you have XP to retrieve a 'system restore" point. These are magic, one click and you're right back to the old config. WinXP is worth it just for this feature alone!! I believe they run each day (or night) and create a restore point, so you should be able to find one OK. Then start again, after putting all your h/w back to the way it was and running System Restore. Bruce.

Hi Bruce,Unfortunate thing - some time ago someone knowledgeable advised to turn this option off to improve overall system performance.So - no restore point.Another weird symptom I just noticed is that trying to install the latest nVidia chipset drivers for my mobo I double click on exe file - it unpacks the files into temporary folder and nothing more. This procedure used to be starting up an install dialog window to install mobo components. Now I get nothing - looks like it is going to be drive format after all.Dom

Search for and find your fs9.cfg file. Open it in notepad and search for Radeon. It should show something like{DISPLAY.Device.RADEON 9700 PRO.0]}<- In square bracketsMode=1280x1024x32MipBias=5AntiAlias=1TextureAGP=1 TriLinear=1PanelAsTexture=1{DISPLAY.Device.RADEON 9700 PRO-Secondary.1}Mode=1280x1024x32MipBias=5AntiAlias=1TextureAGP=1 PanelAsTexture=1NOTE: The curly braces are actualy square brackets and you may not have all the settings I have.Delete these entries, keep searching in your fs9.cfg file until all entries have been deleted. Start FS9 and reset your video settings to what you want then exit FS9.This should cure your stutters. I ran into the same problem awhile ago and thanks to a suggestion from someone here, the above solved my probs.I figure because fs9 now supports multiple displays that it will try to access everything the fs9.cfg files states, even if it doesn't exist. Because of this, its trying to access the extra displays that do not exist. Bad programming by Microsoft, as in the directx SDK it states that the programmer should ALWAYS enumerate video displays.Good luck, and I hope the above helps youFraser

Hi Dom,Oh no! Restore takes about 30 seconds in each 24 hour period, and even then it doesn't consume much in resources (other then HD space). If the unpacking of drivers is a part of the issue (as you see it), then you should be able to go to the location of the unpacked files and run setup.exe. Have you tried the procedure that Mike Adamo posted here (search on his name). I'm not sure if you've done all that or not.And re-enable that system restore! :) It's as bad as not running an anti-virus app on your system because you think it will "degrade performance". Get a virus, or do something that only system restore can fix like a bad registry edit, and then you'll see performance issues big time :). Bruce.