Dear Members, I am experiencing problems with my FS....The Problem is that when I run fs...the sound is coming very fainth...also i noticed a reduce in my Fps...I re-installed my video card drivers (latest 45.23) Ge Force Fx5600...and even my sound card drivers (SBlive5.1)...can anyone help me...I got confused now..as i don't know what to do...and I dont want to loose everything I have on FS...Hope that someone will help me out pls!!Regards,Justin ZammitA320 Captain

Hi Justin,Glad to reply to a Maltese compatriot (and a pilot aswell!). Well, first things first. Last week, Nvidia released new drivers for their products - 52.16. I would suggest first to download the file, extract the contents (does this automatically when you double click on the file), and stop the installation after extraction. Remove your video card drivers (Uninstall drivers), reboot, and when asked by XP about new hardware, install the 52.16 drivers by browsing to the Nvidia folder created during extraction...Sound issues may be a result of many things. Display factors are probably the main cause of concern. Be certain that your Nvidia properties in Windows are set correct and that you're not pushing the video card to extremes (check Resolution, filtering, anti-aliasing etc). I would suggest playing around with the display settings (both in Windows and FS). I had a similar problem - I used to get crackling noise (which was IRRITATING!) now and again. I decided to re-install FS and experiment with display properties. I guess I managed to stabilise everything now. Another thing, I notice a huge drop in frame rates when downloading real time weather.Justin, experiment, experiment and experiment! Good luck!Storm

Hi, I have a similar problem on my "older" system. I get static/crackling noise, particularly when I run real weather from FSMeteo.I have an AMD1800+/512ram/Ti4200(64)(30.82)/WinXPHomeSP!/DX9.0b with a basic Creative Labs Sound Blaster PCI 128 voice sound card. I don't see that great of a hit with real weather on fps (and I generally get acceptable fps overall), but I do get the sound problems. I was thinking of upgrading to an audigy sound card, or at least something better than my basic PCI card.......I assumed it was simply my sound card, but you are saying that then the display card gets overstressed, then that in turn creates problems for the sound card.....? I have tried the lower sound settings both in fs9 and also slowed the sound acceleration in dxdiag, but neither seems to help. Appreciate any further insights. thanks, Steve J.

Dear Members, I have downloaded the latest Video card drivers from NVIDIA....and unfortunately MY problem is still there!!! I left the video card settings as they where when i installed the new drivers!!!What shall i do?? ..re-install Fs ?Hope to hear from you very very soon!!Regards,Justin Zammit A320 Captain

Check the version of directX you have installed. Press Start, Run..., type dxdiag, OK. Let the DirectX Diagnostic stabilize. Review the General tab for the version, should be directx9.0b. If not, download version 9.0b from Microsoft Update website. If so, check the sound tab, for the amount of Sound acceleration and also test you sound with the button provided. Try different levels of sound acceleration to see if it makes a difference. Also if your sound card fails any of the test, troubleshoot the cause.Lastly, you may want to conduct a diskdrive cleanup. Open windows explorer, open Windows folder, open Temp folder, Delete all files in the Temp folder. Right Click Internet Explorer, Internet Options, press delete files, OK. Press Settings, Press View Files, and review all the cookies, delete the ones you don't want or return to the General Tab and press the delete cookies button. Double-click on My Computer, select the drive (usually C:) that has Windows installed, right click the drive, select properties, press the Disk Cleanup button, let it search, then OK, and Yes.You could also run a Disk Scan/Defrag to recover disk space.W. Sieffert