As can be read in a posting elsewhere on this Forum, I have been having some serious software issues with re-installing my FSX Gold. As I was making no headway and no solutions were forthcoming from this thread posted here, I duly sent Microsoft's FSX Product Support a query with attached screengrabs of the errors I ws getting trying to re-install Service Pack 2 or the Accelleration Pack.Now according to the reply I have just had from Microsoft, they state that there is no need for me to install a separate FSX Service Pack 1 followed by FSX Service Pack 2 as it gets installed by default when installing FSX Gold.As that made me raise my eyebrows because in previous FSX re-install postings,I have read that it should be FSX,SP1,SP2 in that order with a reboot each timeHence,to anyones's recollections or experiences, is this piece of Product advice from Microsoft strictly true or are they barking up the wrong tree?

What Microsoft wrote back is true.

vc10man,Microsoft's advice is sound, considering that FSX Gold contains both FSX Deluxe and the FSX Acceleration DVD. FSX Acceleration has its own version of SP2 included (different from the downloadable SP2 for FSX).- You first install FSX Deluxe (2 DVDs), run and activate it.- Then, you install FSX Acceleration (1 DVD), run and activate it.If you were to skip the installation of Acceleration and only install FSX Deluxe, then yes you would need to install SP1 and SP2 for FSX. Be advised that if later (after having patched to SP1 and SP2) you finally decide to install Acceleration, you would first need to uninstall FSX SP2 since the Acceleration pack cannot be installed on top of a SP2 patched FSX.Best regards,Normand

vc10man,Microsoft's advice is sound, considering that FSX Gold contains both FSX Deluxe and the FSX Acceleration DVD. FSX Acceleration has its own version of SP2 included (different from the downloadable SP2 for FSX).- You first install FSX Deluxe (2 DVDs), run and activate it.- Then, you install FSX Acceleration (1 DVD), run and activate it.If you were to skip the installation of Acceleration and only install FSX Deluxe, then yes you would need to install SP1 and SP2 for FSX. Be advised that if later (after having patched to SP1 and SP2) you finally decide to install Acceleration, you would first need to uninstall FSX SP2 since the Acceleration pack cannot be installed on top of a SP2 patched FSX.Best regards,Normand

Boy, that was fast, very fast in fact getting responses to my query.Thanks guys.Your respective inputs much appreciated.However, when I try to install the Acceleration Pack, I get the same software error at the Direct X stage as I did when trying to install SP2 and have to quit at that stage and watch it rollback, which is why I posted to Microsoft directly. So, how do I overcome this snag then?

If you try to install Accell/SP2 on a machine that cant do DX10 you might see that error, didn't see any machine specs .

If you try to install Accell/SP2 on a machine that cant do DX10 you might see that error, didn't see any machine specs .

Specs were listed in an earlier posting but they are as follows:CPU Intel Quad Q6600 o/c'd to 3.4GHz cooled with Titan FenrirOCZ HPC Reaper DDR2-8500 8GbAsus P5Q De LuxeXFX ATi Radeon HD5770 1GbBe Quiet! 650WAntec 900/2Samsung SpinPointWindows 7 Pro 64-bitMy question is, why did FSX Gold installed in the recommended method, i.e. Gold,then SP1,then SP2 all work fine with numerous Add-on aircraft and Add-on sceneries before I installed Plan-G which is when the issues started as I started getting scripting errors?

The plot thickens , i would try their update , 14th Mar 11: Plan-G 2.0.5 and hope that fixes it , otherwise uninstall plan g .Running the FSX repair function to overwrite corrupted dll's might do the trick, i wish you luck with your frustrations , powering up the machine this morning yealded three bios beeps and a black screen , panic last is my motto..

The plot thickens , i would try their update , 14th Mar 11: Plan-G 2.0.5 and hope that fixes it , otherwise uninstall plan g .Running the FSX repair function to overwrite corrupted dll's might do the trick, i wish you luck with your frustrations , powering up the machine this morning yealded three bios beeps and a black screen , panic last is my motto..

Thanks Chuck.Your comments are appreciated. I have managed to figure out that the Windows Installer has gone haywire because I cannot even install the SDK from Disk 1 but despite trying to download the latest Windows Installer version from M/soft,I'm making no progress.However,astonishingly,this afternoon, I had a callback from a M/soft Flight Simulator Supportperson in a call-centre in India that lasted over an hour. The guy was was most helpful.To get that kind of service from M/soft was nothing short of outstanding.From thousands of miles away he took control of my PC through a client software,but alas, he too after trying several FSX uninstalls/re-installs,SP1 installs/uninstalls,registry hacks,etc,etc came a cropper.He is going to try again tomorrow. So,fingers crossed, but I'm sensing a complete Win7 OS re-install to resolve this.

Update.Unfortunately,it seems that Microsoft's Flight Simulator Support tech guys based in a call-centre in India could not resolve this issue try as much as they could,and in the end I had to do a complete OS re-install,much as I has suspected. Luckily that was not too much of an issue as I had no data to save, etc as the computer I have built is solely for FSX use.Re-installed FSX Gold right up to the Acceleration Pack and now after applying Nick's tweaks, everything runs very smoothly, getting high frame rate, etc.

I had a somewhat similar problem when reinstalling FSX Deluxe followed by SP1. Then when I tried to install SP2, I only got the options to remove SP2, like it was already installed. FSX.exe properties says the Version is 10.0.61355.0. Can I tell from that whether SP2 is installed or not?Dave Hinson

I had a somewhat similar problem when reinstalling FSX Deluxe followed by SP1. Then when I tried to install SP2, I only got the options to remove SP2, like it was already installed. FSX.exe properties says the Version is 10.0.61355.0. Can I tell from that whether SP2 is installed or not?Dave Hinson

EDIT: Seeing J. Skorna's reply to another question along these lines, I checked the Version by looking at Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Although I have only installed SP1 after an FSX reinstall, CP/AR says that SP2 is installed. And although I have not installed SPX SP1, it also says this pack is installed. How can this be ? Does CP/AP keep the original version number in its file ? A puzzler :(

Hi,You didn't uninstall SP2 then before you re-installed your FSX. Windows keeps track of all this and if you don't uninstall/re-install correctly then CP/AR can show things the wrong way.

Hi,You didn't uninstall SP2 then before you re-installed your FSX. Windows keeps track of all this and if you don't uninstall/re-install correctly then CP/AR can show things the wrong way.

So is my SP2 installation OK now, or should I uninstall it and reinstall ?Thanks for your response.Dave

Hi,What did you do to make the SP2 install OK?

Hi,What did you do to make the SP2 install OK?

I only installed SP2 in my original FSX installation. That went OK, I suppose, as there were no problems. But when I reinstalled FSX (no, I didn't uninstall SP2 or SP1 before I uninstalled FSX), I installed SP1 (seemingly OK), but then I couldn't install SP2 because the install program would only let me repair or uninstall SP2, as if it were already installed). I suppose the thing to do is to let SP2 program uninstall the pseudo-SP2 and then try to reinstall it. Probably should do the same thing with SP1, although I did not have any problems reinstallin it.Dave