My FS2002 has always behaved.Suddenly it has developed a problem, i.e.when I open at an airport,in Cockpit View there is no dashbord nor instruments to be seen,only a window open on the tarmac.All other views (Spot,Tower etc.)are OK. The problem occurs with all aircraft.Clearly the program isn't loading those parts.What am I to do (hopefully not to reinstall FS2002)?Thanks.Viking

Try:Views menuInstrument panel-check "global on"Hope that helps!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

I found Global on,I have eved done Shift+[,but to no avail.Viking

Gosh,it came out garbled.I did Shift+[Viking

Terrible:Shift,plus,left square bracket.Viking

Did you close down in OPEN view, perhaps?Start FS2002. Load an aircraft. If you have no panel, try SHIFT/1. Or try toggling the W key in case you are in MINIPANEL/OPEN VIEW mode. If your panel appears, close FS2002 and restart. See if it's there.If not, the only other thing I can think of is that you've installed updated graphic card drivers recently. There are some documented problems where some releases kill the 2D panel.Let us know how you get on anyway, Nordic One.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

The same thing happened to me today only it occurred with my Piper Archer in FS2004. I checked the Panel.cfg and it contained only one line (Windows)(in brackets). I had to reinstall the update to the Piper Archer. I don't know who or what deleted everything in my panel.cfg. It was working perfectly a couple of weeks ago. The only program I installed since then was Ultimate Traffic but I doubt that program deleted my configuration. It's weird. Jim

Mark,it didn't work.The only way to proceed now is to start from a saved flight.In this case the panel is where it should be.Then I can try to change airport and aircraft.Sometimes it works,some other it won't.I'll try to endure it for a few days before reinstalling.I'll check the panel.cfg as Jim said.Viking

It won't be the PANEL.CFG for any particular aircraft if it's happening with all aircraft, I think.Try letting FS rebuild its config file before you go to the effort of reinstalling. If you've never done this ... back up FS2002.CFG in the root directory (if you've made no changes to it yourself that you want to save for reference later then you can just delete it). Start FS2002 and the sim will build a new file. See if your panels magically reappear.Here's hoping. Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Mark,your tip did't work,however the problem was cured by reinstalling FS2002.I'd like to ask you one thing though.Before uninstalling,I created in FS2002/Microsoft Games a backup folder into which I transferred all significant FS2002 folders,such as aircraft,ADDON SCENERY,scenerydb,etc. because they contained a lot of additional 3d party files,and without changing their names.The intention was,after installation,to return them to FS2002 replacing the original skimpier ones.I was rather surprised when the reinstalled FS2002 showed not to have lost anything,apart from a couple of loose files which I hadn't backed up.I ask you:1) Has 2002 utilized the backup files because they were bearing the unmodified file names,instead of installing the originals,or2) Does 2002 retain and reinstall the files as they are,with additions,independently from whether they have been backed up somewhere else?Thanks.Viking

Did you transfer, or COPY, those files somewhere else hefore you uninstalled?If you copied, leaving the third party files within FS2002, and then uninstalled, the uninstall process would have left all files that were not recognised as being MS originals - that is, with different names than ship on the CDs - in place.Then when you reinstalled, you would still find them there within your new FS2002. Had any files of the same name as ship with the CDs been present, they would be overwritten with the default.A new install of FS2002 could not possibly have hunted for them in some other backup folder, however. Does this help? If you did TRANSFER the files elsewhere, then I guess not!Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Mark,I copied the files with their original names into a FS2002/Microsoft Games/Temporary Backup file.I didn't transfer them from FS2002 for fear that the subsequent uninstallig would not proceed or be messy if a number of files were not found in the program.Viking

So there you go. That's why your add-ons were still there. They would not have been removed by the uninstall prog which only recognises default files, so the new install mixed nicely in with them. We hope!Glad you're sorted now, anyway. Long live Noggin the Nog!Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Mark,one last question,and then I won'y be bothering you any longer.Since I am at the capacity limit of my hard disk,if I had to reinstall for any reason still wishing to retain the add-ons,could I transfer(not copy)the FS2002 files into an external backup file?This would allow doing the operation much more safely.Would the program uninstall smoothly if devoid of many of its files?Thanks.Viking

Hi again Horny HelmetI guess what you are saying is that rather than just back up the add-ons you would wish to back up everything. You can certainly do that if you have the capacity. In my own case, I have 60GB of flightsim stuff and couldn't face sticking that lot on disk at 700MB a time; so I just added another 80MB HD recently for $100 and copied the whole lot across overnight - five hours, to be precise.Not sure what will happen to your uninstall process if you remove key files, though, having never reinstalled or had a need to. It may say "can't uninstall because I can't find the FS2004.exe file" or something, so if you are backing up at all I would copy, not transfer.But forget about it. Some people seem to reinstall as often as they have Cornflakes for breakfast but it's often quite unnecessary if you just take the time to work out what's gone wrong.Yeah, right, Mark. It's not always that easy, I know. But all I can say is I've never had to reinstall yet since FS5 and I have one heckuva lotta files on there.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg