I gave FS9 to my father for his birthday. He has an HP Pavilion 521n PC with an ASUS A7V-VE MB that has only integrated VIA Trident graphics. He's running Windows XP Home and has a 1.4 G processor with 256K RAM. FS9 will load, but if he tries to fly the computer restarts while loading the scenery. I had him reinstall FS9 in complete mode (he had used Express) but now it gets him as far as the initial 2D cockpit view and then restarts his computer. Also, when he selects the aircraft the spinning model spins, but he says the background flashes. When he changed from the Cessna to a Boeing, another restart. I had him update directX 9, but that didn't help. He's also run Windows Update and no help there. The VIA integrated video has a measly 8MB of RAM. I stupidly assumed his machine would have an AGP slot and sent him an old Radeon 64MB card, but of course it will not go in the machine.Is there any point in getting him a PCI Radeon with 64MB RAM? I'm thinking 3D video is the problem here, but am not sure if it's worth spending money to find out. I know nothing about AMD setups, just that FS9 runs fine on my Intel 815E chipset at 933 Mhz, 512 RAM, and an Nvidia 5600 Ultra. Any advice would be much appreciated!

I have a Radeon 7000 32 Mb PCI in my P3 1.0 Ghz with 512 Ram.FS9 works on it, but I have to keep the sliders low and use little or no ATC.So yes, it will work, if you don't have your expectations too high. I'm planning to upgrade soon as soon as I convince my wife it won't mean I'll spend even more time flying :-) .BlairCYOW

"I'm planning to upgrade soon as soon as I convince my wife it won't mean I'll spend even more time flying."LOL Let us know how that works out, Blair. We'd all like to find the magic solution to convincing the CFO that upgrading= less flying.:-beerchug

Hi Heinrich,Yes, it should work. I have an HP similar to tour Dad's. It is a 2 GHz Celeron which came with 256 MB and onboard AGP video but no AGP card slot. I added a Radeon 7500 (64 MB) PCI card and it made a tremendous difference. I say go for it!Oh, I doubled the amount of RAM too and that helped but not as much as the vdeo card upgrade. R-

How about this:"If our computer gives me 10 fps and a new computer gives me 30 fps, then my flights on the new one will go three times as fast."

XP alone should be run with 512 RAM.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Support

Thanks for your advice and input. He did get a Radeon 7500 64MB PCI card and the sim works now! I'll direct him the great resouce know as AVSIM so he too can benefit from its file library and forums.

One more thing: I think Jim is right about XP and 512 memory. I have a cast-off 256K SIMM, so I'm sending that to bump him up to 512. He's been running a MS's default settings . . . .