Those problems were fixed for me (mostly) in the Cat 3.9 release. 3.10 added speed to the fix so that the menu flashing was not only gone, but the speed of menus appearing was back to like it was in FS2002. The 4.10 drivers have kept all this and sped up some redraws, too. YMMV, but that's how they've been for me.

Is the texture flickering on buildings and trees gone with these new drivers when mipmapping is set to 8?Haromo

You know what they say: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Well, mine WAS broke and 4.1 seems to have fixed it.After several months of infuriating crashes, I was almost on the verge of posting a Cry For Help on the forums! That's how desperate I was!!! ;-) Seriously though, I thought I would post now in the hope that others might benefit from this information (although I've not seen the exact same problem mentioned anywhere before!).I'm running 2x 19" monitors (Hitachi CM721F and Sony CPD 420GS) on a Radeon 9700 Pro, with both screens set to 1280x1024x32 (FS and desktop), and I was continually encountering a strange crash when undocking windows and moving them to the second monitor.There was no problem with 2D panel bits (throttle quadrant, GPS, radio stack etc.). The trouble only occurred when I tried to move a 3D window (spot view, cockpit side view, top down etc.).As soon as the window was dragged a bit more than halfway across to screen#2, the screen#1 would go black for 10 seconds, then there'd be 2 or 3 faint clicks from the box (graphics card?) and then the "Flight Sim has encountered an error and needs to close" window.The error was invariably a Fatal Error in Module UTIL.DLL.What puzzled me was that this didn't happen every time. About 3 times out of 10 it worked and the rest of the time it didn't. When it didn't work I found that I could restore util.dll from the FS9 disks (CD 2, msgame3.cab) and it would (usually) work for a while.But even when it did work, screen #2 would sometimes lose its anti-aliasing halfway through a session. The forward cockpit view on screen#1 would remain sharp and clear, while the forward-right or spot view on screen#2 would be all jaggies.I fiddled with all the settings, swapped the monitors around, eagerly installed each new Catalyst release, scoured the forums, diligently sent each error report to MS, wrote to ATI (no reply), upgraded my BIOS, etc. - I did everything! But the problem always recurred - until I installed Catalyst 4.1 yesterday morning.I've since launched FS9 30+ times, rebooted countless times, run all sorts of other software and games in between at different resolutions, flown at the busiest airports with the densest settings, and the problem seems to have gone! Even the anti-aliasing stays put! I'm over the moon! I love you, Catalyst 4.1, and I want to have your babies!So, the moral of this tale is:If you're suffering from a fatal error in util.dll, INSTALL CATALYST 4.1 NOW!!!Adrian----------Intel P4 3.06GHz CPUAsus P4PE Mobo with 1GB DDR120GB & 40GB Western DigitalSB Audigy 2ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Cat 4.1Win XP Pro SP 1CH Flight Yoke USB & Pro Pedals USB & Control Manager v2.2019" Hitachi CM721F19" Sony CPD 420GSFSUIPC v3.14 registered

Very interesting Adrian. I had this problem as well, exactly as you described. Except for the UTIL.DLL. Mine just threw me back onto the desktop with no error message. It seemed that disabling fast writes cured it. (just in case it comes back to you) Very frusterating problem though. __Josh

Thanks for the suggestion, Josh, but I did try disabling fast writes at one stage, and unfortunately it didn't work in my case. I continue to have no idea what was wrong, but the important thing for me is that 4.1 has finally cured it. (Touch wood!)I still haven't had any crashes with 4.1, but I did just notice that screen#2 still loses AA from time to time. But I can live with that, I guess. It's great at last to have a side window to better judge those turns onto final!Regards,Adrian---Under the GlideslopeLGTS Rwy 16 (now re-opened)

4.1 caused me nothing but problems.... After installing them my cloud performance has went down considerably even though I have FSW's (Chris Willis) clouds update. I tried to uninstall them but something funky must have stuck because I haven't been able to get my prior performance back. The best drivers I've used in the Omega 3.10 Beta drivers. Now even with these drivers reinstalled (after uninstalling 4.1) I'm still having trouble with the clouds.Another thing I've noticed is if you switch windows (say when one wants to launch FSMetro after FS/your flight has loaded up), once back in FS9 your resolution had degraded. You have to switch to 2D view (this only applies to full screen mode) and reset the display (press 'alt' as if you were going into the menus) and the display is fine again. Well this is my experience with the 4.1 drivers.

Same for me. My computer locked up so I went back to the 3.10.When things are going good. Don't change a thing.Gerry

The 3.10's locked my computer up. The 4.1' works very well for me. I believe faster frame rates.

Hi all.I also experienced some serious problems with the 4.1 Cats.It was very evident when upping the simulation speed, and viewing the default clouds. Severe flashing of the textures.When I reverte4d to the older 3.10 Omegas, My mip-mapping was very odd, with blurry textures. I reinstalled Directx9.0b, and the display of the Omega drivers was fixed.I have an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro. I run it with 4xAGP, fast writes off, and write combining off. Then there are no problems in either FS9, FS2004 or CFS2. CFS2 seem to be more picky about these settings than the FS series.Dick

Hi all.After I looked at my last post, I had a distrust of my own results. :(So I again removed the Omega drivers with WindowsXP's "Add Remove Programs", and carefully made sure all traces of ATI were gone from my registry and harddrive.I installed the new CAT 4.1 drivers and control panel. I then reinstalled Directx 9.0b. I ran the sim, and found my 3d view was not bad, and the cloud 'flashing' I had seen was gone.... but my 2D display was terrible ( no anistropic filtering so the display was severely sparkling ).I rebooted and entered my Motherboard BIOS and turned off AGP fastwrites. I booted, and from the controlpanel used smartgart, I noted my fastwrites were disabled. I turned the AGP down to 4x and restarted the computer....After all this, I had a system running the Cat 4.1 and no fastwrites at 4xAGP and writecombining turned off. Running FS9 now displays properly in 2D and 3D. I can now use 2xAA and 16xAS ( Quality ). My FS hardware setting has Mip Mapping quality at 8 with the number of hardware rendered Lights at 6. 1280x1024x32.Success!The moral? Carefully remove all traces of former drivers and ATI programs... then, if running a 9500 Pro, make sure the Motherboard BIOS limits the AGP to 4X and fastwrites off ( if possible ). Run smartgart to insure they actually are oat these settings, then reinstall Directx9.0b and it all worked for me.Now they work OK and they'll stay on my computer.Dick

Hello Dick,Ever since Catalyst 3.9's there has been a utility included that you can run that will remove all vestiges of the drivers, including registry entries, except for 2 that I found but I would only recommend removing them to people who are very comfortable with editing the registry and are CERTAIN they won't make a mistake. I won't list them here unless someone really wants to know and asks for it.The utility to fully remove the drivers is here...C:Program FilesATI TechnologiesUninstallAllAtiCimUn.exeWhat I do is remove the drivers in the Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs, reboot into safe mode, then run the 'AtiCimUn.exe'. Then I reboot, open up the registry editor and remove the above mentioned entries, then install the new Catalyst drivers.I think whether or not you need to disable APG Fastwrite and/or Write Combining may depend on your motherboard and/or the BIOS version you haveinstalled for it. I have always had Fastwrites and Write Combining on and have never had a problem.My settings are 1600x1200 resolution, 4X AA, and 16X AF with Quality on. Everything in the sim is turned up and on, slider full right except the following...Terrain Complexity(Mesh): 85%Scenery Complexity: Very DenseAutogen: Very Dense (I'm also using a file in the Avsim library named: fs9xml.zip)Not all my Cloud sliders are full right.My average FPS is usually 22.I have a question for you Dick. Are you getting much shimmering with your Mip-Map setting at 8? I get some with mine set at 4 and I hate to think of how bad it would be at 8! But I might check it out real quick.Cheers,Jim

I'm running a 9600 series card on a 1.9 MHz machine.I installed the 4.1s and noticed a bit more hard drive activity during flights which, obviously, is never good. I went into the DXDIAG utility and performed the 2D and 3D write tests. The ATI block was spinning so fast I couldn't make out the ATI emblem on it. I recall a nice smooth spinning box with previous drivers. Anyone else noticed this?

Hello dykesc,I did the test and see what you mean. To me it's as if the test is being performed with 'Wait for Vertical Synch' to 'Always On' even though I have my slider at 'Always Off' in the 3D Settings Tab. I'm not sure what to make of it.Jim

I fouled up im my previous post. The box has a "DirectX" logo on it, not an ATI logo. Still I wonder why the change from a smooth spin.

Hi Jim.I have a Radeon 9500 Pro, which may not be able to display with fastwrites or write combining or 8X AGP. Or the problem may be my KT4 Ultra MSI motherboard. But disabling those features won't make much of a reduction in FPS.The shimmering is not bad at 8, and almost gone at 5. But there may be a problem with your ATI settings. Try lowering your resolution to 1024x768, 2xAA and 16xAF ( Quality ).The cards might not be able to actually use the AF with the higher resolution and AA! The shimmering should be stopped by the 16xAF. If it's not, then the AF just isn't working.===============As far as the spinning cube... it's supposed to spin slowly and smoothly.Dick