I have mine set to the third mark from the left (ie. just left of centre), which disables directdraw, direct3d, all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations. Any lower and you lose the ATI control panel, and some 3D features, on BOTH secondary and primary adaptors. Gary

After installing the Intel Chipset software and Application accelerator my SSW A310 will no longer function because of the copy protection program. SSW has a copy protection removal program on their website but when I ran it, it said that there was no copy protection files found. Well.... obviously there still is. I've emailed SSW support so hopefully we can get this straightened out soon. I had plans to fly this bird tomorrow.William

>>Is there any other usefull knowlegde you would like to>share>>with us?>>Well, just to repeat that if you don't specefically need>something on your PC then why install it? It's tinkering with>stuff that ain't broke that causes, IMO, many people to curse>FS9 and Big Bill unfairly.>>Davidcouldn't have said it better myself, but apparently some people are incapable of independent thought and have to be spoonfed the blatantly obvious.

Hello,On my GF4 TI4600, it only works when it is set to the mark just left to the FULL acceleration mark, otherwise FPS drops to 2-3 .

Well I didn't fair as well. I first checked compatibility with my chipset which is an INTEL 850. Both chipset and controllers were compatible. I then installed both utilities per instructions. At first everything seemed fine. I saw a few FPS boost in FS9, and the studders were pretty much gone. (Although this may be a subjective opinion, and no where near the boost Gary reports)) Then the trouble started. My system started locking within 45 min. I'd have to do a hard boot to recover. The 3rd time the monitor just went black. I tried to reboot but the system wouldn't boot properly. I finally got the system up long enough to do a system restore to a point before this installation. The restore was successful, and I haven't had a problem since. So I think I had enough of these system tweaks, the benifits are not worth the risks. I was lucky this time, the next time I may not be!!

I also have the 850 chipset and installed the accelerator- haven't had any problems since, but I also can't say I've noticed much improvement. Load times seem about the same though.best,Joel

Well I have the 845 chipset and it did boost my FPS about 20-30% 10 FPS at Peak 7 FPS average. I also moved the scenery and weather sliders a few knotches to the right. Thanks for the tip!Barry

Here's my summary:Installed chipset utility - I've previously installed the latest i845E drivers from dell, however, the intel said newer drivers were available and it installed them - I flew a number of test flight, saw a little more smoothness - no significant change in average FPS, maybe 1 fps faster...Installed application accelerator as the i845E is supported. Bunch of test flights, no improvement at all. In fact, after a couple of hours my Logitech RF mouse started acting up - stuttery, would freeze for a few seconds, then start up again (not in FS, just at the desktop or browsing the net). Uninstalled the application accelerator. Mouse is fine again... I'm happy without it, and the chipset drivers seem to have improved things a bit.I have gotten much better results using Ken Salter's FSAutoStart program - that one got me about 10-15% in FPS (20-25 without, to 30+ with - rural flights, few clouds).Just an FYI.sg

I hope you had a restore point - dropping back to that should have cured the copy protection problem...?

I got it fixed. SSW sent me a new key within an hour of my asking. I could have restored but wanted to try out the intel software. William

I can't even install IAA - says incompatible hardware :( Though I have the mobo with 875 chipset and 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICCH5R) controller installed. Both raid and non-raid are impossible to install.

Is the acceleration set in DM? Thanks,Bruce.

The failures of the accelerator are probably because the accelerator is designed for RAID configurations, which I haven't seen anyone here say they had.RAID is basically having two hard drives act like one. So if you are not doing that, this is not the fix for you.In other words, if you know and understand what RAID is (other than the bug killer), go for it. If not, stay away from the accelerator.BC

Speaking of RAID, I think one of my RAID-0 drives nearly shat the bed today. Trying to boot into Windows was met with about 10 minutes worth of CHKDSK activity, followed by a fatal exception. The Intel RAID BIOS screen indicates that on my 1st drive, "An Error Has Occured".BUT - A reinstall of WinXP from the master discs, and va-boom - I am into my system - albeit probably hobbled.Currently dumping all my valuables to my USB2 and network drives for a full re-striping, re-format, and cleanup. Sadly, thats 90+ GB of valuables. (SageTV turns my computer into a "Tivo", and there's a ton of video I need to move)Before I do that, though, I will benchmark my drives as it is now, then install the Intel App Accelerator, then benchmark again to see if it will benefit us ICH5R + SATA RAID users. I've got the "F6 Floppy Disc" drivers installed, but I came across instructions in the above links which said I still should install the WinXP program. We'll see what it does.And moral of the story?! - NIGHTLY backups if you run RAID-0 striping!! "Just in case!" -Greg