Win 7 64bit

[patcal 2]

Greetings,

 

I am running a AMD Phenom II X2 545 CPU 3.0Ghz on a Gigabyte MB. I have 4gig DDR3 ram & a ATI HD4850 512mg video with Win XP 32bit. I run FS9 quite well. I am wanting to go to FSX eventually but my FS9 setup is very good. The question is will installing Win7 64bit be any improvement for FSX & more importantly will it hurt my FS9? I already run my FS9.exe large address aware. My understaanding is some of my older add-ons might have a problem with the 64bit OS. It seems like a lot of work. Any thoughts on the subject would be appretiated.

 

Pat Callaghan

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Pat

I have run FS9 and FSX in a 64-bit OS (Vista then Win 7) and I can't recall any issues with older add-ons in either. The way that a 64-bit Windows OS operates means that most 32-bit apps will run fine. There will always be exceptions.

The main advantage of a 64-bit OS is that you can use the full 4GB of Physical RAM and you get all of the 4GB of Virtual (process address space - VAS). In a 32-bit OS you only get 2GB of VAS which you can increase to 3GB with the /3G switch (provided that the software has the large address aware flag set). In a 64-bit OS you may see far fewer Out of Memory issues (OOM's).

Note the VAS is not anything to do with how much physical RAM is installed or how big your paging file is - these are different items.

Windows 7 also handles graphics much better than Win Xp 32, but that may not affect you significantly. For good FSX performance your system is a little light in both the cpu and graphics card. But hey, it may be worth trying FSX just the same.

Regards

pH

[patcal 2]

Thanks for the info. I have never actually had a OOM error. I had FSX on this system for awhile but was forced to turn the settings way down. It was just not worth it since my FS9 was running so well. (still is) More things to ponder. Thanks again.

 

Pat

[patcal 2]

Well, got Win7 64bit installed. No problems so far. Really did not expect any. Tomorrow I start reinstalling FS2004 & my addons. We shall see.

 

Pat

[patcal 2]

Boy this has been fun. FS9 is flashing when I hit the ALT key. Sometimes my mouse flashes & turns black in the game. I have tried 12-15 different video drivers to no avail. I have tried various graphics settings without success. I have tried running as admin & different compatabilty modes. Also making the FS9.EXE large address aware. Any ideas?

 

Pat

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Pat

I have never seen that issue in Win 7 64-bit, but as I said above there are always exceptions.

Hope you get it sorted.

pH

[upandout 0]

I had the flashing prob, but I'm running vista32. never really found a fix other than starting in full screen mode and staying there, or in windowed. switching just flashed

[out 769]

Sometimes my mouse flashes & turns black in the game

 

Right click and then left click each time it happens - I have not yet seen a better solution.

Graphics artefacts are common when using FS9 with Win 7 64 bit (I don't know about FSX).

[Guest firehawk44]

Sometimes my mouse flashes & turns black in the game.

 

Have you tried any of the troubleshooting tips from Microsoft concerning this problem? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263039

 

Best regards,

Jim

[patcal 2]

I want to thank all who tried to help me. I gave up. I reinstalled WinXP today. My FS2004 is my priority program. I was already having issues with the few add-ons that I tried to install. Just was not worth it to me. Thanks again.

 

Pat Callaghan

[Daveo 36]

I want to thank all who tried to help me. I gave up. I reinstalled WinXP today. My FS2004 is my priority program. I was already having issues with the few add-ons that I tried to install. Just was not worth it to me. Thanks again.

 

Pat Callaghan

 

Did you run FS9 in compatibilty mode?

[patcal 2]

Yep tried compatability mode, turning off aero, running as admin. Here is an interesting side note. I am having the same problems with FS9 back in Win XP Home. I had this problem once before when I first got this machine. Some how I got it solved but for the life of me I can't remember how. I think I am getting just too old for this stuff. Thanks.

 

Pat

[Daveo 36]

I actually installed my mouse drivers over the stock MS ones. I didn't like the stock ones. Lost the doubleclick and wheel for some reason.

Edited July 6, 2012 by Daveo

[patcal 2]

I seem to remember some versions of the Intellimouse software caused flickers but not sure which ones. There was more than one.

[Daveo 36]

I stopped using MS mice. I use a logitech. I like the click stops on the mouswheel better.