I really hope someone can help because this is depressing me! I am one of those – not alone in these forums of course – who, if my Flightsim has problems, I fret and worry and lose sleep and feel generally miserable! You know how it is!!

 

My PC (the CPU, that is), which I use solely for FS9/FSX was running very hot, up to 95^oC under full load, so, having checked all the ‘usual suspects’ and it being under guarantee, I returned it for repair. They renewed the thermal paste and slightly reduced the voltage and now all is fine. However, the high temperatures had apparently damages the GPU (an nVidia GTX470), so they replaced it with a GTX660, the GTX470 not being available now apparently.

 

Fine, except now I can’t get my two-monitor setup to work. Before, it was fine: I used to start FS9 in windowed mode, then start FSNavigator, which I then moved to the second monitor (via ‘Toggle Docked State’) and then I'd put FS9 into full screen. No problems: I could click on functions in FSNav, or press F9 to reveal the desktop.

 

Now FS9 is behaving more like FSX. This is the sequence:

 

Boot up, start FS9 (windowed mode). Press F9 and FSNavigator starts up. I move the latter to the 2^nd. monitor, as before. The problems start when I go to full screen mode in FS9. Firstly, although my main monitor keeps its desktop resolution (1920x1200) fine, as soon as FS9 goes into full screen, the resolution changes to 800x600x16 - and my 2^nd. monitor goes black. I can go into the FS9 menu and change the resolution to native 1920x1200x32 and when I press F9, FSNav appears on the 2^nd. monitor, (set to native resolution) but it's totally frozen: I can’t access any of its functions or close it again with F9 unless I go back to windowed mode. Then if I go back to full screen, it's fine, but only until I change views in FS9 on monitor 1, or click on anything at all in FSNav on monitor 2,  when the second monitor freezes again.

 

When I reboot, I get the same thing - FS9 starts at 800x600 (why, is it not sticking in the fs9.cfg file??) and all the same graphics issues.

 

I have nVidia Inspector installed, with the SimForum’s recommended settings. I updated the drivers to nVidia’s new 320.00 (Win 7 64-bit) but no change.

 

Sorry this post is rather long, but I guess you have the idea by now. I do not want to run FS9 in windowed mode – I never have in the past and the performance is much, much better in full screen (antialiasing for one is much better). I hope someone can help me get my 2-monitor setup back, so that I can start enjoying life again!!  Is it just a driver issue??

 

Thanks,

 

Martin

Have you set your native resolutions in Nvidia Control Panel?

 

Also check your FSX.cfg to make sure you don't have more than one Display.Device section. It should look something like this:

 

 

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.0] 

Mode=1920x1200x32

Anisotropic=1

AntiAlias=1

 

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.1] 

Mode=1920x1200x32

 

If you have any references to your old GTX470, delete them.

It always seems to be the case that posting a problem here gives me inspiration. Not 100% sure I've fixed this, but mentioning the fs9.cfg file (in .../Application Data/Microsoft/FS9) made me go and have a look at it. (I don't like to delete it to let FS9 rebuild it as that has so often lead to a BSOD in the past).

I see that, although I have only one graphics card (I didn't buy two as SLI doesn't work in FS of course) I have two entries for my GTX 660 - one paragraph headed DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 .0 and another below DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 .1. BUT, I also still had an entry for the old GTX 470. I have deleted that manually and set the display factors directly into the cfg file.

Now, I can run FS9 + FSNav on two monitors just fine. The only problem I seem to have is when I come out of full screen mode, the taskbar has gone.. I go into full screen, back to windowed mode and the taskbar is back, but the Win7 Aero theme has closed doiwn. This has happened a couple of times, though the past few tries have been OK. Well, maybe I am on the way to sorting things out.. will post back after more trials. Should be able to sleep OK tonight at least!!!

2 minutes later:

Wow, Superglide, you answered spot on, describing pretty much what I found! You posted as I was adding my comments.

Should the 660. 1 paragraph have no display settings information, just as you posted above (or was it truncated)?

660.0 is the designation for your main monitor. 660.1 is your secondary monitor. If you go into your Settings-Display in FS9. Look at the Device drop down menu. You will see your monitors 660.0 and 660.1 just as I described. Whichever monitor you have hi-lited, that is what the other settings in that window pertain to. 

 

In my case, I don't set any AA or filtering on my secondary monitor. That's why it looks different than the primary.

Yes, I think I knew that at one stage. I have been abroad for a year and today is the first time I have flown FS9 since I got back - I am a bit rusty!! I was thinking that 660. 1 was for a second GPU. No, it's the 2nd. monitor of course. I don't need any settings on that screen, as you say.

 

Thanks for the help. I should have gone to the fs9.cfg file before panicking!!  :-)

er, I didn't mean to mark my reply as 'best answer' ! Whatever .. :-)