HELP!!!! :-(It's something I used to experience on my old Radeon 9700, and now on the new system, with X850XT, still the same thing.Just tonight, BEAUTIFUL flight from LIRF to EGLL, zillion of virtual pilots online, EGLL was fully staffed, I was on approach, and wanted to change to full screen for a better view, of course. And then is when it happened. In the flight, I used alt+enter many times, and nothing... And then just on the end, it happened!What?: I press alt+enter to go from windowed to full screen, and all I get is window of the FS, all black where the panel and all is, can't change anything, can't use alt+enter any more, BUT, I hear still aircraft flying, and it seems that FS is working "properly" further, just I can't see a thing. Mouse is flickering, and all I can do as far as I can see is click on the x and close the FS (YES/NO prompt pops up just fine).My conclusion is, it's not hardware, since I changed virtually all of hardware, except my two soundcards (and those are working fine from the day one). Also I never experienced this on older installations of FS9. I think it's a problem somewhere in the FS9, on the software side. But WHERE?! What?? Anyone ever had a similar problem?

That is an issue that plagues a lot of us. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. I know of no workaround for your stated purpose.Hopefully, someone else does.Just as a shot in the dark, try mimimizing your windowed screen before you hit alt/enter.Regards,Jim

my workaround:always start fs in a window,then alt-enter out to full screen.since doing that,i've yet to encounter a black screen.also,i have had succes in bringing up the menu with alt,and then changing the resolution to a different setting,then back,i could fly on.i use a GF4 ti4200 though :)tataJP.

Nope. It isn't hardware because I have the same thing happen pretty regularly when switching from full screen to window. Definately a MSFS glitch. I just make sure I save the flight before trying to switch modes. At least that way I don't loose everthing. It is a damned nusance though.

I get this regularly. I just go to the Option menu by pressing Option tag (if it is not appearing press ALT), settings, display,hardware and there I change Render to Texture (check if unchecked, or uncheck if checked).When the mouse is flickering you can always get to the option tag.I got this first after installing AS2004. Then I managed to avoid it until I installed MaxiVista. It is annoying but just as a fly buzzing around one's face.Roger

It's a problem with one or other addon "modules" locking FS up. For me it was ViMaCore2004.DLL. It hasn't actually crashed as there are a few "tricks" to release it again. It has been discussed in Pete Dowson's (FSUIPC) forums but I don't think a proper workaround was ever found, at least not when I checked.

I usually experience this just after I upgrade my ATI drivers (I have the Radeon X800 XT PCIE). I have discussed solutions to this problem in several other threads in the past 3-4 months. I did not have this problem after upgrading to the latest drivers though (1st time in 9 months!). I think there's a glitch in the registry entries for ATI and maybe other video manufacturers. What I do is start FS9, goto display settings and change the resolution. I then shutdown FS9 and restart. I go back into the display settings and change the resolution back to my original setting, then shutdown FS9 AND shutdown my system. After restart of my system I restart FS9 and I can now get into full screen again. Sometimes I had to go through this procedure a couple of times. Once I fixed it by manually reinstalling the ATI drivers (i.e., going into device manager, display, update driver, selecting I will install the drivers from my disk, and then browsing to the ATI directory and clicking on the appropriate INF file). I do not uninstall the drivers before manually installing. Hope this helps you fix your problem.Jim

I have this problem also. I don't use alt-enter anymore. There is nothing worse than a beautiful flight being ruined by something like that. I found a way to get out of full screen and to desktop if you need to do that. Check your keyboard for the little windows symbol. It's between the Alt key and the Ctrl key on my keyboard. When you push it it will take you right to desktop without any crashes. If you are already in windowed mode, the only way to get to full screen without alt-enter is use the menu bar... Scott

Thanks everyone for your replies! Next time this crap appears, I'll try some of your suggestions. Until then, I wish you happy flying!!!