Here's the mystery, I'm flying along in the default Mooney. Everything is working as advertised. About an hour or so into the flight whenever I switch to one of the outside views, i.e., spot, tail, wing, etc., the aircraft appears, but, it's completely black. No color at all. Everything else, ground textures, sky, etc., is normally displayed.System: Dell XPS, 2GB RAM, 512MB ATI RAdeon X1950 XTX Crossfire, 320 GB Hard Drive.Also, as this happens, I've got the fps set as 26 and the screen is showing 20-22 fps so memory doesn't seem to be the problem.Any help would be appreciated.JIm

That happened to me when I used the FSX Demos that were available before the final product was released. It was a bug that was acknowledged.It hasn't happened at all since I have the FSX commercially-available software. Stan

Stan,I'm running a properly activated Deluxe version of FSX, so I guess that the bug is still there.Anyone else have any ideas. I can't believe that I'm the only one with this problem.Jim

Let me just say that I have put lots of hours on the Mooney with long x-country flights and it has never happened to me. I also have the deluxe version of FSX.I have an AMD CPU with 1 GB of RAM and an ATI 256 MB PCIe graphics card. I use Omega drivers, currently the set based on Cat 6.9. R-

I'd start with the standard things, driver updates, look for running processes, virus scanners, etc running in the background, reinstall FSX.

OK, I'm running the latest (12-13-06) drivers for the ATI card. My Norton Internet Security program is disabled. I did re-install FSX. Heat doesn't seem to be an issue as the PC case is cool to the touch. The black plane mystery occurs with other aircraft, and, in various geographic locations. And, to re-state, it's only the aircraft external textures that are affected.Still hoping for a fix.Thanks,Jim

>OK, I'm running the latest (12-13-06) drivers for the ATI>card. My Norton Internet Security program is disabled. I did>re-install FSX. Heat doesn't seem to be an issue as the PC>case is cool to the touch. The black plane mystery occurs with>other aircraft, and, in various geographic locations. And, to>re-state, it's only the aircraft external textures that are>affected.>I can't help noticing that the date of your original post coincides exactly with the release date of your video drivers. Have you tried rolling back to an earlier version? It wouldn't be the first time that a driver release had a screwy little bug attached to it. In fact, I said in an earlier post (above) that I was using drivers based on Cat 6.9s.I have since gone back to an earlier release because there was a problem with how my video RAM was being utilized. MemStatus reported that only 26 MB of video RAM was being used but system RAM was being overloaded causing lots of disk activity, apparently as the page file was accessed. Older drivers fixed it.You might try that. R-

Hi jha38Have you any addon installedRegardsRex

Actually, the problem started with the "old" drivers and has continued with the newer ones. I don't know, maybe the drivers that came with the system, the "old" ones, might be the problem.At this point I'm getting a bit frustrated with the whole thing. Thanks again. I'll give MemStatus a look and see how RAM is being used.Jim

Rex,The only add-ons I have installed are a couple of CRJ's and the turbo Beaver from Premieraircraft. Everything else is stock from the install DVD's.Jim

If its only the Mooney then probably the texture files are corrupt.

It's not only the Mooney. It happens with the default Baron and the Premieraircraft turbo Beaver. And, probably others that I haven't tried yet.Jim

Hi again Jim.I have spent quite a few hours in the barron and have not seen your problem,It is always posible that the install was interupted without your knowlage.I am a ferm belever in remove and reinstall to fix faults,but that is because I am no good at finding faults.Best of luck JimRegardsRex

Rex,I did an uninstall - reinstall routine. It fixed nothing, but, thanks for the suggestion anyway.Jim

>Here's the mystery, I'm flying along in the default Mooney.>Everything is working as advertised. About an hour or so into>the flight whenever I switch to one of the outside views,>i.e., spot, tail, wing, etc., the aircraft appears, but, it's>completely black. No color at all. Everything else, ground>textures, sky, etc., is normally displayed.>>System: Dell XPS, 2GB RAM, 512MB ATI RAdeon X1950 XTX>Crossfire, 320 GB Hard Drive.>>Also, as this happens, I've got the fps set as 26 and the>screen is showing 20-22 fps so memory doesn't seem to be the>problem.>>Any help would be appreciated.>>JIm>Jim, I have the exact same problem and it happens with add on planes such as the b1900 shown here and with FSX. I am using FSX final version. I also am using a different video card than you (256mb geforce 7600 GS) which probably rules out a driver problem. The only way I have found to fix it is to load another version of the plane then reload the original. The black usually shows up after 30 minutes to an hour of flying.