tried installing fs-x without success. My PC tells me the disk is either corrupt or in a format windows cannot read. My PC meets all the specs. Already uninstalled all bruner programs, dvd player rograms, virus/adware/spyware programs, and disabled teh DLA on my DVD drive. But still no success.Should I send my disks to Microsoft for replacement? I don't plan to buy a new old dvd reader just to install this game (dvd reader/writer is not specified in the requirements list), like some people did.Any suggestions?

Well, what kind of DVD drive do you have?Didn't you ask this in the hardware forum already?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

And at FlightSim.com?Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

Well, yes, I did post a similar post earlier, but didn't get much suggestions about what could be the problem, other than try it on another PC (no offence to those who tried to help me).My optical drive is a NEC DVD-RW ND4550A. Driver is Microsoft, version 5.1.2535.I just noticed that the drive was set to region 1 (don't know if this will matter). The program I bought over the internet via www.cd-wow.com, who are UK based, but ship from Hong Kong. Are these disks region coded?PS, I did not post on Flightsim.com as I am not a member of the forum (actually I though I was, but because I hardly ever post there I forgot my user name and password...)

Hi guys,I have some more information:First of all for information, I have a 2.8GHz Celeron processor, 512 MB RAM and plenty of Harddrive (80 Gigs) available. I run Windows XP SP2, and I have a NEC DVD RW 4550 (nout double layered). My Graphics card is an MSI BeForce FX card. Can't remember which type, but about 2 or 3 years old, with 256 MB RAM I believe. I think it's a 5800 or something like that.Now, a friend of mine has an HP PC and is currently installing my copy of FS-X on his PC. It seems to start the installation without problems. It hasn't finished yet and I warned him he might get the known problems after about 99% of the second DVD.Do I need to buy a different DVD drive? It would be a bit silly to have to buy a new DVD player just because MS didn't make the game compatible for all DVD players...Is it possible region settings on the DVD player affects installation of FS-X? Also, when I look at my optical drive when it is empty, it says "DVD-RAM". Would that matter?Any help (including telling me what DVD player you have) would be appreciated.Perhaps people can tell me what DVD drives they have successfully installed FS-X with. That way I can keep an eye out to see if I can get hold of one.PS I have never had any problems reading and/or writing any type of DVDs or CDs.

Well, my friend installed it in one go without a single problem.As for my pc, it's a barebone system, Aopen XCube. But as I said I use an MSI GeForce card.If someone can tell me what DVD-writer is usable to install the game, that would be great!

You may want to check and see if your autoplay function is still working - this may help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330135 .Also, have you tried to browse the DVD's with Windows Explorer? If you can see the contents of DVD #1 you should be able to start the install by double-clicking on setup.exe . (If you can browse the DVD's with Windows Explorer you will then know that there is nothing wrong with the DVD drive).Doug

Do you run any DVD software, like Nero7?Some of those DVD programs can interfere with Windows reading of the DVD drive. There is a MS KB article about this issue.I'd take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/ph/11941 and see if there isn't something there that rings any bells.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

thanks for the input guys. I already tried those techniques. In fact, I tried all documented techniques: As I stated before, I uninstalled Nero (which was the only burning software I had on my PC), and any DVD player software I had. I disabled DLA (drag-drop copy function of the DVD writer). I tried browsing to the disk, I tried selecting start>nru? E;autorun. I tried control panel> add program. None had success. always the "unable to read disk. Either disk is corrupted or in a format not recognised by windows". My friend installed successfully on his HP machine, which is older rthan mine. He did not uninstall any virus scanners, burning software or dvd player software at all.So I suspect a DVD problem. What DVD players do you guys use when successfully installing FSX?

I have two that work OK. But, they're old ones and probably aren't available anymore: A-Open 1648 AAP and Plextor 708A .Doug

Hi,I had this problem years ago when my cd drive would not read some commerical cd's. The problem was the copy protection that was on the cd could not be read by some cd drives. Since your friend was able to install the game, I would rule out a bad dvd and also region specific.Can you borrow his dvd player, install in your computer and install game?Right now I use a HP dvd player/burner with no problems.Ed

well, I'm not sure if he wants to take out his drive and lend it to me. He is not much of a tinkerer. But I'll ask... I might upgrade my whole system and sell my current one. My current system is really not that bad actually, so I might still get some acceptable money for it. I'll do some browsing around for acceptable components for a cheap price. My friend can play FSX quite well he said, despite his PC being an older (3 year old HP AMD processor type) PC. When I do upgrade I'll make sure to get a HP DVD writer...In the mean time, if anyone else can let me know what DVD drives they have, that would be great. Maybe people with the exact same drive as I have, have the exact same problem. That would confirm my problem with the NEC DVD writer.Well, When I got the drive, it was one of the first to incorporate both DVD+/-R/RW DVDs as well as DVD-RAM disks. Having looked up the specs it seems like it is in fact also a double layer writer, which I thought was not the case (and NEC doesn't specify which double layer DVDs go well with teh writer, which they do for the other formats), so maybe not exactly a clear cut writer...

I think your Nero is not fully and completely uninstalled.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Can you tell me how I can find out, and then how to completely remove it? I performed an uninstall. I realise windows has a tendensy to leave half the files behind somewhere on the system, but not a clue how to trace them, and remove them. Any suggestions?

>Can you tell me how I can find out, and then how to>completely remove it? I performed an uninstall. I realise>windows has a tendensy to leave half the files behind>somewhere on the system, but not a clue how to trace them, and>remove them. Any suggestions?I'd start by checking the registry (Start-->All Programs-->Run...--->regedit) and do a CTRL+F (Find) and put Nero in, and see what you come up with.Nero (and a few other DVD apps) can cause problems with the way Windows reads disks.Of course, it could be any number of things, such as your DVD drive being defective, a loose connection, a power supply issue, motherboard, etc.If you registry is free of any Nero things, and you've uninstalled it, I would hope that this would mean it is fully and completely uninstalled. But then again Nero may have hooks into the OS that I don't know about.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case