Back on January 12th my old PC died on me (most likely a motherboard failure, as when I turned it on I got no video signal nor any beep from the PC speaker) and needed to be replaced. I've now got most of my software installed on the new PC, but Flight Simulator 2004 still isn't working properly.

The new PC has:

• Windows 10 Build 19044

• 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz, 2592 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

• 8 GB RAM

• Intel UHD Graphics 730 (integrated graphics?)

I installed FS2004 from my CDs to D:\Flight\FS9 (to avoid permissions problems caused by the default Program Files, plus to group it with FSX which I also have installed), followed by the 9.1 update and the NO-CD crack as is required on Windows 10 due to its lack of secdrv.sys support: I was familiar with this as I had to do the same on the now-dead PC.

While I can start up FS2004 and create a flight, the 2D instrument panel is completely useless as the panel gauges and switches won't update (even on the default Cessna 172), except at the point when a panel window is resized, closed then re-opened, or when FS2004 is switched between "Windowed" and "Full Screen" modes. Gauges on the virtual cockpit (in planes that have one of course) seem to be working normally, as are any pop-up windows which I may open while in virtual cockpit view.

Does anyone here have any idea what could have caused this problem, or even how I could investigate what's causing it? I suspect some kind of graphics driver or DirectX problem may be responsible: how could I run Flight Simulator 2004 in such a way that I could get a log of any graphics-related errors so I can trace the fault?

I'm desperate to get FS2004 working properly again so that I can re-start some development work. Incidentally, I've also got a problem with badly aliased gauges in my FSX installation, but the FS2004 issue is more pressing for the time being...

Thanks,

Hi George! It's been 5 years since I flew FS9 with an Intel GPU (an old i5-2435M running HD3000 graphics), but I never had that problem, and definitely never with your gauges (thank you very much for your work!). Have you tried running FS9 with no antialiasing, and in windowed mode? Windows 10 and FS9/FSX fullscreen mode never got along.

For AA, you may need to get any of these post-processing injectors (SMAA, Reshade, SweetFX, etc). FS9 AA won't work in windowed mode and I never trusted the Intel control panel.

For FSX, I'm not sure, but I think AA does work in windowed mode. How do gauges look in that case?

And another shot in the dark: have you tried updating DirectX?

Edited January 26, 20224 yr by Luis Hernandez