No addons. This was a totally new installation of FSX yesterday.I was very careful to check no previous remains of an old FSX install remained (ie removing old reg entries and cleaning out old folders).It's foxed me!I'll post back with full system specs and the error msg asap.Thanks for all your suggestions and help:)DenhamPPL

You mention "Omega" drivers for your nVidia 6800 card.What are these?Have you tried running a WHQL-certified driver?I have seen FS fail to start on using 3rd-party video drivers in past years. When these setups failed, it was at the display of the FS splash screen...isn't that exactly where your problem is?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

It wasn't so much a benefit as a necessity. I have a MacBook Pro which I either boot into OS-X (for work) or Windows XP (for FSX and Visual Studio). It has a 160GB internal drive which I have split rougly 120GB for OS-X and 40GB for XP. 40GB is not really enough to hold FSX plus add-ons (e.g. FSGenesis plus future MegaScenery products). I wanted to be sure I could use one drive with everything FSX related on it.I went for a 320GB 7200rpm Iomega drive with a Firewire 800 connector since this is nearly twice as fast as USB2. I wasn't sure if this would be fast enough for FSX, however, as far as I can tell it works very well. The second core is kept fairly busy loading terrain but still has quiet periods indicating it is keeping up.If you are thinking of doing this, I would make sure you get a drive with at least 7200rpm rotation speed, a firewire 800 connector and as big a buffer as is available (16MB+). USB 2.0 may actually be fine but I haven't tried this yet (I also have a USB 2.0 connection on this drive so I will have a go and report back).I hope this proves useful.RegardsDavid

Rhett,Do you mean that the Omega drivers would work when FSX is installed on the C drive, but fail if FSX is installed on another drive?Ulf B

Don't think its my drivers. I dont want to use the certified version anyway as the Omega drivers are much better in FS (at least they were for FS2004).

>Rhett,>>Do you mean that the Omega drivers would work when FSX is>installed on the C drive, but fail if FSX is installed on>another drive?>>Ulf BNo, I mean that if in fact the Omega drivers are the cause, then the comp would lock on splash screen no matter where FSX is installed.Like I said, I have seen gfx drivers cause a splash screen lockup too many times with FS. Not saying that's it, but it's a possibility that should be tested for. At least I would if it were me.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>Don't think its my drivers. Well if it were me I would not want to "think it wasn't" I would want to "know it wasn't". Do what you want though...As I said, I have seen splash screen lockups before and the vid card driver was the cause.>I dont want to use the certified>version anyway as the Omega drivers are much better in FS (at>least they were for FS2004).That may be the case but if the sim locks with the Omegas (whatever they are), they aren't doing you any good anyway. The only way you can know for sure, is to remove the Omega driver and install a WHQL-certified driver.That will absolutely rule out if it's the vid card driver or not. Then you can move on to other things. Change 1 thing and test...is the best way to solve these sorts of problems.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Just a thought... Do you have Data Execution Protection enabled on your system? You can find this by checking the Performance options on the Advanced tab in System Properties.This issue can be further confused by the known issue of Windows sometimes ignoring this setting completely and forcing it on anyway...

Data Execution Protection? It appears to be enabled (no option to turn it off as far as I can see?). It's on option 1 tho (MS progs only). I presume this would effect all drives and FSX is working fine on my C drive now. Have managed to install alot of the third party scenery mesh stuff on another drive which leaves me with 7 GB free on C.After tweaking with help from the excellent FSXTweakGuide I'm getting good fluid fps (40-100+ in romote areas/islands) and between 15-40 in "busy" areas which isn't at all bad for this system. I really miss FSNav though!Are there any alternative programs that work like FsNav in FSX?Thanks for all your help guys - am going to leave FSX on the C drive for now until I've sorted out why it won't work when I install it on any other drive.DenhamPPL

Hi FolksDenhamPPL -Don't know if you'd tried this.When FSX was on the non-C drivewere you still using the same fsx.cfg ?If so, it'll contain lots of full-path refs to your old C drive based installation.You should -Uninstall from C.Rename your fsx.CFG file.You may also need to manually edit your scenery.cfgInstall to your chosen drive.Fire up FSX and it'll rebuild the cfg file.HTHATBPaulhttp://www.basys.f9.co.uk/resources/images..._sig_500x94.jpghttp://www.fs-odg.com