A very important lesson learnt.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Until I used Nick's Xpsp2 Tune-Up Special, I really had no idea how much performance could be LOST by running a base install of an O.S.--but then again, GAINED by merely tuning up that base installation of a Windows O.S.---------------------------Since the tune-up and defrag maintenance, I have been running with ALL SLIDERS to the right (except for water at 2.X low) and am able to maintain a most rock-steady 18 FPS and up.In fact, I am presently on a flight at FL260 from Denver to Las Vegas in a 737-800 and this is the first heavy-metal flight I have taken since having installed GEXn and UTX USA and Can.I have discovered two things as a result of non-stop flying of FSX in VFR (tourist mode) and now, in my IFR FL flight.1. I don't need a new computer to run FSX at this simply glorious real-world viewage, either VFR, or high-level IFR.2. I have flown FS9 a couple of times, but (and YES...it is still a killer flight sim!) frankly, FSX, with help, ah er..MAJOR HELP, to be fair, from the Chairman-Of-The-Board Trio, has irrevocably spoiled me for the greater realism and graphic capabilities of FSX over FS9 (even with FS9 bell-and-whistle addons).So..I guess that to be fair in any posts beyond this one...I will now hold up my hand when the term FSX-FAN-BOY is coined. Yeah..from the face-splitting smile that has not fallen off the kisser since the Trio installation---yeah...I'm now a self-confessed main line fan-boy of what I shall personally call the new FSX flight sim; FSX-Plus.Well, back to my paused flight. GEXn and UTX-X looks as fantastic at 26,000 feet over the Rockies, as they do with my feet getting wet and dragging in a lake...Cheers!Mitch (FSX-Plus a really excited user) R.

[Guest stuarta]

Where can I find this guide?

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Look at my 'died and went to heaven' post and then for the thread TWEAKING AND FLYING, by Nick N.You have it!

[Guest Nick_N]

Requires XP and if you are on a older Dell computer I would not use the defrag or the registry edits.. It's the old Dell WindowsXp SP1 install disks that can be a problem and can force the defrag to damage the Windows install. As long as your XP install disk is XP SP2, your good to go. But remember.. it is "use at your own risk" none the less.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=436619&page=and its highly recommended for maximum system performance.

[Guest stuarta]

Excellent thank you. I have plenty of Dell OEM cd's being a ICT Manager with 50+ Dell machines and servers, but used my own XP cd and manually applied SP2.always run O&O and ran it through last night, but will check through these bits tonight and try and put 8.5 back on instead of my 10.

[McCrash 3]

Sesquashtoo, what are your system specs?

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

>Sesquashtoo, what are your system specs?--------------------------------------------------Dell Gen 3 Pent4 3.4GHz3 Megs of system RAMSoundblaster Extreme sound cardATI X1950 Pro 256 meg vid card (this is one sweet card!)Samsung 245BW 24 inch wide-viewAssorted other cards, game interface cards, and good ole Scuzzy for my scanner.

[Dean_EGTC 57]

Mitch,What are your Scenery sliders set at?--Dean

[raynuss 0]

>>Requires XP and if you are on a older Dell computer I would>not use the defrag or the registry edits.. It's the old Dell>WindowsXp SP1 install disks that can be a problem and can>force the defrag to damage the Windows install. >>As long as your XP install disk is XP SP2, your good to go.>But remember.. it is "use at your own risk" none the less.>>http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=436619&page=>>and its highly recommended for maximum system performance.I have a Dell computer with XP SP2 and I tried the tweaks and it didn't make a bit of difference in my FSX. In fact, I believe it runs a little slower. I only did the tweaks because you advised not doing the defrag on Dell systems. I am a litle confused on this point because in one post you say not to do the defrag on Dell systems and in this post you say "as long as you XP2 install disk is XP SP2, your good to go" Since I have a Dell with the SP2 version of XP, can I use the O&O Defrag or will it make my system go bonkers?

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

>Mitch,>>What are your Scenery sliders set at?>>--DeanDean, the craziest thing, and others have found this out as well, on my machine, I get BETTER results the more I load it up. Honestly! I get better performance and of course visuals if I run NOT at 1M Textures, but rather the full Monty at 7CM. No explanation---it just is, lol.I run everything on the scenery mask full bore open EXCEPT---Water which is held back to 2Xlow.Simple, huh? :) With the above settings and after doing Nick's Tune-Up by the absolute book...I hover for the most part around 18 respectable FPS, with dips to 10 only at the heavy-duty airports and spikes to 30 when the load is much lighter. 18 FPS again, for the most part. I'm a happy camper.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

>>>>Requires XP and if you are on a older Dell computer I would>>not use the defrag or the registry edits.. It's the old Dell>>WindowsXp SP1 install disks that can be a problem and can>>force the defrag to damage the Windows install. >>>>As long as your XP install disk is XP SP2, your good to go.>>But remember.. it is "use at your own risk" none the less.>>>>http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=436619&page=>>>>and its highly recommended for maximum system performance.>>I have a Dell computer with XP SP2 and I tried the tweaks and>it didn't make a bit of difference in my FSX. In fact, I>believe it runs a little slower. I only did the tweaks>because you advised not doing the defrag on Dell systems. I>am a litle confused on this point because in one post you say>not to do the defrag on Dell systems and in this post you say>"as long as you XP2 install disk is XP SP2, your good to go" >Since I have a Dell with the SP2 version of XP, can I use the>O&O Defrag or will it make my system go bonkers?---------------------------------------------------------------I know this question was directed at Nick, but I can tell you that I also have a Dell XP Pro SP2 and have used the O & O with absolutely no problems. I got a true 100 percent increase performance after doing every step in his play-by-play. Also that 100 percent increase in FPS happened with NO change to FSX at all. So, it was on my machine, apples-to-apples.>

[Guest Nick_N]

NoIts not crazyWe discovered at SimV well over a year ago that FSX responds to a balance of settings.. placing the sliders lower is not always the best thing to do and increasing key sliders in a proper method of tweaking forces the title to place priority to the hardware where it belongs.many times I found raising autogen smoothed out FSX and increased the frame rate, by itself.Its not crazy, its how you get the application to tickle the right threads and priorities so the hardware is responding to the priority need for the end result.There is however a balance involved and the lists and settings I have provided over time gets people in the 'ballpark'.. the rest is in the RIGHT methodology in tweaking past that. Going like a bull in a china cabinet and moving several sliders at once and making all sorts of config file edits, is not the right method.

[Guest Nick_N]

1. If you read the thread very carefully you will find that if you make the registry edits but do not use the defrag, the defrag solution you are using will most likely fragment the drive WORSE2. The results being worse I would question your entire system and what may be running in the background, none the less... without the defrag being run you should not use the registry edits.3. I am not going to tell you everything will be fine... the ODDS are you are good to go and will have no problems if the WindowsXP CD is in fact an GENUINE SP2 install disk. However, tweaking is YOUR responsibility, not mine and although thousands use that method without any issues at all, tweaking a computer is never completely "safe"Always back up any critical data and make sure you can recover in the event of a problem.. that is a given in this day and age even if you are simply trying to do mild FSB clocking, or, something as simple as change or add hardware to a system. Even hardware vendors tell you to back up and make sure you can recover before changing parts our upgrading certain things.I have seen motherboard driver upgrades over the years kill more systems than that list and they usually come with backup warnings too.In that, I don

[raynuss 0]

Ok, so I have a Dell and I KNOW that I have XP SP2 installed, so I'm going to give the O&O defrag a try. One more question, I already did the tweaks part and followed up with a widnows defrag. Do I have to start the process from the beginning and redo all the tweaks or can I just do the O&O defrag?

[Guest Nick_N]

Start where I said to go through the startup and make sure all extra crap not needed to boot with Windows is cleaned out..That one can be a bit difficult if your not a trained specialist but do the best you can none the less. the less processes running at initial boot, the better but its also the type of processes running too.Shutting things down AFTER windows boots does not have the same positive effect as cleaning a system and making sure initial boot is clean.And if you did follow what I said to the letter up to that point, just take it from there and continue.