They have support emailing me solutions-they come about every two to three days-then the rep decides a higher rep needs to help out and the cycle goes again. It looks like I will have to trash everything and I am hoping to resist this as it will take me 3 weeks to get everything back-though considering I am almost at the 3 week point perhaps the lesser of two evils.What happened is my automatic updates suddenly stopped working-(I was working with support on that). One day I came home and it said it had dowloaded 3 updates! Great -I thought. Trouble is it would get to "installing update #3" -show zero %-and then reboot-over and over . (This is case #1 a lot of people have had). I got a solution to that from the second MS rep-booted my computer once normally-and now it comes up a black screen with a mouse curser (also documented by many)-sits a while and then reboots. Tried the system repair, tried to restore (it says there are no restore points even though there were many), reinstalling (it says my version has to be installed from windows-kinda hard to do when I can't get to windows!). You get the scenerio-catch 22.I am pretty sure all that is left is to start at the beginning-and that is a bad deal....http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Stan-I never had trouble with the Dakota but I did have trouble with the reality xp instruments in their stand alone package..initially.Again-the fix was right clicking on the fsx icon and changing something-the permissions or something. If I had my computer working right now I'd take a look and let you know but I can't right now till my problem gets resolved.You might want to nose around the realityxp forum for an answer before getting a refund.It will be worth it!http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>Again-the fix was right clicking on the fsx icon and changing>something-the permissions or something. If I had my computer>working right now I'd take a look and let you know but I can't>right now till my problem gets resolved.These are the settings I use for FSX on my Vista machine. In the Compatibility Tab I've set it to "Disable visual themes" and "Disable Desktop composition" so the system won't waste resources keeping the Desktop (which can't be seen anyway) refreshed.In the Security Tab notice how I've given myself "full permission" to access all the files in my FSX folder.Note I've also found a hidden "gem." I set up a special "account" named "Everyone" which then allows me to access the entire computer across my network... ;)http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/8802/fs...settingsju7.jpg

Geofa,I absolutely know the feeling you have now about starting over. "Been there...done that". It's a shame!I hear such good things about Macs and Apple. I'd LOVE to be able to have a reliable, powerful, Apple Computer for all my computer tasks.....but Alas, Flight Simulation and MacIntosh do not see "eye to eye". I hope someday they can get together. Computing just might be fun again.Stan

Stan,Seems none of the suggestions so far have fixed your problem and it's a shame you're still having problems with the Dakota loading. I'm wondering if the problem centers around your sound card. Sound card drivers may also be the issue that causes many other simmers to have menu crashes, etc. I remember individuals (like me) who had FS2K2 crashes due to bad sound card installs or the drivers were not the latest. I don't recall seeing any indications of sound card problems with FS9. Because menu crashes are not occurring in every system (I have never had one anyway with Vista installed), if you have a Creative sound card (I have the X-FI), this could be the problem. As I recall, Creative wasn't too excited about upgrading their drivers for the new Vista OS and they still haven't issued drivers that are completely compatible with Vista, especially the X-FI cards. We keep blaming the video card makers and it could be the sound card! They just issued an updated driver that supposedly fixes some "issues" with Vista SP1 and maybe you should research this possibility. One easy way to test this is to go into your device manager and disable your sound card, restart your system and reload FSX. You won't have any sound but at least you'll be able to see if it fixed your problem. In any case, I would update those drivers at your earliest convenience.Best regards,Jim

Good idea. I'll try this tomorrow or Saturday. Thanks for a great suggestion.Stan

Got the Dakota to fly today, and many of the gauges did not work. However, I was able to isolate the crashes to a message that told me that the Garmin did not load properly, and that seemed to be at the crux of the crashes. I did load everything I was supposed to when installing the plane. Something very simple is at fault, but I'll be d_ _ _ed if I know. I don't think I can install the plane with out the Garmin that comes with it...can I?

Stan-why don't you post on the reality xp forum-they usually get back to you right away. You will probably want to replace the garmin-with the new one! :-lolhttp://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Thanks, Geofa. I'll do it now.

I may have missed it, but did you try the new open beta files?http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=182540

Yes. Not only did I try the new Beta files, AND the instructions perfectly about gauge updates, but I also took Lou's advice and put my Garmin Trainer file under C:GNS430, and absolutely nothing changed. I uninstalled completely, reinstalled, uninstalled again, rebooted, reinstalled, and I still get FSX crashes and the Dakota doesn't fly. I deleted my cfg file and reset everything. Still no go.Everything else works in my aircraft stable, and I get great frames and smooth flying...but the Dakota and Reality XP doesn't work. I'm not going to try anything else. Either there's a complete update that addresses this, or I'll get a refund.

Stan and all others,I had big problems with the Dakota and Garmin. Good thing is the refund policy so I went for a refund, just to be on the safe side. I really hope that they get the problems solved, because I would like to repurchase that aircraft. Seems to be a real nice aircraft.Ulf BEdited: By the way, bought the RXP GNS530 the other day. Works like a charm. Wonderful add on :-)Core2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

Yeah...me too. I really tried everything. I'm now out of patience. I really can't wait to really fly this plane.

Seems strange the gns530 would work but not the Dakota..I have the opposite problem-the Dakota works fine but Vista 32 doesn't. :-lolhttp://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

The new GNS530/430 isn't based on that crappy 16bit trainer though.Maybe once DF updates the Dak with the new 430W it will work...who knows?