Default Extra-300 Tachometer Display Problem

[Opa 6]

Having tried to get help in other forums I come here seeking a couple of answers - hope you gauge guru's can be of help.I am attempting to help a friend who has both FS2004 and FS2002 installed. The tachometer and two other gauges on the default EXTRA-300 will not display digits for him - only dashes as seen in the picture attached. It displays this way for him in both FS versions.We have tried ALL of the usual checks and even had him install a copy of my gauge - which works perfectly on my system. Nothing fixes the problem.It has been suggested that perhaps the gauge cannot find the font it needs to display digits.Do such gauges use fonts which are in FS or the fonts from XP - or do they use such fonts at all?If they do, is it possible to view the gau file to see what font is being called for? (I do not have access to any gauge programs if that is even a possibility)The problem seems to be unique to his computer as I and others have not been able to duplicate what my friend is seeing. I had suspected a corrupt install of something in FS but it would seem highly unlikely that both versions would be corrupt.Any ideas/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[ddawson 35]

Yes, gauges displaying text can and do use Windows fonts. Have your friend check for glassga.ttf and quartz.ttf - it will be one of these.There is a fonts folder in each of FS2004 and FS2002 - on my system, both of these fonts are present in each. Placing the font files in the Windows font folder will server the same purpose.Doug

[Opa 6]

Thanks for your insight -He has both fonts installed in FS2004 and FS2002.Is there anything else anyone can think of which would cause the dashes instead of digits.As mentioned in my original post, I have not been able to duplicate the problem.Frustrating to say the least.

[n4gix 4,947]

Have your friend copy/paste the fonts into the C:Windowsfonts folder and reboot the computer.For some odd reason, sometimes FS can't seem to find its own fonts folder... :)

[Opa 6]

>Have your friend copy/paste the fonts into the>C:Windowsfonts folder and reboot the computer.>>For some odd reason, sometimes FS can't seem to find its own>fonts folder... :)Thanks Bill -I just want to be sure I understand you -He should Copy / Paste the two fonts in question into Windows/Fonts even though they are already there? - i.e. delete and replace them?(The Windows/Fonts section requires a delete and replace procedure so I cannot just disable them and Paste)

[Opa 6]

I had him copy the two Fonts to his Windows/Fonts folder - they were not already there - rebooted and sad to report, this did not solve the problem.Is there any way to check to see what font the gauge is needing in case it was not one of the two we worked with?Any other ideas ??

[WarpD 824]

The gauge uses the Quartz font.

[Opa 6]

Well we have tried all of the suggestions posted in response to my initial question...........and the problem has not been resolved.It is almost as if there is some setting on my friends computer which is blocking the use of the required font in his default Extra gauges which normally display digits.If anyone has a Brainstorm on this, I hope you will pass it along.Thanks to everyone who has attempted to help to date.

[spokes2112 179]

A brain storm? IIRC there was service packs for both sims.. where to get them though is a problem... I donot think Bill G. will mind if you copy your extra300.gau over to your buddy's system for a little test though... Also I believe the gauge uses a transpereancy flag to have the digits look like they're behind a glass window... maybe a video setting??There is another font NOT in windows but in either FS version/ Fonts... glassga.ttf Good luck... we're all counting on ya. ( Dr. Leslie Nielson, in a 707 with propellor sounds )RomanProud "TEAM AVSIM" RTW race member.XP Pro, FS9, FR Locked @ 23, AMD 1800+ OCd to 1900+, APIC MProc Mod (24 IRQs), Latency Mods, ECS K7S5a V1.1, 7 fans, 1 gig, 100 & 60 Gig 7200rpm HD, ASUS/NVidia GeForce 64mb AGP on 21", NVidia FX5500 vivo 256mb (CRAP) on 18", Nvidia 93.71s ( The highest can go for the GeForce3 & 5500 combined ), Savage4 32mb on 15", BV services mods.

[Opa 6]

All of these suggestions were covered in previous posts - tried them all to no avail.Several problems: my friend lives in Alabama and I am in Texas so I cannot do any "hands on" experiments.He is very new to computers (that may be a good thing) so I doubt he has changed any default OS settings (XP)I have not been able to duplicate the problem on my machine - see screenshot in initial post.The digits to not display (only dashes) in both FS2004 and FS2002.It seems to be unique to his system and perhaps it is "one of those great mysteries of life" which we are not supposed to understand.Thanks for the feedback though.

[spokes2112 179]

Global OS settings??? IE $/Date formats?RomanProud "TEAM AVSIM" RTW race member.XP Pro, FS9, FR Locked @ 23, AMD 1800+ OCd to 1900+, APIC MProc Mod (24 IRQs), Latency Mods, ECS K7S5a V1.1, 7 fans, 1 gig, 100 & 60 Gig 7200rpm HD, ASUS/NVidia GeForce 64mb AGP on 21", NVidia FX5500 vivo 256mb (CRAP) on 18", Nvidia 93.71s ( The highest can go for the GeForce3 & 5500 combined ), Savage4 32mb on 15", BV services mods.

[Opa 6]

We just compared his settings to mine - both are exactly the same - the English default.So I guess we are back to square one.Thanks for trying to help though.

[WarpD 824]

If he runs the Character map applet (charmap)... does he see a font titled "Quartz" in the dropdown list?

[Opa 6]

He says it is there and displays just as mine does (I send him a screenshot of mine).We had placed a copy of the quartz font in the Windows/Fonts folder just in case FS2002 and FS2004 were having a problem seeing that font in the FS fonts folder.He still see just dashes where there should be digits.Thanks for the idea though.