Core 2 Duo and Fly!II saga. Need help

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day all,This is a bit long but there might be a lesson in here for anyone else upgrading.Well the day finally arrived and after building my new computer system and loading XP-Pro onto it I picked up my copy of the American version of Fly!II and casually slipped it into the DVD rom drive.I just knew it wasn't going to be straight forward. :-) Well Fly! II seemingly installed no hassles but on running the 152-210 all in one patch I was greeted with the familiar "old file found with same name ..." error message. Ha!! mute the midi and uninstall and try again; dang! it: same result :-) This time uninstalled Fly! II and copied the Fly!II installation CD to my WD Raptor hard drive. Installed from the hard drive - woww! installation took only about 10-15 secs - lightning fast. Applied the 152-210 patch - no problem Applied the 240 patch. - no problem.BUT: When I checked the Launch fly! II box and clicked finish the Fly II splash screen (PC12 in sunset) appeared and then nothing. I waited and waited and waited but after what seemed an eternity I warm booted and tried starting Fly! II from desktop. Same result; instant splash screen then nothing. Anxious to get Fly! II up and running I panicked and did a complete uninstall and reinstall as prviously stated. Again, instant splash screen and then nothing. At this stage I decided to make a cup of coffee whilst I muse over how I explain to my wife that I have a new computer that wont run Fly! II.(she bought some of it for me for Christmas and my birthday) You can imagine my surprise and delight, when on returning to the computer I saw the video setup screen displaying. Excitedly I quickly set the video parameters and clicked fly now. Pure bliss; everything I was hoping for and then some. :-jumpyOk so back to the problem. I tried starting Fly! II once more from the desktop.Instant splash screen; then nothing, so I settled in for a long wait. 4 minutes and 10 secs later the video screen appeared and Fly! II was ready for business. (I've checked this several times).Can anyone offer suggestions as to what might be causing this extrodinary long delay. I'm hoping it's something as simple as a setting in the bios or XP-Pro or maybe even on of the Fly! II files.Please , I need helpCheers,Roger

[KenWood 5]

Well, first thing I would try Roger is this: Right click on the Fly! II icon and select Properties - then the Compatibility Tab - check the Run this program in Compatibility mode for: and try Win98 selection. Reboot (to be safe, then try the program once again. Keep in mind - even in a stock install - if you have a large Virtual memory setting, or lots of space - Fly! II will want to load as much of its stuff into memory as it can. Especially if there is a lot in the SceneryShared folder. Mine won't go blank - but the helicopter screen will take some time to show the sim loading - as I have to run some of my sceneries from the shared folder - (no matter what I do, they won't run from their own folder in the scenery folder with scf file). See what happens with that, otherwise - just make a cup of coffee - let the flight attendant double check the cabin and then you shold be C4TO :-hahCheers,Ken Wood :-sun1http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/bannernewkw.jpgGateway 700X; Intel P4 2.4GHz; 512MB RAM; NVIDIA Ti4200 4X AGP 128MB; SB Audigy; Thrustmaster TopGun Fox 2 Pro Shock

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Ken,Thanks for the quick reply. Being a first timer with Win XP I'm way out of my comfort zone. You've made me feel better already. :-)>Well, first thing I would try Roger is this: Right click on>the Fly! II icon and select Properties - then the>Compatibility Tab - check the Run this program in>Compatibility mode for: and try Win98 selection. Reboot (to be>safe, then try the program once again.That's very interesting!. So I take it XP has a sort of emulation mode. As soon as I get the chance I'll give it a try and report back.> Keep in mind - even in>a stock install - if you have a large Virtual memory setting,>or lots of space - Fly! II will want to load as much of its>stuff into memory as it can. Especially if there is a lot in>the SceneryShared folder. Mine won't go blank - but the>helicopter screen will take some time to show the sim loading.Sorry I think I've mislead you. The splash screen appears and then its like the computer just freezes with the splash screen displayed. It doesn't go blank. 4 minutes and 10 seconds later the video setup screen displays.Thinking about what you are saying and I think that Fly! II may be loading BEFORE displaying the video setup screen because as soon as I click Fly now on the video setup screen the helicopter screen displays and is virtually instantly red and the green band on the fuel gauge is also virtually instant. This could be just due to the fact that the processor is faster but surely not that much faster.Thanks for the helpCheers,Roger

[Guest tonyc]

Hi Roger,The only time I've had long loading times is when I worked on new planes and, for some reasons, FLY2 was forced to load from directories other than the standard ones. As you know, FLY also looks at all directories as well as CD drives. This can also make loading times long. If you go into the FLY.ini you will find some reference to how FLY looks for files. Play with it and see what happens.Don't panic, FLY runs very well on win xp. But I confess that from time to time I could not understand the long loading times.If the screen turns black, it's clearly a video driver issue. Here I suspect you need to test the various drivers . I am using Nvidia 91.47 with my fx6600 gt.Let us know.Tony

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Ken,Well you can add another complete removal and reinstallation of Fly! II to my previous post :-lolThis time I actually timed the installation! 35 seconds. (not the 10-15 seconds I mentioned earlier) Amazing how my brain approximation was out by a factor of 2 X. But it is very fast. I selected properties and selected the compatibility tab, checked the box and selected win98/me from the dropdown menu. Clicked on apply and back to desktop. To be honest I can't remember whether I then rebooted (I think I did but not 100% sure). Anyway when I clicked on Fly! II on the desktop the splash screen display and shortly followed by an error box telling me that Fly!2.exe had an error and had to close. Even when I re-entered propertiescompatability and removed the run in compatability mode, Fly!2.exe refused to co-operate. Thus a complete removal and reinstallation was in order.Never mind, I guess it's an idiosynchrosy that I'll have to put up with to get such blistering performance - and I do mean blistering.I guess I'm just going to become a coffee addaict ! :-lolCheers, Roger

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Ken,Well you can add another complete removal and reinstallation of Fly! II to my previous post :-lolThis time I actually timed the installation! 35 seconds. (not the 10-15 seconds I mentioned earlier) Amazing how my brain approximation was out by a factor of 2 X. But it is very fast. I selected properties and selected the compatibility tab, checked the box and selected win98/me from the dropdown menu. Clicked on apply and back to desktop. To be honest I can't remember whether I then rebooted (I think I did but not 100% sure). Anyway when I clicked on Fly! II on the desktop the splash screen display and shortly followed by an error box telling me that Fly!2.exe had an error and had to close. Even when I re-entered propertiescompatability and removed the run in compatability mode, Fly!2.exe refused to co-operate. Thus a complete removal and reinstallation was in order.Never mind, I guess it's an idiosynchrosy that I'll have to put up with to get such blistering performance - and I do mean blistering.I guess I'm just going to become a coffee addaict ! :-lolCheers, Roger

[Guest 3cffts]

Roger: I am running WinXP and have had the very same problem of a hang-up on the helicopter splash screen. My problem seems to be when I am running large amounts of Terrascene and then attempt multiple dynamic aircraft. If I set the dynamic scenery in fly.ini to =0, then flyII starts o.k. I have only 512mb RAM and now believe I need more.Cheers,Brian.

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Tony,I don't see it being a loading problem - apart from the OS Fly! II is the only program on the computer. I think it's more likely to be an interrogation problem because when the video setup screen does finally display it has found and displayed my video card 7600GT. I'm using the NV 93.71 (WHCL certified) driver. Thought I'd start at the latest official release and work my way backwards if I have any graphics problems. - none so far.Yep SearchOtherDrives=0 for some reason there is 2 of these entries (different spelling) but they are both 0(default). I do remember Rich saying that if you use another drive then you must locate the fly folder to be searched in the root directory of the other drive for this function to work.I'm keeping rather cool actually. My biggest concern is should I have one lump or two in my coffee. :-)Thanks for the suggestionsCheers,Roger

[Guest tonyc]

Roger,There's always the fall back position to install win 98 and have two operating systems working for you. You may want to reinstall win xp and, with it, allow win 98 installation as well.It's easy and, in your case, it might reduce some heartburn from all those cups of coffee.tony

[RandallR 444]

Hi Roger,I've had no issues running Fly!II on XP and do not use emulation. It runs much better than it did on my Win98 (including decent start-up times).One question for right now - did you adjust the render.ini in any way before you started the first time or did you start with the default?

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Randall,No mate ; strictly default render.ini. Haven't touched it: YET :-)[Graphics]mipLevelCount=8vertexIndexFormat=1premultiplyColorAndAlpha=0allowAutoMipMapping=0directTextureFlag=0[Textures]maxTextures32=0maxTextures64_565=16maxTextures128=72maxTextures128_565=999maxTextures256=20maxTextures256_565=32maxTextures512=8maxTextures512_565=0maxTextures1024=1mipMapFlag=896maxTextures64=16[NonAGP]maxTextures256_565=0[AGP]maxTextures256_565=0Card is Asus EN7600GT 256 MB and driver is nvidia 93.71 I note that because I only have 1 GB of motherboard ram that the ram is only working in single channel mode. (whatever that means) but I will be adding another 1 GB of memory as soon as I've saved the pennies. I have adjusted the options/realism and /scenery screens within Fly! II to give a better quality image/performance. I have also been into the Nvidia setup program but the problem I was having occurred before I made any in here and still persist despite the changes I have made.Cheers,Roger

[Guest tonyc]

Roger,Don't buy the extra Gig simply for dual channel mode. You wont notice the difference, except out of your pocket. I've been using 1 gig of mem on a system much less powerful than yours and FLY2 has very good frame rates. Just my opinion.TonyOn the slow loading, why don't you start FLY2 without the upgrades? Just curious to see how it loads.

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Tony,> Don't buy the extra Gig simply for dual channel mode. You wont notice the difference, except out of your pocket. I've been> using 1 gig of mem on a system much less powerful than yours and FLY2 has very good frame rates. No problem with the frame rates :-jumpy (so far with everything default haven't yet loaded addon stuff) but I'm wondering why do I get this long wait after clicking the desktop shortcut before the graphic setup screen. What's keeping Fly! II so occupied? For a machine that operates in nonoseconds, 4 minutes 10 seconds is an eternity! There has to be a reason. It may well be just the way Fly! II (or XP) reacts with the motherboard/processor. I have now loaded TrueSpace 4.3 and Photoshop 7.0 and both these programs start very quickly with no problems, so it seems to be Fly! II thats having the problems. Since you and others don't have the problem then it's pretty much pointing to my motherboard/processor combination. Just IMHO. I have absolutely no evidence to back it up.I still will probably go ahead with the extra Gig of memory - although not after an increase in frame rates.Do you thihk it might be a virtual memory problem? How should I have that set in Win XP?EDIT: I did start Fly! II as soon as I installed - before patching. Same problem. Cheers,Roger

[Guest tonyc]

Roger,There's a program that looks at the way programs load into memory. It then provides visual display, including times, of which "task" is loading and the time it takes.I don't remember the name, but if I do I'll give it to you. YOu may want to do some google searching.The "catatonic" behavior puzzles me, given that I too would get it after loading some new scenery or files into FLY. 1. Have you observed the hard drive light? Is it running? If so, then you know that it's searching the disk before loading it( the mistery file) into memory. 2. The Hard drive has been formatted as a NTFS or fat 32 ?3. Have you defragged the drive?4. Have you considered partitioning the drive?I am almost sure that it's a problem with how fly searches its directories and files. 5. After fly loads, you may want to see which files have been modified( look at the date). This might give you some clue.As to the virtual memory question, if did not change it, windows allocates all the memory that's needed. Besides, your ram is plenty , so the virtual drive doesn't play .6. Lastly, check to see if the cd disk light comes on while fly is loading.As explained earlier, FLY looks everywhere for its files and if one file is missing or displaced, it will search and search until it finds it. This, of course, takes time.Don't give up.....tony

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Tony,>The "catatonic" behavior puzzles me, given that I too would>get it after loading some new scenery or files into FLY. >>1. Have you observed the hard drive light? Is it running? If>so, then you know that it's searching the disk before loading>it( the mistery file) into memory. HDD led does not suggest disk searching.>2. The Hard drive has been formatted as a NTFS or fat 32 ?Formatted NTFS - done automatically prior to loading the OS. I had no say in which format.>3. Have you defragged the drive?I did a defrag using the OS tool immediately after loading the OSI have downloaded a third part defragger and will have a go with that.>4. Have you considered partitioning the drive? This is so far the only advantage of WinXP over Win98SE. No more need for MS-DOS and Fdisk. Also with "active bios" I can update the bios from within windows.Yes the drive is partitioned. 74 GB Western DiditalC: 15 GB active primary partition contains OS and Fly! IIF: 60 GB primary patition - empty (not being used at present)>I am almost sure that it's a problem with how fly searches its>directories and files. I have a lead I wish to explore concerning a problem with one of my CD drives. Device manager reports that they are set up and working correctly but it is telling lies. They are set up as Mater and slave on a single IDE channel but one simply refuses to recognise that it has a disk in it. (it is possible that the drive is faulty?)>5. After fly loads, you may want to see which files have been>modified( look at the date). This might give you some clue.I don't follow?? After 5 patches surely all the original dates will be changed!?>As to the virtual memory question, if did not change it,>windows allocates all the memory that's needed. Besides, your>ram is plenty , so the virtual drive doesn't play .I haven't set virtual memory. It will be whatever windows XP defaults to.>6. Lastly, check to see if the cd disk light comes on while>fly is loading.>As explained earlier, FLY looks everywhere for its files and>if one file is missing or displaced, it will search and search>until it finds it. This, of course, takes time.Not so sure about this. - serchotherdrives=0 and searchotherdrives=0 is set in Fly.ini Of course these may only be effective once fly! II is loaded and running.>Don't give up.....Hey you know me Tony; never give up Roger they call me. What do you think I am?? - an English cricketer :-lolThere's nothing I enjoy more than a bit of a challenge.Cheers,Roger