Its that time again

[Guest Motormouse]

FuIII crashes to desktop,sound files distorted, its re-install time again....see you on the flip side as they say!!Here's a final screenshot before re-installing:-wavePete

[Guest jonpoint]

Nice shot Pete but what's crashin' yer FU3?Just thought I'd ask. I haven't had any stability issues except one recently - my new hard drive goes to sleep on long flights! I can't seem to stop it either :-fumeAll my settings are 'always on' etc. Only happens on long flights in OT. I spent an hour or so dodging buildings in the GeeBee and it was fine :-grrBTW, As soon as you have your basic install completed, 'zip' up your entire Flight3 folder and save it somewhere. If you do something bad later, simply unzip your 'reference' copy back to your Flight3 folder - much quicker than reinstalling :-hahJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,354]

Jon,By "long flights", I assume that you mean that there is no hard disk activity for extensive periods of time ? If this is the case, then you may well have your hard disk set to "go to sleep" after a relatively short period of time. This can be changed by accessing SETTINGS from the Start Menu, followed by CONTROL PANEL, and then POWER OPTIONS. You will see an option to "turn off hard disks". You should be able to work out what to do from there :-)Chris Low,ENGLAND.PS. This is the method using Windows ME. It might be slightly different for other operating systems.

[Hans_Petter 1]

Pete, unless you're busy reinstalling already, what did you install right before it went bad? As Jon recommended I keep a full, basic installation of FU3 as a backup. I copied the entire root folder right after I installed it and pasted it unto another partition. If I ran into problems and expected a messed-up sub-folder I'd "roll back" to the original before doing a full reinstall. One might also elect to update the backup copy at intervals, keeping a healthy version with cumulative add-ons. Then, if it goes bad one may "roll back" to last month's installation rather than the original by Looking Glass. Usually, a good error check would be to disable packages. If this helps there's some conflict between different scenery enhancements.Another clue is to pay attention to when the sim crashes to the desktop. If it crashes once you launch it this might even be caused by a corrupt aircraft. Conflicting packages, on the other hand, would affect one region but not the other.best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest jonpoint]

Thanks for the tip Chris but, as I mentioned, I'd already set the entire PC to 'Always On' including of course the hard drives. My old HD doesn't do it, just the new one. I was thinking of moving everything back but I had wanted to avoid having 2 HDs in the game PC and I think my daughter's PC would miss it!Jon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Guest Motormouse]

Too much use ( !!! ) and a HD that's getting old, needed to defrag etc,but that didn't work so a re-format was called for.Its not my main system HD, but the one where FUIII and some game called Unreal ( my son's !) reside.Don't worry, all my important FUIII stuff, including Chris' sceneries, is safe on cd-rom!!:-wavePete

[Christopher Low 5,354]

Pete,Talking of Unreal, I am looking forward to Unreal 2. The expected release date keeps getting pushed back, although not as often as the legendary Duke Nukem Forever :-) Unreal 2 is now expected in March 2003, and this purchase will be followed by Deus Ex 2 (the sequel to the best PC game that I have ever played............with the possible exception of FU3) ;)Chris Low,ENGLAND.