Just coming back to FU3 after an absence of a few months, during which time I bought a new P4-3Ghz PC with an ATI Radeon 9800 video card. At 1024x768, FU3 runs great *until* I try and access the map. As soon as I do that, I find myself staring at the Windows XP desktop.I read a previous thread that indicated that most people were running XP without any problems so I assume my video card must be the culprit. Anyone else experience something like this or have any ideas as to what might be done to fix it?Larry

Hello Larry.Congrats with your new computer!Running FU3 witn XP should not be a problem.Just follow some old rules for this sim.1. apply the patch.2.Do not have any fledpackages installed to make sure the sim is healthy when you start it for the first time.3.Have in mind that Microsoft do not longer include the "INTEL"indeo codes on new XP mashines.This will effect the startupprosedures of FU3 and any AVI videofiles on your mashine.If this is the problem you can download the code from the internet.http://home.clara.net/shadowsoft/indeocodec.htmlI hope this helps.Best regards.Lars Peter.:-wave

Which Catalyst driver are you running and what version of DirectX? I use DX9 and Catalyst 3.2. Catalyst 3.4 also works, but it causes problems with Morrowind which I play alot, so I stick with Cat 3.2.

Thanks for the reply Lars Peter. I'm certainly enjoying the new computer but I've found that some of my favourite software simply will not run under Windows XP. That part's been disappointing. I did install the patch after installing FU3. The only addons I installed (before trying to run the software) were Christopher Low's latest compilations for both the San Franciso and Seattle regions. I had most of these packages on my old PC and they all worked fine under Windows 98. I also installed several addon aircraft that I liked to fly when I had FU3 running on my old PC. I did backup both Regions and the original aircraft so I can check to see if that makes any difference. I followed your link and downloaded the video codec. Will give it a try when I get home. Thanks for your interest and your suggestions.Larry

I'm currently using Catalyst 3.4 and DirectX 9. Because I've been having problems getting some of my older software to run, I've been checking ATI's website for an update on a regular basis. I noticed that some of their older drivers are available on site so I may give them a try if I can't find a easy fix. I recall accumulating a rather large collection of drivers for my old NVidea card trying to rectify one problem or another. Come to think of it, I believe it was FU3 that prompted me to start that little collection.

Larry.If you have installed FU3 including outer region, you can notuse the full packages from Cristopher Low (sorry Chris).Remove it and apply one or ten packages at the time and see what the sim will allow to take. The sim is very sensitive to numbers of exstraairports.Lars Peter.:-wave

I did do a full install, including the outer region and San Francisco from FU2. Perhaps I'll temporarily rename the Packages directory and see what happens.

Lars Peter,Renamed the Packages directory, started up FU3, and my problem accessing the map has gone away. Guess I'll just have to experiment with the packages as you've suggested.Thanks for your help.Larry

Larry.Good to see that it is working well.Happy flying.Lars Peter.:-wave