Events: Downloaded and installed the Varig DC-10 (.exe) and TU-95 Bear (.zip).Started FS2K2 and a message appeared on screen stating that thirdparty software was detected that may interfere with the program.The offending file was identified as GAUGESGPS.GAU.I continued to let FS load to see what would result: after keying theGPS icon for each aircraft the GPS box with a black background displayed but did not contain any data. I closed FS,went to the Gauges file and removed GPS.GAU. RestartedFS (the third party software message did not appear this time) but the same black screen (without data) resulted for all aircraft afterkeying the GPS icon again!Anybody have any thoughts on how to resolve this?--GeorgeM at 5B6

In the first instance, you probably over wrote the FS2002 GPS.gau with an earlier version.In the second instance, you now have no GPS.gau to use in your system. To recover the FS2002 GPS.gau, retrieve it from your CDs using Winzip or another unzipping program. Search the *.cab files on the CDs and extract the GPS.gau to your fs2002gauges folder.

Thanks for your response; I'll search for those files.-GeorgeM at 5B6

The GPS gauge is in the FS2002.cab file on CD#1. (That'll save ya some search time :-)) Just copy it back into the gauges folder letting it overwrite the one there now.Trip

Thanks Trip, I found it and resolved it using the winzip extractionmethod (guess you can't copy & paste in this procedure but it was aanother valuable learning experience since I was not previously familiar with 'extracting' files). The bad boy was in the TU-95GPS.gau (last modified 9-28-99) but I don't recall an overwrite warning msg when first installing!In any case, I again thank both of you for your advice.--GeorgeM

A good way to keep this from happening is to always uzip the file to a temp folder. And then go and manually place the files yourself ,and then its easy to see if something is going to be overwritten.

A lazy person's insurance... I made a backup copy of my gauge directory right after my last complete install, so I can readily and easily get/copy any default gauges back that are broken by downloading too many new acft. *grin*

I tend to unzip everything right from the ZIP file into the FS 2002 folder. However, when I notice that there are any "custom" gauges included with that particular add-on - be it in the shape of a "gauges" folder or another ZIP file of that name - I first look and see if there might be duplicates of those vital gauges such as the GPS, and if there are I unzip them "selectively" - bypassing those duplicates. Guess some lessons you just need to learn the hard way, eh? :-)