GeorgeM

Print out several copies of this thread and hand it to each of the Microsoft reps. If you cannot address all of the items verbally at least they'll have a hard copy in hand to which they can refer. This thread thus far, has a multitude of intelligent and appropriate questions and suggestions (minus the obvious) that should not go unanswered.-George M

Yes, I understand your point. I bought Aerosoft-My Traffix X for FSX a couple of years ago and when I went to the appropriate site to download a major update for the product I was denied access because I had not purchased My Traffic X directly from them...!Thanks for the info.-GeorgeP.S. I should add that I did order the Connie from J&R Photo and I know that the developer has an update that should be released in the near future; I don't (hopefully) anticipate a problem.

If I'm unable to buy this locally (BB) I'll order it from J&R. Thanks very much for the link.-George

I did not know it was available in retail stores; I'll give Best Buy a try.Thanks for the info.-G

Anyone know where the box version of this product can be obtained in the US? If ordered directly from Just Flight's web site, the cost of shipping rapidly diminishes one's need for the product!My search results have, thus far, been negative.-George

Derek, they're yours; send me your mailing info. An e-mail or PM is fine (I think this data is included in my AVSIM profile. If not, my e-mail is: [email protected]

Corsair Dominator CM2X1024-6400C4D 800 Mhz 4-4-4-12 2.10V ver1.2I just upgraded to WIN7/64 and replaced (added) some additional RAM. If anyone (in the US) needs and would like to have the above, let me know...-George

When anticipating the purchase of Win 7 and searching for the best price in stores (where I received bad info from a couple of 'qualified' people), and on-line, I found this article on the ComputerWorld site. It's worth reading and could save you a significant amount of cash. Here's the link:www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140125-George

1. I don't want to risk furnishing you possible erroneous info related to modifying your BIOS so hopefully someone with more knowledge will respond.2. For those following this thread, a couple of comments on my Win 7 upgrade. The procedure was accomplished with no glitches. I did a Win 7 Home Premium upgrade from Win Vista Ultimate. I had four hard drives installed on the comp and and Win 7 prompted to select one for the new install; no problems followed!3 Following installation, the opening screen after the boot presented the following options (which previously did not exist): a. Windows 7 (this is the default setting that will load automatically unless b. or c. is selected) b. Windows Vista (this was formerly the C: drive) c. Ramdisk Options (I'm not familiar with this function...)4. In addition the lettered designations for each of the installed drives were changed during installation. Win 7 became the new C: and the others followed (the corresponding BIOS Disk numbers were 0 thru 4).5. The only difficulty I had was this morning after adding a new hard drive exclusively for Flight Sim X. The new drive did not appear after clicking on the desk top (Start>Computer). All the other drives were there but not this one. I checked the "System, Devices) and the new HD was there and 'working properly.' I then did a reboot to access the BIOS and the new drive was listed there. After Googling for an hour I found some reference to 'manage devices' and ultimately found that the new HD was 'not initialized'. After following a few instructions, Formatting, etc., the drive is now usable. I was not however, able to select the next sequential drive designator. It should have been 'J' but the next option available (on a drop down menu) was 'N'... So now I'm off to find a good reference for installing FSX on a new drive.-George -

Thanks Dan, appreciate the response.-George

One more question before I install Win7. If I do the 'custom' upgrade install (mentioned above) does Windows 7 search out and retain any data from the existing hard drive (for inclusion with the new install) before it formats (customizes) the drive? -G

Flight Sim X and my current OS (Windows Vista Ultimate) all reside on a WD Raptor 160GB and I've run out of space! I wanted to do a Win 7 Ultimate Upgrade with the 'custom' install option and advance from 32 to 64 bit but I understand that I'll have to purchase the 'full' edition rather than the 'upgrade' if I'm going to load it on a new hard drive. So that was the reason for my question, i.e. I had to be sure that Win7 would load properly on the new HD. Thanks for your response.-George

If I remove the hard drive from my computer and replace it with another (new) hard drive (in the same drive bay) will the Windows 7 program automatically begin installing after inserting the disk in the CD/DVD drive?-George

>>Even the name containng the word 'environment' is a bit of>a>>rip off of Peter's work. Just my two cents.....>>>>>>>>>>Taking the word "real" or "Flight" is kind of rip off too? >>The worst Rip off is taking the "X". Now thats what I call a>REAL Rip off! Everyone has been ripping off MS FSX.>>>:)>>>Well, I think that George Strait did a bigger rip-off than that! He said "All his X's lived in Texas.":)

Got it! Thanks.-G

Thanks, Ray....and to anyone following this thread that needs the path to view their USB power data here is an extract from the same magazine article that I previously cited:"Check your power needs in Windows by opening Device Manager. In XP click START, right-click MY COMPUTER, and select MANAGE. In Vista click START, right-click COMPUTER, and select MANAGE. In the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT window, select DEVICE MANAGER from the left pane. In the right pane, double-click each instance of USB ROOT HUB listed under UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS CONTROLLERS, and open the POWER tab for each one. On that tab you'll see a listing of how much power each USB port or attached USB device uses..."-G

Well, prior to initiating this post, I did not know that USB ports had their own power requirements and if they did, I'd guessed that those requirements would be supplied from the computer's main power supply... (you can tell I'm not a techie!!!).Just by coincidence I received yesterday the April issue of "PC World" and a short article on p.124 discusses 'Avoid Underpowering Your USB Devices.' It mentions USB root hubs and the procedure to identify the power consumption for each device; timely advice.Thanks to each of you for your additional comments/suggestions.-George

Thanks for your reply Greg.I guess it makes sense that there would be some signal degradation when not connecting directly to the comp. Maybe when I buy a new yoke I'll make the 'acid test' and see what results...-G

Can any problems be expected from attaching the USB for a Saitek Yoke or Rudder Pedals to my keyboard (two USB inputs available) or to a monitor (two also available)rather than making a direct connection to the USB input on the computer (HP Blackbird 002)?I have four USB inputs on the back of the comp currently being used and two inputs on the front (which I do not want to use for the yoke).I cannot experiment because I have not yet purchased the yoke...-George

Thanks for your response, Mitch; I understand now what you were saying.-G

>Mike stated that I had not perhaps given UTX-USA 'time>enough' to blend in on my system, so I reinstalled it, took a>pencil to pad, and in spending the whole day working with the>different masks to customize the program, actually (7 hours of>tweaks, not complaining...) am happy to report that it is>running somewhat decent on my P4 3.4 GHz.>>If you have a non-multi core machine, you can get it to work>at acceptable levels enough to use the program's contents.>>Thanks Mike, for the kick-in-the-pants. :) Sometimes we all>need one.>>As a result, I closed my ticket on Flight1's site and no>refund for program is being further requested. >>Case closed.>>Mitch R.Mitch: Can you explain/expand on the comment "...I had not perhaps given UTX-USA 'time enough' to blend in on my system..."?-George

This one has always amazed (and baffled) me!The amount of resources, both sophisticated and mundane, to discover the wreckage were enormous. Although the aircraft he was flying would leave only a small footprint, the technology currently available would seem to be sufficient to detect some trace of it.I've read comments from some sources that seem to think that the crash occurred within a relatively short distance from the point of departure; good possibility I'd suspect.Well, in any case, this event is ripe for the conspiricy theory syndrome to develop...-George

I agree!The photo of the acft turning final (or on final) into JFK is a nice depiction of a real world pilot's-eye-view.-George

Morgan, it's a relatively new stick (within the past year) and has not yet had a lot of 'wear and tear.'By coincidence, I installed a new payware package (Just Flight's DC-10 Collection) this morning and the install program included a version of FSUIPC4. After trying these newly installed DC-10s and several other aircraft, the joystick control was significantly less erratic (at least the aircraft don't run around in circles as they did previously). It's still not perfect but I'll play around with it for a while and see if things improve...As described in my original post though, the stick still cannot be calibrated; I tend to lean towards a software rather than hardware issue.Thanks for your response.-G

Let me Bump this up one time and ask another question: If nobody can answer the specific question(s) on the Saitek can anyone offer any general ideas on why the joystick operation becomes erratic?-G