Gerry47

Of course it's a means against piracy and of course it is necessary, I did not argue against that but there are other, better, more up to date ways of providing this without having to keep the DVD inserted.

Obviously you don't need to lock a demo but you get my point. Also the iPad version won't need a disk. Anyway thanks for the reply and seeing as you can use a virtual drive why not make it easier for customers and just use a product code like DCS A10c with a locked number of activations or some other protection system? I just think it is a lost opportunity and as Tom said above it is the way forward....

I bought X-Plane 9, really liked it but one of the reasons I stopped using it is because of having to insert the DVD to play. I have a powerful small laptop and it doesn't have a DVD drive however it is not an issue for most games now. I load the game using either Steam or an external DVD drive but then the game runs fine without the DVD. To use X-Plane I have to take a separate DVD drive with me which kind of defeats the purpose of an ultra portable laptop. Digital download and some kind of on-line protection are the way forward and I would have thought that with a title as cutting edge as X-Plane 10 you would have looked at a more up to date way of running the simulation. The demo doesn't need a DVD to run and that must have some kind of built in piracy protection?

Hi Tim Thanks for all your suggestions. I found a very simple way to make sure it is using the 580m in the end. I went to the fsx.exe application in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X folder, highlighted it and if you right click it gives the option on whether to run with integrated graphics or the nVidia card. So I tried with the integrated graphics and got pretty good frame rates, much more than I expected but fluctuating a lot from 6fps to 20+fps on unlimited frame rate-core i7 2860QM. I re-loaded the exact same flight after selecting "high performance nVidia processor" and got 25 to 40+ fps but with differences like reflections in the cockpit glass. At least I know now how to make it run from the 580m and I can live with this way of launching the programme. You're right Alienware do make very good pieces of kit-I would say that of course-but the optimus problem takes a bit of the shine off! Thanks again Gerry

Hi Tim Thank you for the suggestion. As I said I'm a bit new to this but re-booted to BIOS menu and there does not appear to be any option to disable the HD display? I have also searched on Google and can't find a way to do as you suggest but maybe I'm missing something? In the nvidia control panel it allows you to choose programmes which us the nVidia card. Against FSX it shows "fsx.exe" as the path to the programme, is that correct? Thanks Gerry

Hi Thank you for your replies. I am using Windows 64bit. Under devices the GTX580m is listed and the driver is 8.17.12.6903 which is different to the one PeterH suggests. My fsx.cfg file shows [DISPLAY.Device.Intel® HD Graphics Family.0.0]Mode=1920x1080x32Anisotropic=1AntiAlias=1 That doesn't sound right? Thanks Gerry

Thanks Bob, don't know how I missed that, Gerry

Hi I have my m17x r3 for one week and have been trying to get FSX to run properly since then. In the nVidia control panel FSX is listed as a programme and set to use the nVidia processor. When I go to the "Settings" tab in FSX, under "Device" it says "Intel ® HD Graphics Family .0.0" and does not list the 580m. In game I am getting between 10 and 50+fps with settings on high to max. (I also have the sim on my m11x r1 and that lists the graphics card under the same tab). The sim runs quite well but often when I exit I get a "fatal error" message and the sim re-starts itself. Also when I launch the game sometimes the window that should display the aircraft under the "free flight" tab is black but sometimes you can see the aircraft that is being loaded. (I notice I don't get this error if I don't use DX10 Preview.) A noob question but is the graphics card running the game or is it the gpu on the processor? Has anyone had a similar problem? Any suggestions or solutions please? Alienware m17xr3 (non-3d)Core i7 2860QM8Gb RAM750 Gb Thanks for your help. Gerry

HiI have my Aliewnware m17x r3 for one week and have been trying to get FSX to run properly since then. In the nVidia control panel FSX is listed as a programme and set to use the nVidia processor. When I go to the "Settings" tab in FSX, under "Device" it says "Intel ® HD Graphics Family .0.0" and does not list the 580m. In game I am getting between 10 and 50+fps with settings on high to max. (I also have the sim on my m11x r1 and that lists the graphics card under the same tab). The sim runs quite well but often when I exit I get a "fatal error" message and the sim re-starts itself. Also when I launch the game sometimes the window that should display the aircraft under the "free flight" tab is black but sometimes you can see the aircraft that is being loaded. A noob question but is the graphics card running the game or is it the gpu on the processor? Has anyone had a similar problem? Any suggestions or solutions please? Alienware m17xr3 (non-3d)Core i7 2860QM8Gb RAM750 Gb Thanks for your help. Gerry

Thank you for your replies, I didn't have my hopes up but was hoping someone had practical experience. You can overclock the dual core processor easily to 1.7Ghz and it also has 4gb RAM and the 1gb graphics card supports DX10 so I suppose I was hoping for better than Very Poor!! I just wanted something portable that would be pretty good for when I am away with work.

I tried searching but didn't find anything and just wondering if anyone has run FSX with the Alienware M11x and were the results good? Any tips to optimize performance? Many thanksGerry

Thank you for the information. I only ordered my new laptop today so don't have a confirmed delivery date yet but just gathering information at the moment.

Hi I'm sure this question has been asked before but I have not been able to find it in search. If you include FS9 in search you get an error because it is three characters or less so I would appreciate if someone can point me in the right direction. I am buying a new laptop and want to move FS9 to it. My FS9 folder contains a lot of add-ons that I purchased on the internet as downloads over the last five years so I can't install them from scratch. I have FS9 itself and a few add-ons on disk but apart from that everything is just on my hard drive. What is the best way to install FS9 with all the add-ons to my new computer. My old laptop is Windows XP Professional and the new one will be Windows 7 Home Premium.Any advice would be very much appreciated. ThanksGerry

Hi ScottThanks for the reply.I live in Ireland so don't have the same options as you guys have and in fact the Asus dealer only opened this week. I was thinking of Alienware but for a similar spec it is much more expensive. I have read a lot of reviews of the Asus and it seems pretty good but no-one has a review with FSX.I'll let everyone know when I get it!Gerry

HiI am still trying to find a laptop that will run FSX at high frame rates and good detail. The new Asus G73JH seems promising as it has an ATI 1GB 5870 graphics card, 8GB DDR3 RAM and a core i7 720QM processor. Has anyone any experience with this computer and FSX? The processor seems to be the weakest link but I've been told I can't upgrade it here by the distributor.Many thanksGerry

Hi Not sure if this is on the right forum but does anyone know if the Alienware m11x will run FSX at good frame rates with good detail? The graphics card and RAM options seem to be good but I'm not sure about the processor.Many thanks

Thanks for the advice so far and I will hold off on that Sony and maybe look at something like the Asus. I hope you guys realise how lucky you are to have all of those options and such low prices where you live! We can't get Sager here (at least not very easily) and the price for computers is also much higher, that Sony for example is about $2300, 1700euro!!

Thank you for the advice about the graphics card. What about the processor though is it powerful enough do you think?

Thank you for your reply. The graphics card is NVidia GE Force GT 330M and it has 8GB DDR3 SDRAM. I had thought of the Asus but can't find a proper dealer in Ireland. My previous computers have all been Dell but they seem to be overpriced for the specs.

HiI am replacing my laptop and would like to get something that will play FSX with very good detail and frame rates. There are a number of laptops which have 1GB Graphics and 8GB ram but they almost all have the Core i7-720 QM which is a 1.6GHz and overclocks to 2.6GHz. Given that FSX is processor hungry will I get a good result with a laptop like this? The laptop I have in mind is a Sony Vaio F series. If you have any other suggestions for a similarly priced laptop that would be great too.

Hi GuysJust saying thank you for the information. As you say my processor is what is slowing things down, in FSX especially so I will try out your suggestions. Thanks again and really great that AVSIM is up and running again. Gerry

I'm trying out xplane and so far I'm impressed. What I don't like is that the simulator tells me I have too many rendering options set and then reduces the visibility to compensate. I have tried to lower the frame rates a bit but it won't let me go below 19fps, why is that? And how do I change it?Acer Laptop 6530 2ghtz dual core4gb ramATI 512mb graphics cardThanks Gerry

It is a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra 256mb. The driver is: nv4_dsp.dllVersion: 6.14.0010.7176I don't think I can update this driver because it is linked to the Dell Media Experience(!?). Maybe I'm wrong about this but I have never been able to find an updated driver on either the nVidia or Dell websites.

I meant to add that I'm running Windows XP Professional

Hi I recently installed FSX Acceleration and find that when I try to change views the simulator locks up and then restarts. I uninstalled and then did a clean re-install of FSX and then re-installed Acceleration but the problem is still there. I have a Dell XPS 2 laptop with 256mb nVidia graphics card and 2gb RAM. I did a search but couldn't find an answer so apologies if this has been done before. ThanksGerry