Owi

G'day mate,Luckily for us, there are quite a few good models of CPU cooling kits available these days. Personally, I use CoolIT Systems' Domino A.L.C. - A pre-assembled liquid cooling kit. It was reasonably easy to install and it cools my CPU adequately for my OC needs. Although, if I were to buy a new one now, I'd propbaby go for one of their newer models. Corsair also have a model or two that have had some good reviews.Most good models will suit your needs, but do a little homework before you buy. (Maybe you would be better off with a "traditional" aftermarket fan based air-cooling system, like those from Noctua.) Just don't buy the most expensive - they rarely perform in proportion to their price.Cheers,

Heheh. Yeah, mate. I have to agree. I've just upgraded last weekend from a GTX 275 896MB OC to a 2GB Golden Sample GTX460 and I'm happy as a pig in mud! I've moved my sliders up as far as I dare for now and I'm still hitting averages of 40fps flying low over forested terrain. Blinking awesome!! Happy but I'm still going to push the boundaries a little more, as we should.

Yup, that is a good book. Very well written. For any of you who also learning to fly for real, I can recommend Bruce Williams' "MS Flight Simulator as a Training Aid". It helps merge the two worlds together to complement each other. Essentially, becoming better at one makes you better in the other (virtual / real).Happy reading.

G'day mate,Sounds like you haven't assigned the right pedal to any actions in FSX.To do this, go to Settings - Controls ... then select the Control Axes tab. In the Controller type drop down, make sure the Saitek Rudder is selected, then in the Assignment list double-click the Brake (right axis) item and press the right pedal. FSX should then recognise that you want to (differential) brake when you press the right pedal. Make sure the left one is also done similarly. Then you may click okay all the way out and test it.Good luck.

G'day mate,I've had a problem similar to this. For me it happens when I minimise FSX to start another app from the start menu and when I try to return to FSX it's all blacked out yet I can still hear the sounds. I think the problem is actually driver related but there is a workaround. I discovered this quite by accident and it may work for you.If, after doing your FSRecorder thing, the FSX screen is blacked out - press "Alt+Enter" to "restore" FSX to a windowed mode. Then the visuals should return. If it is and you want to go back to fullscreen mode, press "Alt+Enter" again. The visuals should again be good.Hope that works for you.Cheers,

It doesn't list FSX, so I don't know if it'll change anything for us FSX-ers. :(

G'day, mate.Crikey, that's a weird one, but I think the problem is with your PC's sound setup. Does your system have a surround sound setup such as 7.1 or 5.1 ?If so, you may need to go into the sound utilities on your PC (eg. RealTek Mixer) and try changing the setup from a surround sound arrangement to one of plain old stereo. Once you've established that as the problem (if it is) then you can proceed to try different combinations of connections (physical and software set) until all your sounds appear.That's all I can think of.Good luck.

G'day mate,Nope, no such worries here. Please post system specs and some of your basic FS settings. Then we can work out whether your running Flying School (in addition) is what's tipping the bucket.Cheers,EDIT: Oh - you're running 2010? I have 2009, so I can't say for sure whether you have a 2010 issue. Have you looked at the FS Flying School Forum?

:( :( Well I'll be darned! It was enabled.I was almost certain that it wasn't before posting and immediately after reading your reply but checked anyways. Funny/weird/stupid thing is, even if you select "Hard" from the realism preset list, "Autorudder" remains enabled. Deselected it and wahey! - I can now do sideslips and apply my own turn balancing again.Thanks very much, trisager, mate.

G'day all,I've been having a problem for a while now in that I've noticed that the Balance Ball in the Turn Coordinator does not move. I'm sure it used to. I don't know at what point it stopped working.I also thought perhaps it was just the aircraft I was flying but I've now flown at least four different types (add-on and default) with the same problem. I fly mainly GA airplanes and a Twotter.There doesn't seem to be any reference to this in the searches I've done, so I have to ask if anybody else is having this problem and if you know how it's fixed?Cheers,

Oh, jolly good! May the Force (feedback) be with you. :( Thanks for reporting back.

Hey David,I just plugged it in, let Windows do it's driver installation and then proceeded into Windows' configuration/setup utility - found in Control Panel under "Game Controllers" - and calibrated it. Finally, I checked the controller's assignments in FSX. No worries.Have you checked that UAC is not interfering with it? Are you logged in as an Administrator?Maybe your Windows had an error while trying to install it (you did have the AC power plugged in first, right?). What I'd do is try it in another USB port. Failing that, I'd remove the device/driver using Device Manager while it's still connected; then reconnect it and let it try again.Good luck.

Hey again, Mark.I checked my Traffic Controller pages and, yes, there it is (going blind I reckon :( ). Set to 100% just like yours. I hadn't noticed (or paid attention to) that before, so it must be a default level. What I did do, though, is go over the aircraft list and check those that I wanted to appear while I'm flying. I have a fairly large and varied selection. more than the default selection I think, but it could also depend on the types that you choose (you don't see too many 747's landing at the local GA airport, eh?) :( Cheers,

G'day David,Ah, the good old MS Sidewinder ForceFeedback 2. Apparently they are still legendary in the world of joysticks! (Have a look on some FS forums / hardware reviews and they'll tell you.) I use mine on my Win 7 x64. I fly helicopters and stick-based fixed wings with it.I'm confused by your statement so I have to ask: was it working properly before you tried it on your Win 7 system? Try it on another system, such as one with Vista on (no external drivers needed - it's natively supported by Vista and Win7).Hope you don't have to go about the expense of a new one. But if you do, I support bigcav's recommendation of the Saitek X52 Pro.As for the recommended tweaks, I don't think they can be pinned, since there are so many variations and no hard and fast ones that everybody can agree on. But, Nick N's FSX Tweaking Guide has the support of an awful lot of us. :( Cheers,

Hey Mark,I vary my FSX traffic sliders between 60 and 100%, and I don't recall what I have it set to in TrafficX. In fact, I don't recall a traffic density setting there at all. :( I'll have to check and get back to you.What I do know is that I fly primarily in Australia because of the great scenery from ORBX/FTX and I use their freeware AI Traffic for Aus too. Because of potential conflict with Traffic-X AI, I have deselected Traffic-X from flying in Aus. That said, I have flown elsewhere in the world, at 60 or 100%, and I haven't seen any problems.I don't always make flight plans, so no I don't think you have to. You have the last comment right. The aircraft should be where you've asked them to be. Because I've noticed that they do tend to stick to the airports schedule pretty accurately, try loading a flight at a really busy airport at peak time to see if they are there.Cheers,

G'day JFri,I have African Airstrip Adventures and even though I haven't played with it a lot, due to time constraints, the few times I have it has been quite enjoyable. (Even with the steep-ish learning curve for me.)Yes, the system requirements can get quite heavy IF you want all, or most- of the eye-candy. The included manual gives you a very good run-down of what you can expect based on your choices of items to disable, and I imagine that even with your system (which isn't too modest) you should be able to get a fair frame rate with some decent scenery.I agree that it seems pointless that you would need to have a really heavy duty PC in order to enjoy this add-on to it's fullest, but that is primarily due to the strains that the AI (animals and birds) will place on the system (CPU and RAM), not so much the flight model and scenery. Besides, we know that FSX itself is a system hog of it's own accord. :( I don't know about you, but a lot of enthusiasts will upgrade their systems to a better model within 2 years anyway, by which time the up-to-date hardware should be well capable of handling nearly the maximum that this software can throw at it.That's my view anyway. I suggest waiting for others to put in their views and then you can decide. As I say, I do enjoy it.Cheers and good luck.

Hey Mark,Do I assume right that you have read the Support FAQs on the JF site? Sorry, I don't know anything about Plan-G, but the FAQ does refer to a problem like this.Are your AI traffic sliders set to a reasonable level for your area? Have you checked out Traffic-X's settings? (It's a separate program in the JF folder). This sounds like a DirectX 10 problem. I don't use DX10 because I can't live with the J-fighting that still plagues most airfields in FSX. Traffic-X is DX10 certified and I have seen mine in DX10 without fault. Are you sure the aircraft you're looking at are Traffic-X's AI ones? There is a forum for most of their 'big' projects. The links to them are seen on the left middle of their homepage. Here's the link to JF's TrafficX User Forum.If all else fails, I'd uninstall and reinstall (as administrator) after ensuring that any other similar add-ons are temporarily disabled.Cheers and good luck.

Yeah, mate.With one exception where I did get an answer (eventually) this has been my experience with Just Flight too. Like you, I just suck it up and resolve the problem myself, or avoid the situation that led to the fault.It's a pity really, because I actually like the products of theirs that I do have - Traffic X, Flying Club X, C-130 X and Rescue Pilot Mission Pack to name most. Nowadays, when I see something they have that I might like to get - I look (and take my money) elsewhere to see what the other guys are doing.Maybe the ol' GFC has whittled their staff numbers down so bad that they can't keep up with their customer base anymore? There's usually a good reason.By the way, what was/are your issue/s with Traffic-X ?Cheers,

Hey Frankla,Ideally, you have to ask yourself what changed before you noticed the spiking? Did you install a new add-on? Change a setting? (However innocent it may seem.) Then you can try going backwards to see if that makes a difference.That said, your bufferpools could be too low now. You didn't say what you had before but try around 150 - 200 million.This also depends on other factors such as what your other FSX graphics settings are, what you're flying (add-on aircraft), where you're flying at the time (cities) and whether you have any other add-ons such as ground textures. All of these quickly fill up the graphics memory banks.Cheers,

Forgive me if I seem ignorant, Vincent, but what do you mean by "external FPS"? Where do you set that?Thanks,

Good grief! This has been somewhat of a monologue. Nevertheless, because there may be some interested people out there who didn't comment because they didn't have any ideas (pretty much like me), I will post my solution anyways...To cut a long story short - the USB wireless mouse is now in the bin.Not really, but I won't be using it on my FS PC with the rudders anymore. It works fine on it's own.I suddenly realised that even though I had tried the rudder in different USB ports without change, I hadn't actually considered the mouse - or rather, it's wireless receiver - because it works fine otherwise. So, I plugged the receiver into a different port and tested again. It was slightly better but only for a short while.Then I figured, I don't have another rudder to test with (which worked fine on another PC) but I do have another wireless mouse. Removed first mouse, plugged new one in and tested. "Well I'll be..." It worked perfectly so I proceeded to configure my rudder with FSUIPC without any further mouse issues.Now, I just gotta get a decent sized replacement mouse. The one I tested with is a mini travel mouse and my hands are quite big, so it becomes a pain after a while.Thanks for reading.

G'day again,Well, I suppose it was wishful thinking that it was so easy. I disabled FSUIPC and the problem still exists.After a while thinking about it, this makes sense since FSUIPC only kicks in once FSX is loaded. :( I'll have to go back to my "process of elimination" charts.

G'day all, I'm having a problem with my Saitek ProFlight Rudder kit and thought I'd post here to try and find a solution. I have also sent an email to Saitek support for their input. I've just discovered that my (MS wireless USB) mouse behaves very erratically or becomes highly unresponsive whenever I plug in the rudder. However, if I push and hold any of the levers (axis or brakes) the mouse regains it's smooth motion. Let go and it's all erratic again."Bizarre" is an understatement here - I would have thought that a problem like this would occur the other way around.I have tried different USB ports without change and, of course, I have been using the latest 64-bit drivers (but not the Profile software). As intimated, it was working fine until recently. It seems I have to now put my cap in my hand and admit that I've reached the end of my capabilities in troubleshooting this one. Is anybody here able to offer any suggestions as to what could be wrong here and how I could fix it? Oh, I have the ProFlight Yoke/Throttle kit too, which wasn't connected while I did this troubleshooting. Thanks in anticipation,edit: Oh, I just realised (and this may be coincidental) I had just installed FSUIPC4 when I noticed this problem. I'm going to uninstall it and report back, but if anyone has any ideas anyway... Please go ahead.

Golly! I switched to windowed mode on a suggestion in some forum (I can't remember where) that I'd get an improvement in FPS - I did - so I hadn't considered going back to fullscreen mode because I got used to windowed mode.Thanks to this thread, I was curious enough to experiment again. I switched back to fullscreen mode and I have an average FPS increase of about 50%.My result is based on a five minute flight in an AS Twotter, on heading 110 from Bankstown YSBK, 1500ft AMSL over the western suburbs of Sydney and just past Botany Bay in the city's south; and I have FTX AU !I was lucky to hit 14fps before, but now I get to 24fps frequently. FSX is locked at 25fps. Go figure.Cheers and thanks to all here for helping make this a great FS forum in general.

Hey Jason,Hmm, so it occurs later when ENB is turned off. That could be because the card is doing less work? Which leads me to believe your card may be overheating. Try testing FSX + ENB with the case open to a good source of ventilation.Another thought I had: I've read that the GTX 295 is basically two GPUs slapped together and run with an internal SLI mode (please correct me if I'm wrong). If my reading is correct, have you checked that SLI mode is turned off via the driver? Also - did you make sure to connect both power connectors on the card? (Sorry, sometimes you gotta ask the obvious.)That's all I can think of for now. Let us know how you go.Cheers,PS: 4GHz is the magic number as far as FSX is concerned. :(