Screwbottle

Hi Slayer Thanks for advice. I think I tried this, but maybe not. I'll follow your advice and see how I go. I'll report back if I succeeed or don't. Have you tried this in P3D v3.3. Regards Edit - 12 July 2016 SAST 16H00 Ok, tested and it works in P3D v3.3. Once one has clicked the mixture lock buttons everything settles down and one can even perform the full manual start, or the semi-auto Ctrl E start. It seems P3D is a lot more finicky or should I say fastidious, in the startup process. Thanks for the tip Slayer.

Yes a very nice gift from Milviz. Thank you Milviz. Just one issue I have found. It works perfectly with starting up the two engines and following the guide in FSX. Not so in P3D v3.3. Doing the partially automatic mode with the Ctrl E, starts only the left engine. And using the full manual mode just does not start the engines.The mixture levers flutter, the prop levers do not want to move forward, and the one prop lever flutters up and down when Ctrl E is used as start. And I cannot get any of the magneto switches on, except for the left engines left magneto, which only switches on with Ctrl E mode. I have followed all advice on the Milviz forum, and by setting the mixture with the Ctrl-Shift-F4 for full rich option. I have no issues with the default P3D Lockheed P-38's nor the payware addon Lockheed P-38's from FlightSim Developers. So it must be with this model. I know with this becoming a freeware giveaway, there is no support, but hopefully Milviz patch it, if enough of us ask them to fix it for the newest versions of P3D. Regards Andrew Brown

Hi JFMitch Yep I know what to do with the payment recovery process and I am in process with this now. I just posted to warn others. SimPlanet are being very helpful at the moment. Cheers Hi Vic Agreed, I have 40 years IT experience, and my own business for the last three, so I am fortunate to have sacrificial systems which I use to test. I read about all of the others like this that also give blazing reviews of how well they work, only to screw up not only the simulators, but one's registry as well. Wannabe script kiddies con artist programmers/coders!!!!??????? trying to make a quick buck. My thoughts exactly. I agree wholeheartedly, it was quite funny and a joke to read this, but in an open forum I decided to give him my piece of mind. They've already edited out my comments and flagged them as insults. Shows what they've got to hide.

Hello All This is a duplicate of my post at the FSX forum, as it affects both FSX and P3D. I am offering this as a warning of a payware product, advertised at SimPlanet as a new company with two products, with a 40% discount, as a start off advert for them. This is no slate or prejudice on the fine website of SimPlanet, and I have advised them so of what has transpired, along with a request for a refund. This product by Vector Design - Move it to P3D, is riddled with bugs and does not work. From this first very bad experience of a payware product, I would also not trust their other product on offer - FSEquipment Connect to FlightSim. There is now a number of us who bought it with this discount, reported our findings of the various failures and non working operation of this product, and have responded accordingly to the support site of Vector Design. We have been met and treated with disrespect, rudeness and arrogance. Here is a link to their forum, you can read for yourself, first link, and on the other few responses of similiar discussions, second link. http://vectordesign.....php?topic=27.0 http://vectordesign.....php?topic=28.0 Go well, and be safe, even with your payware Regards Andrew Brown

Hello All I'm not sure if I should post this here or in the Prepar3D forum, but it affects both FSX and P3D. I will duplicate it at the P3D forum as well. I am offering this as a warning of a payware product, advertised at SimPlanet as a new company with two products, with a 40% discount, as a start off advert for them. This is no slate or prejudice on the fine website of SimPlanet, and I have advised them so of what has transpired, along with a request for a refund. This product by Vector Design - Move it to P3D, is riddled with bugs and does not work. From this first very bad experience of a payware product, I would also not trust their other product on offer - FSEquipment Connect to FlightSim. There is now a number of us who bought it with this discount, reported our findings of the various failures and non working operation of this product, and have responded accordingly to the support site of Vector Design. We have been met and treated with disrespect, rudeness and arrogance. Here is a link to their forum, you can read for yourself, first link, and on the other few responses of similiar discussions, second link. http://vectordesign.es/forum/index.php?topic=27.0 http://vectordesign.es/forum/index.php?topic=28.0 Go well, and be safe, even with your payware Regards Andrew Brown

You're welcome Yes too true "If it ain't broke don't fix it" in slang is a good line to follow. I tend to swim up rivers against the flow, quoting another human saying going with the flow, much like the Salmon fish. So I say "If it ain't broke, well fix it anyway, as long as you know what you are doing, and accept the consequences". Sorry my weird humour

Hi WebMaximus As to your reply post no.1, the headers on your board are free from the ones wired onto the board chassis. They use the same chipset, and each internal hub can manage up to four USB ports, most boards/chipsets today actually have six to eight of these hubs with a total of 32 ports, but they don't add all of them. Normally six on the board chassis to the rear, a combination of USB 3.0 and 2.0, and then some on the headers, the rest they don't make provision for. So you should have at least two USB 2.0 headers for use (4 USB ports), and if a new board, your's will also have a USB 3.0 header for the front of chassis use. Check your user manual carefully. As to your reply post no.2, this is usually to do with a poorly screened cable used on the external USB hub, it's generally found on cheap and nasty USB hubs, it fails to control the data flow with too many losses. Good quality external hubs have a cable no longer than 1 metre, and is extremely thick, and not so flexible. It's always a good idea to plug high utility devices directly into the USB ports on the board.

Howzit WebMaximus Is your Saitek TQ the USB add-on one. I have both the Saitek yoke with quadrant throttle using the round PS/2 connector plugged into the yoke, and the USB add-on one, and I also initially had troubles. I had upgraded my hardware to the top of the line processor, board, RAM and video card, and decided to upgrade W7 Pro x64 to W10 Pro x64. Most of the ports now on this new hardware are USB 3.0 with one or two USB 2.0, and these USB 3.0 are what gave me grief. In my 40 years of my IT experience and 4 years my own business, I have learnt through research and test at many developer sites, that USB 3.0 is not 100% backward compatible to 2.0, typical marketing hype and bullcrap fed to the masses. I learnt that the Saitek yoke refuses to work on any USB 3.0 ports, no matter what tweaking I do in BIOS/UEFI. And the USB TQ was also intermittent. So best bet how I resolved it, was purchased the add-on connectors that screw onto the free space slots on the EFI bus rail at the back of the PC, using the unused USB 2.0 headers on the board, giving me an extra six USB 2.0 ports. And for me I plugged the USB TQ into one of the three free yoke USB ports and added an AC adapter for extra power onto the yoke, it's provided for, but an optional extra as in AC adapter. I also tested the USB TQ straight into the new USB 2.0 ports and all is resolved now. So this is my advice to you and you should have success. One other thing to do to also guarantee the above, and I advise this for all USB port use with high demand devices, is as below. This works for all of the past Windows operating systems in use. I do this as standard practice on all computers, due to the poor ongoing MS and Intel crap with power management to USB. One opens the device manager, type "device manager" without the quotes, into the W10 "Search" Then click on Device Manager that shows up in the list. Once the Device manager opens it's window, go to the bottom of the list and open the "Universal Serial Bus controllers", by clicking on the little arrow on the left. Then finally right click each and all of the devices listed "....Hubs" select the "Properties" and in the opening window go to the last tab indicating "Power Management" and untick the option that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". Do this for all of the hubs listed on your system, even those that you plug in externally, plug them in now if they are not plugged in. If you are not sure simply right click all USB devices and click "Properties" on all of them. You will see those that have the "Power management" tab to do this. Uncheck all of them that you find and you will have full power all of the time to any plugged in USB device. You might notice, like my Thrustmaster F16 MFD panels do, that the devices with displays and /or LED's will flash through boot up until you have logged in. But it certainly does resolve the majority of power delivery to high capacity devices attached to USB ports. And especially the dim to non-functioning displays on Saitek panels. If this works for you maybe I should change my handle from Screwbottle to GuruMaximus Hee! Hee! Good luck going forward. Cheers Andrew

Hello, I know I am replying to a very old topic, but I would like to enhance this far better than the Microsoft link to the complex author's way of USB power management. This has alway been an issues since the early Windows iterations and it has never been properly resolved bewteen MS and Intel. And I have tested this on on all Windows operating systems desktops, including laptops, up to 10 Home and Pro native and with the 1511 service pack installed. Much easier this way. In a nut shell, one opens the device manager, type "device manager" without the quotes, into the W10 "Search" Then click on Device Manager that show up in the list. Once the Device manager opens it's window, go to the bottom of the list and open the "Universal Serial Bus controllers, by clicking on the little arrow on the left. Then finally right click each and all of the devices listed "....Hubs" select "Properties", in the opening window go to the last tab indicating "Power Management" and untick the option that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". Do this for all of the hubs listed on your system, even those that you plug in, plug them in if not at this time. If you are not sure simply right click all USB devices and click "Properties" on all of them. You will see those that have the "Power management" tab to do this. Uncheck all of them that you find and you will have full power all of the time to any plugged in USB device. I do this as standard practice on all computers, due to the poor ongoing MS and Intel crap with power management to USB. You might notice, like my Thrustmaster F16 MFD panels do, that the displays and /or LED's will flash through boot up until you have logged in. But it certainly does resolve the majority of power delivery to high capacity devices attached to USB ports. And especially the dim to non-functioning displays on Saitek and other brand panels. Good luck going forward. Andrew

Hi AviatorMoser / Daniel Well I was following your posts, and going to try your configuration suggestion, and lo and behold as I started the Steam client, it's updating ??? the second time since last week!!!!! And I put the games into offline mode prior. So this offline mode does not work for the Steam client itself, again annoying no matter how fast it installs, and at the end of the client install, it's now asking me of a choice of offline or online mode. So as one can see the Steam client I will say once again, is in control at all times, and adding to the time for one to start ANY game, something which is taking longer and longer what with the content involved in today's games. Bloatware, never mind if one has the fastest system on the planet, compounded by this client. And I have discovered your settings you offered as a screen shot, the top option, Automatic Updates, I could not change in offline mode, the dropdown is locked, all other options are available, so only when going back online does it unlock. And I tested on all of the games I have installed in Steam, the same result. Strike 2 for Steam.

Hee! Hee! Yeah, done and do that, worn out the T-shirt, now a rag

Here's another fly in the ointment, I have thought about. This is when a hard drive, and yes SDD's much sooner, crash, and they do crash for many unexplainable reasons. Great you now want to restore all Steam games, including your FSX: SE. Hopefully you have run the backup from within the client, on a regular basis to trap the latest updates. And I have done this at the beginning of the year, when I built a new system and wanted a fresh start. With Steam, you have no source disc, or media, so you are reliant on the installation of the Steam client, which will allow one to restore your backed up games content, AFTER the game has installed, IF you have the backup. If not then you are looking at Gigs' of download. Again what do those of us do with low internet and capacity services, or as suggested, limited caps. I took a week to install all of my Steam games, just another "small" issue to consider. I am not ruling out that there is a similiar process with standalone games, but I own my media, and I backup up all of my configuration files, aircraft and scenery once installed, as well as having all of the installers on an external hard drive. So my recovery is quicker, without the use of the Internet, the MAIN difference.

It seems you are not reading the posts here correctly, or my posts, in detail. Nothing to do with "afraid of change" AT ALL, you assume too much!! And it's far from being based on falsehoods. I would very much like to see FSX: SE succeed but while it is managed by the Steam client, it has very serious flaws, that it seems you and others have not considered or found with others in other parts of the world. CodeChris's response below yours is now understanding this. I am a beta tester for many brands of software, so I know how to do due diligence and testing of software, and I have not finished testing all features of the Steam client, to be honest and truthful, it has put me off with it's "fiddling" and download/update issues. But my posts on this forum have revealed both my own and others, way of using this client. Thanks CodeChris, appreciate your reply. At least you now see where I am going with this, for myself and others who will face my same issues. And if I could talk to DTG directly, or even Valve (Steam) I would cover all of these issues, to improve both the client, and the games running under this client. I am not against the success of FSX: SE, but it needs to get closer in use and operation, and I believe they are getting there but missing some existing issues, to those of us that have used FSX for many years in it's current form, and we see many changes that are not condusive to a good experience. For Steam purists, and many using FSX for the first time, or past limited use with a new awakening, with unlimited internet access, these question are never asked, or realised. See my post in reply to france89, point no. 2, yes but only if the game or all games are up to date, can you go offline. It's clearly stated on the Steam forums, I went and checked after being told of the "offline" mode. So catch 22 damned if you update, damned if you don't update. As tf51d posted above, I am sure that eventually the Steam client will insist on doing updates to it's own client, as well as any and all installed games, so this is untested water, as far as I can see.

But what a difference in configuration, which as I said hinders one to get the game started quickly and smoothly. Yes I am fully aware of "configuration" tweaking and tuning, but no other configuration in free standing games hinders me from starting it and seeing it running. And correct I don't like it, or have to like it. Even when a developer can and wants to do something, we all know what will happen in the long run if it irritates consumers to the point of no puchase, it fails. So there has to be a happy medium of the door swinging both ways for developer and consumer to make for a succesful product and sale.

Yeah, and the Sea cables are a joke in themselves. We know of around 8 to 10TB's per second available to us as a country, but no-one knows or can answer as to where it lands and is used. It has got better over the years, so-so and very slowly, but the mainstream of affordable internet to most today is 4Mb/s (512KB/s), with capping up to 100GB, costing around R500.00 pm ($50), and the SP's have the audacity to call this ultrafast internet. Uncapped ADSL is available for a bigger price tag, and forget uncapped mobile data, it does not exist, that is an area where we are royally screwed with exhorbitant pricing.There are changes afoot with privateers, and us the people standing up and fighting back, where we can now on average have 10Mb/s ADSL lines to our homes, with FTTH (Fibre To The Home) available, the catch line is they all cost and are too much in most cases, for the average middle working class, never mind the lower classes. This FTTH is currently for the affluent, and in test phase, and one has to have a community in excess of 100 homes signing up for the FTTH installation, before they will install. Average costs for the maximum speed of 100MB/s per month is R890.00 ($80) for a capped 100GB and R1500.00 ($140) for uncapped, a large monthly outlay, for the "luxury in our country" of true high speed internet. As all of my posts are trying to cover, there is always something that has to be done to Steam before XXXXXXXX can happen, no freedom, sorry. As you guys post replies as "fixes" it exposes more and more hindrances. I rest my case. Well at least this forum has lit up and has had many repsonses, I think very good for this web site and the community.

1. Replied back 2. We have a wonderful new system in this country, under the new democracy since '94, called load shedding. The new status quo took over, and when '96 came up to plan our future water needs and power, it was decided to skip it, The 2010 World Cup came here, and instructions were given to keep the lights on at all costs, no matter what, trying to impress the world. This was the last straw that broke the camels back, and 21 years later since '94, we do not have enough of anything, all broken. Past it's sell by or replace by date, and way past it's maintenance date. And this load shedding affects all of us in this country at least once a day through out 2/3rd's of our country. So one expects at least 3 to 4 power cuts a week of up to four hours depending on the national grid strain, as it is rotated. So yes I would love to have a stable always on fast line. To answer other questions in another post, our affordable norm online speed is 4Mb/s with a 110GB usable data cap, costing us around R500.00 pm - $50. To get back on topic, then they need to return the control to us, where we can bypass the update, no matter if we are online or offline, and resume it while we sleep or at work. I see a poster above is talking of Canada's new laws about autoupdates, so this could surely affect the way Steam works. 3. Moot as in we are all doing updates, if not with FSX core. So we are conditioned to doing regular updates, from our operating systems, where we can block, stop or postpone very easily, as I covered in my paragraph further, maybe again we are misinterpereting each other. Ok, I take back what I said, again I have misread and misinterpreted your reply. I'm not raising drama, simply stating what happens with Steam like clients outside of the countries of milk and honey. I am experiencing this along with many of my friends, business clients etc. and I posted here. So either the owners of Steam (Valve) don't care for the other 1 to 10% value countries being forced to use their service, as we are just a drop in the ocean of their revenue stream. Allow us to put to text what our experiences are, and see how we all common in a hobby, battle that much more to enjoy it. I see a number of countries do not allow Steam games or other similiar systems into their country, without a standalone version available, and that is a fact, they allow their citizens choice. As to your last statement and also see my reply to Ray, as I don't want to violate, be warned or banned for introducing politics, racism or whatever, as per AVSIM rules. This is my ancestral home, my great "how many knows" grandparents, came here from Ireland, Scotland and England, since the 1760's. I don't know your original nationality, but much like the immigrants into the US from many great European and British countries. We have proud and established roots here, and are very proud to be called South African, not white S.A., black S.A. coloured S.A. or Indian S.A., just South Africans. This was a very succesful country, with the second strongest currency in the world next to the British pound, during the '70s and '80's, and some of the highest quality minerals, produce and human capitol to offer. We fed Africa along with the old Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Yes like nearly ALL countries in the world, we had (and still have even worse today) political and racist issues, which changed in '94 to benefit ALL. But sadly, we are but a ghost of what we could have been today, and have gone backwards by many years. And finally I am now 55, in the autumn of my career, very hard for me to enter other contries without being a burden on their tax system, medical and pension systems, or any resources. My brother and I of our generation, are the last in this country, the rest have either passed or moved to Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. He has five children and two grandkids to now be with. He live's 1700KM's away from me. So I stay, I have two succesful businesses in IT and Photography, which keep me enjoying my most important values of life, my lovely wife of 28 years, my mother in law (yes a great lady she is, no funny cracks or jokes here) and my four great kids with two grandkids, and then my hobbies of flight SIM's and photography. I could never leave this, unless I have the currency and the means to move them all. So we make the most of it, live for today, and enjoy each other. I also have great brothers in arms, from my previous military days and my membership of two great virtual aviation clubs. There I've said enough now.

Hi CodeChris, I hear what you are presenting, but I still think you're not getting what I am trying to get across, maybe it's my way of presenting it. Steam install is a system, with many folders in it just to support the Steam client, and agreed one can install this by choice. Within that is the games folder <drive>\default or other folder of choice\Steam\SteamApps\common, and this is how Steam installs every game. Now if you tamper with this folder and move the games elsewhere, you will break the Steam app in locating your games. Maybe this is better explained. There are many reasons as to why one would want to install in a custom location, such as FS9 and FSX not to be installed in any default locations for W7 and W8/8.1, and especially on the 64bit version. This is well documented all over the web, and found by many of us and passed on as knowledge, due to MS's way of virtualising the /Program Files (now the 64bit folder which was the old 32bit folder) and /Program File (x86) (the new 32bit folder, and now can you see the confusion). Many old 32bit apps are hard coded to accept the default location, or a custom location, but not using another /Program Files (x86), so when installed into the 64bit version of the /Program Files, all hell breaks loose. Microsoft by default tries to manage the installation of 32bit and 64bit apps, but as we all know things can and do go wrong. I have eliminated 99% of my programs and flightsim issues by installing everything into a custom group folder, i.e. Applications, Graphics, Games, Multimedia, Utilities etc. and as is the case of my games, all in a Games folder on my D: drive. I know many will poer poer my ideas, but I have very little if any CTD's or blue screens today, having practiced this since Windows 98 and NT. I am not trying to start a fight or argument or have insults directed at me, I am simply using my hopefully vast experience and passing it forward, in what I have learned and observed. Even with my statement of the modern generation being controlled, I was not trying to insult but stated a fact of what is happening to the human race with our devices and software. We cannot even hold decent conversations with each other face to face, and this gets worse when we use social media like this. And it's as though the internet and Google is god (lower case so as not to offend others, myself included) in what it spews out as fact, over tried and trusted, many hours of labour and love, methods. "Edited for spelling and tense, sorry, all good now"

Yep , we are all hoping so, as without getting political, this country is in dire straits at the moment, when it comes to currency value retention, loss of jobs, failing water supply systems, electricity that is cut off for three hours at least once a day, and other declining services. All covered in local and international press. We changed our democracy hoping for the better in '94, but sadly we have take one step forward and five steps backward.

France89, well it seems not so, if you read the responses here with FSX;SE, in reference to me over 8 million. Who says 8 million are absolutely right, especially when it comes to flight simulation, as we are discussing in this forum. I and others are simply listing the current shortcomings not addressed by DTG in connection with upgrading a current popular SIM, and it being controlled by Steam. It fails even against the now 8 year old existing FSX. 1. Only as a complete Steam installation, try seperate the Steam installation from the actual game, that is what I was referring to. I have a 80GB Steam folder on my D: drive and whithin that it installs the playable games. Otherwise please enlighten me as to how to install a Steam game, separate from it's client into another folder or drive. This is what I was on about. 2. Great, good to know, but here is a fact I gleaned off of the Steam forums. Any installed game has to be totaly patched and up to date before you can enable offline mode. And if you re-enable online mode, then one has to run all patches, plus client updates, to present before re-enabling the offline mode. This in itself is a hindrance as to instant use of any game from offline mode to online mode and back again. And I am being told that Steam is not invasive or controlling? 3. I disagree, as FSX is not my/our only simulator, so that statement is moot. In my case I have Rise of Flight, DCS, X-Plane, FlightGear, all non-steam accounts, and current day simulators, where I run patches regularly, at my decision, time and place of choice. So again where are we spoilt, if we do this all of the time. Adn what about the regular payware add-on updates to FSX. Never mind the regular monthly third Wednesday of every month, Microsoft updates, I run both W7 Pro and W8.1 Pro, a business decision. And why do you have to insult to tell me to play consoles, another joke of a controlling gaming platform. We are in a free and fair forum, no need to lower your standards to an insult, simply because your opinion disagrees with mine. I've been in IT for 39 years, of which the last three have been my own business, so I think I know my way around ANY Server, Linux, Apple, PC or mobile system. When you have installed a $50Million enterprise network system, to success, under budget and install time, then you come back to talk to me. Oh, and I also build up to $20K commercial and private cockpits as an extension to my business. 4. I was born in 1959, and it does not take much imagination to see how our devices today control us, and those out there with gaming solutions doing the same. The excuse of piracy, and losses does not wash, as they try to label all as offenders, and introduce draconian systems to try and stop this. This affects all honest people with no real impact on the real pirateers/booleggers, and not finding more elegant and better ways to combat piracy. It simply comes down to greed and control of the revenue stream/income, in reference to Steam type systems.

Hi Ray Yes correct I'm in Edenvale Johannesburg South Africa, and our Rand is very poor against the UK, Euro and US currencies. So although I quoted in US dollar as the examples, we are nearly 12 to 1 against the US dollar, 13 to 1 against the Euro and nearly 19 to 1 against the BRP. You can see what we pay for in our country. $200 is R2.400 and that is a lot of money for any middle class South African to spend on a piece of PC equipment, hence it is much harder for many of us to easily move over to SSD's. And because we import these types of items, we have to pay the import and customs duties, and our 13% VAT, all compulsory, so you can see how these items end up as final cost to us, no matter if from the UK, US or Europe. Regards Thanks FR Bill for both of your replies to the private LAN and the loss of multiplayer. Both very important issues for LAN'ing around the world. At least I have someone else seeing the issues of FSX: SE, over what was already available and working fine in FSX boxed. Maybe I was not so eloquant in my explanation earlier. It seems I made my comment and am being lambasted by some here, but they are not seeing the global shortcomings that have to be overcome to make this version as succesful as the standalone was/is. But as I like to say, I have skin so thick, even a Rhino would be envious, as to responses here. I can take it, and it sometimes does hurt to get people to push past their comfort zone of the use of something, so as to see the real issues that affects others.

Hi Ray I agree with you on the SSD's performance and a game changer, but not on the pricing in some countries. As my example, my O/S, Windows 7 Pro, is around 80GB, and my FSX installation is currently at 124GB (and it will grow with more aircraft and scenery add-ons), so I need to look at an SSD of 200+GB, the next available one is the 256GB. This drive at my dealer price in my country, as I run my own IT business, is $170, $200 retail, quite a price for myself and many in my country to switch over. As a comparison I can for this same money buy a Seagate 2TB Hybrid (8GB SDD attached to a mechanical drive). Good performance, better than the standard drive of same capacity. And then I run Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu Linux in dual boot configuraiton for my business. The currently avialable 512GB SSD costs $430.00 retail, that is a big price to pay for a storage medium. A 1TB SSD is currently only available for enterprize SAN environments and cost in excess of $3K. So for the benefits of performance of SSD, there is still a big price tag to pay, and limited space, with a far shorter lifespan over mechanical drives (2 to 3 years on average if power cycled once a day, off to on then off, and the amount of write cycles performed per day). This latter lifecycle covered very well by Tom's Hardware. And then as to these lifespans, to choose a SLC (single-layer cell) and MLC (multi-layer cell), the former much more expensive, but longer lasting than MLC, MLC now the mainstream of SSD's to keep cost down. So a lot ot consider in just saying, change over. Regards Spell checker set it as enterprize, and I never checked.

My info is quite correct Thank you! And I disagree with you, Steam is very controlling. As another example, try and install any Steam game where you wish on your SDD or HDD's, like one can easily do with standalone downloadable or boxed products, this being done for many and whatever reasons. So a digital distribution platform with CONTROL. I own the following Steam games, the Half Life Orange box series, iL2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover, all of the Sniper Elite series and the Sniper Ghost warrior series, and the action I mentioned is the same as with these games. I have clients and friends who jumped onto the bandwagon with FSX-SE, along with their already installed box set, and they are not happy with the Steam client in the way, as with all of the issues I mentioned. Just after I posted my first post, I opened my Steam client and it went through a 20 minute update, then it wanted to verify my password, which I had to wait for a reply email another 15 minutes later before I could actually open the client to check the games, and lo and behold it started to do updates. One of my favourite listed, iL2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover, now lies mostly dormant because of the crap with Steam. I don't enjoy this game anymore, thanks to Steam. I now read the boxes carefully, and only take non-client driven free standing software. And as to my last paragraph, and my point that you seemed to have missed, P3D is now at least way ahead of FSX native and FSX-SE, even with some remaining irritating bugs left, and I can use the majority of my purchased add-ons. AND it does not use or need the Steam client, I am free to install it where I like and start it up when and how I like with no wait of updates etc. Likewise with X-Plane. And like many I have moved on to current active and up to date working SIMS like DCS and X-Plane. And as you mentioned, issues with patches and addons, sure are always there, but I have the control as to how, when and where I download them and install them. Much like a enterprize server system, one does no just install the updates and security patches, without first testing them in a lab type environment to see if or what gets broken. No so with Steam updates, they are pushed down to you and one hopes all works OK. I am not of a spoonfed current generation, so I personally do not like the structure and use of Steam type systems. Hi Codechris See my reply to france89. Interesting, I'll look at that and try again, and maybe FSX-SE has been made into an ofline system. I don't have it, so I'll have to wait to test with my clients and friends that do have it.

I have a few major issues with FSX SE, and that is all around the operation of the Steam client itself. I have adressed this on other forums as well and an unresponded to email, to Dovetail Games. And I have seen no other users around the world raising this at the moment, this in so far as I can find, except in my circle of aquaintences and friends who have the same hobby. The Steam client is invasive and controlling, and I have 12 other Steam games to back up what I am mentioning here. The flip side is I hardly play these anymore due to the huge irritation of the Steam client. I have NO choice or freedom with this client, to do what I want to do. With ANY boxed or pure downloadable version of ANY game, I can choose when I install it, download the updates and update it. For countries that do not have the luxury of huge cheap internet speeds (I am currently on an expensive 4Mb/s - 512KB/s in real terms, line with a limited amount of data capping) this type of controlled gaming is not practical. The client is forever doing updates itself, especially if left unused for a few days, never mind weeks or months, and then wants to do updates for the installed games. And in countries like mine, I am sure there are many out there, we can wait anything from an annoying 10 to 30 minutes, to hours before we can use the SIM. So one can never sit down, tell the client to take a hike along with ALL updates, and get started with the SIM, i.e. enjoy immediately what we purchased, with a day or evening of what the hobby is all about!!! And secondly one can NEVER use the simulator without a permanent internet connection. I am a member of two virtual aviation clubs, and we meet twice a month for a full on ATC planned mission event face to face, and can and do meet every Saturday as a friendly get together. We do not have internet access at the two clubs, nor do we want it. So with this we all use the boxed version and help each other with new found aircraft, scenery, purchases etc at these events, to tune and have fun. As a club should be, comraderie with a common interest. If we had to move over to FSX SE, firstly this would take most of the fun away, and as I said unusable as a standalone SIM for offline LAN gaming. And then one only has to follow all of the posts of issues around the web, with where and how the game is installed, and the add-ons, even as they are being improved. So another learning curve and possible limitation, of what many of us do, and that is tweaking and tinkering with the SIM. We are allowing ourselves to hand over our freedoms and choices, to a gaming control system, that has ALL of the control, and does not listen to it's customer base. For me personally FSX SE will be a non entity while the above is never addressed and corrected, and I will move towards P3D for my "FSX" satisfaction with all of my purchases. And I am already a prolific user of X-Plane, yes sadly I see that it too has a Steam client version, thankfully though in their wisdom, they have kept the boxed version ongoing.

I'm late by a month in posting to this thread, so I hope my info will still be valid in helping with the igdumdim32.dll error. This file is related to the Intel graphics drivers found in all of the latest Intel Core i series chips, from Sandy bridge to the current Haswell. So although you mention that your drivers are up to date, I believe your reference is to the ATi/AMD card or the nVidia card you have. And it does not matter what brand of board we have, you will find the Intel video ports on the back built in, and with basic Microsoft reference drivers active. In most BIOS, you can turn this graphics driver off, and your problem will stop but it's not fixed. Your system will then only use the discreet (plugged into the PEG (PCIe Extended Graphics) slot) add-on video card you have in your system. To really fix the error though, use a tool like CPUID or GPUID to identify which Intel graphics chipset you have, it should be one of the HD 4000 series, then go to either you board manufacturers website, or the Intel web site and download the latest driver. Make sure to differentiate between the desktop chipset and the mobile laptop chipset. Install it and your igdumdim32.dll error should be a thing of the past. Now while I indicated that you can turn off the Intel graphics in the BIOS, it is actually a very usefull extra video subsystem that can be used in conjunction with your add-on video card. In my case I have four ports on my discreet card, 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI and 2 x miniDP. Then on my motherboard, my system a brand new home build a few months old, I have a built in 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI and 1 x HDMI. Intel can now drive three sceens off their latest video chipset. And I have tested it, I got 7 screens running off my system, and not bad frame rates either, 16 to 20FPS with enabled ASN and Orbx scenery and others, with all screens driven with high detail. My current setup is five screens though off this same system below in my signature, running at an average of 30FPS with high FSX settings. So sorry slightly off topic im my last parapgraph but indicating why you should fix the onboard video, and then use it in a multiscreen setup. Cheers Andrew Brown

I need to disagree with you on your statement about high fidelity. I have the entire Carenado fleet for X-Plane, and most of the same models for FSX, and by far they don't compare, not in eye candy and graphic detail, nor in actual flight, preparation etc. The XP Carenado models are a far better joy to fly than the same in FSX. Whether we like it or not and what we have cut our teeth on, FSX has reached it's peak and old age, and remains riddled with bugs never to be fixed, along with P3D carrying over these same issues. There comes a time when we have to acknowledge and accept that everything gets old, and it's time to move on. I have just added to my collection for XP recently, the superb Pilatus PC-12 by Shade Tree Micro, the Diamond DA42 Twin Star by Aerobask, and the latest release of the C-17 Globemaster III from Virtavia (I have the FS9 and FSX version of this from same name as comparison). These are fine models released by very competent names, and the fidelity, flight model and overall satisfaction of my purchase very rewarding. That's why I personally am waiting patiently for the first PMDG model in XP. Again these equivalent models in FSX are no comparison now. Regards