mkear

Thank you everyone. It's nice to have friendly voice in my torture at last. Bob, I'd have stayed with Windows 7 but it has to happen at some stage - eventually they're going to remove support for it, and I had some free time now to do the job so (stupidly and wrongly, it turns out) I figured now was the time to do it. I thought at first that it had upgraded cleanly and just as advertised. Nice!!! I spoke too soon. Then i went for a fly in my PMDG NGX and found that was broken. (hence this thread) Then so also was my Garmin 1000 therefore my Flight One Duke was broken. Then it was time to do some work and i found that my key application - my IIS Web server was broken. Without it (or a non-microsoft alternative) I can't work. I have about 200 applications on my workstation - most of them only used once in a while and I'm gradually learning that some of them open just fine but when you come to use some of the features they're broken. I guess those are features built with licensed libraries or something. Anyway, it took me 5 months to clean the installation of Windows 95 after I was a beta tester for that. And several months to get Windows 98 working ok, and the Win2000 server. My Windows 7 machines were new machines so they just worked ok. But this upgrade is going the same way as all the previous ones. Sigh. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Thank you Kyle. I've done that. Just for anyone else's interest, Dont take it for granted that when Microsoft tells you all your personal and app files are left where they were, that's true, but notice they dont say the same thing about registry entries. Any program that relies on registry settings to work or validate or any other purpose will quite possibly be broken by installing Windows 10. And then dont expect anyone from Microsoft to help. So far I've spent FIVE days trying to get my Windows 10 working properly, and FSX is the LEAST of my problems. The applications I use in my professional web development life are in a shambles and I can't do any work. And I've been passed around from one person to another at Microsoft, few of whom will actually attempt to help me. Believe it or not there is NO ONE in Microsoft Australia you can talk to. You can only talk to people in the Phillippines who sound like they are speaking on a tin can and string from the moon. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia (Very frustrated and ANGRY at Microsoft - once a great company, now a shambles.)

I've upgraded my windows to Windows 10 Professional, and now my PMDG NGX is wanting an activation code. If i dont give it a code it likes, it tells me that I dont have a valid licence for my NGX. This concerns me greatly because I am scrupulous about only using valid software. Anyway, I figured it wanted the licence keys originally given to me when I bought the aircraft. But it says they're not valid. What do i do now? I have the PMDG NGX 8700 base package, the PMDG NGX 600 add-on, the two 777s, and the 4100 turboprop. I havent tried a 777 or a 4100 but I'm assuming that whatever's broken the first validation has also broken the second. Any one have any ideas what I do now? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Thanks Bryan. I hadn't noticed the button control setting, never having needed to use it before. I just skipped past that. Fixed it. And thanks a lot for being available, even on Christmas day. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

I have updated to v1.1, and now my FS2CREW NGX Reboot wont change from SOP2 to anything else. All the other options in the setup menu will change but SOPS is fixed on Set 2 and won't change. Have i done something wrong? I'm using FSX with EZDOC and Active Sky Next if that makes any difference. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Oh yes good point. I'm thinking about this thing... Saitek Pro Flight Yoke Pro Flight 3-position Mode Switch 3 axis levers on Quadrant [post=http://tinyurl.com/njcxgap]Kogan catalogue page for Saitec Yoke[/post] ( I haven't gone shopping for the best deal yet, so this isnt necessarily where I"m planning to buy - just a look at the equipment I'm considering that's all. ) I think that should do well for the B737 NGX and B777 as well as the other light aircraft I like to fly, as long as the rudder issue can be worked out. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

I am looking to buy the Saitec yoke, and throttles, but my budget wont stretch to getting the rudder pedals as well just yet. Will that setup be worth it with no rudder pedals? I'm currently using a logitec joystick with twist rudder and I'm wondering if i am going to replace my joystick with the Saitec stuff, how will it work? Anyone done this? Cheers MIke Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

THAT'S IT!!!! Brilliant, Budbud. That's where it changed. I was looking about the settings, and changed that the other day! It had been set to Realistic AP engagement = NO before. That's why it's never bothered me before. Thanks!!! Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Thank you Budbud. I havent had this problem before, I guess the new version of the NGX is a little more picky on this aspect than previously. I'll have another look at that - make sure the NGX is flying stabilised and in a stable climb when I try to engage the A/P Cheers MIke Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

Frequently when I fly the NGX, the autopilot wont engage. I suspect there is a setting I have missed somewhere but I can't find it. Can anyone give me a hint as to what I might have missed? I have learned that the autopilot wont engage if: 1. the IRS isnt properly aligned. 2. the aircraft isnt in the air and above the minimum height AGL (about 1500ft or so I think) 3. the flight directors arent turned on. These are the only things i can find in the FCOM Is there anything else? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

Jeez Bryan, I should take more time to consider things before i press the panic button. You're dead right. The liveries were some from PMDG's free set, and the others were downloaded from AVSIM, so therefore of varying quality. I looked at PMDG 737 Options.ini and that enable line was not there. A 30 second interface with the FS2Crew configuration application and it was fixed. Bloody obvious when I think of it . I'm kicking myself for not looking at that before I wrote the post you just replied to. Thank you Bryan. Having some humble pie with my breakfast. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Oh fer pete's sake - after starting half a dozen times just fine, I added some liveries, and now the SDK warning is back again. To try to minimise the things that might be causing the problem, I now get the SDK error from FS2Crew if i start FSX in this sequence: 1. Start FSX 2. Select the default aircraft (Trike) to a gate at an airport I want to use as the departure point for this flight. (I'm assuing that doesnt make any difference - the aircraft and FS2Crew doesnt care what airport and scenery I"m using do they? ) 3. Ensure that EZDOK is disabled 4. Ensure that the trike has loaded in the 2D cockpit. 5. Load the NGX (I've tried the house PMDG livery as well as some of the ones I loaded - same result) 6. Before I did anything else, pressed ALT-C to open the FS2Crew control panel - got the SDK warning message - SDK failed to load. So does that mean that somehow I've corrupted my NGX instal and need to go back and do it again? Any other possibilities that might have caused this to start happening again, given that all I did between last night's successful operations and today's failed operation was loading liveries. Cheers MIke Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia .

Well the issue related to IRC aligning was a RTFM problem. I didn't know what I was looking at meant. I dkdn't know that when the "ALIGN" lights flash that means there's a problem with the address its trying to verify. And entering the location manually in the CDU fixes that. I thought those lights flashed when the align process was ongoing. I expected to see the "ON DC" light come up when the alignment process was finished. WRONG!! It was all there in the FCOM2 manual if i'd only read it. The problem with not being able to turn on the autopilot is still a mystery. I am assuming its because I didnt have a setting of some kind somewhere that I hadnt selected. Because when I went through the process carefully and made sure the aircraft was at sufficient altitude AGL before connecting it, the autopilot worked fine. So it's all good, and all working now. Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. In the process I've learned quite a lot. I thought I was reasonably sure of the NGX and was able to fly it properly, at least until it came to failures - I'm not studied in that area at all. But no I found I had lots still to learn. That's good - it gives me plenty to keep it interesting for a long time to come. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

I didn't remove the old version. I just installed the new version over the top of the old one, the way most upgrades/updates are done. Did I RTFM there too and should have removed the old NGX first? There is nothing in the installation notes that says the old version should be removed first. Jeez. You'd think being in the computer industry myself, and having run support departments, I'd have learned that woudlnt you. So if I was supposed to remove the old NGX before installing update SP1d (ver 1.10.6461 ) the best thing would be to remove NGX completely, and reinstall it from the SP1d (ver 1.10.6461) downloads woudln't it. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Ok. I've been flying the NGX since it came out and getting on ok, and in most cases I've been able to arm and use LNAV and VNAV. But plainly I've skipped over a lot of the stuff about the IRS and therefore I obviously dont know enough about it. SO you're right folks, I need to know more. I'll go and read that part of the FCOM and come back if/when I still have a problem. Oh and if (as is more than likely) the problem turns out to be a RTFM** problem, I'll tell you that too. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia. (** RTFM - a technical term in computer support. stands for "Read The Damn Manual!" )

Just out of interest, I found a panel state called "PMDG 737NGX Tutorial #2 EHAM-LOWI Before Pushback" and I loaded that to see what would happen. The overhead IRS display now shows "288 000" and the VNAV and LNAV are armed. But the "ON DC" lights still aren't lit. They are supposed to be, aren't they? Don't tell me i'm trying to fix something that isnt broken!! Cheers, Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

Thanks for your suggestions alferra. When I entered the irs position in the CDU, the display on the overhead IRS display changed to "288" and the "ALIGN" lights stopped blinking, but the "OK DC" lights still didnt come on, as I'd have expected them to. That means the IRS haven't aligned properly, right? When I change the overhead IRS display to "Pos" from "HDG/STS" it shows the same position as I entered through the CDU. And that would be the reason I can't arm LNAV and VNAV and turn on the autopilot when I'm at 5000 feet, right? Or am I looking at entirely the wrong issue? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Thank you for your suggestions Budbud. I loaded the NGX with the default panel state, then turned on the APU and shut down the engines so I didnt drive off through the countryside while I had my head up into the overhead panel. I turned the IRS switch to HDG/STS as you suggested. (i've never touched that before - I just figured it was some more eye candy and nothing to do with working the sim.) The IRS Display changed to '0 ... ... 08" and it's remained that way for 10 minutes now and the "ALIGN" lights are still blinking. I'm guessing it should show ... 08, 07, 06 .. etc shouldn't it? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

Since I installed the latest version of NGX and the 600 extender a couple of weeks ago, and FS2Crew Reboot a week ago, I havent been able to align the IRS. No one on the FS2Crew forum has this problem, so I'm thinking it's a problem with the NGX somehow. Here's what happens: I start cold and dark, or if I start with the short Panel State, I turn the IRS off, wait at least 30 seconds then , turn the IRS align knobs to "NAV". The "ON DC" lights illuminate, then extinguish. The "ALIGN" lights start flashing and that's how they will stay for an hour if i wait that long. If I start with other panel states, the "ON DC" lights are off when I'd expect them to be on. I can go ahead and do everything else in the preflight, including program the FMS but I can never turn on the autopilot or arm VNAV or LNAV Has anyone else experienced this? Or is there a switch I'm not turning on that I should be? I am currently thinking I should delete the NGX and remove it from the registry and start again, because I feel sure the problem is something went wrong with the installation of the last update. Cheers Mike Kear WIndsor, NSW, Australia

Ok i finally got it all to work.. . here's what I had to do 1. Start FSX 2. PIck the trike and load it at the gate on the airport I'm wanting to use as departure point. 3. Check the trike is in 2d cockpit. (normally isnt - have to select that manually, despite having the settings to "load in 2d cockpit") 4. Disable EZDOK either from button 12 on my joystick or from the add-ons menu. ( FSX always loads with EZDOK enabled. Is there a way to change that? ) . 5. Change aircraft to the PMDG NGX 6. Change cockpits to 3 VC 7. Re-enable EZDOK 8. Start FS2Crew. I'm hoping with more time using the products I can eliminate one or more of these steps because it's a pain in the neck to do all that. Miss one step and i have to shut down FSX and start all over again. But at least i have it going!! Which is progress indeed! THank you Bryan. I can see this is a very complex thing, specially since you have to work with the limitations of not just one complicated application (PMDG NGX) but also a complex and increasingly obsolete program FSX. As a programmer myself, I am impressed with what you've been able to pull off here. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia.

Ok question .... I know its a long time since we last had a discussion about this, but Its the first time I've been able to get time to look into it .... How do you disable EZDOK before you load an aircraft? It seems to me the only way to disable EZDOK is to load an aircraft that has a definition set up for EZDOK, global disable it, then load the PMDG NGX. Or have I missed something? Cheers MIke Kear Windsdor, NSW, Australia Oh well it didnt help anyway. I loaded the trike to a gate at YSSY, shut down the engines and the power. Turned off EZDOK, using the button on my joystick I had configured to global disable EZDOK. Then I checked that EZDOK was disabled by looking a the menu option . It said "Global enable" which would imply EZDOK was properly disabled. Then I switched to the PMDG NGX B737-800. It came up in the 2D cockpit with the engines running and EZDOK disabled. But when I pressed Shift-C to open FS2Crew I still got the SDK ERROR message. What now? Cheers MIke Kear Windsdor, NSW, Australia

It doesnt make business sense to allow you to take an ISO from an upgrade, then use it to install a clean version of WIndows 10 on another device. If they allowed that, what would prevent someone upgrading a Win7 machine, making the ISO, then building a whole bunch of new machines, never buying a OS for them? In the past they've got around the issue of a failed mother board or other replaced hardware, you've had to call MS and get a new licence once they've established on the phone that you are genuinely replacing one broken/damaged with one new one If you wanted to upgrade hardware, say a new motherboard, that would invalidate the keys on your ISO I suspect they'll either say "NA UH can't" or have a phone call procedure that would still only enable that ISO to be on a single machine. Adobe do this by having their products periodically call up the validation server and get permission to run. You can install Photoshop for example on two machines (intended for your main machine at the office and your laptop to take with you on the road or when you go home) . If you try to install it on a third, it will invalidate them all, and you'll have to revalidate any two the next time they start up and the third can run as a demo. Cheers, Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Certified Adobe Professional

Sigh. It's getting to the point where there are so many things like this to do before I can even get started flight simulating it's hardly worth the effort any more. I have to disable my internet connection so I can disable my antivirus. But before I can do that i have to use Active Sky Next to get the weather, and log on to my VA. Then go off line, disable my antivirus and argue with it "YES I DO want to disable antivirus!!! now just shut upt!!" Then plan my flight. Sometihng to do with this project at last. Now I have to load FSX, but not EZDOK. Load a trike into the departure airport. Disable EZDOK Make sure the trike's in 2d cockpit. Load the NGX. Load the 3D cockpit. Start FS2Crew. Enable EZDOK. All this can be up to half an hour. Who ever heard of a game that takes that many steps and half an hour to actually get started?? Anyway I'll give it a go and see how it goes. Cheers MIke Kear

Sadly no, Bryan. MY NGX loads into the VC and I think its because yes I"m using EZDok. But I still get the SDK problem Where do I go now? On the basis that I might well have a SIMCONNECT problem, I'm reinstalling some of my other add-ons that use it. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia

Oh ok I'm still in strife. I go direct to the VC, and still get the SDK message from FS2Crew. What do I do now? Have I got a simconnect issue? Please tell me i dont have to completely reinstall FSX - that's a HUGE HUGE job with all the scenery and aircraft I have. Cheers Mike Kear