FSX Broken after Graphic Card Updated

[cooldad]

Hi all,

I have this major problem with my FSX. After upgrading to a Radeon video card and never getting it to go I decided to upgrade back to NVidia with a GTX560TI. I have the latest drivers installed. Win XP looks fine in all respects but FSX has corrupted images/models. I renamed the FSX.cfg file and let it rebuild but nothing changed. Planes show with their wings and elevators in weird orientations.

The shot below was NZNE with the stock trike (ORBX NI). Notice the extra large spare wheel in the background! The wing is running fore and aft.

This rig used to look pretty good before but now I don't know what to do next. Any ideas anyone???



Cheers,
Paul

[Ian Warren]

I wonder if you still have a residue of the old card causing the conflict or maybe the MB is the cause of the problem ?

[cooldad]

I don't know Ian. This is a 1Gb card. I have 4Gb ram in the system. I'm thinking a reinstall is coming up!

[Ian Warren]

With you saying the first not working then this showing the result , I don't think a FS reinstall will fix it , maybe a complete XP ? reinstall in-case something is corrupted .

[cooldad]

I think a FSX install will be easier than XP Ian. I'm sure it needs a good clean out anyway. It's frightening how much you accumulate over the years with scenery and planes! It's been running for about the last 4years with no problems but time to start with a clean slate I think

Paul

[freaknout]

What about making sure that any previous Radeon drivers have been absolutely cleaned out and them a clen and fresh install of new nVidia drivers. I would be surprised if fsx or xp needs to be reinstalled.

[cooldad]

Yes I used Drivesweeper to remove any remnants. Very sure only NVidia left now.

[Ian Warren]

Fingers crossed a new FSX install works , the tail tell sign is the fact you had a G/card that did not run - replaced it , putting a new one has not helped , thinking its more H/Ware MB

[cooldad]

Well actually the previous Radeon card wouldn't even start FSX. It said it didn't support the right shader models, weird as other simmers had it working. It looks as though there is a memory/texture allocation problem with this Nvidia. I wonder if the latest driver works ok with FSX. With the driver installed that came with the card, Windows wouldn't see the card at all. At least that's sorted now. All very strange!

[Ian Warren]

This is what makes me think its the slot or connection to the mobo , wonder if you should post your system spec's again, maybe further enlighten others that have seen the same problem ?

[cooldad]

Well Ian you may be on to something.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte P55-UD4 with I5 quad core 2133 Mhz with 4Gb ram. No over-clocking, all stock standard. The GPU is an Nvidia GTX560TI and a 600W PSU. Running Win XP professional.

[Ian Warren]

My laptop is equal to this and it can run FSX , now looking like a faulty MB

[AlisterC]

Have you tried flying anywhere else in the world? other than an Orbx zone? I don't own any, nor an expert, but maybe it's some sort of Orbx security thing, and now your system specs have changed it's giving you a red flag? Seems more than meets the eye this one. I've changed graphics cards before, there is no reason it should make the sim do strange things. Maybe even FSX notices the system configuration difference and has red flagged you.
And perhaps a reinstall of both might fix it
Good luck!

[scaber]

I presume you have changed the device settings in FSX to tell it which graphics card to use?

[freaknout]

Actually that reminds me....

A writer in the latest PC Pilot mag talked about similar aircraft corruption issues that he ended up tracking back to his anti-virus software when installing. Perhaps that has something to do with it?

J

[cooldad]

Thanks guys for your input. i'll try a different area tonight and see what happens.

I had a look at the config and it automatically picked up the new GPU, probably as a result of wiping out the previous config file.

I'll post an update soon.....

[scaber]

Another thing I would try is a repair install of FSX and Acceleration - maybe a bit like grasping at straws but doesn't take much time and may do something positive.

And possibly also locate and rename the fsx.CFG to fsx.CFg.old - this has often 'repaired' strange errors for me. On my system this is found at:
C:\Users\greg\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX

You may have to turn on view all files to see the AppData directory; however, you can also copy and paste this into your explorer address window and then edit it so your name is there instead of mine.

[cooldad]

Thanks Scaber, I already tried that too. Trying a different scenery area didn't help as the start up screen for free flight shows the plane model all stuffed up even before selecting an airport.

So I've bitten the bullet and started to do a new install. I ran out of time last night but got FSX installed without acceleration or addon sceneries. So far everything looks normal, well as normal as it can be with default NZ, yuk! At least the planes look normal and fly fine. Fingers crossed Orbx will install fine. Update later on....

I figure FSX doesn't like a change of Graphic card after it's installed, even though it selected it correctly I don't think it uses the correct drivers.

Paul

[mjrhealth]

When you do the Nvidia driver update, just tick the" clean install" option. it will completely remove the old driver. You dont need to run driver sweeper.

[cooldad]

Well I have FSX all up and running again with NZSI and NZNI reinstalled. No graphic problems so far. Very pleased with the result.

Had to ring Microsoft to get my installation re-activated as I'd used it too many times! What a drama that was. Two phone calls to get that sorted and heaps of number typing! All good now.