Advice for cleaning up my P3D installation

Hey, everyone.

 

I have recently run into a few errors with P3D and after extensive troubleshooting the conclusion seems to be that I should just reinstall and start clean.

 

However, before I do that, I was hoping to get some advice from the community.

 

First, are there any special considerations when uninstalling P3D? I'm thinking about things like folders I need to delete manually to make sure there are no conflicts with left over files before I reinstall. Any tips you might have for doing a proper re-installation would be appreciated.

 

Second, should I use this as an opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10 or is that irrelevant to this conversation? In other words, would I be better off upgrading to Windows 10 and THEN reinstalling P3D, or should I hold off on Windows 10 and just focus on P3D for now? Will it make a difference as far as how well P3D works if/when I upgrade to Win 10?

 

Thanks for any input you can offer on these matters.

 

-Noah

Have you visited LM's forum for the uninstall/re-install instructions? It's there, trust me.

 

Also, please see this thread at the forum:

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/topic/p3d-on-windows-10/

No advice needed - just follow the instructions from L-M - go to your downloads page and grab the 581kb instructions .pdf. Everything you need is in there.

As far as W10 - I'd suggest waiting a while and see how it goes. Also W10 is NOT a supported OS for P3D.

 

Vic

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I should have mentioned that I did read the LM instructions. Was just wondering if there might be something I was overlooking that one of you hardened simmers might have learned the hard way.

 

I hate this re-install feeling but here goes nothing...

 

-Noah

Only advice you need to heed is NOT to install W10. No need or benefit at this point.

 

WAIT for DX12 and a full round of driver rollouts.

 

THEN wait some more while the early adopters have all the issues and discernible benefits for P3D are catalogued.

 

You are not equipped to deal with the issues Win 10 presents.

There is already an update scheduled for windows 10 in September, so the version today will be different in a matter of weeks. Why rush into it.

IMHO, anyone who completely switches his flight sim system to W10 at this time is foolish. DX12 is of NO benefit to any flightsim at this time. W10 is of no benefit to flightsim at this time.

 

If you just want to test it out, etc - that's fine but if you dump W7 and completely switch, you are asking for trouble.

 

Want a quick improvement in your sim? Uninstall, reformat, reinstall W7 and then your sim. I bet you'll see a marked improvement.

 

Personally, I'm waiting at least a year before I make any permanent changes. By then a LOT of problems will have been discovered and resolved.

 

Vic

What I plan to do, in about 6 months time or so, is what I usually do. I will make a copy of the entire P3D onto a different drive. Not a condensed backup, but just copies of the folders I have customized. This way I have all the custom folders as backup in case I want to copy stuff onto the new version. Say for sound files, fx, gauges, FSUIPC settings, SPAD.... well you get the idea.

 

This is not so much for 3rd party add-ons (but some do work quite easily), but for peace of mind and not having to go through all those folders to make sure I don't miss something if I were to delete them all.

 

Then perform the uninstall per LM instructions. This has worked for me for years.

 

Clutch

IMHO, anyone who completely switches his flight sim system to W10 at this time is foolish. DX12 is of NO benefit to any flightsim at this time. W10 is of no benefit to flightsim at this time.

 

If you just want to test it out, etc - that's fine but if you dump W7 and completely switch, you are asking for trouble.

 

Want a quick improvement in your sim? Uninstall, reformat, reinstall W7 and then your sim. I bet you'll see a marked improvement.

 

Personally, I'm waiting at least a year before I make any permanent changes. By then a LOT of problems will have been discovered and resolved.

 

Vic

 

Totally agree. I have not read one post where someone said that they got more FPS after switching to Windows 10, other than if they did a fresh install, the usual gain in performance after you do a fresh install of any OS. I can't see what the rush is, no telling what will happen in the next few months. Just this morning I read about a patch for Majestic Q400 because some users already ran into problems with Windows 10,.

I no longer do what I used to do....and that was when there was a change or whatever ....I went for it....lock stock and barrel....Right now, my system is working good ...not the best maybe...but my FSX and P3D are not crashing or causing me problems...so if it ain't broke I ain't takin' it to the computer tech just yet...al v

If you want to make your P3D run better on facebook there is a site called FSX Professionals and go there and Robert Thibidoux is the moderator and once you give your computer specs and cfg settings he will review it as I understand it and he will tell you what you need to do to make your experience better...my P3D runs fine so far...but this guy would be where I would go if that problem existed with P3D...good luck to all...al v

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I went with a complete reinstall of Win 7 and it was a major headache, but I finally have (most) of my add-ons working. A lot of my issues came back to Antivirus software or other permission issues. Run everything as an admin (especially installers) and consider disabling your Antivirus during installations. I also found that running P3D with "High Priority" in the Task Manager has helped avoid some CTDs.

 

-Noah