CRJ_simpilot

That's pretty cool. Almost looks like a mini golf course up there. And pfft, it's only like $6 billion...

M.2 is the interface used for NVMe. Prior to that it was U.2 I believe. Perhaps you're thinking of mSATA which netbooks all used.

Non volatile Memory Express. Here's what one looks like. Do you know what the PCIe slot is on the motherboard? It uses that kind of slot known as an m.2 (M Dot 2) connector. So it's a hard drive directly connected to the PCIe bus which allows for blazing fast speed that used to only be afforded to the main PCIe device most people use - the GPU (Graphics card) If memory (no pun intended) serves (and this may be silk screened on the motherboard its self), the current max speed of the PCIe m.2 bus is 32 Gbps. So you could have two NVMe drives (~ 6,000 MB/s 6 Gbps) working together in something called a RAID (Redundant Array of independent Disks) and have even FASTER speeds. Well, it should at least. But completely not necessary since one NVMe drive is fast enough. Edit- Scratch that. Just read that RAID controllers today can't handle the speed and will melt your face LOL Though, RAID 1 offers some basic level data protection. I say basic because a real backup strategy evolves cold storage and multiple backups... When I say cold storage that means backup hard drives and whatnot not connected to the computer. Not sure I understand. A modern computer would still allow you to use TrackIR, Hotas, etc. There should be no issue. If anything, the older OS (Windows XP) would be problematic. This is where you'll have issue trying to still use XP. The issue is that a modern motherboard won't have XP drivers. So the motherboard chipset, network driver, etc will not be XP compatible. If you want to avoid Windows 10/11 then motherboard manufactuerer Gigabyte has Windows 7 drivers for chipsets Z370, B365 (9th Gen capable), H310 (9th Gen capable). This is probably true for ASUS and others as well. Cloning to another motherboard (computer) from another computer (motherboard) is gonna be a bit of an issue unless you know exactly what you're doing.Though, I've done it before using sysprep. But again, if you're trying to move an incompatible OS (Windows XP) to a newer motherboard that doesn't have XP drivers you're SOL. So in this instance a clone won't work. You could however copy/paste using TeraCopy the whole install folder of FSX to another drive for backup however. You'll probably just need to reinstall your paid for add-ons. After you install the new OS (like Windows 7) to the new computer you simply use TeraCopy and copy/paste over the FSX folder to the new computer and run this. Remember to scan ALL files at VirusTotal. The general consensus is four hits and you toss. But it largely depends on what you got there... MSFS 2020 I believe requires Windows 10 on up. I've been meaning to try the Sim in a virtual machine. You could run VMware Workstation Player, install XP and FSX in that and fly. Version 15 is the highest compatible version of VMware Workstation Player for Windows 7. Your username... https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cas-latency-ram-cl-timings-glossary-definition,6011.html Once upon a time in the before time that number was very important. Today not so much unless your application demands extreme RAM speed. That goes without saying, don't spend money on high speed fancy RAM either. Not necessary in this day and age. It's more or less a bragging and numbers game for PC enthusiasts. Overclocking is the same way unless you can REALLY get an OC over 1 GHz or something. A few hundred MHz isn't worth the wear and tear and minuscule results. I know because I tested it in the Sim in populated NY. Then again, that was the Sim and results may vary based on the game or application...

If you wanna know what the true difference can be read my link in my Sig on OOMs. That's all you'll gain, really. The ability to keep more add-ons and whatnot loaded in the Sim as you fly without using more than 4GB of RAM. It's not so much a performance improvement per say. It's more for utility. Make sense? Well, read the article first and if you have questions ask.

Does your properties of FS9.exe match mine? I believe I installed a service pack or two. Been a while.

You just double click the 4gb_patch.exe file and it'll automatically path your fs9.exe. Press OK and that's that. If you wanna know for sure your FS9.exe is patched, then follow these steps. 1) Download a file hash generator utility that computes file hashes like MD5, SHA256, etc. [HashCalc will work for this. 2) In HashCalc check off SHA256. 3) Copy/paste the fs9.exe file to the desktop and drag and drop it over HashCalc. 4) If your SHA256 hash matches mine you're patched. 87cac9247c0f1eab1ce55386eef94be68d6b0a3091bedf328a93670b0498a2ac

Look up your manual for the make and model of your motherboard. Under support see what the highest AM4 socket AMD CPU you can use and afford. If you're using a lot of ORBX stuff and what have you you'll want a fast hard drive and a CPU that excels in the single thread department. You can compare and contrast that metric with CPUs at PassMark's website. SSDs are fast, but NVMe is like a hundred times faster. Believe me. I own one and it zips as if you installed the OS entire into RAM. I guess it pretty much is a RAM chip. The caveat here is cost and if you're running Windows 7 you need two slipstreamed updates to get it to work and it may be an involved process. If you're running Windows 10 and above then NVMe drivers are built in I do believe. So you just install the NVMe drive into the m.2 slot on the motherboard and install Windows as usual. Just don't have more than one hard drive connected at the same time on installation. Windows can and will install the boot partition on the second drive if a second drive exists while installing Windows. After Windows is installed you can then add other drives. If the boot partition ends up on a second hard drive you'll have to use EasyBCD to fix it. If using a flash-based drive like an SSD or NVMe you'll want to use Windows Disk Management and unallocate a 10% portion of the drive. This is for better flash-based garbage collection ability and overall drive health and life expectancy. Note: you never have to defrag a flash-based drive. It's not needed due to the tech. With flash-based drives the data is just "there" as opposed to a platter type drive of which I think your 1 TB is now. Defrag a flash-based drive and you'll shorten its life and increase its MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure). I run two SSDs, and NVMe and three Hitachi Enterprise platters made for longevity that will probably out live that 'ol wascally wabbit dubbed the Energizer Bunny circa 1987. LOL (I remember the commercial that started it all... I was but 7 years old) FSX and FS2004 are CPU orientated games. Meaning their processing is done primarily in the CPU. So there's no need for a massive GPU (video card) upgrade. The built-in GPU in the CPU its self would suffice, but to keep the load off the CPU and more dedicated to the Sim, just get a modest dedicated GPU. If you play other games, then at this time I recommend an Nvidia RTX 3060 made by ASUS or MSI. If the Sim is your only game then look for something modest but newer instead of the RTX 3060. Trouble is, the RTX 3060 is mighty popular and pricey and is going away like a dodo bird that fart its self to death for the newer NVIDIA GPU coming out. (Dodos do that in ARK: Survival Evolved... LOL) What is the make and model of the PSU? If it's some no name I'd be apt to update it. After four years with a subpar PSU it's likely to fail and possibly take your system with it. Saw that thread many times on many tech help forums... Look at Antec or EVGA. I've owned two Antec's and so far so good. But production line duds are a reality. So keep that in mind before pushing the one star review button. RAM wise you're fine. I wouldn't even mess with that unless a new motherboard is bought. =Extra credit= Consider a quality UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). Make sure it's made for your PSU (most likely active unless it has a voltage selector switch). These are a temp battery backup allowing just enough time (~8 minutes or thereabouts) to keep the PC running with an abrupt loss of mains power so that you can save data and power off safely. I've seen many threads on tech forums where a computer lost power and not only did the PSU go bye bye, but so did data. Doesn't sound like that would occur but it can. I had a Dell Mini 910 Netbook on 24/7 and when I had a power outage the power adapter was borked. Had to buy an OEM replacement on eBay. Note: Most if not all of these UPS' have a built-in surge protector. Couple of things. 1) Don't use another surge protector to power the UPS and 2) a surge protector is not a lightning arrester. Meaning it WILL NOT protect your equipment from a direct lightning strike. Maybe not even a step leader or a nearby hit a block or two miles away. It depends on the whole situation. Even if you had a qualified electrification wire in a lightning arrester into the breaker box, lighting has an uncanny ability to snake on into a room in many ways... I've read or heard (been years) of a ham (amateur radio operator) get his equipment toasted by lighting that came on down from the roof and thorough the ceiling light fixture. There's a book for ya. LOL Edit- A new GPU might mean the need for a new PSU if the current PSU is under powered for the new GPU.

I believe I was thinking of BMP2DXT3. But that can't be right since all my images are BMPs. I may have used BMP2DXT3 for FSX though.

Off topic- There are many names for this hat, but most call them a farmers hat or conical hat. You're welcome. I actually looked this up some years ago. Actually, I should totally buy one on Amazon and go as Raiden for Halloween next year. HEHE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-pan Now you know, and knowing is three quarters of the battle or something... Do the arrow keys not work? I could have sworn that's what I used years ago. Well, in the 2D cockpit. I'll have to jump in the Sim again and experiment.

My method to finding things in a jiffy (an actual unit of time) 1) Install Everyting.exe The setup.exe in x86 format should work fine. 2) In the search box look for the following: fsx.exe 3) When that's found right click it and navigate to the path. Bob's your uncle...or aunt. :D Edit 2- Choosy moms choose Jif? HA! My mom chose Great Value...

Yeah, I've see that before. I just checked my FS2004 directory using my search program Everything.exe and would you believe I only have one dds file? The rest, some 240 thousand images are all bmps. I think this is because I mass changed all my images to bitmap using a utility I found here in the library. Meatwater something? I don't remember. Been years. And yeah, just checked the FS2004 PMDG folders in FS2004 for the 737-600/700 and there's no character bmp files that I can see through Windows viewing. I do use IrFanView to see other images that Windows can't. Perhaps one of the bmps is the pilot character, I just don't know which one that would be the editable one. Even then, that format is rendered somehow in Photoshop or Coral and I never mastered those programs.

What there really needs to be is a type of "snapshot" program that takes three snapshots prior to facilitate in reinstallation of the Sim. 1) The main FS2004 program. 2) The registry. 3) The pertinent AppData folders. That should do it for a complete 1:1 reinstaltion. But I think in order to facilitate something like that this so-called "snapshot" program would have to run all the time to continuously monitor hard drive changes. Probably easier said than done. But maybe such a program could have a "smart move" option that can go by what it already knows to help build up the required profile for reinstallation in case the snapshot program never ran once or there was an issue sometime in the past and a current snapshot was never made thereby creating gaps in the snapshot profile. That's where the "smart move" would come in handy. If I knew a fast code like C# or C++ I'd be apt to code it. Or at least test my idea and see how it goes. Any takers? :D Edit- Actually, I see some people are installing old, incompatible games using VMware or VirtualBox in Windows 10/11. For those that don't know, these are virtual machines. They're software you interact with on your computer (the host) but act like a computer withen a computer (the guest). So, it's like running Windows XP in Windows 10 or Windows 98se in Windows 10. You can even run DOS. Anyway, these virtual machines store their content (the operating system entire) in a file. For VMware it's a vmdk file. In this sense you now kinda have "profiles." So you could install Windows XP in VMware Workstation Player (Version 15 is the highest allowed for Win 7) and then install the Sim with all its add-ons and whatnot. Now you can copy/paste the vmdk file for backup or changes as many times as you want. I did precisely this with ten, count them 10 instances of XP for a project I did. I just installed Windows XP in VMware Workstation Player and copy/paste ten of the original vmdk file so now I had ten identical copies of XP running all at the same time. Don't believe me? Have a look. LOL Just don't get the idea you can run more than one Sim at the same time. It won't happen. If it does it'll be very slow I'm sure. You'd have to use a server motherboard with more than one physical CPU. FS2004 and FSX are primarily CPU driven so running more than one Sim is going to tax your CPU like no other. Edit 2- =Extra Credit= Check out Kubernetes and Docker.

Yeah, it was funny for sure seeing her fat smile in the captain's seat. LOL! I'm not joking though. Someone actually stuck her snap in there. I don't know how they did it because the MDL (which is encrypted?) had to be edited. That's why I said it was interesting.

It's an interesting one because I once years ago saw a YouTube video of a PMDG 737 with Condoleezza rice in the left seat. LOL!

Do what I do. I have flown around the world (in the Sim) five or more times now and no matter where I go I always just find someone's addon for that airport and install it prior to going there. That way it's upgraded straight away and over time my Sim will become populated with upgraded airports. You'd be surprised at how good some of the free airport upgrades are. Some need work however so after I land and see the airport I pull up Airport Design Editor (ADE) and edit what needs to be edited. 8 out of 10 times it's the lighting. Like, why are blue taxiway lights leading all the way to the ramp? I highly doubt they light up the ramp with taxi lights. At least to my recollection. Been a while since I've been to an airport in real life at night.

The one that doesn't rape your privacy to satisfy the stock holders? Seriously, it's a shame there are so little in the way of real competitors in the VR headset market. I don't have experience with VR right now. But I have read Facebook's is the better. YMMV

That is so iterating and frustrating that a company that requires online activation can't furnish an universal CD key since they went belly up. People pay for that product and are now kicked to the curb. This is why I loath BS online activation or where you're dedicated to an online channel. In such an instance it was when Game Spy went down and now BF2, BF2142 and Command & Conquer couldn't be played. Even today you won't find Zero Hour available on Steam. Revamped Red Alert you will. Today you have to use a third-party client thanks to fans making that possible. It's like they make the software, you pay for it and after awhile you're no longer entitled to what you in fact paid for. Try that with the stock market... I don't even like this whole Steam, Battlenet, Epic Games crap either. I always enjoyed going to a store and buying the physical media. But obviously today games are absolutely massive. You can burn 100GB to Blu-ray, and I do use that for my flight Sim backup, but physical media for games now-a-days is gone thanks to Steam et al. And for the record, Steam, Origin et al's idea of 2FA Auth is a load of privacy invading crap. I roll my own via the Aegis App and Keepass and Keepass2Android thank you very much. In synopses, I'm a computer nerd, I see the crap for what it is on a day by day basis. Even how things software or even OS wise are four menus deep, redundant and stupid and how the design/aesthetics underscore how some low IQ carbon based chimp thought that crap up. Someone pulled up Notepad++ or what ever editor they chose to use and coded it. I feel like I can do things A LOT better and make a lot of money too.

Turning the computer and whatnot on if there was ANY moisture will ruin things. Rice, dry rice can help dry things out. But everything needs to be dryer than the Arizona bone yard before you add power to anything. Does your home owner's insurance cover your stuff like that? Just a tip, in your neck of the woods I would have stuck all my computer crap in the dishwasher. It'll keep out the water... I have three small fire proof safes full of data and documents and they also would go in there. Or with me if I got out of Dodge...

Oh, for god sakes. I thought it was Pueblo even though I know the capital building is in Denver. LOL! Yeah, I know about the state fair in Pueblo an it's probably there for tourism and whatnot.

I'd buy a 757, partner with some tourist company for passenger revenue, invest some of the profits and then ultimately buy a fleet of Gulfstreams and Globals.. LOL! However, am I understanding your question right?

Throw 'em some pork... HAHA Couldn't resist.

"How do you keep FSX interesting?" I don't know about everyone here, but FSX makes ME interesting. :cool: LOL

I remember this well. I posted a comment on AVSIM or on YouTube about how people should help try to revive the downloads by submitting what ever they had downloaded back to the website. Of course this would be kinda hard to do, but one comment stood out that really pissed me off in that they said something to the effect the uploads could be laced with malware. While true, one has to wonder if this commentor ever heard of modern day anti-virus software? From the video: "No alternate backup offsite or disconnected from these servers." This is EXACTLY why today I not only have live backups, but cold storage backups for all of my data. Even for my very own website. RAID is NOT a backup strategy, it's only one layer out of many. And backups need to be tested for functionality. It can all be a giant PITA. But data can be worth as much as currency... Rewriting a platter drive with nothing but 0s means nothing. Data CAN still be recovered. The FBI knows this to be true. In order for a platter to have total sanitation you need to use a degausser. I'm sure all branches of the U.S. federal government use or had used degaussers. Especially the State Department. DoD 5220.22 this and that is bunk when it comes to writing 0s and whatnot. For the flash based storage HDDs, those are manufacturer specific and mostly entails raises the cell's voltage a few micro volts. Or better yet, drill a hole in the center of each flash chip. In the beginning of the video there is as a reverb sound effect, and it's in other parts of the video as well. This reverb sound effect sounds exactly like a sound effect I heard circa 2002 in the PlayStation 2 game Ace Combat Shattered Skies. :D That was MY first Simulator so to speak. I absolutely loved that game and my Bro. and I had some pretty damn good dog fights.

You might be interested in Deadwood's history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood,_South_Dakota Been there a coupe times myself. Pretty cool rustic gambling town. It kinda reminds me of Central City, CO. Also a gambling town. It was called Central City because according to a casino owner I talked to Colorado's capital was going to be Central City. Today it's in Pueblo. Other tidbits. Colorado is called the "Centennial State" because this state was founded in 1876. One hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 1876 is 11 yeas AFTER the American Civil War. Or 10 years AFTER Lincoln was assassinated by a radical little idiot. Edit- Your location mentions the word "mare". This means sea and was the word used to describe "mares" of the moon or seas. Thus the Sea of Tranquility et al. Back then early astronomers thought those dark patches were seas...