I just upgraded my OS from Win 98 to Win 2000. My new OS required new drivers and I've tried several for my Voodoo 5 video card. They all work fine for most apps but I've got a problem with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002.

As I launch the sim I get the splash screen, as usual. Then I get the "create flight" menu but it's off-set, starting from the upper left corner of the screen rather than being centered. If I run through the menu, create a flight and click "Fly Now" I get a black screen and the application hangs. However, if I minimize the "create flight" window and click the icon on the tray bar I will make it launch eventually. I say "eventually" since I normally get a black screen and a crash to the desktop 5 - 10 times until it "takes". Finally I get a full screen "create flight" menu and everything's fine. Well, it doesn't exactly look fine since the aircraft preview is totally sick with bits and pieces floating around. However, the menu will work and I can set up a flight, choosing aircraft, fuel quantity, location, date / time and click "Fly Now". Then the flight loads and everything's working as it's supposed  to.

I didn't have these problems in Win 98. It seems that in Win 2000 I have run into  problems making this sim choose the selected resolution and go full screen. FSAA / anti-aliasing works great once it gets started but I have to "kick it" several times to make it go into the correct mode. Does anybody know what may be causing these problems and how to fix them?

I'm using 1024 x 768 for the desktop as well as the sim. My monitor is a Samsung Synchmaster with the Win 2000 driver that came with the monitor. My Voodoo 5 5500 card is currently running on the Amigamerlin 2.5 driver for Voodoo 4/5. Other 3D games work as intended and other Win 2000 drivers (3dfx standard) have produced the same performance / problem. I've got a sim that works flawlessly once it gets started but it has some problems getting to that point ;-)

best regards,

Hans Petter Roverud

Hm, that's a real tough one...

I've heard about the Game behaving this way, but that's about all I know about it. So far, I haven't heard of a definitive solution :-/