SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

A couple of weeks ago, I bought FSX and installed it. It ran extremely slow on my then 3.2Ghz P4, 1GB, 6800 GT system. I got mad and figured it was time to upgrade anyway, so I upgraded. Ended up:
Asus n570 SLI board
Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB ram
7950GT x 2
and reinstalled FSX only to have it run as slow as before. After much profanity and troubleshooting. I discovered the cause of this: My old Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro stick that uses the game port. The way I've retained it was by having a second sound card that has the game port (doesn't affect anything, XP knows to use the newer one) and it's been great until now. The properties page under Game Controllers in the Control Panel was now showing 'Not Connected Properly - Retry'. Loaded up Combat Flight Sim 3 and it also ran like a slide show.

Here's the fix:
1. Install your Sidewinder stick in Game Controllers using Microsoft Sidewinder (Auto Detect). It will say not connected properly, but don't worry.
2. Open Device Manager, choose View - Show Hidden Devices
3. Under Sound, video, and game controllers find the now visible Microsoft Sidewinder (Auto Detect) item and right-click it.
4. Choose Update Driver and select the Don't Choose, I will decide which driver to install.
5. I think you have to uncheck 'Show all compatible devices', but from the list choose Microsoft under Manufacturer, then on the right, find your SPECIFIC model of joystick/wheel and install that driver. Don't listen if it warns you about it, do it anyway.

Now the error will still appear in Game Controllers/Properties, but don't worry. Fire up FSX or CS3 and it will fly like a molested ape and all the force feedback will now work as well, bringing the rawk back to your crashes and other off-runway excursions.

The only thing I'm not exact about is whether those specific drivers come in Windows XP or are the ones that the Sidewinder 3.0 software for 98 installed. I had attempted that earlier during troubleshooting. Sidewinder 3.0 is still available from MS.

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:19 pm Post subject:

That is a nice system, but why did you spend all that money when the 7950's aren't dx10 card. You'll just have to buy a new card when dx 10 is out. Unless your rich and it won't matter.
Any way nice system and what are your frame rates?