Humbling! And one item just plain dumb! :-(

Well, it's not an 'award' that I particularly relish, to be sure, but
when one does dumb things, hey, you pass on the experiences when the
zeal to get going totally overrides both common sense and the HITK
[read: Head In The Keester!] syndrome. Recognizing that the RAS
newsgroup has both experienced old-hands --and-- most likely new folks
to the hobby, well, if I save the newbies some grief I'll do a form of
active penance so to speak...which is of interest in itself since I'm a
agnostic!

Anyway, to business: I already mentioned the Nvidia driver thing and
I'll repeat that this was 'not' a matter of making any technical
declaration! I don't know why it worked [tinkering with the drivers as
explained in the post] and thus I could only speak positively about the
'results' and not the 'why' of it!

So here goes...

First 'bonehead' move in terms of flight sim zeal to get going taking
precedence over common sense: For some time I was using the CH Virtual
Pilot Pro yoke with excellent results. Then comes the advent of the
newer motherboards offering support for 800MHz FSB and related updated
goodies but what's this after I put the thing together [with a now
greatly reduced in price P4 Intel 3.02 gig [w/800 FSB] CPU with
hyperthreading ], where's the 15 pin gameport 'socket' in which to
connect the yoke? Yeah...various of the updated mb's don't have them in
favor the latest thing, USB slots! So, ahhhhhh, why not go for the
equally updated CH USB yoke with the 3 levers for throttle, prop and
mixture! So I did and caught a great sale to boot and XP recognized the
yoke instantly. Box comes with a driver disk for those 'not' using
Windows XP [I use XP-Pro] and that's it....no other instructions no
doubt on the theory that one savvies the controls.

Cutting to the chase...6 take-offs, ALL aborted because of engine
failure! Hours of checking and re-checking as to what possibly could be
wrong! Are you ready? And THIS from someone who can trace his sim roots
back to FS5 for crying out loud...take a wild guess who stupidly...yes,
STUPIDLY, forgot to ADVANCE both the prop and mixture levers on the
yoke! Even in the real McCoy, it should have dawned on me immediately
that the throttle is a 'push' and the prop/mixtures are a 'pull' !
Hence, and with the prop and mixture levers 'not' being placed 'to the
wall' as they say or pushed FORWARD before flight, the plane simply died
from sim pilot error! In effect, when I advanced the throttle to take
off, the plane labored because the prop pitch was 'reversed' and the
mixture was 'lean' and so it sputtered out shortly after take-off! Dumb,
yes? Yes. :-( So, newbies, throttle lever back and the other two [prop
and mixture] fully forward! Talk about haste and zeal taking over! Whew!

And this! Periodic system shutdowns no matter where from program to
Internet to whatever! Baffling! Things checked out OK including any heat
issues with the CPU, coolers, etc. Sometimes a plane simply sitting on
the runway for perhaps 5 minutes or so [hey, when nature calls!], come
back, system restart! So I finally decided to READ all that fancy
system program data that breaks down with facts and data on literally
everything from CPU to CD to DVD to machine memory to you-name-it and
while reviewing my memory [two PC3200 3.0 CAS DDR 184 pin modules] I
read in the data area, "...does NOT support Bank 4 Interleave...]
although I had it set for 'Bank 4' in BIOS because most places you go
suggest to use that [versus Bank 2 or disabled] for 'faster response'
but the memory was 'not' [per the data] Bank 4 Interleave [whatever that
does!?] compliant and when I disabled the interleave, I've had no
problems since 'nor' any disernible loss of overall machine speed
whatsoever. As a check, I fired up FS04 and left the plane just sitting
there running for 20 minutes or so...fine...where before the machine
would have re-started within 10 minutes. Cure? I simply remained within
the specs of my memory...while awaiting, BTW, for April 14 for the
release of Kingston's 'PC3200' DDR HyperX memory which they ran a
'promo' and $50 off because 'PC3200' HyperX DDR memory , specifically,
at 'that' speed, will not be available from Kingston until April 14th
while other memory speeds have already been on the market.

And finally this...do NOT trust those clamps [metal or plastic] on the
CPU/Heat Sink thing. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE the heat sink FULLY makes
contact with the CPU and 'then' apply the normal requisite pressure to
seat the fan/heat sink and metal/plastic clamp assembly! If the
heat-sink does not sit perfectly square on the CPU, you're just begging
for heat issue troubles...and a high reading for CPU temps! If you're in
the 50's [degrees] CELSIUS range or over 115+ degrees FAHRENHEIT, check
your heat-sink seating [might be worth another dose of Arctic Silver or
whatever you use between the CPU and heat-sink] and the CPU fan RPM!
And careful with the Intel supplied plastic clamp to hold everything in
place ..they snap 'VERY' easily or usually one of the L/R retaining
levers pops out and then you get uneven pressure on the CPU [if you're
tempted to let it go figuring one lever 'looks' secure enough] and
heat-sink! Careful!

There you have it!

Doc Tony