FSX reinstall

[Olderndirt]

Finally forced to uninstall/reinstall FSX. Followed SimForum's tutorial by Nick Needham and all went well through installation of the two original FSX disks. Loaded the default flight and looked at the .cfg then rebooted. Next the 'Acceleration' disk - all I got was a blank .exe page. Tried it on my wifes machine - opened with the normal page so the disk's OK and she has no FSX. Having just used my CDRom to install the basic FSX, have to assume it's OK and proved that by doing a setup/repair of XP. What am I missing here?

[Adamski]

Ugh! Sounds bad. I've never had anything quite like *that*

How do you mean "blank .exe page"?

Have you got UAC turned off ... or are you running the upgrades as Admin?

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 13 2012,9:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ugh! Sounds bad. I've never had anything quite like *that*

How do you mean "blank .exe page"?

Have you got UAC turned off ... or are you running the upgrades as Admin?

Hey Adam - Finally got my head out and discovered two viruses. After deletion, I'm running XP setup/repair again then I'll uninstall FSX, clean the registry then reattempt install. Since I've seen several articles on how to simulate UAC on XP, have to assume it's not included. Normally when the CDRom opens Acceleration, a grey/green window with a few airplanes and a couple of selection boxes appears then the drive pauses, awaiting the selection. Now, while I'm still getting the drive noises, the same window opens completely white/blank and the drive again pauses . Opens with no problem on my wife's machine so the disk is fine and she has no FSX .

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 15 2012,5:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey Adam - Finally got my head out and discovered two viruses. After deletion, I'm running XP setup/repair again then I'll uninstall FSX, clean the registry then reattempt install. Since I've seen several articles on how to simulate UAC on XP, have to assume it's not included. Normally when the CDRom opens Acceleration, a grey/green window with a few airplanes and a couple of selection boxes appears then the drive pauses, awaiting the selection. Now, while I'm still getting the drive noises, the same window opens completely white/blank and the drive again pauses . Opens with no problem on my wife's machine so the disk is fine and she has no FSX .

I had real trouble installing the SDK off my original disk - which looked OK (unscratched etc.). I ended up having to use a CD/DVD cloner and installing it off a copied disk. Go figure!!

What about sharing your wife's PC CD drive on the network, then installing it from her drive. Would that work, I wonder?

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 14 2012,10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had real trouble installing the SDK off my original disk - which looked OK (unscratched etc.). I ended up having to use a CD/DVD cloner and installing it off a copied disk. Go figure!!

What about sharing your wife's PC CD drive on the network, then installing it from her drive. Would that work, I wonder?

We've got a crossover ethernet cable - thanks for the idea.

[mjrhealth]

Malware bytes best freeware malware program even if you have to manually update the free version

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (mjrhealth @ Apr 14 2012,10:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Malware bytes best freeware malware program even if you have to manually update the free version

Got that. My German 'G-Data' found the viruses.

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 14 2012,5:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We've got a crossover ethernet cable - thanks for the idea.

Sharing the other CDRom worked fine but the end result was the same. Nick, over at SimForums, suggests copying the Acceleration contents to a folder and running from that - a little study needed here. A NEW TWIST. After cleaning my Acceleration disk with my handy-dandy disk cleaning kit - also the laser lens, the disk contents are reduced to a single 'readme' file. "This disc contains a "UDF" file system and requires an operating system that supports the ISO-13346 "UDF" file system specification." Time for a beverage.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 16 2012,5:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sharing the other CDRom worked fine but the end result was the same. Nick, over at SimForums, suggests copying the Acceleration contents to a folder and running from that - a little study needed here. A NEW TWIST. After cleaning my Acceleration disk with my handy-dandy disk cleaning kit - also the laser lens, the disk contents are reduced to a single 'readme' file. "This disc contains a "UDF" file system and requires an operating system that supports the ISO-13346 "UDF" file system specification." Time for a beverage.

Ummm .. this appears to be going downhill fast!

Do you know anyone locally that also has an Acceleration CD (that you could borrow)? You'd just use your own serial.

[IslandBoy77]

A thought with viruses: unless your AV can do a boot-time scan (I'm pretty sure the one you have can't), you're likely still infected, as the virus most likely has a copy of itself in the Pagefile - which Windows uses all the time and can't be altered whilst Windows is active. Also, viruses these days tend to bring "friends" - most often various types of malware / spyware which are often as bad as a virus in their own right. I'd recommend MalwareByte, Super Antispyware & Spybot (in that order). Unfortunately, virus removal is quite an art: I've spent 9 years learning a lot of tricks, including how to effectively scan for them, remove them, clean them up etc. Often, by the time I'm done, it would've been quicker to reformat the HDD and load everything from the ground up: something you might want to seriously consider, as I'd say some of the things you are experiencing sound a lot like the virus is still there and / or Windows is damaged.

[dbcunnz]

Do a search "antivirus rescue cd download" you should find one that boots up and does a scan before you PC boots to windows I have used a couple of them to scan a couple of my friends PC when they have gone where they shouldn't have and finished up with a virus that their PC virus scanner couldn't get rid of or the virus had turned their antivirus off.
Might pay you to download it and burn it to a CD on another clean PC.

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (dbcunnz @ Apr 16 2012,12:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do a search "antivirus rescue cd download" you should find one that boots up and does a scan before you PC boots to windows I have used a couple of them to scan a couple of my friends PC when they have gone where they shouldn't have and finished up with a virus that their PC virus scanner couldn't get rid of or the virus had turned their antivirus off.
Might pay you to download it and burn it to a CD on another clean PC.

Tried the 'BitDefender' and the 'AVG' rescue disks. Both came up with error files but nothing infected. Ignoring Acceleration, I downloaded and installed SP1 and SP2 from Microsoft and seemed to pick up this 'thermida' thing - exclusively in FSX and bad. Apparently it has so many 'False/positives', none of the scans pick it up. Have a new 'FSXGold' on order so we'll see what happens.

[Adamski]

Any progress, Dave? I think we're all feeling your pain here!

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 26 2012,5:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any progress, Dave? I think we're all feeling your pain here!

Speaking of pain - just paid our property taxes. Instead of repeatedly flogging this dead horse, I'm going with a complete wipe, reformat and reinstall of the OS on one drive. After that, reinstall a new copy of FSX Gold on the other drive. Right now I'm flying absolute default (lessly) and must admit it's very smooth - why must it look so bland without addons?

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 27 2012,4:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

why must it look so bland without addons?

That, indeed, is the question... Part of the answer being "Because it's 6-year-old software". The other part being "Because MS took the easy way for generating scenery, instead of the best way". For an example of how it SHOULD be done, one word: Outerra.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 27 2012,4:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm going with a complete wipe, reformat and reinstall of the OS on one drive. After that, reinstall a new copy of FSX Gold on the other drive. Right now I'm flying absolute default (lessly) and must admit it's very smooth - why must it look so bland without addons?

I thought it might come to that (complete wipe). Best thing, I suppose. I must admit I've got so used to all the add-ons I'd be pretty shocked by a default install - particularly as NZ is poorly done. IMHO, MS never really "finished" the product in the first place, passing the buck/baton to other developers. Not that I'm complaining (considering we have A2A, PMDG etc.) but when you add up the total cost of these add-ons ... would you have spent all that in one hit at the outset?

[dbcunnz]

Once you have everything reinstalled with all your addons etc I would suggest you get a good imaging program and do a full HDD back up of both your Windows drive and your FSX drive.
It can save hours or even days of reinstalling everything again.

[IslandBoy77]

I use Todo, but the Win 7 full backup is just as good, if not quite as flexible

[AlisterC]

I'm an IFR flier. Looks ok to me from 30-40,000 ft

[Sinz]

Personally a Good FDISK of the drive is a Great Thing. I reload at least once a year.
Maybe not so much these days as the daughter isnt using the Comp anymore...lol

Im what you would call a parnoid individual.

Not only would I Fdisk my Drive. I would....
Remove the Battery from the Mainboard and the RAM from their respective slots (incase battery is keeping something alive in it).
Hell I even think that these a..holes are using Monitor memory to reinfect systems.

Lets face it theres alot of really switched on people out there as far as computers are concerned. And if they want in, they will get in!

Hence My paranoid approach. (Hmm is it paranoya if its possible?)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/one-in-...formation/20048

If its your system Lock it Up.... At least then You know where its been.