Black Screen Interruption on T/O

[N738NM]

Hi, Pete. I just started with a virgin installation of Windows 7 (64 bit Pro) and FSX & Acceleration on my i7 machine. All was working fine on my plain vanilla FSX setup (no add-ons, and only my CH yoke and pedals connected) until I installed FSUIPC 4.57 (registered user from last February and wanted to program my controllers in FSUIPC). I just tried my default flight (stock MS 172SP from KPBG) and I got a "black screen interruption" upon rotation. I was able to replicate this at KBTV and KBOS. Any ideas? All was fine until the install. I'm not sure if this is a clue, but Windows 7 gave me an error warning that FSUIPC may not have installed correctly. Okay, thanks for any and all help. I won't install any other software until I hear from you. Thanks. -- Dana

p.s. It gets a little more interesting. After restarting the machine, I was able to replicate this pattern twice:

first flight: brake message won't disappear

subsequent flights: black screen interruption several seconds after throttle-up for T/O

Help. Everything was working so...so...well.

[N738NM]

Hi, again, Pete. Well, I'm back at it after supper. Here's what I know. The brake thing is not related (yeah, you could have told me that, I know). It has to do with the fact that I fooled around the with the brake sensitivities in FSX (still weird that it only happens on first flight of the run). But, I did some research on other threads and I tried renaming the FSUIPC.DLL in the Modules folder to FSUIPC.OLD. And, the black screen interruptions (which lasted approximately one to two seconds...maddening) disappeared! I did go into the Modules folder and check the install logs...all seemed to be fine (can copy and paste them if you need). Okay, hope this helps. -- Dana

p.s. I was able to access the full FSUIPC menu before I renamed the DLL. I only checked one box (the sync FS time one).

[Pete Dowson]

Any ideas? All was fine until the install.

It won't be down to FSUIPC. That's just a coincidence, probably slight timing differences or memory rearrangements. Black screens are almost always due to video driver problems, so that's the area you should be looking at. If you are using the driver Win7 installed for you, don't, it's no good. Go get the latest or most recommended driver for your card from the appropriate website (try www.guru3d.com. They're pretty good for stocking all available versions).

I'm not sure if this is a clue, but Windows 7 gave me an error warning that FSUIPC may not have installed correctly.

If you mean the question it comes back with after installing almost anything at all, it does that for almost everything. It is only asking you for confirmation that it did install okay.

BTW there is a much more recent version of FSUIPC4 available in the Updates announcement in this forum. You might want to update your copy in any case -- the list of changes and fixes is included in the Announcement. A new release is due, really, but I have some stuff to finish first.

Regards

Pete

[N738NM]

Thanks, Pete. I appreciate the quick response (as always). Well, I renamed the FSUIPC.DLL back to its original name and the sim seems to be working fine now (phew). So, I'm hoping this was just some sort fluke (did several restarts and a "cold" start, too...hoping it was a one-time coincidence). I hope you can forgive some of us for being so fragile...you know that FSX can be a mysterious and fickle mistress at times (of course stuff seems to fall apart in FSX just when it starts running "perfectly"). Regards. -- Dana

p.s. I'll check out the latest version in the updates section. Thanks again.