Campy

My Feedback: (1)

I am running Windows 7 64 BIT, 8 meg of DDR3 ram, GT9800 video card w/500K of ram.

I have D/L FMS 8.5, d3drm.dll, and copied d3drm.dll into the FMS directory. I am using a joystick configuration for the controller in FMS (Old G2 controller hooked up via a serial port to USB converter).

When I start the program the graphics flicker quite a bit and the controller does not respond (the controller has been calibrated).

Restarting the program (or rebooting the computer) makes no difference.

I have tried running FMS in compatibility mode for Vista, Vista SP1 and Vista SP 2, XP SP2 and XP SP3.

According to several threads I have read, FMS 8.5 is "SUPPOSED" to run on Windows 7 64 bit. Nothing is working.

How can I get FMS to run on Windows 7 64 bit ?

Thanks

dbcisco

Copy d3drm.dll to windows/system and windows/system32. Make sure you have directX 9 and the latest video drivers.

Personally and as an IT instructor: Use XP 32 unless you absolutely need Vista, Win7 or any 64 bit system including XP64.
Unless you have programs that are made for 64 bit there is nothing gained with a 64 bit system, in fact it may run 32 bit programs slower (if at all). I have had XP64 as well as Vista and Win7 in both 32 and 64 versions. They are (IMPO) garbage. Half of my software and hardware doesn't work at all on them. I am not going to upgrade computers, peripherals and software for the 40 computers in my lab just to say I am running the newest garbage from MS. There is nothing wrong with XP, that is why MS is going crazy trying to push Win7. Vista was so bad the corporate world refused to switch and they are expecting Win7 to be just as bad. So far they are right.

Campy

My Feedback: (1)

Thank you for the reply. I will try that.

Unfortunately, when I purchased this computer it came with Windows 7 64 bit (personally, I am with you. I would prefer 32 bit, however $$$ is a factor so I can not afford to go and buy the 32 bit version). MOST of my software I have either been able to get free upgrades so they will run on Win 7 64, or patches that will allow the software to run (not in compatibility mode) under Win 7 64.

Campy

My Feedback: (1)

No go.

I put the d3drm.dll in system. system32, system WOW AND the FMS directory. Still acts the same way.

dbcisco

As last resort use the microsoft XP virtual machine.
Sadly MS made Vista and Win7 purposely not run most older programs so they can sell their new programs. This means that most software won't run.
Only a handful of people need anything more than XP and hardly anyone needs a 64bit OS as most programs run as a 32 bit program in it, and slower than if it was a 32 bit OS!
Get a copy of XP.

Boone

Campy,

I've got FMS running on Windows 7 64-bit with no problem. However I noticed I'm running FMS 8.3 which I *think* is the "recommended version" on the FMS web-site. Try that, if you can't find version 8.3, I could possibly zip up my FMS install and send it over to try.

I'd try update your graphics drivers from the NVidia site. Also, play with the Graphics options within FMS. ie. Color 16/32-bit, wait for vertical blank, flip back buffer, etc.

Enable Frames per Second in the View menu. What FPS (top right corner) do you get?

The fact that your OS is 64-bit is most definitely not the problem here. Switching to a 32-bit OS would be foolish as you'd be wasting the greater part of your RAM, ie, you'd only be using ~ 3 of your 8 gigs.

Does your controller appear within the Game Controllers control panel? Can you calibrate it and see the computer respond to your actions? Then it's just a matter of playing with the calibration settings within FMS I'd think.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

dbcisco

This is a common misconception.
Unless you have a 64bit application that needs the 64bit OS, there is no reason to have a 64bit OS. The extra memory will only be used by the OS itself not programs, 32 bit programs can run slower and far too often not at all. With Win7 It is so bad that MS suggests using the virtual XP machine (even slower performance).

Ask yourself why millions of corporations are still using XP 32bit and refuse to use anything else. The only reason most people use Vista or Win7 is because it came with the computer.

Boone

What??????

It's a simple fact, the 32-bit OS can only have a 4 GB address space. Take off some of that for memory mapped devices and you're left with 3 - 3.5 GB usable RAM. A 64-bit OS fixes that. Any 32-bit application running in that OS will benefit from the additional RAM. A 32-bit process still can't use over 4GB of RAM as it's address space is limited, but the OS most definitely can map the RAM it uses to anywhere within the computer's RAM. So 2 32-bit applications on a 64-bit OS can be each using 3 GB of RAM without any swapping needing to happen.

Yes, there are applications that have trouble running on anything past XP. You could say poor coding on both the OS and the application side cause them to be quite dependent on each other. It sucks, but most applications are past that by now. If compatibility and just working is your chief concern, you stick with what works.

Should be noted we're talking the consumer MS OS's here, ie, XP & Windows 7. There are exceptions to the above for other OS's, ie, PAE to allow more than 4 GB of RAM for a 32-bit OS, but that doesn't apply to XP.

dbcisco

Have done the benchmarks under 32bit and 64bit MS-OSes on identical computers and software with 8Gigs ram and the 64bit has reapetedly been slower by about 15%, and 50% slower using MS-VirtualXP in Win7. When I want a super-speedy app I use Win98 or DOS if I can. They are super fast on a dual-core processor.
As you mentioned about other OSes, Linux seems to have the edge over MS as the 64bit OS runs almost everything 50% faster than the 32bit versions.

Boone

hahahhahaha, LOL

Good one man, nicely played. I honestly didn't clue in I was being trolled until you pulled out the Win98/DOS bit. lol.

dbcisco

I'm not trolling.
I use DOS and Win98 for a lot of things. I have an ancient laptop with Win95, 1Meg HD and 1 meg ram that I use for programmng Cisco equipment all the time (my real job). I constantly use a DOS bootdisk with CLI utilites to service the 50 PC's in my lab. I also have a laptop with Win2k running 2.4Ghz spektrum analysis as well as a few desktops running scanners and printers (that are working fine) that XP doesn't even support.
Why do I need a misfiring Ferarri with no trunk to go to the grocery store when I have several prefect running Model T's ?