stingray77

I just read about the "SF2V Air and Ground Expansion Pack v1.0" - sounds as if THAT one pretty much covers a lot of what is to be wished.......... PLUS it covers A-1 Skyraider and A-6 Intruder, which - in my opinion - must not be missed when thinking about Vietnam... Experiences?

Hi there! I very much hope you can help... On Monday I bought and downloaded SF2 Vietnam plus their most current update (SF2V_update_May2009b.exe) Installed it (both) in the evening on my Vista SP2-machine (MS-updates on the lastest versions - as far as I can see; there is no MS-update pending). - First thing was that there is no "SF2V-link"-button dropped on the desktop (as usually is the case with games) - no big deal, I think... - then: SF2V is is not listed in the programs appearing on "Start/all programs" - strange, isn't it? - so dive into the drive, find the .exe and start "as admin"... The screen gets black and freezes for quite SOME time - even exiting with Ctr-Alt-Del takes long to abort SF2V. I tried several times and on one try (I do not know, what I did - maybe pressed Enter or Alt-Enter or some other combination) I got to the Main Screen and was able to fly an instant mission. As it was quite late then, I did not try much around, was exited and shut down. Yesterday I tried again, but whatever I did (pressing Enter, Alt-Enter, Esc .....) nothing got me to the Main Screen again! I recall that on Monday there were some white screens flashing between the long "black-out"-phases - yesterday, there was a long "black-out" followed by a "white-out", but no more... How do I get that one running? My system: Vista SP2 2GHz 2GB RAM NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS - should not be a problem... Any help is VERY WELL appreciated - shots of that game look so awfully promising! Thanks Oliver

...still TW are trying to automatically disable Aero at SF2's startup - that would certainly be a breeze.......

Got it solved with help from ThirdWire - here's what they recommended to try: "First, don't open as Admin. That might take a few minutes to grant admin access. Just run it as is. Do not change any rights to folder. Second, do you have the Vista Areo turn on (that fancy 3d menu system). If so, try disabling that and see if that improves anything." So: 1) switched off Aero 2) switched off WLAN/WiFi 3) switched off my antivirus... restart the game (not as admin!) and HERE WE GO! then: 4) switched back on WLAN/WiFi 5) switched back on my antivirus... restart the game once again and - BINGO, that works, too! So, seems Aero seems to be the culprit... As there doesn't seem to be any way of getting the two (game and Aero) live peacefully side by side (or can there be one?), and I'm quite fond of the Aero, I need to remember to switch it off everytime I want to take off! (At least that's not too much of an effort...) Thank you VERY much for guiding me through this, too! And another one: how/where can I assign the game to "play with" my TrackIR (5)? Thanks and have a very nice weekend! Oliver

Okay, I just tried deleting the created folder in "my drive" - that brought me back to the Main Screen... (And - yes - it's version May 2009b!) Cycling though open app's (alt+tab) works too, but it takes very long to switch to/from Strike Fighters. Fiddling with the rights was to no avail... At least just assigning full rights to everybody didn't work! Again that message "SF doen't work any more..."... But doesn't the above show there's something "wrong" with the folder??? Yes, opening "as user" is fully okay (as long as there is no folder existing) - no "admin" needed, but that doesn't solve the problem! The graphics and sounds come up pretty well, too, and are displayed orderly in the graphics and sounds in "options" - so that (problems with the their drivers) cannot be the case, either - right? Now what? Maybe I SHOULD dive a little deeper into the permissions/rights assignments to folders, don't you think? I'm still open to any new input, getting me ahead! Thanks so far...

Yeah, maybe THAT's the route to take first, before fiddling with the rights. But I think, that's a variant I already tried yesterday (so many attempts, I do not recall what I tried out).......

Yes, sounds very reasonable! By now, neither did I find it transparent how Vista handles the users' rights... I hope, that I can easily re-assign "full rights to every user" to that folder the programm has created/written... From experience I know, it's not too easy to differenciate what rights to assign to what user/admin. (I thought admin can go everywhere and read/write wherever he wants - ever so wrong.) Hope I can solve this! So, what I'll try is delete that newly created folder, then (hopefully be successful to) start the game anew, and lastly assign a.m. "full rights". As said, this at least sounds reasonable - even to me... Cross your fingers....... edit: another thought - if I started the game not as admin but as user, I/the game should be able to access the folder... Then still it could be that, as the folder has been created by the game started as admin, could cause some trouble. Yet, that is another thing I might try: start game as user and see what happens...

Yes, sounds quite reasonable and very well worth the try... Then I would "only" need to find out how to assign "full rights" to "everyone" for that newly generated folder in my user-drive...... (Not too easy a task if I recall correctly from a recent issue I had.) I will let you know the results... Thanks for giving something new to try out!

How dumb - I wasn't aware of their own support-forum... Just registered there, will check for possible answers and post if I cannot find anything. I'll keep you informed. And: if anybody has more ideas here, keep posting, please!

Okay - will do... (And what does GUI stand for?) How do you run the game then? Created your own shortcut or do you dive into the drive everytime you want to play? Any idea, what I might do/check to get it running on my system? Any idea what might cause my problems? I must admit, I have NO CLUE... Btw: is it possible to alt+tab the game to the task bar, change applications and return later? Should be, right?

Oh - I forgot to check that out in my excitement....... And -uhm- what's the "GUI"?

Okay, I am a little step ahead - but not "there", yet: As said, yesterday I de-installed the game (checked: the folder I created and installed the game into was empty, so I deleted it) and installed again "by the book" (install into folder that the game suggests). Kept my fingers off the May-patch. When I opened the game then (as admin - not necessary? Or is that for the mods only?) it again took an awful lot of time and took me throught lengthy black screens, but the little circle was still turning and eventually the Main Screen opened! :yes: I was delighted! I took a look around the "options" (without changing anything), chose to fly a short "instant mission", and after that exited to try and see if it worked again... Then - nothing! Same as before: long, long black screens until the "processor LED" indicated that the machine was running idle... Two options: wait (10 mins or so) until the microsoft message appeared: "Strike Fighters 2 isn't working any more" (sorry, I could only quote what it really says in German), or abort by ctr+alt+del... But now I at least know that it does work, I "just" need to find that little tweak to make it open reliably (and without re-installing the game every time before flying - I think that might work again if I tried)! What I also checked, was that the game does create that folder in the "users"-drive as said before, and that still there is no "link" on the desktop - but the latter can be easily created, right? Please keep your suggestions (help) coming!

So I will not get into trouble with Vista-admin-quarrels? I thought this would be the main culprit... Okay, so I will - first de-install from my "user"-folder - re-install as defaulted - LEAVE AWAY the May-patch (then what should I do about sounds and resolutions? I think I am current, so I would not see anything needed to get set up...) - and VERY intersting to know that the game will create an own folder under "users" to save mods! Add-on planes/skins go there, too? ...Very much different from MS FS 2004. Thanks and may the force be with both of us (wow, in the early 80's I was a real hardcore on the "original trilogy"!)

I am running Flightsimulator 2004 on Vista SP2 and with the TrackIR5... So that sounds as if I could look forward to use it on SF2V, too - as soon I got it running........ :yes:

If only I could get that far... So, I should do without the May patch? Okay, that's something (new) to try... Here's what I did yesterady (without success) - all the things learnt from the "sticky"-threads: - downloaded the most recent MS DirectX Update (03/2009) / restarted (so my Vista should be on the most current status now) - opened a new folder in my (user) directory "C:users/.../Strike Fighters 2..." - assigned full rights to every user to that folder - installed game to that folder - added the patch / restarted => same results - frozen screen - either black or white... Next try will be installing SF2V without the patch. Thanks for the hint! Keep you informed...

Good luck! I re-read (don't know for how many times) the "Sticky: Running any ThirdWire sim in Vista..." and "Brainless Guide" to find clues. So next, I will verify that my WinDrivers (especially the DX) are latest ones and then de- and re-install (from the general "C:/programs..." the installation suggested) to another folder on "my" drive with full rights (although starting the game "as admin" shouldn't make much difference)... Hope that remedies whatever is going wrong. Keep you posted. Btw: anybody knows if TrackIR is supported by the SF2-series? Their HP doesn't tell much (SF1 WAS fully "enhanced"!) neither does the one of ThirdWire...

So, updating from SP1 to SP2 your (previously running) WOI "lost track"? Hum, at least you could go back to "before" and keep flying....... Wouldn't work well with me, as it's quite SOME time ago, that I updated to SP2.

Hum, I thought the drivers would be/get updated with MS-updates and SPs "automatically"... So, where/how do I update my drivers - or (first step first), where can I see the status of my drivers? So you have been experiencing the same: SF2 not running (on your SP1)?