SYMPTOMS
When you try to start Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, it
may start only in Safe mode. You may receive the following error message:
Safe mode has been enabled because your system is
currently unable to use hardware acceleration.
While in Safe mode, you
will be able to run Flight Simulator and troubleshoot hardware issues, but
performance and display quality will be affected.
Product Support Services
does not support Safe mode. For more information, see the Readme file, which is
available from the Flight Simulator link on your Windows Start
menu.
RESOLUTION
To troubleshoot this issue, use the following methods in
the order they appear.
Method 1: Verify Video Adapter Memory
Flight Simulator 2002 requires a DirectX 8.0a-compatible 3-D
accelerator display adapter with at least 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM. Use the
DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine how much video memory is installed on your
video adapter. To do so, follow these steps:
- Click Start, and then click
Run.
- In the Open box, type
dxdiag, and then click OK.
- Click the Display or Display
1 tab.
- Note how much video memory is on the Approx. Total
Memory line under Device.
- Click the DirectX Drivers tab. Note the
DirectX driver version and date
information.
- Click Exit.
If less than 8 MB of video memory is installed on your video
adapter, install additional video memory on your video adapter, or install a
video adapter with more video memory. For additional information about Flight
Simulator 2002 system requirements, click the following article number to view
the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
309673
Flight Simulator 2002: Minimum System Requirements
Method 2: Set DirectX Acceleration to Full
Use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to make sure that Microsoft
DirectX acceleration features are enabled. To do this, follow these steps:
- Quit all programs that are running.
- Click Start, and then click
Run.
- In the Open box, type
dxdiag, and then click OK.
- Click the Display tab.
- If the following DirectX features are not enabled, click
the corresponding Enable button, and then click
OK on the confirmation message that appears:
DirectDraw Acceleration
Direct3D Acceleration
AGP Texture Acceleration
- Click the Sound tab.
- Drag the Hardware Sound Acceleration Level
slider to the Full acceleration position, if it is not already
there.
- Click Exit.
Method 3: Disable NetMeeting If Running
If you are running NetMeeting on your system, quit NetMeeting
before you try to start Flight Simulator 2002.
Method 4: Update Display Drivers
Contact the manufacturer of your video adapter to obtain and
install the latest version of the driver for your video adapter. For
information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video adapter, see
the "More Information" section of this article. You may also visit the
following Microsoft Windows Update Web site to see if applicable driver updates
are available:
To identify the name and manufacturer of your video adapter:
- Click Start, and then click
Run.
- In the Open box, type
dxdiag, and then click OK.
- Click the Display tab.
- Under Device, look for
Name and Manufacturer.
- Click Exit.
Method 5: Update Via 4-in-1 Driver
If your computer's motherboard is based on the VIA Technologies
chip set, install the VIA 4-in-1 driver from the following VIA Technologies Web
site:
Important Contact your hardware manufacturer before you install the latest
VIA 4-in-1 driver on your computer or make any modifications to your computer's
BIOS settings. For contact information, see the "More Information" section of
this article.
Method 6: Disable the Enable Write Combining Feature in Windows XP
- Click Start, click Control
Panel, and then double-click Display.
- On the Settings tab, click
Advanced, and then click the Troubleshoot
tab.
- Click to clear the Enable Write Combining
check box.
- Click OK, and then click
OK again.
Method 7: Configure Flight Simulator 2002 to use Hardware Acceleration
Verify that hardware acceleration is enabled in Flight Simulator
2002. To do this, follow these steps:
- Start Flight Simulator 2002, and then click
OK on the Safe mode message that appears.
- In the left pane, click
SETTINGS.
- Under System, click
Display.
- Click the HARDWARE tab.
- Click to select the Enable hardware
acceleration check box, and then click OK.
If the problem continues to occur, click the article number
below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
191660 Games: The DirectDraw option or the Direct3D option is unavailable when you start games for Windows