OnCourse Software

Having bought and installed the extra voice pack I found two initial problems when I ran PFE. The first problem was that my system was suddenly running extremely slowly which left me wondering if all the extra voices are loaded into memory on start up rather than being called as and when needed. The second problem was that the program informed me that there was no pilot voice selected and that I needed to do this. However, when I tried to select one there were no pilot voices showing in the relevant drop down list.

I therefore decided to uninstall the extra voice pack through Control Panel. This was successful and my system was back to running properly, as previously. However, I still could not select a pilot voice. Another thing, I could still select or deselect the "Use the XPack II Enhancer" tick box under Options#1 even though I had just successfully uninstalled them!!!!

So in the end I decided to uninstall the rest of PFE and reinstall it again, but I couldn't do this because Control Panel\Programs and Features no longer had an entry for the program. Removing the extra voice pack had also removed the entry to uninstall the basic package.

I was therefore left with having to manually delete all the files from my hard disk. Fortunately, I had had the presence of mind to create a system restore point before I originally installed PFE a couple of days ago. Restoring the system has been a life saver.

I am somewhat reluctant to install PFE again - in fact, bordering on the almost resolutely refusing to consider the matter. I have been using PCs since the mid 1980s and am highly computer literate. I am running FS2004 on a dedicated 32 bit Windows 7 platform which is not connected to the Internet and therefore does not have any anti-virus or anti-spyware software which might cause problems. The sim plus the few addons I have are all working OK. PFE was originally working OK until I installed the extra voice pack. Installing and uninstalling the extra voice pack is a no brainer as it just needs a couple of mouse clicks - and all done!

I know that these problems have nothing to do with product activation but I'm beginning to think that maybe activated software doesn't like me!! Or am I just unfortunate??!!

Dijvid

Installing the expansion pack enhancer is done in 3 parts,how far into the installation do you get?

I don't know of the new setup from Digital River as i still have the original files from beta testing version 2,but you could try the link from Misc links topic and look at the section of installing expansion pack.
This must be a last resort as i don't know how the files differ(if they do) and i don't want to cause issues for you or me!

Uninstalling the voicepack shouldn't have deleted the entry for PFE,did you restart your system after,sometimes this corrects any issues along that path.

Suggest you clean up your registry with a cleaner of some description.

Many thanks for your quick reply.

I don't know anything about a 3 part installer for the enhancer. All I know is that I ran the executable downloaded from Digital River and chose the path to PFE as requested, which is outside of Program Files. The installation then ran normally for about 7 or 8 minutes until finished. I could see the installation working as a DOS box came up for expanding the .wav files. Afterwards I could see zillions of extra files on my hard disk. As I said in my original post it was a no brainer!!

Yep, I did re-boot the system afterwards but I didn't do a registry clean. I have extensive housekeeping routines which I run at the end of each month.

My main concern is that something is going to screw my sim setup and I will have to re-install Windows and all my software. I will probably think about re-installing the basic PFE package again at some point but for now I will write off the extra files and money paid for them to experience!

Dijvid

Did you run PF2000 and then close it again as instructed after installing the voice pack? If you don't the voices won't show up.

Andydigital wrote:

Did you run PF2000 and then close it again as instructed after installing the voice pack? If you don't the voices won't show up.

Nope - didn't do that.

Believe it or not I have read the manual before playing with the software but it's a complex system and there are so many things to do that I probably forgot that I ever saw the instruction. I don't recall anything about this coming up at the end of the installation routine either.

As I've already said I will reinstall the basic package at a future date but I won't bother with all the extra voices. After all they're not compulsory!!

Thanks for your help, anyway.

Dijvid

It would have told you to shut down and restart PF2000.
It's vitally important to read all messages that pop up on screen,not saying you didn't so don't shoot me down as i think we are all guilty of "rushing" by clicking "Yes" or "No" and not watching what we are doing or reading any error/warning messages.

This is not my intention to start an argument but I have to say that I was not rushing the installation. I can also most definitely say without any shadow of a doubt that the installation routine did not tell me to shut down and restart PF2000. I am assuming, of course, that the program would have stopped at that point giving me enough time to read the instruction and respond to it.

But, as I say, I don't want to argue about this as I won't be installing the extra video files in future. I am, however, grateful for your help.

Dijvid

Remember that PF2000 is not PFE but the legacy product you use to create an adventure that PFE then uses. You need to open and close PF2000 just once after install of the voice packs so that they can then be seen in the PFE options. This is definitely mentioned at some point during the install of the voice packs, or at least it was when I last used the Aerosoft installers, I've never seen the Digital River installers.