I need help please.

[Philco3]

I had to have a new hard drive installed,the gentleman that did the work took my money and has vanished and left me with lots of problems. One of my main problems is my Captain sim /just flight C-130 and b757.
My C-130 I changed the panel three years ago as I am loosing my memory I found the original too hard, so I installed the SimShed C-130 panel and had no trouble for three years, but now I can't engage the autopilot. on the B757 I can't turn the aircraft while taxing with my joy stick. I am running FS2004. I have been trying to find some kind flight simmer that lives near me that can help me.
I have noticed that I now have WinRAR Archive files. which I never had before but he told me that it was the only way he could get the graphics card to work.
My scenery looks good and also most of my freeware aircraft work OK.
I would really like some kind person to try and help me, I am in my late 70s and worked with aircraft all my working life, BOAC,BA, but my Flight Sim is the only think that is keeping the old memory working.

Thank you.
Phil.

[Firebird]

Well for a start that winrar is just plain daft. Windows has a builtin zip expander - it is called explorer.

Down load any of our user uploads from our Download Hangar. They should all be zipped. If you are able to double click on it and see the files inside then zip files are ok. Now if you download one and you see a winrar icon that is because he has set winrar to be your default archiver and he should never have done that. Let us know what you see when you download a file and try to open it.

Now, it may be that the winrar files maybe purely for the latest drivers on the graphics card so I wouldn't worry about that yet if he has set your system to use winrar we can always alter that.

The C-130 issue I think is quite straight forward. What I think has happened is that the .gau file for the autopilot is not on your system any more. You just need to add it back to your \Flight Simulator 9\Gauges folder. The file name will be in your C-130 panel.cfg

The 757 problem sounds like you have a joystick with a twist grip that you use for rudder control, am I right?
If so the most logical case is that you no longer have the rudder operation set up for the joystick. You will need to go into your fs9 settings and set your rudder actions to the correct joystick.

Does this help?

[Philco3]

Hi Steve many thanks, when I download any file and double click on a zip file it has winrar files inside, so it looks like he has set the winrar as default, sorry Steve but I don't know how to change it.
I am using my good old sidewinder joystick.

That is what he told me Steve he installed winrar so my graphic card would work.
Thanks Steve.
Phil.

[Firebird]

OK to alter the zip default just start up winrar.
Then go to Options > Settings > Integration

You should see a bunch of different files to associate with winrar. One of them is zip. Simply untick it and ok it.

Then try opening that download again and my guess is that this time it will appear as a standard windows explorer window.

Now to the joystick, my guess is that you didn't back up your FS settings before the upgrade, they were in C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FS9, and therefore when you reinstalled the joystick settings you had before were lost.

You have to go into the fs9 Settings > Assignments.
Then you can either scroll nearly all the way down the main window or select 'Control Surface Commands' under Event Category (shows reduced options).
You make sure that your joystick is selected in the 'Joystick Type' menu and then click on the 'Rudder Yaw Left' option and click on 'Change Assignment.
When the small window opens up then twist the control for left rudder. If you have done it correct an command will appear there and you can ok it.You then do the same for Rudder Yaw right only you twist right this time.
The chances are that you will not have anything set for aileron and rudder as well so those will need to be set as well. Any other buttons that you had set before will also be lost and they will need to be set up again.

Now hopefully both of those problems will be fixed. Can you confirm this?

[Philco3]

Hi Steve, I am so sorry to be a pain but how do I start up winrar.

Phil.

[Philco3]

Hi Steve, got there in the end, I unticked all the files with the word Zip in them, but they are still showing.

Phil

[Firebird]

OK but did you try and open that download? Did it still open winrar up?

If so then what version of Windows are you using?

[Philco3]

Hi Steve, I am using XP. when I opened the file some are normal but some are still winrar.

Phil.

[Firebird]

Wow XP I know how to check the default programs for Win 10.

OK in your Control Panel go into the Default Programs editor.
Now bear with me here as I do not have XP to check this, so you will either need to scroll down to locate Winrar as a default program and see what file types are set for that. If it has .zip selected then deselect it and save.
Now if it only has types then scroll down to .zip and see if you can delete/deselect winrar as the default type.

Now before you do that open up the command shell and type the following and hit enter :-
assoc .zip
IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE DOT BEFORE ZIP

Now it should return the following when it is set correctly :-
.zip=CompressedFolder

You can alter the default through the command shell but lets avoid that if we can.

If you have any queries just tell us what you you get from the assoc entry and what options you do have from the Default Programs editor.

[Joecoastie]

Steve,

With all the fellows in 'merry old England' I'm surprised that there are no MAIW members closer to Surry that have not gotten involved.
If I were within 50 or so miles I would certainly make an effort to help. (and a pox on the technical expert who "helped" Philco3) .

Joe

[Firebird]

Well, I will reserve my feelings about him until we get the problems fixed. I have an idea why he needed to install winrar to get the graphics card working but what he should not have done is override the system and leave it in that state.
It is correctable though.
The other problems I think I can guess why they are happening but getting the system sorted is the first order of business.

[Philco3]

Thank you all so much. when first I was looking for help Joe I thought I might find someone as I only live two miles from the RAE Farnborough, ( we locals still call it the RAE ).

Thanks Steve I am now getting on with what you said.

[Philco3]

Here I go probably going to make a fool of myself, in control panel, I don't have default programs editor, the nearest I get is Add/Remove programs, which at the bottom of the list a have: winrar 5.40 (32-bit)

[Firebird]

OK so what about the response to the assoc .zip command?

If you don't know how to open the command prompt then :-
Click on Start.
Click All Programs, followed by Accessories.
Then right-click Command Prompt, then "Run as Administrator". (If it still worked the same back in XP days)

Command Prompt should open right away.
You can use Command Prompt to execute the command.


---===*===---

I found this on the net and it explains how to change the default program on XP, with pictures. This may help. Get the response from the assoc command first though, and then check the default for zip files from your folder options.

UPDATE
Well that was stupid I said I found a link and then didn't add it.
Here it is https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutori ... indows-xp/
The best part to use is changing the options through the Folder Options panel.

[Firebird]

OK it seems that it may be a long job to talk you through fixing it so I have mutilated somebody elses batch file to reset ONLY the zip file back to the default.

I think that you need to be in admin mode but my guess is that you are as you are on XP.

Download the zip file and just run the .bat file inside it.
It may be necessary to use winrar to extract it first but hopefully not. If you do have to extract then just place it on your desktop and double click on it.

If you are worried about it doing something nasty feel free to open the file notepad and you will see that it is running one command, the assoc command I was telling about earlier, but this one will automatically set it to the correct setting and then you can try it.

From what i have been told sometimes it needs a reboot to take effect but you will know whethher it works or not when you double click on a zip file.

If you find that this is not the only default association setting that he has messed up I can supply you with the full script for resetting all the defaults.

[Philco3]

Hi Steve, thank you very much for all your hard work and time on helping me, you are a true gent.

Phil.

[Firebird]

Did that work OK?

[Firebird]

When you have the zip thing working then I think I know the cause and the fix for the C-130 autopilot.

It appears that when the C-130 was released it didn't include one gauge. It used the Nimrod autopilot. There was a patch released on the Simshed site. Luckily I found it on Simviation.
Just put the Nimrod.gau file in your \Flight Simulator 9\Gauges folder and hey presto it will now work.

[Philco3]

Hi Steve, "WOW" every thing looks great, autopilot working on the C-130 and B757 steering "OK".
I haven't checked everything as it will take me about two weeks to install all my aircraft and scenery.

Thank you very much Steve for your patience with me, I find things very hard now the old brain is not remembering things.

All the very best,

Phil.

[Firebird]

Nice. So just to confirm, you have no outstanding issues now?

Ex-BA have to stick together