FMS working on Mac/Parallels - IT WORKS!!!!!!!

[jimbyjoe]

Hi guys

Well with some help from other Esky flyers and a bit of luck, I’ve got FMS working on my iMac on XP via Parallels!!!!!!!!!!
You can too! I am running Tiger - not Leopard or Boot Camp.

The First Step may be enough to work for you – it did get the program running, but I had no aircraft, just a pale blue screen.

The First Step – thank you VERY much to Bunker

First
1. In XP, open control panel (in classic mode) and choose Add new hardware.
2. Click Next, then "Yes, I've already attached the new hardware", then Next again.
3. Scroll down to the bottom, click "Add new hardware" (or similar), then click Next.
4. "Choose manually from a list", then click Next.
5. Choose Ports (COM & LPT), click Next.
6. In the left part, choose (Standard port types), in the right part, choose Communications port. Click Next and then Next again.
7. You'll get a message saying the device is installed but may not be working. (Obviously since we really didn't add any hardware.) Click Finish.
8. Open the device manager by holding down the Windows logo key and pressing the Break button on your keyboard. Select the Hardware (or is it Devices?) tab and then click the button Device manager.
9. Scroll down to Ports (COM & LPT) and expand it. You should now see a Communications port with a yellow and black ! on it. In parenthesis it should say the number this Com-port now has in your system. For me it is (COM4).
10. Open up notepad and paste in the following (if pasting doesn’t work just type it in!)
Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM]
"\\Device\\Serial0"="COM4"

Then replace the COM4 at the end with your Com-ports number like "COM1" if it should differ.
11. Save the file as fms_com_port_fix.reg on your desktop (or wherever you like).
12. Go to your desktop and double-click the file. Approve any security warnings your system may give you.

Run this reg file before continuing.

Try running FMS. If you get aircraft, you’re right! If a blue/black screen, keep going!

Second
Download DirectX 8 for Windows 2000/XP. It’s about 7mb. Make sure it’s this version and not the Win 98 one as it won’t work. Install this.

Third
Go to the Direct X Diagnostic Tool (go to Help and type in Directx – select “Troubleshooting DirectX”, and it will give you a shortcut.
If you look in the DirectX Files tab, you may or may not have some .dll files with some !’s next to them, depending on if you’ve previously had DirectX9 installed. I had a few !’s but don’t worry.
Go to the Display tab.
Now if you want you can run the tests. I did and they all passed. But otherwise, just hit “Disable” on the DirectDraw Acceleration. This should also disable Direct 3D Acceleration.

Exit out of the Diagnostic Tool. Now run FMS!!!!!!

If you are running a new iMac 20” (black frame) this should work. The only thing different I have done was installing some additional Radeon OSX drivers, but because Parallels uses a virtual driver I don’t think it will matter. I also increased the video memory (in the Parallels Configuration) to 64mb, but according to Parallels this doesn’t contribute.

So please try and do what I’ve said and let me know if you’ve had any success!!!!!!!!!!

k

[olereo]

[jimbyjoe]

[grateful]

Many thanks jimbyjoe!

I followed your instructions and FMS is now working on my son's MacMini. So we don't need to buy a PC after all...

One remark though: I couldn't find DirectX 8, but it seems DirectX 9 was already installed on the Parallels PC. In any case, I disabled it as you suggested, so I guess it doesn't really matter which DirectX one disables, as long as it's disabled.