Captain Baffin, I had the exact same issue.  While Captnsim Customer support was useless, I figured out the issue myself.  It was a bad installation of SP2.  When I download the SP2 package, it installed.  But when I loaded the Catpnsim software, I had the exact issue, no gauges.  They told me it was my system.  While I am on the minimum end of the requirements, it still should have showed the gauges.  I ended up re-installing SP2 and it ran.  Turn off your virus protection when loading SP2.  It apparently failed on my first installation.  Now it runs fine.  This seems to be the main issue.  Hope it helps.  I have to say, this is the most realistic sim I have ever flown.