Hi Ric, I've experienced similar problems in the VC after I installed a second AI traffic program to populate my military airfields. Not only were my gauges functioning erractically, but my frame rate dropped into single digets and the program stalled when transitioning. The problem went away as soon as I uninstalled that second AI program. I have since discussed the problem with Microsoft and Dell's XPS gaming team. The consensus (to do everything I want to do without degrading my settings) is to upgrade my system to a duo core processor, a 512 MB graphics card and to 2-4 GBs of Ram. I'll let you know in about 2 weeks if the experts know what they're talking about. With your specs you should be able to fly your Herc without a problem, but depending on what other programs are running concurrently, your system may be taxed to its limit? When CS published their minimum and recommended system specs for the Herc, I'm sure they weren't considering guys like me that have over 20 GBs of FS 9 add-ons. FYI I think you'll also find that the Herc will perfom best early in your flight sequence rather than after several hours of flying. Hope something here helps.  Ziggy

Ric, it shouldn't be necessary to degrade either your display or your performance settings to get your Herc VC functioning smoothly with your system specs. I still feel that you may have a conflict with some other program that's running concurrently, hence my previous post. Something else you might try is tweaking your FS 9 hardware settings by reducing your MIP map and hardware generated lights to 4. I have no experience with these settings affecting my Herc's performance, but they sure eliminated a similar affect with my scenery. If this adjustment doesn't solve your problem, then I suggest you go into your advanced graphics card settings for both your Open GL and Direct 3D and adjust both to give yourself a "performance" bias. As for me I'm tired of tweaking my system and have elected to power through the abnomalities by upgrading everything. BTW I'm sure the forum experts are monitoring this traffic, so if your problems persist be assured someone else will come to your aid.--- Ziggy