First of, thanks for responding intelligently to this thread. The plane boots up just fine, and the FPS really isn't bad, about 30-40. When I hit the battery switch, it goes down to about 22-27, which still usually gives me a fluid feel in the 3d cockpit. And throught the flight it remains at that rate, but the wierd thing is, every movement is stuttered as if my FPS were below 19 (default set in prefs) but its still above 22ish. Even without camera movement, the altitude and speed tapes are not smooth while in flight. Then at some time XP will eventually freeze with the spinning wheel of death. Any ideas? Blue Skies Michael O