G4 Launcher will not Launch?!?

[chicagorandy]

Hi All,

Just got it home, Window XP -SP2, 2.20 ghz processor, 1 gig RAm gbs of storage space.

Everything seemed to install just fine, no errors.

Clicking on the Launcher icon does nothing, manually clicking Open? nada,
use Explorer to try and run launcher.exe directrly? zip!

Any ideas? Naturally I bought it today,m Sunday from a shop over an hour away from home or I'd just drive it back to the store.

[opjose]

How about more details on your setup?

Do you have a theme manager installed? G3 & G4 will not run with them present.

Turn off your AV software, a few programs are known to cause problems during setup and for the launcher.

AOL is probably the most egregious of these, but Norton is know to as well.

[chicagorandy]

shut down my IM program and got it to launch.

Now my problem is the error message regarding "Prop Disk:" when loading. My PC is likely to blame. I should have read this forum before plunking down the $200 for G4. My bad.

I have a slightly older HP Pavilion desktop (a520n) running the dreaded Nvidia GeoForce4 MX 4000 graphics card with 64MB video memory. I have downloaded the latest drivers which got me past the 'water shading" error message anyway - lol

I'm a 58 yr old non-PC geek but presume either a new desktop or at least a better graphics card is my project at Best Buy tomorrow?

No good deed goes unpunished I reckon. I forgot how often ANY new software requires all new machinery to run it. I did read the box system requirements and thought my 64MB video memory and 2.2ghz processor would handle the chores. I was obviously mistaken.

[Bdegan]

Your processor can probably do the job. I ran mine on a 2 gig and it worked fine.
The 64mg video card is not going to cut it. I had a 64 as well. Would not even launch the software.
I upgraded to a 512 card, and everything works great now.

[josh0987]

64MB!? that will get you nowhere 128MB minimum...

[chicagorandy]

Good info to have and I'm certain is has been brought up in other threads, but the G4 box indicates 32mb of video memory as a min to run so my situation of buying with a 64mb card system is likely common and rather understandable.

[guest_jo]

it indicates also directX9 compatibility and thats your main problem. Your card is directX7 or 8 so you really need something new... ;)

[chicagorandy]

I am delighted to report that for the stately sum of $60 at Best Buy I picked up a GeForce FX 5200 card with 256MB DDR, removed my MX4000 that had 128MB and all is now well and good with my HP Pavilion a520n.

G4 looks to offer all I need to continue to learn helis for "free". I reckon I have already crashed 10 times the cost in parts compared to what I paid for the G4, and that's what it's all about.

I already fly the CX2, and decades ago flew the Helibaby and Cricket with limited success.

Nice sim.