Reinstall MS Combat Flight Simulator 3 in my Win7 64. It's an old v.3.0 without any patch. Found some weird problems. The sim runs very well without any problem, but the executable won't shutdown automatically after exiting. I have to terminate it manually from task manager. Even stranger, task manager shows that cfs3.exe eats up incredible amount of memory, varies depending on playtime, in about 1 hour that exe robbed a whole GB of memory! Not even FSX does this. Well, it doesn't ruin the gameplay at all, but it's just weird. Anyone have the same problem? Maybe I'll try to patch it tomorrow and see if it cure the problem. Any other inputs are welcomed. Thanks.

Patched to 3.1a, but the problem still there. Still have to kill the exe from task manager, and it's still memory hungry. Now I've seen a lot of programs that won't run under Win7, but this is the first time I've seen one that won't shutdown..

If you haven't already, try installing June 2010 Directx Redistributable. Dirextx 8/9 is broken under W7-32/64 stock and this could lead to .dll files not linking correctly.

It's been awhile, but I believe CFS3 patched to 3.1a needs Dx8.1 which W7 doesn't have.

plug_nickel

I'm sure my Directx is up to date. And the 3.1 patch readme says that you need directx 9.0, not 8 (thankfully). Maybe it'll work ok in XP, but since the gameplay itself is ok in win7, I think I'll live with killing it from task manager everytime I done playing.

Is it in program files?

No. Ever since using Win7 I always remember not to install my old sims/games/apps on program files folder. I installed CFS3 on the root of my F drive. Also run it as admin, disabling desktop composition, compatibility to win98/me and xp sp2/3 but none of them solved the problem.

Hmmm. Try clearing the read only box in the properties for the folder it's installed to. I've had problems in the past, but this will usually fix it.

Dave, I just tried your suggestion, but no joy. Still the same problem. I wonder how many CFS3 user knows if it also happens to them? I only found the problem because (win7) aero wouldn't come back after I close the sim. If I didn't mess with compatibility options, I doubt I'd ever spot it. It appears to be closing normally, but truth is it's still running in the background.

Don't know man. That's a weird one!

Could you try disabling aero..I've got cfs3 running ok on win 7 64 with no problems