(1)  Make Video Resolution/Color Depth in the game the same as your Windows settings. Try 800x600 16bit or 1024x768 16bit.  If you have Windows color depth set to 32bit, change that to 16bit.  Right-click in an empty spot on the desktop, click Properties, and then click the Settings tab. Adjust the screen resolution slider and select a color setting from the color quality drop-down menu. Click Apply, accept your changes, and then try the game again.  Example  
If your graphics card has less than 16MB VRAM you may need to start at 640x480 resolution and disable all Display options.  Example  Make sure your Windows settings are 640x489 also.  Once JF4 is running you can enable the Display options and test higher resolutions.  

(2)  Turn off all game sounds. From the JF4 Main Menu choose OPTIONS then SOUND. Uncheck the boxs for Simulator Sound and Simulator Music. This step tries to isolate possible problems with DirectX sound during the rest of the troubleshooting steps. If the game starts running normally at this point you'll need to investigate advanced audio settings of your PC.

(3)  Disconnect your joystick for troubleshooting. Certain joysticks default setting or USB issues may prevent JF4 from running. 

(4) Try starting JF4 by double clicking on the JF4sim.exe (or JF4sim application) program located in the JetFighter IV folder.  Example

For more advanced troubleshooting search through the JF4 Tech Support Forum or request assistance there.  Also you can request Tech Support through GlobalStar.  See the Other Resources links below.

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Talonsoft and GlobalStar didn't officially support JF4 running on Win2K until other JF4 users found a solution. The first step is to change a default setting in the jf4.ini file. Thats located in the JetFighter IV folder and can be edited with Notepad. Find the line that goes simUseLoaderThread= Change the default 1 to 0 (zero). Save the file and test to see if you got a good solution.  Example  If you have a USB Joystick also test with the joystick disconnected.

If that change alone doesnt work for you, we'll haul out the "big gun" and try putting the program into "compatabiliy mode" for an older version of windows.  You can read about APCOMPAT.EXE - Application Compatibility utility in this article: http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/win2k_compatiblity/

That same article has further troubleshooting suggestions if the steps above don't get JF4 running.  You can also visit the JetFighter IV forum and search through previous posts for solutions or start a new request for assistance.

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If you're going to be re-installing JF4 and don't want to loose your most current Campaign standing, Pilot Data and your custom game settings you'll want to back up these files:

->  \JetFighter IV\ folder
jf4.ini
JF3NET.res
->  \JetFighter IV\Simdata\ folder
JF4.res
jf4x10.dat
->  \JetFighter IV\Pilot\ folder
any .dat file that doesnt have default modified date of 7/5/2000
->  \JetFighter IV\Missions\ folder
If you want to save any of your user created missions, save any files .dat and .txt files that start with C02m

After you're re-installed the game you can copy the backed up files into the folder where they belong replacing the default files that the re-install put there.

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