FS2004 and Windows 8.1 Technical Questions

I'm trying to run FS2004 at max or near-max settings with great FPS on a new computer in 2014... is that too much to ask for?

From BestBuy, we bought an Asus Q310. It ran flightsim great on max settings except for the fact that there was some random keyboard glitch, rendering it unusable. Four of the keys wouldn't type what they were supposed to, both in and out of the game. This was not there before I installed the sim. I exchanged it for another computer of the same model, dismissing it as a random glitch, but low and behold, once I installed FS, it happened again. BB ppl think its a thing on that particular batch of computers where that Asus keyboard driver couldn't coexist with the FS drivers. Needless to say, that computer was returned as well, and I decided to move on to a different make and model.

Enter the Lenovo U430. I thought I had finally solved everything when I learned that the Lenovo does not experience the keyboard glitch..but it does keeps crashing with FS, namely when i try to adjust the settings to max. In fact, it crashes when i adjust them as so and i dont even fly yet and am just on the home screen main menu. Like as its trying to adjust for them i suppose.

In order for me to run the game, I need to lower the settings and it's still a bit choppy as a pan around outside. When I got the Asus, I was thoroughly impressed with its ability to run FS. When I ran it on the Lenovo, I found myself saying "eh...it's bearable." It's by no means awful, but for 2014 technology on a 2003 game, I expected flawless performance.

Also, the Lenovo requires that I run FS in compatibility mode for XP service pack 3, which the Asus did not. I assume this causes a disruption in speed.. but why would one Windows 8.1 machine require compatibility mode while the other did not?

Additionally, the Lenovo has a 25gb "D" drive which is a soft drive which BB people said would be so much quicker and greatly increase performance on games but I'm not really noticing any performance difference and the above problems persist there too.

Does anyone have ANY ideas about this? How does performance differ to cause this? We all thought the Lenovo would be far superior to the asus because of the increased memory (see below) and the soft drive but that's not the case.

Lenovo has 8GB RAM; Asus had 6 (4+2, 4 onboard). CPU on Lenovo is 4th gen i5 @ 1.6ghz. I think but am not certain that the asus was comparable as far as CPU.

Does anyone out there have a laptop that can run FS2004 (with lots of AI and airport addons and aircraft addons) on max settings with great FPS without breaking the bank? I find it hard to believe that computers like this are hard to come by given the age of the game and how much technology has expanded...

Thanks very much for your attention and your tips/pointers/advice/etc. I really appreciate it all!

Nick