FS2004 runs at night but shows a blank screen in daylight mode when I click Fly

Things to check when FS2004 loads at night but goes blank in daylight

That’s an odd one, but it usually points to a display/driver or a corrupt display/weather setting that only “shows itself” when the sim is rendering a bright daytime scene.

Here’s a practical checklist to run through:

1) Start with a “clean” default flight
Sometimes a saved default flight gets corrupted (or is saved with a problematic scenario).

1. Start FS2004.
2. Go to Create a Flight.
3. Pick the default Cessna at a default airport (any stock airport is fine).
4. Set Weather to Clear Skies (not real-world).
5. Set time to midday.
6. Click Fly.

If that works, your original saved flight or weather theme is the culprit.

2) Temporarily reset display settings (most common fix)
Daylight scenes can push different shader/texture paths than night lighting, especially on newer GPUs/drivers.

1. Go to Settings -> Display.
2. Try switching to Windowed mode first (ALT+ENTER after the sim opens also works on many systems).
3. Lower these temporarily:
   • Hardware acceleration / performance sliders (pull back a notch or two)
   • Global texture size
   • Filtering / anti-aliasing (set to off inside FS2004 for testing)
   • Light bloom / special effects (if present in your FS2004 settings)
4. Try daylight again.

If windowed mode works but full-screen is blank, that strongly points to a resolution/refresh or driver issue.

3) Confirm your desktop color depth and resolution
FS2004 can be picky with some combinations on modern systems.

1. Set Windows desktop to 32-bit color.
2. Use a common resolution (for testing, something mainstream like 1920x1080 if your monitor supports it).
3. Re-launch FS2004 and test daylight.

4) Rebuild FS2004’s config (quick way to rule out a bad cfg)
A corrupted setting can absolutely cause “black/blank” behavior in only certain conditions.

1. Close FS2004.
2. Find your FS2004 config file and rename it (don’t delete yet).
3. Start FS2004 so it builds a fresh config.
4. Test daylight.

If you tell me your Windows version, I can tell you the exact default location to look for the FS2004 cfg on your system.

5) Video driver sanity check
If this is a brand-new PC, it’s worth doing this early:

• Confirm you’re running the proper NVIDIA/AMD/Intel driver for the GPU (not just whatever Windows installed automatically).
• If you already are: try one driver revision newer/older if the issue persists.

6) Add-ons (even accidental ones)
If you installed any add-on sky textures, shaders, env packs, or old “graphics tweaks,” remove/disable them for testing. Day textures/sky sets can cause weirdness that doesn’t show at night.

A few quick questions so we can narrow it down

1. What OS is on the new computer (Windows 10/11?), and what GPU (NVIDIA/AMD/Intel)?
2. Does the blank screen happen in windowed mode too, or only full-screen?
3. When it goes blank, do you still hear engine sounds / see menus if you press ALT (or can you bring up the top menu bar)?
4. Any add-ons installed yet, or is it a totally stock FS2004 install?

Answer those and we can zero in on whether this is a config issue vs. a driver/fullscreen mode problem.