I have a problem with the afterburner in Freespace. It's bound to the tab key but when I push it it simply makes a "clicking" noise and won't give me the speed boost I so sorely need in dogfights. Please, help this pilot to get his precious afterburner returned to him.

Found a potential fix for you at the Freespace Oracle here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/fs1-technical.html
Here's the info cut from the article about the afterburner:
The problem can be solved for XP users by running FS2 in compatibility mode. Open up your FreeSpace folder and look for FS.exe. Make a short cut for this file and position it wherever you like (Desktop or Startmenu). Right click on icon and choose properties. Click on the Compatibility tab and choose which ever mode you like (I've heard that Windows 95 works best but you might find otherwise). Use the icon to run FS from now on.

I can confirm that all the suggestions in the above page (compatibility, registry keys) worked for me, both the afterburner bug and the weird looking background are fixed; the only drawback is that my mouse is now a bit sluggish in the main hall and the brefing room, but still usable.

Thanks for the fix. Unfortunatly, while the afterburner works when I play in compability mode (both 95 and 98) the steering goes to crap. My mouse steering become sluggish and sometimes locks for several seconds, which doesn't improve my chances of survival. Damn, I was really looking forward to replay the Freespace series again :(

same here =(. At first, i thought the ship didn't have the afterburner (i'd be available later on)... now i realize i was wong.
Anyone know a different solution?
Thanks

Freespace *really* needs a joystick to get the most out of it.
However, check out the FS2Open mod. It updates the binaries and is an overhaul of the core code. I have no issues running FS2Open in XP with all the goodies turned up to max, and have had no compatibility problems.

I've never heard of this bug, but I don't know if you've already tried rebinding the Aft key (TAB) to some other key?
say... shift for example, I don't remember it being used in FS2
Although there is a posibility that due to the (shift) key is used for alternate commands (shift T to go to previous target, for instance) it wont let it be binded to anything else.
Try some in the numpad (enter, comma, 0)if you're not using it for steering the ship, remember to unbind them first!

Already tried that. Even on the joystick the problem remains,

Oh my! I tried on a laptop with windows vista and the afterburner works fine, but i use xp and it's no deal =(.
The level i'm playing right now it's too tough to play without it.
Ideas?

hi everyone. first of all i'd like to say that FreeSpace is a great game, missed it back in 1998. and highly regret it. it's really great, i don't know how i passed this game by back then. but, to the point.
well, after some research on this issue i decided to do things the "trial-and-error" method. i turned off the 3D acceleration in the setup menu (available when launching the FreeSpace.exe located in the game directory) and launched the game executable with windows 98 (or 95, i don't remember now) compatibility. and it worked. afterburner is fully operational and the textures in the background look a bit better with the mouse being fully operative. i did this on XP.
if you haven't came up with this yet, give it a try.

I had the same problems. I found way to solve them... Just reinstall FreeSpace 1 after installing FreeSpace: Silent Threat and patch. DO NOT uninstall 'n' reinstall the game! Reinstall the game again like overwrite, it won't delete your pilot account.
I did it like that, it really work.

Also, as already mentionned by TheFlatline, using the newer FSO engine will probably solve this problem, as well as improving the game overall. To play the original Freespace with this engine, you will need to own Freespace 2 (the new FSO engine requires FS2 assets). Then you can grab the campaign "FS Port" which is basically the Freespace 1 campaign within the FSO engine. There's also Silent Threat : Reborn, which is a far more polished remake of the original Silent Threat extension.
Refer to Hard Light Productions for all download links and detailed instructions.

NECROBUMP!
Hey I figured out why the mouse lags!
If you set it for Win95 or Win98 the computer sets the game to only use one core, however FreeSpace, interestingly enough is completely compatible with multi-core processors: just go into Task-Manager, Processes tab and right click FS.EXE, then "Set Affinity" and a menu will pop up showing the cores your CPU has, make sure all of them are checked, and it will work just fine.