I searched the forums for a similar issue and I found one where the solution didn't apply to me, so I'm afraid I have to ask....
I was on here for a while before my computer coughed up a lung and died. Fixed it. Installed Windows 7 and had nothing but trouble reinstalling Discovery. Realized I wasn't alone, followed some really good threads on the various issues and got it working well. Installed fine. Loads up fine. Runs fine.
...but there was no item descriptions. Just a ??? IDS followed by the correct price!
So I dug some more. Found a really neat idea to install the mod manager to "my documents" instead of "program files". So I uninstalled everything (Including Freelancer itself), re-installed it according to the handy dandy guide. Again...installed fine, loads up fine, runs fine...and for my first couple of visits...all the items showed up fine too.
But on the third visit, SOME of the items came up again at ??? IDS while others still show up fine.
The only thread I found on this was fixed by apparently launching the game through the DSUpater.exe. But since that is no longer an option now that the updates are handled by freelancer.exe (I'm guessing that's why it gave me the error message when I tried it) I'm stuck. I don't relish the idea of re-installing everything every three visits or so.
Anyone else experience a similar issue? Please? I'm dying here! And starting to regret the whole "Windows 7" thing rather than staying with XP.
Could you post a screen shot of the problem and the names of the commodities?
If it happens again I will definately do so.
Thinking that running it as administrator wasn't enough I manually went into the mod folder and took ownership of each and every folder in it. It was a long stupid process but when I launched it again tonight it seemed all the item descriptions were there. Hopefully forever (fingers crossed), or possibly just for another three or four times before going haywire again.:( Time will tell.
Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.
Off the top of my head though, I can tell you that the first three items you have in your ship (rules, id badge -- all id badges come to think of it) and history, were all unidentified. Shield and nanobots as well. The entire Pennsylvania star system and any jump gate leading out of New York. Weapons and ships showed up fine.