Notice to all visitors and members of the Train-Sim.Com message forums: If you plan on using a signature banner in your posts, we would like to remind you that there is a maximum size for banners. That maximum is 450 pixels wide by 120 pixels high, and not to exceed 25k. Your compliance is appreciated. FORUM RULES Problems? There are two common reasons for problems with logging in and posting messages. The first is that you are running a firewall that prevents your messages from being sent to the server. The other is that you have cookies disabled; the DCForum software requires cookies to work properly.
about two months ago my MSTS game crashed unrecoverably and I have been in the process of restoring years of effort I made to make my trainsim one that I have enjoyed immeasurably. I don't mind so much about having to redo everything, as I had most of my downloaded addons on cd and have managed to restore about a third of my old routes, but the problem has been that lately the routes I've downloaded have been locking up my computer in the route and activity screen as soon as I hit the start. the mouse quits instantly and the selection hand stays locked on the start button. This has happened to almost all the routes I've tried to install lately, and I've double checked to be sure any necessary software is added like xtacks and newroads and so on. What I don't understand is a lot of these routes went right on and worked fine on my prior installation (the one that eventually crashed) I know I'm probably overlooking something simple and am hoping that someone might be able to share some insights into my problem. I will appreciate all suggestions to help me get up to speed Thanks
Hi Michael,Welcome to the forum.Have you remembered that files that come off cd are read only? You need to clear the RO bit with explorer or Route Riter.
Yes, I've been around many times on that merry go round. I, as well as every one else on this forum has had my share of up's and down's and I had developed a technique to get everything back to the last working status that I had backed up, not to cd but a complete mirror msts folder that I could borrow what I needed from, or just revert to my working system and create another working back up. aside from gobbling up a ton of hard drive space (about 40GB) I fell into this false conception of thinking I had msts under control, at least as much as one is able. I think I was putting on the latest xtracks update and kosmos when everything began working erratictly I deleted that msts folder and brought my backup into service but the problems seemed to affect that also. Thats when I guess I went crazy and started doing things out of control, and the sim responded in kind of course. I'm just now starting to get some of the 40 plus routes working but some of the ones that I had working before are the ones locking up. I struck me too that some of the problem routes were those I saved from the first msts installation and had never been transfered to cd. I tell you, I love this sim for a lot of reasons, but it has become a fickle mistress...but I suppose everybody here knows that already. anyway, thanks for your response. I'ts nice to know there are people out there who can offer support for an otherwise great sim thanks again
Hi teren,Maybe I am totally off with that, but I remember having had a similar phenomenon recently. The reason was that I had accidentally deleted one of the loading screens. Must have been one MSTS seems to be looking for its presence when one of the routes is selected (sorry, I do not remember exactly which one I had trashed, but I think it was one of the default ones in GUI/screens).As you say it happens at the very moment you try to select a route (meaning MSTS hangs before it has enough input from your side to actually start loading the route), my guess is that you run a good chance that it is something in the "general" area of the program, some file which is non-route-specific. Have you already tried to re-install MSTS from CD, and to see if it works correctly? Then try adding one route after the other, always firing up MSTS after each install. If that doesn't help, continue the process with adding equipment (say a dozen at a time) until you can nail down the culprit(s). Good luck!Lukas a.k.a SwissiePS: You can avoid the problem with read-only files if you zip-up an add-on before saving it to CD. Thus only the .zip file becomes read-only, and when you re-install, everything inside the .zip installs properly and exactly as it was, without having to worry about file properties.
I had forgot to mention in my first plea for help that I noticed that sometimes msts would actuallly begin to load the route only to lock up as soon as the cab screen came up. I knew right away when I'd see the mouse curser as a hand in center screen instead of the arrow. I guess starting over is not so bad because I got to clean up a bunch of loose .con's and other clutter from years of adding all of those neat routes that so many have slaved so hard to create. I've flown flight sims for so many years and when microsoft introduced the train simulator, I was, and have been addicted to that sim also. I am still always astounded at the talent and creativity that I find when surfing for downloads. this forum is just another dimension of the msts experience that I've just begun to wet my feet. my thanks and appreciation to you for your helpful information.
I've got a lot of cd's laying around with downloaded files, a bunch of which are outdated. it's funny but I've never had to use most of them once I had the files on the system. What I did find out from this whole thing is that you need to zip files up before commiting them to cd. Most of the stuff was zipped already but my unzipped working routes were put on just as they are in msts Oh well, aside from all the fun I've gotten from msts, it has been a learning experience and an important lesson in anger management. anyway, thanks for the tip see you at the railyard!