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Hello, I bought my copy of MSTS about six months ago. For the first four months it worked fine, but then it began to develop a problem: The screen is covered in lines! From the moment of start-up, everything is covered in vertical magenta-and-white lines. They form in little groups that line up in vertical columns across the screen. In addition, there are seam lines visible when actually running a train. Near as I can tell, everything else in TS works fine. The game is unaltered out-of-the-box. My computer is a newer Dell 8300; the video card is a Radeon 9800. I recently uninstalled, then reinstalled the simulator, but it didn't help at all. I had pretty much chalked it up to a loss, but I recently got a taste of MLT's Cascade Route, and I've got the MSTS bug all over again. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!Rob
Hi Rob and welcome back to Train Simming ! What version of MSTS is that, 1.0 or 1.2 ? Are other Graphics intensive games on your machine also affected ?Have you updated your Graphics driver recently ?That sort of phenomena is also sometimes an indication that there is a problem with the card, overheating perhaps ?O t t o
Hello again, and thanks for the reply! I have v. 1.2 (I had to look it up--that's pretty bad). The only other "real" game I have is SimCity, and it too is showing the tell-tale lines(!) Why I never thought to check there is beyond me, but sure enough, there they were. I have never updated my graphics driver. I thought about doing it before I posted here, but decided to hear what the experts had to say first. Hmmm, overheating...that sounds like no fun.Rob
It's definately a memory problem of some type with the graphics card, but before you run out and buy a new card, try pulling it out and then reseating it in the slot. Plug it in and out a couple of times to let the contacts scrape some crud off. Homes where people smoke really have a problem with this. Keep one hand on the metal frame to make sure you don't have a static charge on your body while you do this. It may not work, but it's worth a try.Larry
Thanks everyone for the information! I haven't quite mustered the courage to mess with the card yet...After I type a Sociology essay I have due, I'll have to try unplugging the card and puting it back in. At least now I know what is causing the problem. Though, now I'm beginning to wish it was just a TS glitch! Just out of idle curiosity: do you think a new video card would be under Dell's 1 year limited warranty? Ha! Finally, while I'm here, I'd just like to say that this is a really great forum you all have here. Although I started out just looking for a solution to my particular problem, I ended up reading a bunch from the archive. Most was a little too advanced (OK, way too advanced) for me, but I still learned A LOT!! Thanks again!Rob