More problems

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Fri May 17, 2002 2:52 pm

I have a really nasty problem.

No, no - not THAT nasty ...

Editor&Tools has gone all funny.
I can load it, run it, do all the usual things - no problem, but it crashes when I try to edit or create a new consist.

No sweat, I thought. Just reinstall MSTS. Easy. Irritating, but easy.

Not a chance !

Same thing after reinstall. Getting a bit worried now.

Anybody know what it might be, or prepared to hazard a guess ?

Deltic9000 · Post by **Deltic9000** » Fri May 17, 2002 3:56 pm

How many consists have you got already?

I had problems once the number went past 900... I made a test folder and used route control to identify and move all those that were not used by activities - I was astonished to find there were 600+ I didn't use!! (I'd made them for exploring and testing.)

Things went back to normal once I'd done this.

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Fri May 17, 2002 6:00 pm

Dunno. A lot, though.
I'll nip off & check.
Thanks for the hint.
Incidentally, sent off & bought Activity Analysis but no response of the necessary registration details for 4 or 5 days now.
a) Is it unreasonable to start chunnering ?
b) Is it worth it, anyway ?

jashton · Post by **jashton** » Fri May 17, 2002 7:11 pm

I'd recommend it. It's ideal when you download new activities, since it makes it easy to identify what you need. It's a good complement to Route Control Lite -- I use them both.

Jeff

Neptune50006 · Post by **Neptune50006** » Sat May 18, 2002 3:50 am

Geoff.
You should have had a reply by now. Mine came through in less than 4 hours. Perhaps the guy's away or something???

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Sat May 18, 2002 4:28 am

Firstly, Deltic, - no, I've only (!) got about 600 consists, so that's not the problem.

Secondly, thanks, Neptune, I'll try a little email to the chap at Activity Analysis. As you say, it could be he's away , on holiday, perhaps. Or something ....

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Sat May 18, 2002 3:24 pm

Yup, that was it.
Nice chap at Activity Analysis wrote back to me saying their " Registry Man is in Vacatian "!
Sent me their office registration details, which was kind. Worked fine.
How do you find the logfiles you can make ?
Program says it has saved it, but doesn't say what it's called or where it's put it !
Help doesn't help !

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Sun May 19, 2002 6:18 am

It's in the directory you installed AA To (normally c:program filesmsts activity analysis) called {activity name].txt

(Unless you changed the folder under Program Options!)

-Alan

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Mon May 20, 2002 11:24 am

Thanks, Alan. (I must remember to actually USE my brain cell once I've found it).
Still have nasty problem with Editor - still can't modify or create new consist without crash.
Getting really worried now, as inability to fix this will end all hope of Activity creation.
(Huh, good thing, I seem to hear you all saying ....)

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Mon May 20, 2002 11:38 am

Hmmm. If your consists check out, either you have a corrupt .eng or .wag somewhere in your trainset directory; or the system is so corrupt that a simple install over the top doesn't help.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that AA can get its registry in a twist, and there are some keys that need deleting, perhaps search the activity forum on {fx:whisper} http://www.train-sim.com for registry

Or to diagnose the former, I would backup the entire train folder, then delete all your consists and see if theres still a problem. If so, delete half the trains, and see if that cures it. If not restore them and delete the other half - does that fix it. If it does you know which block of folders contains the faulty one, restore half of them and see if the problems still there - you will be gradually getting closer by knowing which half the problem is each time. (I think it's called a binary chop!)

-Alan

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Mon May 20, 2002 3:41 pm

Thanks, Alan, you were right about faulty consists.
I've got about 30 eng. files with an error in the wag file names - i.e. the wagon name inside the folder does not match the folder name.
I had neglected to do much about this for 3 reasons.
Firstly, I wasn't having much trouble running activities and secondly because Route Control came up with no errors.
Lastly & most important, I did go through the lot correcting the wag name errors, but therafter MSTS crashed every time during the loading sequence ! I hastily restored them all back to their faulty condition, & lo & behold, TrainSim loaded & ran fine. Weird.
It really seems that I need to do a lot of tidying up, but the problem is my TrainSim folder is now in excess of 9 Gigabytes, & I'm not sure I'll be alive long enough to complete the task !
Still, the technique you describe looks like it could be a good start, so I'l be back - oh, next month or so, I suppose !

[ This Message was edited by: geoffwright on 2002-05-20 16:43 ]

asalmon · Post by **asalmon** » Mon May 20, 2002 3:44 pm

Eek!

Actually, you don't need the folder to be the same name as the wagon. Some folders contain several pieces of stock. The consist file stores both the folder and file names.

Good luck with your troubleshooting, don't forget the backup. (Though 9gig is quite a lot to play with!)

-Alan

[ This Message was edited by: asalmon on 2002-05-20 16:52 ]

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Mon May 20, 2002 4:09 pm

Yeah - backups.
My backups are the 2nd HDD, they're 9 Gigs, too !

Huh, don't talk to me about backups ....

I'm starting to sound like Marvin ....

BobLatimer · Post by **BobLatimer** » Tue May 21, 2002 4:10 am

Geoff,

Did you mean wagon names in the .wag file with the same name as the .wag file? e.g. asdfghj.wag containing Wagon ( asdfghj )?

I've had a few problems when they didn't match. As Alan said, the folder name doesn't have to be the same but it DOES have to match the way the stock shows up in the consist - otherwise you WILL get errors when you try to run activities.

The latest version of Conbuilder actually checks that the .wag and the Wagon ( ) have the same name and tells you which ones don't.

It could be that your problem was the first one and in trying to fix it you changed the folder names and made it worse.

Try running Conbuilder and Route Control lite. That should tell you where the problems are.

Regards,

Bob.

Geoffwright · Post by **Geoffwright** » Tue May 21, 2002 11:21 am

Bob,

Yes. tried Conbuilder & it looked great.
It told me that I had about 20 eng files with wag name errors within, & would I please put them right.
So I did.
Oops.
MSTS crashed every time when LOADING !
Panicked.
Put those altered files back to their "incorrect" state & tried TS again.
No problem.
Weird.
Decided Conbuilder was too picky for my sloppy methods and dropped it !
Still haven't figured this all out.
Trying Activity Analyser now, going throughall my activities & gradually clearing out faults. Long process.
I'll try Conbuilder again after that's done.
Still can't create new consist. Depressing.

[ This Message was edited by: geoffwright on 2002-05-21 12:22 ]