Atomic Systems

I am running windows 8.1 with a Radeon R7200 graphics card.

TS2015 is repeatedly bringing up the pause menu or crashing out to a black scree which freezes up my system completely, requiring a reboot. It even freezes the task manager.

Anyone any suggestions.

I have contacted DTG support three weeks ago, have received one reply asking for the logmate, which I Don't have because the problem freezes the system completely. Have told them this and they have not replyed.

I had this earlier in the year, in my case the editing of a platform end constantly caused a complete freeze. Not many programs manage to completely hold the Task Manager to ransom so kudos to Dovetail there I received a reply that told me to read the manual on Platform creation. It was at the time, as you can imagine, very erm, helpful

I suspected I was running out of memory somewhere but never came to a reasonable conclusion. I had TS running in a small window with some diagnostic software running alongside including Task Manager to get a hint at the problem. After running various computer clean ups and tune ups the problem persisted so I decided to reinstall TS and all was well. It was a drastic measure but what else can you do when a problem arises out of nowhere with no obvious cause. Sorry I can't be more specific but it solved my immediate problem. This is a complex piece of software and I suspect, with many different people working on it over the years, the current build is like a tin of spaghetti with the ends welded together by warmed up sledge hammers.

NickG wrote:TS2015 is repeatedly bringing up the pause menu or crashing out to a black scree which freezes up my system completely

Is this a pure TS2015 installation or a "TS2014, along with all the 3rd party and edited stuff, upgraded to TS2015 installation" ?
It only takes a single 'dodgy' file to bring the whole lot crashing down unfortunately, any improvements in any piece of software can, and do, close the loopholes that gave those errant files 'room to work in' so it may be a file that's never been quite right and it's only now that the game won't allow it do it's own thing.

Re-installing is always the last option, as above, but consider letting Steam install a fresh copy of the base game and *official* DLC you have separate from your existing install--preferably outside of 'Program Files' to get round Windows itself being a touch *precious* with (supposedly) protected files.

PC was brand new, a second system so I could train sim on the big screen in the lounge. All I have installed is ts2015, and a few just trains, ap and DT add ons.

Thanks for the hints guys, would you recommend complete reinstall to try and sort things out?

That would be a good idea, save you going bald. I had to do a complete install of TS2014 back in May because of one crook file.

NickG wrote:PC was brand new, a second system so I could train sim on the big screen in the lounge...........

What resolution is this big screen?
Have you tried the PC with a *normal* monitor?

Samsung TV

NickG wrote:Samsung TV

Nice...but what resolution...how many dots one way and how many the other?
If the total number of pixels the game has to generate is getting beyond it (or even the system), that will cause bother. Has it ever run OK, regardless of which version on the big telly?
and again, have you tried the new PC with a standard sized monitor?

has run OK sometimes, some routes run better than others, eg WLOS seems quite stable, and London peterbourgh is fairly stable, but other routes will crash to black screen and lock the task manage as soon as you open them.

When it woks its a nice feeling on the recliner setee with the Xbox controller steaming along wlos

Will check resolution tomorrow and post tomorrow eve

Well I think I have at last found a workround for this, if anyone else has the problem this is what works for me.

Boot up Train simulator, disconnect from the internet, run a scenario.

This seems to make everything run fine, but I would love to know why

Since the problem goes away without an internet connection it's possible it could be a firewall-related issue. I had a similar problem when running in fullscreen as ZoneAlarm would pop a permissions requester up as soon as TS2014 tried to access the web. Since the requester was "behind" TS, and TS had effectively frozen, I was unable to do anything but reboot. The problem was exasperated by the fact that switching to windowed mode (in order to access the ZoneAlarm requester) needed to be done from within TS. I can't remember how I changed the setting now, but once I was able to respond to ZoneAlarm the problem went away.

Think I might have spoke to soon, but will have another go in a bit, It would have been nice to have got some action from Dovetail when I reported the issue

Tried running with steam off line, back to black screen of death!

Does anyone out there know if there is a phone no for DTG, as reporting faults by email has got nowhere

Check TS to make sure you don't have any PONtrack.bin files as they can cause TS to crash. If you have any delete them.

Done a search of the steam directory, not found any