TS2015 consistant crash to BSD

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi all,
started to get the occasional crash to the Blue Screen of Death. But the last few days it occurs every time I try to run any scenario.
The most unstable situation is any scenario involved with my latest route "Stephens Pass". That one will run for approx 5mts then I get the screen as shown in the attachment.

Set-up is, as has, been for the last 3-4 years Win Home Premium 64bit, Alienware Aurora i7, 6Gb ram, ATI HD 5870 in Eyefinity 3-1 mode.

I have run the PC Dr analysis software including the advanced checks plus the Dell PSA software complete suite - no problems found. Both of these took over half an hour each to run and from what I could tell really stressed the system but no crashes.

Have back-ups of Assets/Content/Manuals and Package info prior to the installation of "Stephens Pass". So now seek some advice as to what is the best procedure to adopt. As Ive heard it is not very wise to persist in using a program that persistently crashes windows.

RW is installed on the F drive Windows on C Drive


Regards JohnT

[gptech]

"Page fault in nonpaged area" suggests a hardware problem; could be the memory but could also be the HDD. You say you have RailWorks on F: but is F: a completely separate physical hard disc or just a partition on the same hard disc as C: ?

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi,
sorry Gary for the delay in answering - but being thoroughly fed up walked away from the dam machine.
In reply to your query, see topic http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 3&t=140029, it's a fairly new drive.

Regards JohnT

[gptech]

Right, so this is a new separate drive which is good. How did you reinstall Steam on to it, and what else is on there?

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi
Steam was installed onto the new drive by the following method :-

As I see it, I will need to remove either drive E or G, insert the new Drive into the vacant slot - give it a new drive letter,say R - format it to NTSF - then copy the contents of the existing F drive onto it.
Once that is done remove F Drive then rename R Drive to become F Drive then refit the removed E-G drive.

The contents of the new 1TB drive F are as shown in the attachment, wherein the folder Rail utilities contains RWTools.

Tried again to night and almost completed the JT AD Voyager -Across the pond scenario on the Cajon Pass route. This scenario was prematurely ended when the voyager caught the front of train supposedly stopped in the hole, but which was obviously creeping forward and not stopped.
Prior to trying again and bearing in mind your comments about it possibly being hardware. I removed a 4Gb flash drive which had been used as a Readyboost.sfcache i.e windows used it for paging as opposed to space on the C drive, so I was informed during myFlight Sim days.
As the scenario above seemed to run without crashing to the desktop for over an hour or so , after the flash drive removal. Once that scenario had stopped I decided to try Stephens Pass again - approx 20secs after the screen appeared - windows crashed again.

Doing my headin it is

JohnT

[Trev123]

Have you tried uninstalling Stephens Pass from the Steam Library page by unticking the box then reinstall it by ticking the box. I think you have to shut down Steam after you untick it, then start it again and retick the box.

[gptech]

So the Steam directory was just copied rather than a *proper* installation?

I removed a 4Gb flash drive which had been used as a Readyboost.sfcache i.e windows used it for paging as opposed to space on the C drive, so I was informed during myFlight Sim days.

Sort of; ReadyBoost is an extra cache to those already used by VAS and the page file so you won't gain any drive space by not using it.

As components are new we can more or less rule out hardware failure, so the only thing that's changed has been the software configuration.
I'd be inclined to delete Steam, after making sure you have all your goodies backed up of course and letting Steam create a whole new installation, 100% tied to the newer hardware.

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi,
not wishing to look as if I'm being overly pedantic. But when you say delete steam, do you mean the complete Steam folder from drive F, i.e , Control Pnl/all control pnl items/prog and features/Steam or some other method?

Thanks JohnT

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi,
used method as recommended by Steam - been re-installing RW2015 since 11:00am now up to 91%.
Hope this resolves the issue.
Tjanks all

Regards JohnT

[peterfhayes]

JohnT
A couple of points:
The BSOD to me means that it is not a TS2015 issue but usually a hardware issue.
It would be rare for a piece of software to cause a BSOD as Windows is normally protected by the VAS that TS2015 loads into.
You are using Ready Boost (absolutely nothing to do with the VAS) - this is a hard drive caching app and it is supports the RAM (especially if you a small amount of RAM installed) so when you removed it and the crash occurred sooner to me that sounds like a RAM issue.
As gary says it could also be a HDD issue especially as you have just installed a new one.
How much RAM do you have on board?
Have you checked the RAM is correctly seated in their slots?
Have you run sfc /scannow?
Have you run dxdiag?
Have you run chkdsk /r/f at boot?
pH

[J1o2h3n4]

Hi all,
Well trev, when, I was installing Stephens Pass" initially, it took several attempts using the DLC tick/untick box to get it DLoaded. So consequently when I had troubles I deleted/uninstalled the program and then re-installed it at least twice.

Once Steam had finished the re-installation, approx 10:00pm. Booted up RW's and have completed the first two STD scenarios of the "Stephens Pass" route.
About 2 -2.5hrs constant running. No BSOD, despite flicking views etc - sounds a bit iffy i.e could not make out radio chatter, very muffled and the comments vis -a vis the trackside detectors only became audible half way through the No2 scenario, but this I can live with.

Peter, in answer to your queries
1 How much RAM do you have on board?
2 Have you checked the RAM is correctly seated in their slots?
3 Have you run sfc /scannow?
4 Have you run dxdiag?
5 Have you run chkdsk /r/f at boot?
1 6Gb
2-5 On previous occasions where faults have shown up. Dell have always insisted I run the programs I mentioned in the earlier post ie PC Dr and Dell PSA test. As they are designed to show up hardware problems.

Until you mentioned them I didn't know about 3 and usually windows advises when 5 is needed. But I admit to being a complete novice on the ins and outs of computer maintenance etc, hence my initial post.
Are you still advocating I do the 3-5 exercises, if only out of academic interest?

I'll wait awhile before trying to re-install all my additional 3rd party stuff - AP/DT Fastline etc - Thanks all for the interest shown.

Regards JohnT

[peterfhayes]

John
I would run those tests if only to eliminate them.
pH

[J1o2h3n4]

Results of test's 3 - 5 above.
3 Test ran up to 100%, then the batch file window closed. I'm assuming if there had been any faults it would have stayed open long enough for me to have read any message.
4 Came back with "No problems" on all pages.
5 Message " Volume clean" then proceeded to boot up windows.

So have I reason to be fairly confident?
That having done the 3 test's above plus those that Dell advise, all appearing to be clear. The problem was software?

Regards JohnT

[msmith4000]

I agree the error indicates a hardware problem. First I recommend going into the computer bios and reset the bios settings to defaults. Next remove and reseat memory dimms in their slots. If the problem persists, test memory by removing a dimm at a time then run a small scenario. If it starts working during this test you have a faulty dimm. Also run a chkdsk on all drives. Try recreating the system page file by disabling virtual memory then reboot then enable virt mem again.
Finally check the windows event logs to see if there is any problems highlighted.

[sean53]

A couple or 3 years back I had a few BSOD episodes running TS. Did a verify cache and that seemed to sort it