Unable to activate Railmaster

[murray_robin]

I am unable to activate Railmaster . When the evaluation software advises click green arrow a caption says please wait then goes away- nothing happens .

The anti virus software has been professionally removed and I am running as administrator but not found how to enter activation key.

Please Advise

MJR

 

 

 

[Chrissaf]

At this stage, all I can advise is for you to work your way through the 'help topic threads' at the top of the RailMaster sub-forum. Titled "RailMaster: Setting Up and Getting Started". Also look at the "RailMaster Help Site" topic thread above it. This will take you to an off site website, where screen shots are included of the installation and setting up process.

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If all else fails, then you can ask HRMS (Hornby RailMaster Support) using the within program contact request on the RailMaster Help Screen to remotely log into your PC and complete the installation for you [if you cannot make contact via this method because you get a communication failed error message then use their external email address: support@rail-master.com to make contact instead].

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HRMS do not publish a telephone number and is not the same 'help' resource as Hornby Customer Services who do publish a number, as the software & support is outsourced to a different company to Hornby (Invicta Systems).

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99.9% of the time, RailMaster activation failures are due to your security software. Not just your AV product (Norton & McAfee should be avoided at all cost) but also your Firewall settings. So just removing your AV product, is not always a workable solution (particularly when removing McAfee, as removing this product does not always work with RailMaster 'fails to activate' errors). Apart from which, Windows generates lots of niggle messages when the AV is disabled or removed. Not including the risk you are taking by disabling your AV protection.

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RailMaster WILL work on ALL versions of Windows, including Windows 10. And will work with many AV security products (it just has issues with the two AV products named above). But, there is always a 'but'. RailMaster was written when Windows XP was king and needs a lot of manual tweaking in its settings to function 100% with the later Windows version releases. It certainly cannot be considered a piece of 'Plug n Play' software.

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• What AV product were you using?
• Have you added a RailMaster exception to your firewall?
• Have you read through and implemented the recommendations documented in the "Security_en.PDF" installed on your hard drive as part of the RailMaster installation?

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PS - regarding "but not found how to enter activation key". If this means in what RailMaster screen do you enter the key? there is a specific button for activation on the top navigation bar. This button then disappears on an activated installation.

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See also my reply to your other post regarding RailMaster and eLink 'Compatibility'.

 

[Uknick16]

hi all do you seem to have the same problems as me contacting rail master i have tried several times all you get from them is to down load the exe file from rail marster they dont seem to care at all there the worse company i have come in my life

[Fishmanoz]

Hi Nick, welcome to the forums. May I beg to differ and say many on here have found Hornby RailMaster Support (HRMS) to provide excellent support over 365 (yes, 365) days per year.

 

If you, like Murray, are having problems activating, it is almost certainly your AV blocking you, even if you think it isn’t. Consequently, following Chris’s instructions above is most likely to fix your problem, just as this approach has helped many others with their initial setup.

 

Note too that if it is AV blocking, then contacting HRMS through the facility in the Help screen of RM (the preferred method) will also not work.  You will have to use support@rail-master.com. 

[BagEndJct]

I had terrible problems activating Railmaster (and updating my TomTom as it happens). Railmaster support were helpful but it emerges something prevents this type of activity as a result of something being blocked my service provider. I never got round it. This applies also to sending messages to RM support from within the program and also activating the Pro add-on and handheld software. 

 

What I do now is to connect via my mobile phone and the 3G/4G network using the phone's WiFi hotspot. Very little data is used and it never fails.

 

As far as the TomTom is concerned, I bought a Garmin navigator instead and no such problems updating that! 

[RDS]

@murray_robinson

Did you manage to sort out this problem?

Chris has provided excellent advice above, which obviously takes a lot of time to compile and it is most disappointing when the originator does not provide any feedback whatsoever.  There may of course be a good reason why you have not responded but it is over 2 weeks since the question was posted and in your case it was answered within less than an hour.

 

The other thread you raised with a straight forward question was also answered by Chris in less than an hour - again no response.

 

Please let us know how you got on, or even if you require further help.