How to contact Railmaster Support???

[Robcobbler]

Hi there 

I have been trying to contact Railmaster Support to find out how to de-register my old laptop (which no longer works) and set up Railmaster on my new laptop.

I emailed support@rail-master.com over 3 weeks ago and not had a reponse.

I have also contacted Hornby Customer Services by phone last week, who advised they cannot speak to Railmaster.  Hornby asked me to forward a copy of my email and said they would follow it up on my behalf with Railmaster, but I am still yet to recieve any sort of response.

I have checked SPAM folders for any reply but nothing recieved yet.

I have my original Railmaster disc and activation key, but when I try to install on new laptop it says there is an error (presumably because it is already registered to my old laptop).

I would be extremely grateful if anyone has any advice on how best to resolve this either:-

a) How to contact Railmaster support?

b) How to de-register my Railmaster on my old laptop (which doesnt work!)

c) How to install Railmaster on my new laptop

Many thanks

Rob

[RDS]

The response from HRMS is normally very good and certainly it is normally measured in days (or less) not weeks.  The old laptop needs to be de-registered before RM can be installed on another device and HRMS can do this for you, if you explain the reason why.

 

I suggest you try contacting the Customer Services Team Leader Mark Lodge on mark.lodge@hornby.com.

[pd91223]

RailMaster Support have problems contacting certain email addresses! They were unable to use my "ntlworld" address, so I had to give them one (!) of my others. I've no idea if this might be your problem, but if you have another email address try using that.

 

Mark Lodge was a very helpful intermediary during my attempts to resolve email communications with RailMaster Support.

[Chrissaf]

a) How to contact Railmaster support?

b) How to de-register my Railmaster on my old laptop (which doesnt work!)

c) How to install Railmaster on my new laptop

.

Another approach might be (just a theory, as not sure if the 'support request' feature built into RM is still functional in a RM evaluation copy).

.

• Install the eLink/Elite driver on the new Laptop BEFORE moving onto the next step.
• With the eLink/Elite connected and powered up so that the Windows driver is loaded, install the evaluation copy of RM onto the new Laptop using the RM installer downloaded from the link at the top of the RM forum.
• Get RM working on the new Laptop in evaluation mode.
• Now use the HRMS 'Support Request' option in the RM 'Help Screen'.

 

However you MUST include all the relevant information in the text you write in the 'support request' dialogue box. This information MUST match the information you submitted when you activated your original copy of RM the first time.

.

For example:

.

1. Why you are making the request via an evaluation copy. i.e your RM PC has completely failed and that you are unable to 'deactivate' your licensed RM copy through the online procedure.
2. Your name.
3. Your address.
4. The email address you used when you activated the first time.
5. Your original RM CD Activation Key.
6. The date when you originally activated RM (as close as you can remember if it is not documented somewhere in your local records, perhaps an invoice for the original RM purchase).

.

PD91223 is correct. This issue has been raised before. It transpired that HRMS had been responding, but their mails (for some inexplicable reason) were falling into a 'black hole' and not being delivered. So if you have another email address, perhaps one at work. Then add that mail address to your support request and ask HRMS to come back to you on that one instead of the one in item 4) above.

.

Note that HRMS DO NOT publish a telephone number. Contact outside the internal RM system is via email only "support@rail-master.com"

.

Then once your Activation key has been reset on the HRMS server, then just use the original key (now deactivated) on the installed evaluation RM copy to turn it into a full licensed version. There is no need to uninstall the downloaded evaluation copy and re-install from your original CD. In fact, I would advise against doing that as the CD copy will now be 'out of date'.

.

Since you can't access your track plan and loco database files from the old RM copy (unless you can put the broken Laptop hard drive in a USB caddy and connect that to your new Laptop) then you will have to set up your track plan and loco fleet from scratch.

.

If you can access the old hard drive via a caddy, then locate the files documented on Page 132 of the RailMaster manual and copy them to the new RM installation. That will re-instate that data into the new RM.

[St1ngr4y]

Once again, I apologise to the OP (Rob) for hijacking his thread. I have been trying since yesterday to report a fault throughthe Railmaster system, and it keeps failing. Here is an extract from the relevant part of the LOG.TXT file:-

13/10/18 12:23:30 Loading message window

13/10/18 12:23:32 Message displayed: You should only use this function if you have read the PDF guide FULLY. (375) - Response=6

13/10/18 12:23:32 Sending Help Request

13/10/18 12:23:33   Capturing screen shot

13/10/18 12:23:36   Loading Help Request window

13/10/18 12:23:36 IP: 81.111.225.100

13/10/18 12:25:21 Checking: ray*******@*******.com against: ray*******@*******

13/10/18 12:25:21 Loading message window

13/10/18 12:25:24 Message displayed: Before sending this Help Request can you confirm that you have:- (889) - Response=6

13/10/18 12:25:24   File prefix: HELP_131018122524_

13/10/18 12:25:24   Unique help file: help_131018122524_********************** 13/10/18 12:25:24   Connecting to support gateway and entering resource 13/10/18 12:25:24 Initiating connection to support gateway

13/10/18 12:25:24 Connecting to remote gateway

13/10/18 12:26:29 Setting host

13/10/18 12:26:29 Setting credentials 1 (2 ... 5)

13/10/18 12:26:29 Setting credentials 2 (0 ... P)

13/10/18 12:26:29    Set credentials successfully

13/10/18 12:26:29 Set up connection parameters

13/10/18 12:26:29 Checking for updates - attempt 1

13/10/18 12:28:21 Response: 0

13/10/18 12:28:21 Set root

13/10/18 12:28:21 Obtaining settings (F)

13/10/18 12:28:36 Couldn't obtain latest settings: 0

13/10/18 12:28:36 Setting lcheck gateway - attempt 1

13/10/18 12:29:27 Response: 0

13/10/18 12:29:27 Set resource: S....

13/10/18 12:30:27 Connected

13/10/18 12:30:29   Sending help request/system details - attempt: 1

13/10/18 12:31:11   Result of send: 0

13/10/18 12:31:11   Sent help request/system details successfully

13/10/18 12:31:11   Sending system log - attempt: 1

13/10/18 12:32:13   Response:  (0)

13/10/18 12:32:14   Sent system log file successfully

13/10/18 12:32:14   Sending default track plan - attempt: 1

13/10/18 12:33:16   Response:  (0)

13/10/18 12:33:16   Sent C:Program Files (x86)RailMasterapd91223.pln successfully

13/10/18 12:33:16   Sending startup program - attempt: 1

13/10/18 12:34:18   Response:  (0)

13/10/18 12:34:18   Sent C:Program Files (x86)RailMasterM23B.prg successfully

13/10/18 12:34:18   Found screen shot file to send

13/10/18 12:34:18   Sending screen shot - attempt: 1

13/10/18 12:39:23 Response: 0

13/10/18 12:39:23   Sent screen shot successfully

13/10/18 12:39:23   Confirming receipt of Help Request - attempt 1

13/10/18 12:40:10   Response: 0

13/10/18 12:40:10   File size result=0 13/10/18 12:40:15   Confirming receipt of Help Request - attempt 2

13/10/18 12:41:12   Response: 0

13/10/18 12:41:12   File size result=0

13/10/18 12:41:17   Confirming receipt of Help Request - attempt 3

13/10/18 12:42:24   Response: 0

13/10/18 12:42:24   File size result=0

13/10/18 12:42:29  Couldn't confirm receipt of Help Request

13/10/18 12:42:29 Loading message window

13/10/18 13:00:43 Message displayed: An error occurred when trying to confirm the sending of your Help Request. (896) - Response=6  

 

As you can see it takes 16 minutes to get to the point where it tries to "confirm receipt of the Help Request". It looks like it is expecting the return of a file from the HRMS site, and the file is arriving (response = 0) but is of zero-length (?).  

 

I haven't received the usual automated email acknowledging receipt of the request either.  

 

 

Is anyone else having difficulty ?  

 

Ray

 

P.S. the track plan file it tried to send isn't my current main plan.

[96RAF]

HRMS is definitely alive and well.

I sent a report from RM yesterday, got the auto-reply back almost immediately and today the answer to my question.

My question was I need all 29 functions on the large throttle and they said it is on their To-Do list and will be included in the next update.

I replied to their email and it hasn’t bounced so all must be well.

Rob

[pd91223]

@RAF96

I also apologise to the OP (Rob) for hijacking his thread, but did RM give you any indication as to when the next update might be released? I'm hoping desperately they might fix the Train-Tech signal problems reported by St1ngr4y & me!!

Paul

[96RAF]

@Paul

Unfortunately not and I neglected to ask in my response.

Sooner rather than later would be good as I was hoping to have some full function programs ready for an upcoming show.

Rob

[Robcobbler]

Thank you everyone for your advice - ive been trying to sort this today and have come back to another dead end in trying to resolve this.

The main problem seems to be that Hornby cannot reply to certain "personal" email addresses.

Mark Lodge was very helpful in Hornby Customer Service (who I contacted using my work email address) and advised that I needed to :-

1) Install and apply the latests updates to RM on my new laptop (which I have managed to do!)

2) Activate the software using my Activation Key .

3) When the Activation is declined (becasue my activation key is allocated to my old laptop) , then the option to de-activate the software can be chosen and new activation key will be sent. (again I have managed to do this and have sucessfully submitted a request to deactivate RM).

 

The problem now, is that I am unable to recieve any replies from RM because my "personal email" address on my Hornby account is one that Hornby cannot reply too (and emails are being lost in the blackhole as someone said!).

Im not quite sure where to turn now - any ideas on how to resolve this would be most welcome!

 

I would love it if someone from Railmaster was able to remotely log on to my laptop and set up RM correctly up (like some of the big software companies offer) - does anyone know if this is possible?

[Chrissaf]

I would love it if someone from RailMaster was able to remotely log on to my laptop and set up RM correctly up (like some of the big software companies offer) - does anyone know if this is possible?

.

Yes it is.....this is something that HRMS have done may times to help RM customers set up drivers and get Key Activations processed when they fail due to AV products and Firewall exception configurations not being done correctly. This is however slightly different than your scenario of reactivating a previously used key.

.

The issue for you though is that to arrange the remote access, HRMS need to be in email contact with you, to instruct you on what to do and when to do it. So unless you resolve your email issue you are in a catch 22 situation.

.

Could you not set up a free Internet Browser email account such as gmail or hotmail etc and get your RM account changed to use that mail instead.

[pd91223]

BUT ... why can't RM communicate with some email addresses?! Even @AugustusCaesar has said (on other posts) that the problem must lie at their end.

 

When they couldn't communicate me with via my "ntlworld" address I used my "hotmail" address for email, but my software & key are presumably still attached to the "ntlworld" address I used to register. I've never been able to communicate with them from within RM - no acknowledgements like St1ngr4y - and I have no confidence that if I ever had to de-register in order to re-register that it would ever work!

Paul 

[Robcobbler]

BUT ... why can't RM communicate with some email addresses?! Even @AugustusCaesar has said (on other posts) that the problem must lie at their end.

 

When they couldn't communicate me with via my "ntlworld" address I used my "hotmail" address for email, but my software & key are presumably still attached to the "ntlworld" address I used to register. I've never been able to communicate with them from within RM - no acknowledgements like St1ngr4y - and I have no confidence that if I ever had to de-register in order to re-register that it would ever work!

Paul 

Just a quick update - I emailed RM support last night from my work email address and have had a quick repsonse this morning. (after weeks of no response)

RM Support have acknowledged that they are unable to respond to my "personal email address" (which is a @virgin.net for reference) and have not recieved any of the communication I have been sending, either by email or directly through the activation forms built into RM.

My RM software is linked to the personal email address, so I have therefore asked RM support to change my email address, degister my old laptop so I can hopefully re-activated my new laptop.

I will let you know how I get on!