Can't Access Programming Window

[BagEndJct]

I believe this is nothing to do with the new version of RM and the problem that has just occurred is coincidental. 

 

I was working on a program with the Edit Program window open, when the power failed and my laptop (which doesn't have a working battery) crashed out of course, with that window open.

 

Now, although RM opens without the programming window open, when I click on the icon, it "fades" as you'd expect but I can't see the programming window. When I hover over the RM icon in my Task Bar, I can see two windows are "open", the main RM window and the Program window below it, but I can't access it. Neither does clicking on the 'x' do anything. I tried reinstalling RM in the hope it would repair it, but no joy,

 

If I uninstall RM with the aim of reinstalling it, do I need to de-register the software first. Any other ideas, please?

[Chrissaf]

Press the "Windows" key and whilst holding it, press the "Tab" key......see if the hidden window then becomes visible and thus selectable.

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Do not uninstall RM as that is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but if you do.....YES you must de-register first, else you will have problems re-activating the clean install.

[BagEndJct]

Press the "Windows" key and whilst holding it, press the "Tab" key......see if the hidden window then becomes visible and thus selectable.

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Do not uninstall RM as that is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but if you do.....YES you must de-register first, else you will have problems re-activating the clean install.

Thanks Chrisaff. I tried tabbing the windows and can confirm that Windows + Tab doesn't work either. I can see both windows (Main and Program) but clicking on it just takes me back to the main window and pressing the close "x" does nothing either. When RM is restarted, the window is not there until I press the Edit Program buton. Then it's not there either except I can see its icon when tabbing! 

 

I may need to start up that sledgehammer in order to crack this particular nut?!

[96RAF]

Just reinstalling the latest copy of RM over your copy should have put it right. There should be no need to deinstall before reinstall.

It is annoying the certain popup screens can live behind the main screen of RM, but the only ones that can be specified to stay on top in the ini file are the throttles.

 

Edit - just  had a thought. Open task manager and see if there are two instances of RM running. Close as appropriate.

[St1ngr4y]

What happens if you click the minimise button on the Main window - does that bring the programming window into view?

 

Ray

[BagEndJct]

Thank you so much for the suggestions, but nothing has worked. I had already reinstalled RM. There are no addtional copies of RM running. Minimise just minimises the main screen and the Programming window doesn't appear. 

 

It is not open when I run RM. But when I click Edit Program button, the window is there somewhere (it appears when hovering over the icon in Task Manager and Windows-Tab shows there's another window), but I can't get at it! It looks like I will have to uninstall and start afresh.

[Chrissaf]

The program window I would suggest is being run as a service task. Look in task manager (right click the task bar area), then open the services? Tab. Look for anything that looks like it might be the program service and use "end task" to force it to shut down. It's possible but unlikely that the program window might be running in the 'application' tab along with RailMaster.

[BagEndJct]

I can't find it in Task Manager, Chrissaf. It does close when I close RM as the window is not there when I re-open RM. Once I click the program button, the window is there.... somewhere.

[Fishmanoz]

Ask HRMS to log in to check it out.  Make sure you tell them everything you’ve said here, and use the email in the Help screen as it sends your configuration and log.txt files to them.

 

If you do uninstall (noting as indicated above that this helps in only 0.00000000000000001% of cases, I never exaggerate), do de-register and keep your licence details, and all of your files incl your ini file to reload.  And delete the entire RM folder once uninstalled before re-install.

[BagEndJct]

OK, thanks. I'll report back when I get there!

[BagEndJct]

Grrr! I can't connect to their "secure" server in order to send the message to HRMS. I have never been able to connect via my main Internet connection in Spain but have got round it by connecting via my phone and 4G. Now that won't work either. I know about virus protection and firewall (all off) but still no go. Which means I can't unintall and reinstall either.

 

Can I advise them via Email? 

[Chrissaf]

BEJ,

In my earlier reply about using 'Task Manager' to find the running 'Service?' for the 'Program' window in RailMaster. I was away from home at a family Birthday party and away from my PC and writing my reply from memory on an Android Tablet. Which is why I used the ? in my reply ["..then open the services? Tab."]. Now I'm back at my home base and able to look at my PC. It wasn't the 'Services Tab' but the 'Processes Tab' I should have quoted.

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Start RM but do not invoke the faulty 'Program' Window. Take a 'screen shot' of all the 'Processes' that are running in the 'Task Manager'. Then invoke your faulty 'Program' Window and then compare the earlier Processes 'snap shot' against what is running now. Any new 'Processes' that have appeared are likely to be associated with the faulty 'Program' window. Then highlight the new ones (one at a time, if more than one) and use the 'End Process' button to force a shut down of each new process to see which one (if any) closes the faulty 'Program' Window.

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If you successfully find the process that is asscoiated with the faulty 'Program' Window and 'End Process', does close it. Then follow that up by closing down RM normally, reboot the PC and test RM operation again.

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[Chrissaf]

Light Bulb Brainwave Moment.

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Can you not use Windows "System Restore" to restore your PC back to a time before you experienced the power failure that created your issue. That is to say restore back to Saturday 9th or earlier.

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Not sure where "System Restore" is in your PC. Type "Restore" into the 'Start Menu' search box. When you start the "System Restore" application, be sure to tick the 'Show more restore points' check box.

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Screen shot below is from W7, but similar for W10

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[BagEndJct]

Chrissaf. I ALWAYS forget System Restore. It has saved my life so many times, when I remember it!! I will try that and then the "Processes" trick if that doesn't work.

 

Meanwhile, I'm trying to re-establish comms with HMRS from within RM. I do need to get that sorted for the future and my peace of mind. I'll try a different 4G connection on a different phone and also try my neighbours' Internet, which is on another system.

 

Thank you, as ever!

[BagEndJct]

Beginning to get a bit depressed now!

 

I finally got System Restore to work but it only reverted RM to the previous version without getting rid of the programming window issue.

 

I have tried and tried, through every means known to me, to send a service message to HRMS. Trying a test message from my RM installation on my new laptop also failed. (I have now sent them a message via Email). 

 

I looked as Processes, as suggested by Chrissaf. I did not have enough time to look through all the background processes but there were two occurrences of RM (one labelled "Program") under "Apps" once I had clicked on the programming button in RM. Clicking on this, did nothing, neither did "End Process". I'll look through all the background processes later. 

 

I then decided to try the "new" Handheld software to cheer myself up. I have a newer tablet and, not thinking, connected that. Now my old tablet seems to be de-registered and, of course, I am unable to register the new tablet. Grrr and double grrr. Feel like throwing the whole thing out the window.

 

 An observation on the Handheld software: it certainly connects  better but then looks like the same old rather sad stuff on the tablet screen. A bit of a let down I'm afraid.

 

 If I am never again able to get my RM software to communicate with their servers, do the support people have a way of authorising/deauthorising software etc? I do hope so else I'm stuck for ever.

 

(Just had a somewhate light-hearted thought. We're taking the car back to UK in May for a bit of a holiday. If I'm still having issues, I'll put my old laptop in the car and see what I can do on UK WiFi!).

[BagEndJct]

I have made some progress this morning, sort-of. I managed to get my new laptop, which also has RM installed, to talk to the RM servers via my mobile phone. So it is possible!

 

However my "working" old laptop still refuses to connect with the error "could not connect to the orders/licensing gateway". 

Firewall is off. No anti-virus installed. I have run out of ideas. Connection attempted via the same mobile phone on the same network connecting in exactly the same way as my new laptop. Hmmmm!

 

When and if I can prove the connection would work, I could then trying uninstalling and re-installing RM. But not before!

[St1ngr4y]

Thank you so much for the suggestions, but nothing has worked. I had already reinstalled RM. There are no addtional copies of RM running. Minimise just minimises the main screen and the Programming window doesn't appear. 

 

It is not open when I run RM. But when I click Edit Program button, the window is there somewhere (it appears when hovering over the icon in Task Manager and Windows-Tab shows there's another window), but I can't get at it! It looks like I will have to uninstall and start afresh.

 

Hi BEJ,

 

Do you still have the original problem? If so, can you have a look at the contents of the file program.dat in the Railmaster folder. It should contain some numbers like these...

 

3810

 

2220

 

8670

 

4005

 

3000

 

3735

 

What does your file contain? Also, is there a file present called tempprg.prg ? If there is, try renaming it to, say, tempprg.txt, then retry RM.

 

Ray

[BagEndJct]

Thank you Ray! You are right to be looking at program.dat as, before I read your post, I received an Email from HRMS telling me to delete it! Just in case, I just moved it somewhere else but that solved the program window issue.

 

Phew! I'll worry about the non-connection to the servers another day.

 

Thank you all!

[St1ngr4y]

Hi BEJ,

 

I had worked out that the file contains information describing the position of the programming window on the screen and its height and width. If this file had become corrupted in some way, causing Windows to display it outside of the limits of the computer screen, for example, then this is why it would effectively be invisible to the user. It seems to save a new copy of this file each time the programming window is closed. I would be interested to know what values were in the file, if you still have it, but whatever the values were, I think the software could prevent this from happening again by checking the values in the file when it is re-opened for reading, and if any values are suspect, then to open the programming window with the default values it uses when the file doesn't exist.

 

Ray

[BagEndJct]

Ray

 

I seem to have got my program.dat files confused. I confuse a lot of things these days. I have what I thought was the copy I removed from the RM directory and the new copy when I opened RM, with the old DAT file having been "deleted". Oddly, they are exactly the same. However, I believe you must be right about the position co-ordinates so, basically, I have lost the original file. Sorry! But here are the values in the current file

1155

1275

8805

4005

3000

3735

 

Thanks for your help.

John

[St1ngr4y]

Hi John,

I believe these numbers are measurements in pixels. 1155 is the number of pixels between the left edge of the screen and the left edge of the programming window. 1275 is the distance from the top edge of the screen to the top edge of the programming window. 8805 is the height of the programming window. The other 3 values don't seem to change, and one of them will be the width of the programming window. But the program editor part of the software doesn't allow the user the change the width of the window for some reason, so that's why the width value doesn't change.

 

Ray

[BagEndJct]

HI Ray

 

Yes it looks like that. It must have been the case that, somehow, when power was interrupted, the dat file got corrupted and the window was "off the screen" as you said. Anyway, there was a much easier option (delete it) than mine which was going to be de-register, uninstall, reinstall, re-register, which would have been nightmarish, given the comms issues I experience.

 

On which subject, I am pleased to report, that I got my Handheld device to be recognised as being authorised after a lot of struggling to connect to the RM servers. I am not quite sure how I achieved this (isn't that often the way?) having tried so many things. However, I connected both my laptop running RM and my Handheld device to my mobile phone Wifi hotspot. I noted the IP address of my laptop using the IPCONFIG command from a Command prompt, entered that into the the Handheld "app" and, lo and behold, I could see all the locos and did not get the prompt to register it. So I'm a pretty happy bunny tonight!

 

Oh, and I went into the Firewall settings and found there were three entries for RM in the "allowed apps" list. I deleted those entries and entered RM again so that there was only one entry. Whether that solved the issue, I have no idea!

 

I had a brief try out with the Handheld and there were one or two issues, though I need to give it a more extensive trial before reporting those issues I've found (and more?).

 

Thank you!