Railmaster Evaluation Version

[Dace21uk]

Hi

I tried to download and install the Evaluation version of Railmaster today. I'm Windows 10. Install run as admin. Everything seemed ok. I then tried to install the 1.72 update. When it opened up it said it had 90 days of evaluation left but then asked me either to upgrade or close the software as the Evaluation Period had expired! Can someone please help as I want to try the software before spending £100 on it and the eLink.

Thanks

Andrew

[Chrissaf]

This exact issue has come up once before on the forum. No solution was found. This should only happen if the Laptop / PC in question has in its previous life already had the evaluation copy of RM installed. The 90 day timer is still active even if the evaluation copy is completely uninstalled.

 

Whenever the evaluation copy is installed on a PC, there is an exchange of data. It is believed that the serial number of the Motherboard [or other key PC component] is logged on the HRMS [Hornby RailMaster Support] servers. This data logging stays in perpetuity. So if the evaluation copy is uninstalled even after a day, the 90 day timer continues to run out on the remote HRMS server. If someone then comes along after 90 days and tries to re-install an evaluation copy, the server sees a match of the stored PC hardware data and rejects the request.

 

Now you are probably going to come back and say something along the lines of, but I have had my Laptop / PC from new and have never tried to install RailMaster before. This is exactly what the other previous poster said as well. So why the HRMS software checking system rejected the request is a complete and total utter mystery.

 

There is nothing we on the forum can offer in terms of a solution, as the 90 day validity check is done on the HRMS servers completely outside anybodies control.

 

You have two options, try a different Laptop / PC or raise your issue direct with the RailMaster software support / developers on support@rail-master.com

 

On the positive side, at least this shows that your PC can access the HRMS servers. Many others raise actually not being able to communicate with the servers as an issue. So should you subsequently decide to install the full version of RailMaster on your Laptop / PC, then the key activation should be successful.

 

You mentioned "then tried the 1.72 update". This seems to infer that you downloaded some old out of date Evaluation RM version from a non-updated web page on the Hornby site. The current version is 1.73.

 

This is the download link you should ideally use: I suggest that this is the version you try installing on a different Laptop / PC if you can. Your issue might have something to do with the old out of date version you seem to have used.

 

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EDIT: Just had a thought. Do I take it that you found an old earlier version of RM to download somewhere on the Hornby site, version 1.68 for example. When you installed it, the auto update kicked in and then asked if you wanted to update to 1.72 and you said yes.

 

This would fit in with what you have described as the 'auto update' currently doesn't pick up the 1.73 version, only the 1.72 version.

 

I'm only guessing, but I'm wondering if trying to update an un-activated evaluation copy somehow triggered the reject as being an invalid expired copy in some way.

 

I suggest that if you can/do try again on a different Laptop / PC that you install the 1.73 version I have documented.

 

2nd EDIT: The time difference between the end date for version 1.68 and the release date for version 1.72 according to my records are more than 2 years apart. I strongly suspect that the 90 day expiry checking routine, looked at the RM application version number dates and concluded incorrectly just based upon looking at reported file dates that there had been more than 90 days between the installation of 1.68 and the request to update to 1.72. Note this, just uninstalling everything and installing 1.73 is very unlikely to resolve this on the same Laptop / PC as the 90 day expired flag will already have been stored against your Laptop / PC hardware on the HRMS servers.

 

I have found the 1.68 download link I think you used on the Hornby website. I have therefore escalated the 'out of date' download link to Hornby admin to have it updated. But that will only be beneficial to others that follow you.

 

TIP: As a newbie poster on the forum, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

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See also – further TIPs on how to get the best user experience from this forum.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/tips-on-using-the-forum/

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[Dace21uk]

Thanks for the advice Chris. I may have used an old link but didn't know it was old! Never mind. I will try talking to the Railmaster Tech team and is see if they can do something. Unfortunately I don't have another PC to try it on. I used the link on the RailMaster/eLink page https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/shop/power-control/dcc-controllers/elink-and-railmaster-combination-pack.html. 

[Chrissaf]

Thank you for confirming the link you used. I can also confirm that the link downloads version 1.68 and not version 1.73.

 

We do report website errors when they are found, some get fixed, but not all. I have reported this one and will chase as appropriate as it is an important one to get fixed.

 

If, and it is a big if, you can get HRMS to delete/reset your PC 'Evaluation Period Log' record on their server, then uninstall everything and go straight to installing the 1.73 version. It may not be possible for them to do a reset, as I would expect that the original logging is a totally automated process and since you didn't need to enter any personal information that identifies you as an individual, then I'm not sure how they could pick out your particular PC Evaluation status record out of the 1,000s that are probably stored.

 

If you are successful in getting your 'Evaluation Period' reset. Then please give us some feedback here on how it was processed. As it will be hugely beneficial to others that follow.