RM 1.55 vs 1.56

[Padders]

I have recently upgraded to Ral Master 1.56 and I am encountering issues.

Firstly 1.55 worked great with no issues. Now for no apparent reason RM 1.56 decides to hang and the only way to exit is to close it in Task manager.

Reading some of the topics it appears that having checked cables, downgraded to XP, the only solution is downgrading to 1.55.

Question is how do I downgrade to 1.55 and do I have to downgrade the controller firmware as well?

Any advice greatfully received.

 

[walkingthedog]

This would have been better in the Railmaster section.

Have you emailed the problem to RM Support from within the Help window of RM. 

[idlemarvel]

I'm relying on my memory here but I'm pretty certain one of the last drops of 1.55 had the elink 1.06 firmware upgrade in it so I think it will work.  Don't knwo how you would downgrade it anyway.  To downgrade RM you would have to get hold of rm_setup155 from somewhere.  Recommend you talk to Hornby Railmaster Support anyway.

[hans_van de burgt]

Well I meet the same issue several times. The only remedy is to restart the computer. Perhaps it's an Idea to get as a user the possibility to send incident messages to Hornby. And/or ... Also a possibility, to start with a group of beta-testers.

A serious computer application deserves a serious development team and -testers. And although Hornby serves a lot of hobbyists in their model railroad issues, Railmaster/eLink is not a hobby, but serious business.

And ... I believe in the concept. :)

Grzz, Hans

[hans_van de burgt]

Well I meet the same issue several times. The only remedy is to restart the computer. Perhaps it's an Idea to get as a user the possibility to send incident messages to Hornby. And/or ... Also a possibility, to start with a group of beta-testers.

A serious computer application deserves a serious development team and -testers. And although Hornby serves a lot of hobbyists in their model railroad issues, Railmaster/eLink is not a hobby, but serious business.

And ... I believe in the concept. :)

Grzz, Hans

[Fishmanoz]

There is no need to downgrade, and you shouldn't. There is no need to change your Windows operating system, it works on all real Windows. Email RM Support from within the Help window of RM and they will sort it out for you. 

[walkingthedog]

I think you'll find, if you read this forum, that RM Support is very serious and very skilled at sorting problems. 

Unless you make professional money from using eLink and RM, it's a hobby. 

[hans_van de burgt]

@Fizmanoz,

I use a Acer laptop, Windows 8.1, eLink 1.06 and RM 1.56
This combination does what I expect.

A sudden interuption by a program crash is not good, of course.
I am new to the Britisch railroad scenery and the Hornby world. So I don't know all the issues on this very good forum.
In the last weeks, I read a lot of the published threads, but of course not all.

What I know allready is the fantastic after sales service of Hornby.
And I know that a simple telephone call will help me.

As professional tester of CAD applications (beta versions) however, I know the strenght of incident messaging.
As a matter of fact the incident messaging system seems to be this forum. But that's not the same. The Hornby staff members don't receive the meta-data of the hidden reasons of the incidents.

Grzz, Hans

[Codger]

Hi,

I've had v1.56 since it was released a few weeks ago and have serious issues regarding a) freezing and b) program editing. I first reported these diligently and accurately (within the limitations of the freezing issue!) from the help icon of Railmaster about 3 - 4 weeks ago (Railmaster help doesn't send a cc email to the user, so I haven't got an accurate date). I've reported it three times, the last being 6th October. So far I haven't had any acknowledgement or reply and the problems are ongoing. 

Nice to read the posts that advise RM support will respond within 2 - 3 days, but unfortunately that's not the case here. 

I've been trying to get a couple of programs finalised for when the grandson has his birthday party here in a couple of weeks but can't adjust start time steps at all without having to screen dump the program screen, printing the screen dump, deleting the program and re-doing it with adjusted start times, so the whole process is frustrating and time wasting. 

RM have had the details 3 times, so I'm not going into detail here. It would be nice to at least have an acknowledgement of the help requests from somebody.

[idlemarvel]

Hi Hans,

This is my understanding.  I believe the official "incident messaging system" is to use the help request button on the about window or RM.  This collects the "meta-data" (operating system details, RM settings, etc) and that is sent to HRMS along with your problem description and email address.  You then get an automated response acknowledging this, and further emails informing you of progress.  I thought this was just for "help" but it seems this is their official bug reporting mechanism.  HRMS watch this forum and occasionally comment but the above method is better if you have a specific problem you want fixing.  You can also share it on this forum if it is likely to affect others.

[walkingthedog]

Hi codger, are you requesting help from RM in the correct way? According to the above post you should get an automatic response from them which apparently you're not, which makes me think your method is incorrect. 

[RB51]

As WTD says there is definately something wrong here. When you make your request you should see a progress bar reporting the progress of your transmission (on the window where you put the details) - this can take some time as the software gathers together some data from how RM was working at the time of the query. Then you will get a confirmation pop-up saying you were successful (or not) and then the e-mail (within minutes) saying that the request has been received and a giving you a " job ticket" number. If you are not getting all of these then there is a good chance they dont know about your porblems. I had this problem last week. My suggestion, as you have tried three time already, and if you are sure that you have done everything properly, is to give Hornby main number a call. You can't call RM support but they can for you. Let us know how you get on. R-

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

A few minutes after sending a Help Request from within RailMaster you should get an automated response to say that we have received it.  If not, the request has not been sent successfully.  In 99.99% of cases this is caused by antivirus or firewall software blocking the sending process.

In this case you should read the Internet Security PDF guide on your Windows desktop to ensure you have added RailMaster correctly as a full exception to your antivirus and firewall software and also set the program to run with administrator rights.

[hans_van de burgt]

The in-line incident messaging within RM was new to me; thanks for the tip.

But in a system crash, also this inline help function is disabled. So I can use it of course after a restart of the computer, but without the important metadata.

When I have a crash in other programs I am testing, normaliter a popup window is automatic displayed to send an incident report.

Communication from RM to Hornby vica versa is a real problem. Only with a complete turn-off of the firewall and virusprotection (McAfee) the communication is possible. There must be a better and save solution.

I don't understand that several other apps doesn't have these issues.

Grzz, Hans

[Fishmanoz]

Hans and codger, you clearly both have exactly the same problem - RM is not listed correctly as an exception for your AV and firewall software. 

You have a PDF guide on your desktop which gives instructions for making RM an exception. You should read and follow it. 

Codger, as a short term measure, turn off your Aviv and firewall and again email RM Support from within the Help window of RM. Ensure you get the automated response as HRMS has advised above. You can expect a real response within hours too. 

Also codger, there have been a number of revisions to V1.56 to fix bugs since you updated. You can get the latest by downloading again from www.powerpos.com/rail-master/rm_setup.exe

[Codger]

Thanks for the responses. I have always received the message within RM advising that the send was successful, but have never had a confirmation email acknowledging that - my problem or theirs??

I have had an email today from RM support advising that they have not received any of the three posts, and asking me to contact them dircetly which I will do. 

Thanks again - hopefully all will be sorted soon.

 

Cheers,

Codger

[RB51]

Well done. You will be sorted out before you know it. R-

[Codger]

An addendum to my post of 20 minutes ago. I had always thought that when RM says on startup that it's checking for updates that it would be checking for incremental (within version) updates. I did what Fishmanoz said and downloaded the latest setup exe and voila! - I can now move program steps without a problem and have not had RM freeze in that time. I'll still touch base with RM Support and let them know that things now seem to be ok.

Thanks Fishman - Oz showing Kiwis the way!

Cheers,

Codge

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

The manual download contains minor fixes and updates.  The next version (1.57) will automatically download onto your computers when you run RailMaster.  This will be made available shortly.

[hans_van de burgt]

Today I had again a program crash. The only possibility then is to restart the PC. As said here, I want to inform Hornby with the embedded communication tool. With no result. When I stopped both the firewall and McAfeep, my message was send to Hornby. And the big suprise was the very quick response of the Hornby Railmaster Support Team. Within about half an hour - on saturday!!! Fantastic...

Well the suggestion is that McAfee is the reason of the problems. However, I did what is instructed in the manual. With no good result. So, what now?

Grzz, Hans

[Fishmanoz]

Reply to HRMS and ask what next. AC will tell you the best solution is to get rid of McAfee. 

[tony_forward]

As McAffee seems to be the root of most of the problems, has anyone thought to send a report of some sort to them - they may have an answer ro the problems - after all, if you stop using them they won't get paid by you will they!

[Yelrow]

TONY, its a good point. Hornby are not too keen on norton either, but they took over my laptop, and fined tuned. Since then, its been great. AC, is the forum expert, on firewall, and he uses neither of these. I get a bit jumpy about viruses, so, have had norton for 22 years without a glitch. Its kinda easy to blame firewalls, as the first point of call, i wonder how many laptops with Mcaffie, hornby have sorted  john

[96RAF]

I had a bad experience with McAfee a long time ago and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, ditto Norton which is often preinstalled on new pcs, and clashes too often for my liking with essential stuff on a pc and can also be a devil to remove fully.

Like you John I am jumpy about not having 3rd Party protection, but several 'pros' I know rely totally on Windows Firewall and Defender on the premise that if an intruder (rather than malware opportunists) really wants to target your pc they will defeat any defences.

I use AVG Free (although I understand Avast is also reliable) and also regularly sweep with IO-Bit Malware Protector. 

[Yelrow]

I would have no problem using these others, with a RM dedicated laptop, but mine is not, and carries all sorts of private stuff. Like i say, have never had a problem with norton. john