Resources table

[4091Dudley]

hi

my rail master keeps coming up that it cant find "resources table" and has lost my databse of locos.

is this a common solution with an easy fix?

thanks

[Chrissaf]

This is a new one on me.....so what follows is only a suggestion and may or may not resolve your problem. The database of your locos is held in a file called resource.mdb this file is located in your Railmaster program folder (typically c:/program files (x86)/railmaster). When Railmaster closes it makes a backup copy of this file called resource.bak

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With RM NOT RUNNING - use Windows Explorer to find resource.bak in the Railmaster program folder right click it and choose rename, then rename it to resource.mdb this may recover your fault when you start RM again. Of course, there might be a possibility that the bak file is also corrupt, because when closing RM the corrupt resource file has overwritten the backup one to make the backup one corrupt as well, so in that case this fix won't work. If it doesn't work, come back and report and a 'plan B' may be offered. 

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If the original resource.mdb still exists (it may be still present but corrupted) you will get a conflict message when trying to rename resource.bak to resource.mdb. If this happens, find and rename the original resource.mdb as resource.old first. If renaming the backup file cures your fault, then delete resource.old. A new resource.bak will be created the next time RM closes.

 

[4091Dudley]

Thanks Chris - much appreciated.  I will give that a go

failing that, I may try the reinstall option...

[4091Dudley]

Thanks Chris - much appreciated.  I didn't find a resource.bak file. had a resource.ldb so copied and renamed as .Mdb 

doesn't seem to have worked though

[Chrissaf]

I would rename resource.mdb back to resource.ldb (or delete it if it is a copy of the .ldb file) I'm not sitting at my PC with RM on it so I can't check just now, but .ldb may be a different file entirely. There are a lot of files in the RM folder, resource.bak should be there somewhere. If there are no other resource.??? files in the folder other than .ldb then something has gone drastically wrong and you will probably have to re-install. Save your track plan first - see manual Version 157 page 132 for file names to save.

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Try using Windows Explorer file finder to search the RM program folder for resource.bak (top right hand corner of Win Explorer).

[4091Dudley]

Thanks for your help. No other resource files even post searching for all .bak files.  I have gone for the reload version.  It's a pain to reload locos but not end of world.

Now works albeit colour schrome is different and have gained v naff tortouse and hare icons on the loco control screens...

[Chrissaf]

Colour schemes can be changed in the 'Settings' window on the 'Loco Detection Tab'  - see manual Page 30 / 31 ........... I suspect 'Classic' is what you had before.

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Can't think what at all might have happened to completely delete all your resource files .mdb and .bak, maybe a software hiccup in the make backups routine that happens at RM shutdown. Obviously accounts for your 'can't find resource tables' error message that you had.

[Yelrow]

Tortoise and hare, were on an earlier Railmaster, and were removed on  update. i belive. Are you sure you have correct / latest update. john

[4091Dudley]

Thanks Chris / John

the hare / tortoise appeared post download as i reinstalled. Given its now working again, I'm loathe to do too much fiddling about with it!

[Chrissaf]

Honestly Dudley, changing the colour scheme as per page 30/31 of the manual will not adversely affect RM operation at all.

[4091Dudley]

thanks Chris - agreed makes no difference to performance.  I just think the hare and tortoise icons are a bit naff.

[Chrissaf]

I'm with you Dudley.......the Hare & Tortise are naff.......that's why I use the 'Metal' colour scheme. The 'Metal' colour scheme reverts back to the pre Hare & Tortise icons. As I said before, have a look at page 30/31 of the manual as to how to change the colour scheme (theme).

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PS - The 'Metal' colour scheme is the default theme if you have RM ProPack upgrade installed, but you can still choose it as an option on the RM standard pack.

[bonzo22]

Hi

New to DCC and having bought a Western Master Set e-link last year have finally tried to get it set up with limited success so far.  Am awaiting feedback from customer helpline as online support have so far only been able to suggest things I have already tried to no avail (not a criticism of them just what seemed logical to me too) but have got the loco that came with the set working fine but came to set up another loco (R3244TTS - Hornby, so I thought would be less problematic) but when I press on the single loco button all I get is a beep.

I have spent hours trawling the forums and figured the Resource.XXX file(s) look to be the potential cause (I assume the process refers to these and have managed to at least get an error message saying can't load the resource table (after playing around with saving and copying etc) so at least it is trying to reference something and having re-installed my files etc am now getting a message saying my software isn't registered properly so maybe two steps back to go three forwards eventually...

I am sure I can sort the activation issue out but if anybody has any bright ideas about the loco settings button not "working" before support come back to me Monday pm I would be grateful to give me time at the weekend to enjoy what looks to be a lovely model acquired this week after I got the system up and running and was ready for the next stage.

Thanks in advance

 

   

[Chrissaf]

Bonzo, have you worked your way through the two locked threads at the top of the RailMaster page the two yellow icons with the padlock symbol.

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There is a wealth of information in there about getting an eLink / RailMaster system up and running and doing basic loco address changing etc. If you haven't reviewed these threads yet, they will keep you occupied during the weekend.

[bonzo22]

Hi Chris, thanks for coming abck to me

Yes, up until I "re-installed" the files from the link again today I had worked through the forums / guides / manuals over a couple of nights to get me to a point I had the loco that came with the set up and working fine (albeit once track and initial software set up was done this seemed pretty automatic - partly what I expected / hoped for from getting a set) reacting to any error messages I experienced one at a time.

 

My issue was with adding my next loco which I bought on Thursday to get better use out of what appears to be a powerful system.  If I had received a certain message I could act on it but the crux of my issue is that everything I think I now need to do revolves around the loco settings window which I believe I access by pressing the button with a single logo on it but when I do this I just get a beep, no window and no message to act upon, which is even more frustrating.  The phone line said the expert on the matter was back Monday and online they primarily asked me to re-install the software, which I had already done to no effect then did again in the absence of any other solution and have managed to get my software re-activated (I was led to believe de-activation wouldn't happen by just "overwriting" the existing files etc and certainly didn't want it to happen) but have lost my one working loco now and as this doesn't seem to go through whatever process it did the first time it loaded in I am now stuck with nothing working digitally.  I think my loco database files (resource.XXX etc) must therefore be empty and the back up replicating it.

 

I've sorted all my connection, set up, sequence of starting up but can only think there is something on my PC stopping the button on the software from working and probably need somebody more tech savvy than I (I'm happy poking about with files / device maanger etc but without feedback just stare blankly at the screen when it doesn't work) to run through what might be causing the problem...hence my call for help from those that even if they don't understand the why, have been through the same dilemma as I have and could possibly just say "do this etc".

 

By my nature will continue to tinker and update here if I have any success but I don't want to get too negative about what I am sure is excellent software once everything is aligned so will come up for air for the sake of my sanity and probably revisit tomorrow!

 

Current plan a) is to do the necessary to be able to re-activate my software once I completely uninstall and start again from scratch but am loathe to undo / redo all the progress I had made to get to where I was so will sleep on it.

 

Thanks for your help anyway, much appreciated as I really want to keep my enthusiasm going now I've actually gotten started and will get fatigued loading and reloading and restarting over and over...will persevere.  Can't even use the cricket to distract me while i wait for stuff to load etc as that ended early

[bonzo22]

In case helpful to anybody, I am on Vista by the way 

[Chrissaf]

If you've religiously followed the guides and done everything by the book then there is probably little the forum can offer without the benefit of physically being there looking over your shoulder and watching what you have done or what you are doing. Given that you have also involved HRMS support and they have been involved as well.

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There are things that RM needs to work correctly, like running as administrator for example. But if you have followed all guidelines as you have stated then you are probably doing that anyway. The fact that clicking the single loco icon does not open the loco configuration window is a fundamental program error. Something must be seriously wrong with your RM installation or PC setup.

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I don’t know what your Windows Update regime is, but there is one thing to check. Some aspects of RM also need Windows to have Microsoft Net Framework installed. Some of the MS Net Framework updates are only offered as optional update choices in Windows Update. You could try running Windows Update manually from Windows Control Panel and make sure ALL updates are installed up to the latest current version, including ‘optional’ updates as well.

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I find that you sometimes have to run Windows Update several consecutive times to capture all updates, as some new updates are triggered by newly installed previous ones.

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If support haven't done it already, you can request them to log into your PC remotely and take control. They can then do far more in-depth investigation of your set-up and issue than is possible by you just following verbal telephone instructions. Support can advise the details of how this is done, but it involves you downloading and installing some remote access software and exchanging a secure access password with support personel to use.

[bonzo22]

Hi Chris

Got home from a day out in Derbyshire, passing a Hornby stockist where I convinced myself not to acquire another dcc fitted loco until I had gotten the two I have working properly first.  So temporarily saved me a bit of cash I guess. 

 

I think my windows is pretty up to date (I found the net framwork and that looked up to date) and like I said had got the one train working before I lost that so went to plan a) and after de-registering and completely un-installing the software I started from scratch again this evening and apart from not being able to activate the software initially I managed to get the two locos set up in evaluation mode...finally got the activation code to work and updated to 1.61 v2 (?) and I think I'm there - like I thought, it was pretty easy to set the locos up once the window appeared but without it nigh on impossible.

 

Pleased with where I am now at and am thinking ultimately (once I've convinced myself it is safe) will hook up one of my spare Scalextric digital transformers that I believe increases the ampage to the track via the e-link.

 

I echo what others have said about the software being a bit fiddly to set up - I notice the track layout button now works too - but I reckon now all is set up ok that as long as I follow sequences / processes etc I should be relatively ok and am safe to put the track away for tomorrow until I am confident enough to demo it to my father next Sunday...I'm not sure he is going to believe the sounds that you can get from the larger train (which cost about as much as the rest of the set did!)

 

Thanks again and will update if I get any more snags.