Windows 10

[Yelrow]

PJ, you are doing great.Dont understand about wireless signal.Do you have a wireless mouse. Why else would you need wireless. pity about locos, but why are they not still in memory.Presume you know with TTS ones, that all sounds are there. You just have to click on steam one, or diesel. john

[Nick_]

John, as I understand it, if the PC is connected to the internet (via wireless or cable) then as RailMaster starts up it connects to a website to see if there is a later version of RailMaster available (or any other updates) so it can tell you about them. If you have a poor wireless signal and/or a slow internet connection this check will take longer and thus RailMaster appears to take longer to load. Nick

[walkingthedog]

John I would say most people have a wireless connection between their PC and the Internet Router. Cable connections are becoming quite rare. 

[PJ_model_trains]

PJ, you are doing great.Dont understand about wireless signal.Do you have a wireless mouse. Why else would you need wireless. pity about locos, but why are they not still in memory.Presume you know with TTS ones, that all sounds are there. You just have to click on steam one, or diesel. john

Hi John

 

There are a number of conderations for your RM loading slowly...

 

1 - your computer has other software running, some in the background, your CPU usage will confirm this.

 

2 - another is your signal from the router, you may use wireless or your router may be connected direct to your PC. Either way check your signal. If you put your mouse over the icon in bottom bar, right hand corner, intenet connection icon, it should show bars indicating level of signal. A bad signal will slow things down whilst your software is checked online for updates. (as Nick just stated)

 

[Yelrow]

PJ, Nick, WTD,  hi,  question, is there any way of stopping RM, checking for updates, every time its turned on, bearing in mind, there are not any. Also, my RM, is not internet connected, so, can i stop it looking. How do i check cpu usage, on French windows laptop, and lastly, i would have thought a cable connection between router and Laptop, would be far superior, and more reliable, than wireless. john

[walkingthedog]

My router is upstairs where the telephone line enters the house. It is highly recommended that the router is connected to the primary telephone socket, not an extension. I'd need a very long cable to connect to the laptop which would probably be worse than wifi. My iPad can't be connected with a cable. Like I said, unless the cable is very short, wifi is better. 

[Nick_]

John, if you RailMaster PC is stand-alone and not connected to the Internet, RailMaster should spot that and very quickly abort any attempt to check for updates, so I wouldn't worry. Nick

[Fishmanoz]

John, checking for updates is a standard part of RM opening and there is no setting available in the program or the ini file to stop it happening, whether you are connected to the Internet or not.  Consequently, as soon as you do connect, it will ask to download all of the latest, whether an actual update, v1.62 in this case, or the minor stuff it does in the background from time to time without asking.

 

And I agree with WTD on wifi v cable.  With my new laptop, you need to buy a special adaptor to convert from Ethernet to USB if you want to connect a cable, so I use wifi for it.  The old laptop with RM uses Ethernet cable.

[Yelrow]

WTD, my telephone line enters house in loft, and first telephone point is in my office. From there, router and desktop connected by ethernet, as per router instructions. All this is fine, and ipad, kindle and laptop, wifi, from there, downstairs. But, when your house walls, are 18 inches thick, and your layout is in an extension from the house, via the outside wall, the wifi, gives up, and because of french wiring, cant use power system.. Hence, i have a very long cable, 50 foot ethernet, from router through loft, to nearly layout. Then final second cable to reach. All works fine, but france telecon, can come up with nothing else.  Nick, i will cease to worry, did you look at my load times. Fishy, serves you right for buying such a posh thing. john

[RDS]

... i have a very long cable, 50 foot ethernet ...

50 foot is not long for ethernet, John.

[Yelrow]

RDS, hi, thanks, works ok, but do not keep it plugged into computer. We are very high and exposed here, hence, many storms. Our kitchen wall consists of Lightning Conductors, and frequently, as yesterday, we lose everything, while storm persists. We have to unplug everything, phone, router, tv etc. Quite sporty, as conductors, frequently go off, and reset. john

[PJ_model_trains]

RDS, hi, thanks, works ok, but do not keep it plugged into computer. We are very high and exposed here, hence, many storms. Our kitchen wall consists of Lightning Conductors, and frequently, as yesterday, we lose everything, while storm persists. We have to unplug everything, phone, router, tv etc. Quite sporty, as conductors, frequently go off, and reset. john

Hi John

 

As RDS says, 50' ethernet cable is not long, using ethernet will be faster than wireless but, you can still have a drop in signal. 

 

Blimey, up in the hills, lightening conductors, no wonder you drink burgundy John, I am just glad you hadn't had to much when you placed the last message... 'storm persists!'

 

I bet you are glad you have thick walls at times John, especially in winter. Brrrrrr.

 

[Yelrow]

PJ, thanks. Hope you are sorting out your probs. john

[PJ_model_trains]

'I am trying' John.  My wife will confirm that.

[Augustus Caesar]

Before I start I apologise for the long post... :-)

Hopefully you'll understand if you read it...

 

OK guys... just to clear up a few things re wireless and Ethernet connections:

Cable will ALWAYS be faster than wireless.

You will never get a drop of signal over Ethernet unless the cable is damaged or the router is at fault except in one instance only: an Ethernet cable can be up to 100 metres long before the signal DEGRADES in which case you simply add a booster like a hub or switch box which adds a further 100 metres. Therefore your router can be in a basement and PC in a loft as long as the cable connection is 100 metres or less. When a telephone engineer tells you he can check your socket on the wall when the exchange is more than 100 metres away then just laugh at him.

Wireless can be poor anywhere… a short list of things that will interfere with this are: thick walls, infra-red signals, fridges, microwaves, fluorescent lighting, other localised wireless transmissions, radios and more. Just looking at the icon for the wireless strength will only give a very basic indication of signal strength and can be slow to update so is inaccurate at the best of times.

@PJ… cable connection strength will not show here. The router dictates what the router gives out (if you check in the right place) and that is either 100mb/s or 1000mb/s (1GB=1024MB).

@WTD… I don’t know who told you about the router and the connection saying: “It is highly recommended that the router is connected to the primary telephone socket, not an extension”. This is wrong. My primary telephone socket is downstairs and I have an extension to upstairs on which the router is connected. I also have an Ethernet cable running from upstairs back downstairs to an Ethernet hub which has one Ethernet cable for our Sky box and three spares for connections to laptops or PC’s if doing repairs. If you want to be doubly sure about the extension in the main socket then simply hard wire the extension cable to the INSIDE of the socket and route it downstairs. Wireless never works better than cable. If both are active on one machine then the cable connection will ALWAYS take precedence over wireless.

If you require a stronger wireless signal try changing the channel your wireless signal is broadcast on (the default is usually 6 or more savvy router distributors have cottoned on to 11) and stop the broadcast of your signal to outsiders (once your own equipment is aware of the signal it will find it).

Wireless connections are possibly more common than Ethernet but not really in the home. Consumers who don’t want to drag cables all over the place when using laptops will use wireless in the rather naive thinking that it is as good as Ethernet and then complain when the signal keeps dropping. A great boon for sellers of wireless boosters who will have us all think they are wonderful and will cure our ills but who sadly cannot know the circumstances of each household so just guess at this. See what I mean by referring back to the household objects that can and will interfere above.

For items of software etc. that are or may be slowing your laptop or PC down please see my post linked to below… checking CPU usage will, again, only tell some of the story. You need to find out WHAT is causing the CPU or memory to be effected in such a way as to slow the system. Hard drive caching could also be a cause as could the Page Swap file… called 386part.par in Windows 3.1, win386.swp in Windows 95, 98 and Me and since Windows XP it has been named pagefile.sys.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/post/view/topic_id/11112/?p=8

So until you find out what EXACTLY is causing a slowdown, and I am really trying to say here that there are a LOT of reasons, it is just a guessing game. Sure, use the pointers which are given by members as clues but do investigate further is what I am asking. Those indications alone will not help to solve your problems with Windows, RM or any other computer related slowdown.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

Can we just add into this thread that we carried out tests on RailMaster 1.62 on windows XP, 7, 8.1 and 10 before making it available for download.  We consistently found that it takes under 35 seconds from double-clicking the icon on the taskbar/desktop to  being ready for operation. That is with using an eLink.  It takes slightly less time when using the Elite.  Of course the more points and signals you have to set at startup, the longer it will take.

All of our computers bar one are attached by ethernet cable to a network switch and all have access to the Internet so RailMaster is also performing Internet checks for updates, news etc.  We also have a pretty poor Internet connection (way below national average for speed) so it is unlikely to be an Internet issue.

Can we suggest you try the following to see what may be causing the slowdown:-

1. Disconnect your PC from your network (disable WiFi connection or unplug ethernet cable) - then see if there is any performance increase.  We don't think there should be.

2. Stop all other software from running: browsers, Excel, Word, games etc. - you'd be surprised how this can affect other software.

3. Temporarily disable your antivirus software in case it is monitoring RailMaster and slowing it down - this is reasonably likely for some users.

You can also try doing a system cleanup and defragmenting your hard drive (not necessary on a SSD) although this shouldn't make much of a difference.

Hopefully one of the above will point to the culprit.  If not just send us a Help Request so that we can see your RailMaster log file and see where the delays may be occurring.