Yelrow Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Western will, Hi, internet is full of people with exactly the same problem. if you look up your problem, you will see various suggestions, many of which have limited success. The advice from all the experts is, do not update, until first revision released, as many of these problems will have been sorted by then. I have windows 7, and the advice from the net says leave for the time being, as many bugs have not yet been fixed. We all have 12 months grace, so there is no urgency. My motto is, if it aint broke. Windows help is inundated at the present, which seems to back this up. Hope you get sorted. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beejack Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Well now... after a bit of extra searching and Microsoft putting a link on their site for techies I can now tell you how to get Windows 10 earlier...Click the following link and it will take you to a page where you can download and use the Media Creation Tool. This will allow you to create an installable version of W10 from a USB stick or DVD - of course both should be blank to start with and capable of saving 4Gb of data. You only require one or the other and not both before anyone asks... lolIf you install Windows 10 for the first time on a clean hard drive you need your product key but I strongly suspect that because an upgrade is happening the key already in use with W7 or W8/8.1 will be OK. Knowing Microsoft the latter should be the norm. It tells all you need to know on this link so feel free to give it a try.Of course, neither I nor Hornby, can be held responsible if the install goes wrong. This is the norm anyway with any upgrade to your operating system.I'll be downloading it all later on tonight or tomorrow and will see how it goes.http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10Good luck as the saying goes...Be careful if upgrading as microsoft say the following:WarningIf you want to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, you need to use the Upgrade this PC now option. If you haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you'll need to enter a product key or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10.If you format a drive partition during installation, any data on the partition will be erased. Be sure to back up any data you want to keep before you begin.NoteIf you upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer and successfully activated Windows 10 on this PC in the past, you won't have a Windows 10 product key, and you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer.If I read corectly you will need to upgrade your PC first to windows 10 then if you do want a clean install you will free to do it as many times as you wish and you won't need your key. But if you try to do a clean install you may have issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornbyRailMasterSupport Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 In addition to our advice posted earlier to suggest that you hold off updating to Windows 10 until the millions of other users who couldn't wait identify the inevitible bugs (which is now being borne out by the many postings on the Internet) and Microsoft supply a 'service pack' fix we would also remind users that the driver for the eLink unit is not in fact suppllied by Hornby but by Microsoft itself. This is because the USB circuitry in the eLink is a standard one that Microsoft supports with their own drivers. When releasing a new operating system we have found, repeatedly, that Microsoft do not give equal weight to updating the drivers for all hardware devices out there. Thus another reason to hold off the Windows 10 update unless there is a technical reason why you should install it - not just "I must have the latest at all cost".Most computer professionals will tell you that Windows XP was the most stable and easiest to navigate operating system that Microsoft have ever produced, which is why at the point Microsoft forced everybody to switch to Windows 7 & 8 by stopping all support and updates for XP, some 24% of the world's computer users were still using Windows XP. This is in marked contrast to the number of businesses who took up Windows 8 (to this day) only around 10%. Microsoft's new strategy, for the first time, of offering an in-system upgrade and free for most Windows 7/8 users that cannot be ignored, is ensuring that the world converts over to Windows 10 as soon as possible. People in the know are rejecting this for the reasons stated above and you will find many postings on the Internet regarding how to remove the nagging Windows 10 upgrade prompt from your current operating system. This is a divisive topic however our team have over 30 years experience in I.T. support, development and consultancy and have a detailed knowledge of this area. Our advice has always been to hold of any "latest update" of operating systems until everybody else has found the bugs and they have been resolved. Developing a new operating system (even though technically Windows 10 is derived from Windows 7 and 8) is a massive undertaking. It is absolutely inevitible that hardware and software which worked perfectly with a previous version of Windows fails on the new one. We have seen this time and time again from XP to Vista, Vista to 7, 7 to 8 and surprisingly 8 to 8.1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncientMariner Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 [snip] Yup - I agree. I've just downloaded and installed Win 10 - it's far from bug free. My RM installation remains on a Win XP machine and will do so for as long as possible. HRMS's advice is good. If it ain't broke don't fix it.AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAINESCOLIN Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Windows 8 and 8.1 was a proverbial pain in the backside and I couldn't wait to upgrade to Windows 10.As mentioned earlier this is a hardware fault not a problem with the software,unless you have a dedicated driver for the ELINK. I would sooner get rid of my RAILMASTER and ELINK and go back to my BACHMANN DYNAMIS than go back to Windows 8.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Windows 8 and 8.1 was a proverbial pain in the backside and I couldn't wait to upgrade to Windows 10.As mentioned earlier this is a hardware fault not a problem with the software,unless you have a dedicated driver for the ELINK. I would sooner get rid of my RAILMASTER and ELINK and go back to my BACHMANN DYNAMIS than go back to Windows 8.1And there, basically, you have the whole thing in a nutshell. If folk, or members of this forum, wish to upgrade to Windows 10 straight away it is ot for anyone on here to tell them not to do so. If people the world over as a whole did this then no-one would know of bugs or bad hardware comptibility etc. So, far from advising members to hold off, it should be a case of "Beware any issues with bugs etc and be prepared to roll back to Win 7, 8 or 8.1."It is PRECISELY because Windows 8 and its successor Windows 8.1 are both so bad that people want to get away from it or them. They CANNOT roll back to Windows 7 because they wouldn't have had it. So Windows 10, even with bugs, may just be what some folk want to replace the oh so awful Windows 8/8.1. It HAS worked for a lot of folk with no hassle so why the negativity? I am not pushing Windows 10 at all and don't usually upgrade myself for a few months when the hooha has settled down but folk have a choice... let's not push them either way.We all know what O/S's are like when they come out after many years of scrapping against failed hardware because a driver wasn't issued immediately. Hardware manufacturers and software vendors hold off because they want to see what the uptake of the new OS is like before committing staff to write drivers. Windows Me was a fantastic case for that scenario... So, rather than scare folk away, we should leave the choice to them. Some members, like myself, have more than one machine they can mess with so it is not a great loss having to test it and then roll back if they wish.The warnings above where license keys are concerned etc is plain enough in the text on the Microsoft site so don't be too alarmed at the words above. Put simply, if you have Win 7, 8 or 8.1 installed on the machine you are upgrading you don't need a key. You can download and make a DVD disk to install W10 with a key from a previous OS as stated above. A fresh install on a clean hard drive will still take your key. If you don't have Win 7, 8 or 8.1 and you install 10 from scratch you WILL need a W10 key.As HRMS are saying there are some reasons to wait and one or two of those will be from their own point of view re drivers for RM etc. That's OK and should be as far as they go with that one.Different technicians with 30 years, 20 years or 10 years or less will all tell you different things even through their own experience but at the end of the day we/they can only advise. My own experience with computers goes all the back to the original Spectrum days and some odd obscure stuff even before that. Everyone has their level of knowledge and we shouldn't push our thoughts or conventions to them except in an advisory role or where particular things are known facts and written in stone and CANNOT be changed. As HRMS has stated this whole subject can be devisive so I will leave it there and let members make their own minds up... some will be confident to change things while others are not. Individually we makes our choices and makes our mistakes or we makes our success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Hi ACI have a laptop running Windows 7, that I use for RailMaster. My daughter bought the laptop new and W7 was pre-installed. We don't have a record of the Licence Key. Is it possible to interogate the Laptop to obtain the Licence Key?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AusMod Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Hi RDS,I use a small programme called Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. It seems to work ok, and if you google it you'll find it. One word of caution...when it's installing, it tries to install another programme. This can be deselected during the install. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Did you want the licence key in order to upgrade to Win10, RDS? If so, you don't need to know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 @RDSIs it possible to interogate the Laptop to obtain the Licence Key?.In Windows 7, go to the 'Control Panel' and click 'System'. The license key is listed at the bottom of the window that opens..For anybody who doesn't know where to find System in the Control Panel (Win 7). Click the 'Start' button (bottom left hand corner) start typing system in the 'Search programs and files' box, by the time you have got as far as the initial sy you should find 'system' becomes listed in the search results. Then click it in the list to open it. It shouldn't make any difference but my Windows 7 version is 'Professional' not 'Home', I'm assuming my tip works just the same in 'Win 7 Home'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 @Chrissaf: Great tip, Thank you (It does work in W7 Home Premium).@AusMod: Thanks but I didn't need to load the program after using tip from Chrissaf.@Graskie: Yes, it was for a (potential) upgrade but it won't do any harm to know it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAINESCOLIN Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 With all respects to RM Support every time Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, ELINK seems to fall over.ELINK on release of Windows 10 has once again fell over,RM Supports answer is to wait for Microsoft to release a service pack to repair the fault.I have numerous accessories attached to my PC, Printers, Arduino,Picaxe to name a few and these unlike ELINK all have dedicated drivers and worked first time.Perhaps RM should look at correcting this so that I can use RAILMASTER and ELINK on the first day of a new Windows release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman_Ian Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 @RDSIs it possible to interogate the Laptop to obtain the Licence Key?.In Windows 7, go to the 'Control Panel' and click 'System'. The license key is listed at the bottom of the window that opens..For anybody who doesn't know where to find System in the Control Panel (Win 7). Click the 'Start' button (bottom left hand corner) start typing system in the 'Search programs and files' box, by the time you have got as far as the initial sy you should find 'system' becomes listed in the search results. Then click it in the list to open it. It shouldn't make any difference but my Windows 7 version is 'Professional' not 'Home', I'm assuming my tip works just the same in 'Win 7 Home'. What you are talking about is the Windows product key which is not the same as the licince key.The licence key is on the CD case or if you bought a ready loaded windows laptop the licence key used to be on a sticker on the laptop but now days the licence key is embedded on the motherboard or in the hard drive.As AusFinder said the only way to find the licence key in this case is to use 3rd party software such as Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I stand corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornbyRailMasterSupport Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 "RainesColin" - with respect you are misinterpreting what we have said. We did not say that you have to wait for a service pack to fix problems with the eLink. We stated that the majority of Windows 10 users have seen no problem with the transition and that it is merely prudent to wait a short while for Microsoft release a more bug-free version, as is inevitible with their operating system releases. We also stated that Microsoft control the driver for the eLink using their download system. The driver for Windows 10 should be the same as that for Windows 8, although the upgrade to Windows 10 can cause a problem as does any operating system upgrade (as opposed to a fresh installation). On all of our test machines and those of our beta testers the upgrade transition (and two from-scratch installations) worked fine.The particular problem you have been having may be hardware related although we have not received a response from you asking you to try a couple of things out before ascertaining this for sure. If you would like to email us with the result of the tests we asked you to carry out than we can move forward with your particular issue. We also noted that you seem to "Have problems with almost every Hornby item" and it seems you are rather unlucky with this and we are not sure why you should experience the lever of problems you seem to be having. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAINESCOLIN Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Responded to your suggestions last week,also you requested to log onto my PC to investigate which I allowed.How will I know when all the bugs have been sorted will I get an Email, all my other systems are working with supplied drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAINESCOLIN Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Responded to your suggestions last week,also you requested to log onto my PC to investigate which I allowed.How will I know when all the bugs have been sorted will I get an Email, all my other systems are working with supplied drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornbyRailMasterSupport Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 There are no bugs within RailMaster causing the problem you are having. We have already ascertained that. We are trying to help you to get to the bottom of what is happening on your particular system. We have not received the answers to the questions asked and so will send you the email again on Monday in case you have mislaid it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montywb Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Being somewhat impetuous. I thought I'd install Windows 10 and see what happened. With regard to Railmaster, it loads and sets all of my points OK, but after a brief period. I get this message. "The connection with DCC controller A has been lost. This could be due to a short circuit or USB cable disconnection. Clear the error then click on the tick and Railmaster will try to connect again."As far as I am aware, it's neither of those things and its attempt to connect again ends in failure. My Elite is on Com3 - I changed it to Com2 to no avail. Monty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornbyRailMasterSupport Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Trying uninstalling the Serial Port Driver (including deleting the driver) then unplug the eLink, plug it back in and let Windows download and install the driver afresh. If necessary, try using a different USB port, remembering to set the Com port correctly in the RailMaster settings window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montywb Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 OK. I'll try that a bit later and report back. Monty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I fail to see the need to have windows 10 to run RM. If your laptop, is used basically with your layout, windows xp, is perfect. Surely it is better to have a designated laptop, permanently, wired to layout. My laptop stays with the trains. Our desktop, is centrally located, for joint use. If i was going to upgrade, from windows 7, to windows 10, which, i will not be doing, under any circumstances, whilst full of bugs, this would be the machine, to use. Why disrupt something that aint broke. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Many people only have a laptop OR a desktop and can't afford to have a computer solely to use with a model railway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I thought you were off to france, I cannot accept that, as you can pick up a laptop with xp, for under £50 on ebay. It would be interesting to have a little survey, on how many machines people have. I cant belive, they cart them about the house, unplugging, etc. I have my laptop, railway, designated, plus desktop for family use. Anybody else brave enough to admit to more than one. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montywb Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I fail to see the need to have windows 10 to run RM. If your laptop, is used basically with your layout, windows xp, is perfect. Surely it is better to have a designated laptop, permanently, wired to layout. My laptop stays with the trains. Our desktop, is centrally located, for joint use. If i was going to upgrade, from windows 7, to windows 10, which, i will not be doing, under any circumstances, whilst full of bugs, this would be the machine, to use. Why disrupt something that aint broke. johnAs I said in my first post. Impetuosity. Monty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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