Issues loading railmaster & elinks on Windows 10 & 11

[LuLuJo]

I have had railmaster set up on my layout for some years and with two earlier PC's operating it running windows XP and then 7 had no problems. However since moving to a PC with Windows 10 onwards there are issues with reliable loading of railmaster and the 2 elinks which are connected to it as Controllers A & B. Sometimes the system will initialise the elinks and sometimes it will fail to load one or both of the elinks. If the elinks are initialised the system will then always work. Sometimes it will consistently fail sometimes consistently load. I thought that this may be an issue with the layout but its not. The PC's are set up in accordance with all the advice I can find on the forum and correct ini files etc.

I contacted railmaster support and went through 30+ email exchanges whilst I set out the issues and explained how things were set up. They say they have not had this issue before.

In agreement with them I set up a virtual layout with the PC's linked to the elinks but no output. And tried starting the system noting the results then closing down. Then repeating the process. I have tied every possible combination of PC and elink and usb cable.

I have 3 PC's set up with railmaster version 1.74 and 4 different elinks including a new one. The PC's are:

An Advent desktop running Windows 10

A Medion desktop running Windows 11

A new Levono desktop running Windows 11

All the Pc's and all the elinks show the same issues. Sometimes they will load up and sometimes they wont. I am logging the results.

So eventually on Thursday railmaster support logged on remotely to the levono

PC set up with 2 of the elinks. It was interesting to watch the process. They checked the set up of the PC and so far as i can see found no issues. They then got me to remove an elink and plug the other into a new port they set and tested the elinks in turn. The first seems to me to have failed almost all the time. The second worked well initially but then started to fail.

We then ran out of time and arranged that we would try the same process with the windows 10 pc and the other in the future. They tell me that they think that the first elink is faulty and the second may be. But they are unsure and have never seen two elinks fail in this way.

The kicker here is that the elink they say is faulty is the brand new one!

I put it back into the layout yesterday and it loaded up first time.

I don't understand how an electrical component such as an elink works on a part time basis.

My reason for setting all this out is I find it difficult to believe that things only work differently in Lancashire. I also have noted in other threads people reporting issues that have disappeared.

So I would really appreciate it if anyone else having had intermittent loading issues would comment along with the type of PC used and its operating system.

[P-Henny]

Absolutely no issues, either now or in the past, everything has been fine for me. Initially Windows 8, then upgraded to 10. I have not as yet tried 11. PC laptop is ACER brand.

I appreciate that you are asking for members to report negative experiences, but I thought positive ones can also be beneficial to know.

P.S. I use Elite not eLink, this may have a bearing on my positive experience. A master mains switch powers everything up together, this means that my Elite is booted and stable before Laptop finishes its boot up into Windows. Thus RM is started well after controller.

Have you tried reloading the firmware on the eLinks? 'How to' is documented in the RM manual.

[96RAF]

Old Cyprus bought HP tower updated with SSD on Win 10.

Elite on A (Com 3) and eLink on B (Com 4) and no connection problems unless the USB port pair overloads when a PC reboot is required to restore status quo. No such problems since PCi card replaced.

This port pair is a USB 3.0 PCi add on card, hence separate from the four standard USB ports provided at the back and the standard USB 2.0 port pair at the front.

No comms problems either when used with home-brew TGG (RM similar) software using the same set up.

Start up sequence is always:

1 Track power on

2 PC on

3 RM launch.

[westernwill]

Running Railmaster on a Dell WIN 11 Laptop with Elink.

As I use my Laptop away from the Railway it is already on when I use it with RM.

But as long as I remember to carry out the following sequence I never get any problems.

1. Attach Elink to it's usual Comm Port.
2. Power up the Elink.
3. Wait for 5-10 seconds.
4. Start RM.

[LuLuJo]

Apologies for a longish post but I think my experiences may be perhaps be of use to others in future.

Firstly to recap my issue is having two elinks, one for controller A and the other for controller B on a Windows 10 or 11PC . Having made enquiries i think this set up is probably fairly rare. I have no problems with a single elink or an elite on controller A. I also had no problems with 2 elinks on older windows XP & 7 laptops.

My advice for someone thinking of using two elinks together with a modern PC in this way is DONT! I have now found a sort of solution but its not ideal.

To recap I have used desktop 3 Pc's: Advent Windows 10, Lenovo Windows 11 and Medion Windows 11.

And finally 5 elinks ( 2 new 3 used) all to try to resolve the issue that 2 elinks together will not initialise reliably. Sometimes one elink fails, sometimes the other and sometimes both fail. There is about a 20% chance that both will load.

This applies to all the Pc's and all the elinks. The railmaster systems are version 1.74.5, set up properly with all the recommended changes to ini. files , ports etc.

Railmaster support after extensive emails checking the set up remotely logged on twice. Once to the Advent Pc and once to the Lenovo PC. They say this issue is not one they have seen before.

They checked the set up on both and found no issues. They tried repeatedly restarting the system and experienced the same issues I had. Then restarted it with just one elink and still found issues. They told me one of elinks was faulty and the others probably faulty. But they had never come across 2 elinks failing let alone 4. They wondered about the 4 amp supply I was using as they have been known to fail. So a testing procedure was agreed for me to carry out on my own which I have set out below as something which may be useful if you have any doubts about an elink.

1. Set up an elink as Controller A with a 1 amp power supply. Remove controller B from railmaster if its there.
2. Check the elink is there in device manager and the ports match with railmaster.
3. Try starting railmaster and check its loaded correctly if no error messages appear.
4. Repeat at least 10 times if successful.
5. If the elink fails check device manger. If the elink is still recognised with no error messages try again restarting railmaster.
6. If a fail appears in device manager remove the power and USB cable for 15 mins to allow the capacitors to discharge fully. Then try again.

I duly started doing this with the first controller with varying results. But I noticed that if I tried to restart the system too quickly it would fail to load. The testing by railmaster had been very quick. I found that if I left a count of 20 before restarting railmaster then the elinks would load correctly every time. I tested all 4 elinks to hand at the time on two of the Pc's and all then loaded first time 20 times in a row. At that point I was satisfied that it was not an issue with the elinks.

I also checked the power supplies and found that the 4 amp supply showed a voltage output varying between 13 and just over 15 volts. All the others are stable just over 15 volts. So there may have been an issue with that power unit.

I then tried using two elinks together with the 1 amp supplies abut my problems with reliable loading up remained and in fact seemed to be worse. I ten disconnected one elink and the other loaded correctly 3 times in a row. At that point inspiration or desperation kicked in and I realised that the second elink seemed to have no time to initialise before the system was loaded.

So I changed the baud rate in Windows Device manager on both elinks to the default of 9600 leaving the rate in railmaster at 115200. Both elinks then loaded up.

All the elinks will load up first time on all the PC's around 90% of the time. On the other 10% the error message comes up on one elink to remove the USB cable. If you do that the elink and railmaster then loads. I tried one or two other baud rates without any improvement in reliability or speed but frankly I have had enough at this point. I have fed this back to Railmaster support who said it was useful and suggested I tried using USB ports at opposite ends of the PC . I have tried this but it makes no discernible difference .

For now at least I can now run trains without too much hassle to start up but it feels like a lash up and I think there must be a better solution out there.

[96RAF]

You can confuse any controller by powering it down then immediately back up again. On an Elite you can see it happen but on an eLink there is no screen to view.

You appear to have re-invented the well known start up sequence wheel.

Many folk, me included power up the layout, then the PC then when Windoze has finished faffing around start RM. Works every time for me.

Other folk do it the other way round and have had equal success.

I tried swapping my Elite A for an eLink A to pair with my eLink B and after amending ini file and baud rates, etc per convention it all connects just as it did with Elite A and eLink B.

I also know someone who runs 2 x eLinks without comms problems.

You long running saga intrigues as to why you cannot easily find reliable connection but stabilisation time seems to be essential.

[LuLuJo]

I don't see how describing the railmaster support process to test an elink is me reinventing the wheel. Not least because railmaster support clearly did not know of the need to wait before restarting railmaster after closing it down and that produced false results. As a consequence I bought another elink from hornby and that is just the same as the other 4.

The issue they and you don't want to seem to want to address is that of speed. My Windows 11 PC's load railmaster much faster than earlier Windows versions. Reducing the windows baud rate in device manager from that recommended in the manual was an attempt to address that and it worked to some extent.

My position is that I have a number of railmaster sytems on modern Windows 11 PC's which won't load 2 elinks reliably. I do accept that systems using older windows versions can work. But nobody has yet said on this forum , from railmaster support or on other internet forums that they do have a windows 11 system with 2 elinks that loads reliably and will share how they are set up. So until someone produces evidence that such a set up does work the evidence is there is a problem with the system.

I look forward to evidence to the contrary to hopefully refute the comment made on another internet group that this is a known problem.

[96RAF]

My ref to reinventing the wheel is that you came to the same conclusion as has been pointed out on the RM forum many times over the years.

I cannot see how reducing the eLink baud rate will improve things on a faster system. In fact one user has found that RM skips less commands when an eLink is used in preference to an Elite, to such an extent that he uses two eLinks with RM.

It is known that certain motherboard chipsets are better at handling data flow than others and during the development of updates for the Elite firmware it was found necessary to give the user options in the installer for the install speed to best match their PC/laptop.

There are Win 11 vs RM users on here but if they are using a twin eLink setup is not known - maybe they would sing out if they are.

[LuLuJo]

I thought it worth doing an update on this .

In early February I proved to my own satisfaction that there is a clear compatibility issue with Windows 11 PC's running two elinks.

I used the licence that came with my last new elink to set up my old windows 7 laptop. This will load two elinks first time every time. My windows 10 pc loads up two elinks most of the time and my two Windows 11 pc's both load up 2 elinks sometimes but almost always needing the usb cable removing.

I fed this back to railmaster support who said they would have to try and replicate my issue. Since then I have heard nothing from them.

So I set up the Windows 10 PC on the layout because the graphic display resolution on the old laptop is very poor and I have a big layout. This worked well until 2 or 3 weeks ago when the Windows 10 PC died. I contacted railmaster support to ask them to deregister the railmaster software and also ask for any update on the issue. I cannot get them to respond to even tell me if they have deregistered the software which is very poor support .

I installed a windows 11 pc on the layout and its awful. It will only load up about one a attempt in 3 and then usually after a battle with usb cables. The only saving grace has been the new TXS decoders which simply require me to switch on the power to the elinks and I can run a train.

So my options seem to be:

Buy a PC running windows 10.

Set up two PC's one controlling the Track bus and the second the Accessory Bus along with two monitors. (Windows 11 PC's will load up one elink reliably but not two).

Look for a new reliable system to replace railmaster to control the layout (any suggestions welcome).

[Yelrow]

one needs to remember that Railmaster was originally launched when windows xp was the machine to have. It still runs best on that system. Several members have bought xp machines, solely for this purpose. Mine runs only on windows 7, with no problems at all, and i have used 2 elinks, one for accessories, in the past. The fault does not lie with RM, but with Microsoft, who in developing 10, and now 11, have made alterations which, in some cases, clash/hinder RM performance. This is an old system, and there is nothing out there compatible for the price . The support team is tiny, and must be fed up to the back teeth, in trying to help guys with these newer computers. They have the facility to take over your machine, and set up RM, as they did with mine, and many others. Have you asked them to do this.

[96RAF]

You may find the problem is the USB3 ports. Are any of these auto-shut down to save power. A friend in Canada has had problems with a very cheap and cheerful win11 laptop dropping out with Elite so as John says likely the problem lies at the door of MS. I would blame compatibility twixt the laptop and MS maybe due to cutting corners.

[P-Henny]

Have you asked them to do this.

 

 

Yelrow halfway down the OP's starter post he wrote:

"So eventually on Thursday railmaster support logged on remotely to the levono"

The OP post continues to state 'what they did, what he did etc'.

[Yelrow]

P-Henny, yup i saw that, however in all the years i have seen these posts, i have not seen a situation where RM Support have failed, when they have control of the posters machine. If this is the case, even more reason for a RM only dedicated XP machine, which you can pick up for very little. My windows 7 laptop, sits next to the layout, and is used for nothing else.

[LuLuJo]

Thanks for the comments.

Sadly its nothing to do with the ports. The Pc's I use have both USB 2 and 3 versions and it made no difference which were used. Indeed I specifically mentioned this to railmaster support who insist there is not an issue. The issues with my pc's have involved hundreds of attempts to log on with every possible combination which I documented as we went along.

I accept that the system works on Pc's which are 15 years old. I got into this mess because I was concerned about the age and condition of a PC which is well over 10 years old and has done a lot of work. My Windows 7 laptop is over 15 years old with very poor graphics and a battery compartment which is deformed. So saying get another old PC is a dead end and the ultimate slow death of Railmaster. Anyone starting now will laugh if you tell them don't use the PC you have you need to buy another totally obsolete one. And of course when they eventually die as mine has you have a big problem. Sadly railmaster support can not fix this issue and now seem to have disappeared as far as I can see.

Its sad because I like the system and have spent a great deal of time and money trying to make it work. The new TXS system is great as an add on but can never replace railmaster. I have problems seeing my track plan on a 32 inch monitor. Using a tablet for that is simply a non starter.

 

[Yelrow]

i dont agree about old machines, proof being my french laptop. several forum members run dedicated xp machines, whilst others like me have dedicated windows 7, set up, by RM support. I dont think there is anything on the market to compete with RM, in its simplicity, and many posters are very happy with it. As for track plan, you can reduce size so it fits or, spread across a second monitor, as some have done. Its simply a case of no problems, just solutions. I fully understand your frustrations, but the truth is that RM, will never be all things to all men. For me, and many others, it is the best free computer based product on offer. Sure there are limitations, but it does work. I use it for the track plan, and for turning on sound functions, whilst driving locos with an Elite, and 3 Select Walkabouts, due to size of my layout.

[Karaokekid]

Hi everyone.

I too have ongoing issues waiting review by Railmaster Support.

Putting RM setup 101 to the side for the moment, I have not seen anyone discuss the windows version “compatibility” programming in Windows 11 within the forum.

if I have a program that I bought ages ago when XP was out, I can run it in compatibility mode in windows 11. It’s in the same place where the box “run as administrator” should be ticked.

as I’m waiting for Railmaster support to log into my PC’s, I don’t want to play around with this at the moment but would be interested in feedback ie on windows 11, run RM in XP compatibility mode?

Getting back to 101, I find having the ini. rules tweaked just right makes a big difference to eLink running first time every time in windows 11.

Brian

[96RAF]

No need to run RM in compatibility mode, it runs fine with any Win version once setup right.

As you say the .ini file is key to success.

[Fishmanoz]

And one of the FAQs in the sticky at the top of the forum has the details for setting up the ini file correctly.

[LuLuJo]

I have now a functioning system again. I acquired a refurbished Dell windows 11 pc. Along with an existing monitor I now have one Pc, monitor and elink controlling the locos and the second Pc, monitor and elink controlling the points and signals. Both run version 1.745 with the pro pack . Both are set up as controller A.

The positives are that I can reliably load both systems up and be ready to run in under 30 seconds. The monitors can be optimised one for locos and the other for track. There is a great deal of resilience should I have a problem in future.

The downsides are extra electricity consumption and more equipment Running programmes is not really possible.

The photo shows what the displays look like. The right hand monitor is a 4k 32 inch display and gives a view of the full width of the layout and about half the depth. The left hand shows the locos in use. I could do with more columns in the display.

I managed to get a response finally from Railmaster support to deregister my pro pack. They had deregistered the original rail master license but had not told me. But they won’t respond to my issue with the links despite 3 emails.

The new windows 11 pc also fails to run 2 elinks but is fine with one.