Unable to activate Railmaster Pro

[MarksTrains]

Hi Guys. I am a newbie here. I live in Cape Town South Africa. I'm 61 and lived here my whole life.

I bought Railmaster standard edition a couple of months ago and now I decided to upgrade to the Pro version. The activation of the standard edition went fine, even with Mcafee on my laptop. I have paid and received my activation code for the pro. I just can't get it to activate. I have totally removed Mcafee from my computer, moved to a private network, and disabled Windows firewall. I am on Windows 11.

It looks like I am connecting to the Hornby servers but when I try and activate the key, it always comes back with the following text in the log file.

15/03/24 16:22:05 Setting lcheck gateway - attempt 1
15/03/24 16:22:06 Response: 0
15/03/24 16:22:06 Set resource: S....
15/03/24 16:22:06 Connected
15/03/24 16:22:21   Couldn't get Unlock Code
15/03/24 16:22:38 Message displayed: Key was not downloaded correctly. (577) - Response=6

I have sent a support call to support through Railmaster and that went through fine. That was yesterday Friday. I received the auto acknowledgment email. I have not heard anything back yet.

I have searched Google, this site, read the security pdf given with Railmaster and even the guides. I'm stuck.

If anybody has any ideas of what the problem is, please help.

Regards

Mark

[96RAF]

Likely you have typed the pro code in wrong. It is better to copy and paste as 0 and O or l and 1 are easily transposed.

If you have told HRMS your code they will respond but are unlikely to reiterate your code. They tend to be cryptic and say it is missing a character, not long enough, or your x and y are reversed, that sort of thing.

At least you are in good communication with them, as  overseas guys often report IP blocking and had to resort to using a mobile as a hotspot for comms.

Be aware HRMS is a separate entity to Hornby. They are the sub contractors who wrote RM and support the software. Hornby only takes responsibility for the hardware.

[MarksTrains]

Thanks for replying.

I am using copy and paste. I even pasted into notepad just to make sure it's not my email causing the problem. So I actually copy and paste from notepad.

Is there a possibility that I have been given an incorrect code. I never received the code after I received the payment email, and I had to send several emails to support that I haven't received my code. They replied with a code on Thursday which was pasted into my email which I sent them.

[96RAF]

4 hours ago, MarksTrains said:

Thanks for replying.

I am using copy and paste. I even pasted into notepad just to make sure it's not my email causing the problem. So I actually copy and paste from notepad.

Is there a possibility that I have been given an incorrect code. I never received the code after I received the payment email, and I had to send several emails to support that I haven't received my code. They replied with a code on Thursday which was pasted into my email which I sent them.

Check your junk folder in case they have replied and it has gone in there.

[MarksTrains]

Done that everytime I login. I want to know if anyone has had the same experience as I have.

Otherwise it is up to HRMS to sort out.

[Augustus Caesar]

Mark

Your error message you display shows a code of 577.

This is, or could be, a Windows Defender error while using third party anti-virus software. You say you totally removed McAfee and tried activation again. If I may, I suggest thoroughly removing McAfee with their own removal tool. The reason for this is because the usual uninstaller can leave active files behind which Defender can see as a PUP, Potentially Unwanted Program. It may not even be flagged.

If you still have McAfee U installed try and find the aggressive uninstall file on their site. If you find one, it could be version specific too, then reinstall the AV program and THEN use the tool. That should forcibly remove even active files. The system will likely look for a restart and this should be done.

Just for surety disable Defender within Windows settings and turn off all 'live' protection. Then have a go at activation. Hope this helps.

AC

[MarksTrains]

Thanks AC

I have just done what you suggested but still no progress. I got the aggressive uninstall program off the Mcafee site.

What exactly is error code 577?

Regards

Mark

 

 

[MarksTrains]

Thanks AC

Ok I found out what code 577 is. I uninstalled windows security and was able to activate Railmaster Pro.

There was definitely something in Windows AV that was stopping me. I will reinstall the Windows AV now.

Thanks for the help, you really did put me in the right direction. Much appreciated.

Regards

Mark

 

 

 

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi Mark

Absolutely no problem at all. Glad to help and pleased you have now got RM Pro activated.

The conclusion could only be the program being blocked by Windows Defender (which you call Windows AV). During my years, and they are many, in IT I learned a very long time ago to 'track' the error step by step, look at the error code and go from there. It's not as easy as that though and an error code is never 100% accurate. That is the computer telling you its best guess at what is wrong. You may already know all of that of course and I won't elaborate.

Anyway, at least you are sorted now. I do appreciate you coming back and letting everyone know you have had success. This should help others too if this arises again.

Regards

AC