Train Simulator

[Anonymous]

Just installed the Train Simulator and when running the Introdructory Train Ride, after a few minutes, my computer locks up. I have tried it on three of the routes with the same results. Any advice?

[Anonymous]

I have had this program for a couple of months,since it first came out. What a piece of junk!!!! Don't feel bad it locks my computer up all the time.I wouldnt have put up with any other simulator program that is this bad.Microsoft mabe better luck next time.. Or atleast wait till some software patches are shared to the rest of the world.

[Anonymous]

You're lucky. My program has yet to run at all. Every time I install one of the routes off of the CD-Roms, I get error messages (many of them), saying "cannot add (name of engine or car) to route". The only thing I've used off of it so far is the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Can Microsoft help?

[Anonymous]

You don't by chance have an unusual video card do you? Many laptops have nonstandard cards which will lock your computer after a few minutes of running in 3D mode. If you have had problems with this on other 3d programs look into an updated video driver to match your card.

[Anonymous]

I too purchased Train Simulator. It certainly is a piece of junk. I spent at least an hour with the technician trying to fix the problem of freezing up. Both the tech and I got frustrated and gave up. He stated there were a lot of complaints about stalling and even loading at all. I have a Dell 933 with a 32MB video card by Hercules which should play any game or simulator. Microsoft honors a 30 day money back guarantee. I only needed to go to the software store and got my money back. The salesman at the store claimed you needed a computer faster than a speeding bullet to run Train Simulator because of the complex program that it has. Hope it`s not too late to get your money back, if it is, demand your money back from Microsoft. Good luck, Gerald Beach.

[Anonymous]

Hello Gerald,Not trying to be funny,but are you certain your computer can support Train Simulator?It's my understanding that it requires quite a bit of power and drive space from your computer.I'm running Windows ME on my PC and have had really good luck with all the simulations.Hope you can hook up with someone with more computer knowledge than I possess.Anyway.good luck,the simulator is really awesome and I hope you can enjoy it. Regards, Phil

[Anonymous]

This is sort of sad. I have had NO problem at all on my machine. I have heard of problems but cannot duplicate them. I like the program a lot and enjoy it. But having come from a computer background I can certainly understand the problems you people are having. It most likely is not the program but a conflict with hardware or other software you are running.

[Anonymous]

It is mostly the drivers. Check which driver revision you have installed for your video card. Hercules has the new drivers at their web page.

By the way, MY pc has a 733mhz P3 chip the a 32mb Hercules GF2 MX and the game runs awesome. Then again I added more RAm, for a system count of 192mb. 32mb Videocard. Also, did you try a full install? It is an AWESOME game! :)

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kevin, I`ll check with Hercules on updating driver. I have a little more speed and the Hercules video with 32mb. Should have been able to handle anything the game puts out. I stated before,the technician had tried everything and he was stumped. Some people have inferred that the problem is the operator. Hah! Tell that to the Micro-Soft technician! I`m not trying to bash Micro-Soft,I own stock in the company and would love to see them successful in everything they produce. But their money back guarantee made me happy enough. It`s possible I got a bad disk,but by that time I figured I had enough grief for fifty bucks which I usually get for free. Also the tech told me they have had a lot of problems with the program with similar problems like mine. Micro-Soft blamed Dell,Dell blamed Micro-Soft or Hercules,and Hercules blamed Micro-Soft or Dell. Boy does that get old! So you see the Simulator wasn`t much fun for me since I was on the phone for most of the day,and I hate talking on the phone. By the way,I traded Simulator for a game in which I could blow something up. After a day of trying to load Simulator,I felt I needed to blow up some tanks and gun towers! Glad it worked out for you and happy railroading! Gerald

[Anonymous]

I am currently using a Geforce 2 MX, runs all my current games fine at 1024x768 at 32bit color. If you go into device manager and right click the your card you can see what the driver revision is. Drivers should always be updated when a new revision comes out, as it fixes bugs and highers the rate of compatability with newer games.

http://us.hercules.com/ is where you can get the drivers, click on "support/drivers". Makes sure you download the correct driver for your card. I have heard alot about Train Sim having bad disks, probably a pressing problem.

Of course, it could be the Soundcard casuing problems as well. (Every hardware device uses "drivers" , which should be updated regularly).

sorry I couldn't help :(

[Anonymous]

I don't know what kind of computer you have, but I installed MSTS as well as Trainmaster , and they are both great .I have no problems whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Ok nobody is going to be happy until I tell you what computer I have. Dell L933r,pentium 3 microprocessor,minimum RAM 32MB,maximum RAM 512MB,64MB SDRAM,20G Ultra ATA hard drive at 7200 RPM,Windows Millenium,32MB Hercules 3D Prophet MX2 PCI video controller,SB Live value digital. Hope this answers the question. Thanks for your reply! Gerald

[Anonymous]

I have an "upgrade" PC... 1GhZ Pentium III with 256MB of RAM and a generic Nvidia GeForce II 64MB graphics card. MSTS runs just fine, but in order to get smoother graphics, I've had to go into the MSTS video settings and back some things off a bit. MSTS never crashes, however, sometimes I get a strange "screen funk" when I hit the F1 (help) key while running a train. Other than that, I've had no problems at all. It appears that MSTS isn't really "junk" (although it does have its quirks and outright bugs), but it seems to be just a very processor-intensive simulation.

[Anonymous]

I also have not had any problems running all the trainsims. Until, that is I tried to install some of the new skins etc supplied by trainstation.com. Following their instructions I started getting error messages on installation Now I can't even run my trainsims. Even with the current problem I still think it is great program. Just have to get the bugs out.