MEP Route.

Hi.

Running Broad St Shuttle got to Bowes Park unloaded Passengers moved into Bay changed cabs waited on Red now 17:55 should have left at 17:50 now still held on Red?? But i did arrive 4 mins late would that be why please????

Hi Art,
Others have had the same problem - have a look here : http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=238&t=136797&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Also, make sure you trip the RP at Bowes Park - it's quite close to the buffer-stops!!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi All.

Thank you all for your help I will run it again and see what happens. 

]Hi All.

Run it again twice and the same Red has stopped me returning to Broad Street and I was not running late cant understand why???

Hi Art,

I left Bowes Park on time for the Bay, tripped the reverse point and changed driving cabs. Then there is the long wait for the Up DMU to arrive. Once this had passed me I pulled forwards closer to the signal which cleared once the DMU had left Bowes Park. I then pulled into the station and left for Alexandra Palace on time.

Hope this helps,

Stephen

Hi Stephen.

Thanks I will wait and do as you have done and see what happens.

Hi Stephen.

Thank you done as you said and it done the same for me so I am now on my way back to Broad Street.  

HI all.

Cant seem to win with this Activity just got to Harringay on time made a save as I pulled away and it crashed to Desktop tried going back a few saves but it still happens where ever I am??? Any suggestions why please???  Suppose I will have to start again???

Hi Art,
You are having some trouble, aren't you ?
Did some of the saves, which now don't work, work correctly before you took the one at Harringay?
If so, it might be that you have a great number of saves - I suggest that you delete all those not associated with any activities you're currently running.

You can easily see if you have a lot of saves by going into Windows Explorer and navigating to : F:\mep1.0-MiniRoute\Train Simulator\saves\MidEastPlus (I'm assuming you've still got all your MSTS installations on drive F:). You can identify which activity they belong to by the first few characters; if you've finished with them, you can delete them from this screen, using right-click and Delete - it's quicker than doing it through the "Load Saved Activity" screen in MSTS, especially if you select several at a time!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

Nice to hear from  you again.  I did that this afternoon and as there where a lot of Acts I deleted them all and going to run it through again from the start it is a nice Activity i enjoy doing it so I will have  a go again tomorrow but thank you for your help. Chat again soon.

Hello Art,do try again,I failed on this one 2 or 3 times but did get there in the end 

Hi Roger. Yes I will mate asap?????

Hi All.

Just run it through again all went fine untill i got to Harrigay again and it crashes to desk top again i am on time and i only have two saves and all signals are green???   

Hi Art,
Did it crash immediately to the Desktop, or did it freeze first before crashing?  If the latter, you can sometimes press CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Task Manager; then immediately close Task Manager and you might be lucky and see an error message!

The only other thing I can think of is : Have you installed ANY other stock (like for one of Eric's activities)?  If so, it may have corrupted one, or more, of the MEP stock items which is used for the Shuttle activity.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

No did not try that i will try it tomorrow have not touched any Activities that need stock after my last mess up i just leave them alone!!!

Hi Ged.

It crashes immediately to Desktop!!

Hi Art,
Sorry, but I don't know what else to suggest
Just to recap - your MEP is installed as a mini route directly from the DVD and you have not installed ANY other stock into its TRAINSET folder. Is that correct?
I know that Drive F: is where your MSTS is installed, but is this on a drive inside the case of the PC, or is it an external drive connected via a USB socket? If the latter, it's possible that the unavoidable delays mean that MSTS struggles to load all the files it requires in time.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

I have run it through again but did not do any saves and i have got held on a red just before Canonbury waited a long while but it did not clear so i tried a save and it crashed again??? I will try some more Activities for a while and see how they go but all the ones i have run so far have run fine??? Thank you for trying to help me again. 

Hi Art,
Sorry to hear that, but you haven't answered my questions!?

Ged

Hi Ged.

Sorry forgot i had not replyed. No i have not added any Stock items and yes a MiniRoute from the DVD also my F: Drive is external??  I have run many of MEP Activities and all have run trouble free so far??

Hi Art,
Thanks, mate
Even when using a USB 3.0 connection, an external drive is always going to be slower than if the same drive was correctly installed internally.

If your external drive is fitted with USB 3.0, make sure that it is plugged into a USB 3.0 socket on your PC, if it has any. If it hasn't, don't worry because it will run OK, although slower, if plugged into a USB 2.0 socket. For information, USB 3.0 sockets are (almost always) coloured blue.

Cheers,
Ged

HI Ged.

Thanks mate i will have a word with the boys who done it for me.

Hi Art,
I don't think it's necessarily anything to do with your external drive, but it's always better to run from an internal drive.  Anything we can do to ease the strain on the old lady (MSTS!) will help.  It could just be a combination of things which are causing your problem.  These "things" may be within the activity, in which case you've no control over them, but if/when you try it again, make sure you don't have any other programs running - close your browser, disconnect from the Internet.

As an afterthought, can you tell me the brand and model of your external drive, please.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

Thank you for your valid information. Where will i find the information that you want about my external drive please???

Hi Art,

Where will i find the information that you want about my external drive please???

That, sir, for me, is the $64,000 question!!
If you purchased it separately yourself, then you may still have the box it came in, or the invoice.
If it was supplied with your new PC, then maybe it was on that invoice.
The main reason I asked is that there are many external hard drives which only run at 5400rpm (instead of the more normal 7200rpm). These are usually 2.5 inch drives, as fitted to laptops, are in very small cases and often don't need a separate power supply, being totally powered by the PC's USB socket.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

This is another strange one doing Maineline Trilogy Part 2 got to WGC  put  Coaches  in Platform tripped RP picked up return Coaches changed Cabs now ready to move off Loco just will no move all controls in correct position.  Second Act that i cannot finish???  

To find the make of your hard drive right click on (My )Computer and goto Device Manager.
Click on Disk drives.

Mine says st10000dm 003-1ch162

Typing this into google reveals it is a Seagate.

Hi,
Ian - thanks for that. Additionally, following the Drive ID is either "ATA Device" (Internal drive) or "USB Device" (External Drive). It doesn't show whether it has a USB 2.0 or 3.0 connection, which is one point I was looking for! It's usually on the packaging of an external drive although there is another way to check by looking at the socket; if we need to go that far, I'll post a couple of images.

Art - I have successfully run "Mainline Trilogy Part 2" without problem. The trouble you're having seems to point to MSTS not being able to get all the resources at the time it requires them. The reasons could be many and varied! I've already made some suggestions which may help.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

This is the line for my external drive from My Computer = WDCWD16-OOBEVT-227CTO--USB DEVICE.  and it has black sockets. Hope that this helps.

Hello Ged / Art,I could be wrong but think this is a Western Digital, 160 GB, 5400 RPM, SATA 8 MB, 2.5 inch (probably connected via USB),but of course,as I said I could be completely wrong.

HI Roger.

Yes it is connected by USB with black sockets so do you think that is what is causing my problems?????

Hi,
Thanks for the info, Roger - as I suspected, it runs at 5400rpm which is 75% of the 'normal' internal drive speed; coupled with the USB (I assume it's v2.0) interface, it may be sufficient to send MEP "over the edge"!

Art : Is there any name on your external drive case? It should have a label of some kind, detailing part number, serial number and maybe even manufacturer - can you please give us all the information you can find!

Cheers,
Ged

If it's a Western Digital (WD) there's information on the back - well it is on mine! In addition mine are all connected via USB 2.0.

Hi Alec,
Do you run MSTS from the external drive? If so, what drive does it use (see in Device Manager) and do you have any problems like Art's having?

Cheers,
Ged

Ged
I run my main MSTS from the main internal HD (500Gb) and my Mini Routes from a second internal HD (250Gb) - used to be an external HD. I do my FG DMU work via an external HD (500Gb), but my TSM work on the main internal HD. I have a second external HD (1Tb) which I use for back-up. I also have a number of other external HDs with an assortment of MSTS related stuff! As my virtual train driving is not currently extensive I am not in a position to judge whether any of these are a potential source of problems for operating MSTS.

Hello Art,Ged,Alec,,Sorry Art to be so long getting back to you.
I used to run all my MSTS through an external drive,but (for me anyway)found that though it was fine even for such Routes as Dorset Coast and the Cambrian routes 1 & 2,which were all on it at once I found that I was having great problems with all of the MiniRoutes. Ged thought it may have been due to the external drive not having the same response times ( I think) of the Integral Hard drive,so being in need of a new PC anyway I swapped to Win7 (bit of a culture shock) and have had no problems since.I have run all the Mainline Trilogy,and had no problems with it.  I'm sure the other (cleverer than me ) folk on here will find the cause of your problem,one query you still haven't  answered though is "do you have to plug your External drive into the Mains or does it get its power direct from the USB Port.

Hi Roger,
Thanks for your contribution! I take it that you are running MSTS from your external drive, under Windows 7?

Although we are still awaiting an answer from Art, I think it's quite possible that he is using one of the small external drives which can be used with laptops, in which case, it gets all its power from the USB socket.
I don't currently have access to such a drive, but may be able to in a few days. Until then, I'll try running the same activity from an independently-powered USB 2.0 external drive and report back later today.

Cheers,
Ged

No Ged I'm not,I used to on XP but enquired about the fact that I could not get Mini routes to run and you thought it may have been something to do with running it on an external drive.I found the Mini Routes would work on my XP as long as I uninstalled all except the default MSTS.Luckily my Wife and Children bought me a new PC (Win 7 ) for Xmas which I must admit took a lot of getting used to,but I am now able to run everything I want.
Could Art's hard drive be one for a Notebook ????
Nice to hear from you again Regards

Hi Roger,
Thanks, mate
Yes, I believe Art's drive may be one that can be used on a Notebook or Laptop. If he comes back and says that it doesn't have a separate power connection, I'm almost certain it will be a factor in the problems he's having!

Cheers,
Ged

Ged
For your information ALL of my external HDs referred to above draw power via the desktop - originally had the external HDs for my old defunct laptop. Out of interest do you think that the power supply unit needs to be "man" enough for all these extra power needs?
These comments are probably a little off piste so to speak but they might as well reside here. If a conclusion is reached it may be worth putting some basic notes together for other users?

Hi Alec,
If Art's external drive is intended for Notebook/Laptop use, it won't draw a great deal of power (the USB 2.0 socket can only supply 5V at a maximum of 500mA - USB 3.0 can supply 900mA)) so I wouldn't have thought it would have much impact on the PC's PSU.

Conversely to yours, my external drives (I have 4) all have separate power supply units. I am trying to source one similar to Art's so I can carry out some tests, but 160GB models seem to be as rare as hen's teeth these days!!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged &  All

I have looked and check with my PC lads and the External Drive is powered from the PC it does not have its own supply?? Sounds like bad news for me but i am waiting for a call back from them.

Hi Art,
Thanks for the info!
I wouldn't say it was bad news, but it might point to the source of your problems.
I can't remember the specifications of your PC and its internal hard drive, but if you have plenty of unused space, I'd recommend putting MSTS on to the internal drive. I appreciate you're not very happy dealing with that side of things, so please send me an email or PM if you'd like to link up again using TeamViewer and I can have a look If there is sufficient space internally, I promise you that you won't need to re-install everything!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

Will do but i am waiting  to hear back from my PC mate??  I have on C:421 GB of free space and on  F:58.4 which is where my TS is. Hope that will help.

Hi Art,
That's OK, mate, but I don't think they'll be able to tell you any more than we've already deduced!!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

Yes i understand that but as he built it i should just see what he has to say as i may need him if anything has to be changed. I will contact  you direct when i hear from him.

Hi,
Having run the first part of Mainline Trilogy Part 2 on two different external hard drives, these are my findings :

1. The first test was using a Maxtor 160GB 7200rpm IDE (PATA) drive connected to the PC by a USB cable - I couldn't identify whether this was v1.1 or v2.0, but suspect it is the latter.
2. The second test used a Seagate 500GB 7200rpm SATA2 drive connected to the PC using USB 2.0
Compared with running from an internal drive, all disk accesses were more noticeable, although the overall frame rates were very similar. There was no visible difference in performance between the two drives.
When running on the internal drive, most of the noticeable "jerks" are when AI is placed.

From what I've been reading, there is no difference between using external 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives because the bottle-neck is the USB 2.0 interface.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged.

What does that mean to my problem should i ask for a internal or a mains one as he has not contacted me yet they are very busy ????

Hi Art,
I have not yet been able to check a USB powered external drive, so can't give an opinion, sorry.

If sufficient space can be made available on your internal hard drive, I think it'll be worth your while to try MSTS on it. It would give the best possible performance available from your PC - it will be better than ANY external drive!

Cheers,
Ged