Sudden problem. Help requested.

[magickmaker]

Hey guys. I've got a sudden and major problem with 2006 here that I can't quite sort out. I dread having to go to 2009 (simply because I'd have to you know...buy it?) to fix it, but here's the deal.


Earlier tonight, around 6:00, lightning struck near the house causing the power to go out and then come right back on. At the time I had Trainz open working on a route of mine, and well, needless to say when the power went so did the computer.

After an automatic restart on the part of my computer, I decided to open trainz again and start using the route. However every time I've tried to do this, I get a Fatal Error stating that there is an "exception" in the launcher and though it's a recoverable error, Trainz now refuses to load.

Any ideas how to fix this short of reinstalling 2006 (gods I don't know where those discs are) or purchasing 2009?

 

[ZecMurphy]

Hi Magicmaker
Are you having any troubles with any other games or programs? It's possible that part of your PC was damaged in the outage, which could cause Trainz not to load.

You might also want to try running CMP directly from it's exe file, as the launcher itself may be having some troubles.

 

[Red_Rattler]

Earlier tonight, around 6:00, lightning struck near the house causing the power to go out and then come right back on.

Let me get this straight, you had your computer on when storms were near? Always keep discs/disks in a safe place.

 

[magickmaker]

It's just trainz. I'm trying to let it rebuild the database. As to running it in a storm, to be honest it was sunny out. One of those sudden downbursts that come out of no where.

 

[magickmaker]

I've got it fixed I think> Now I'm letting CMP rebuild the DB.

 

[big_b]

Let me get this straight, you had your computer on when storms were near? Always keep discs/disks in a safe place.

Turning it off dosen't always work either.A few years ago I lost my PC to a lightning strike.The PC was turned off at the time & unpluged from the power point.The surge went through my electrical system destroying everything in the house that was plugged in turned on or not.
The PC,Modem & Phones were killed by a surge through the phone lines.

I was told not only to turn off but also to disconnect as the surge will jump through switches

Dave

 

[JCitron]

Turning it off dosen't always work either.A few years ago I lost my PC to a lightning strike.The PC was turned off at the time & unpluged from the power point.The surge went through my electrical system destroying everything in the house that was plugged in turned on or not.
The PC,Modem & Phones were killed by a surge through the phone lines.

I was told not only to turn off but also to disconnect as the surge will jump through switches

Dave

I found out the hard way too. I had an old Dell Poweredge server running in my basement. Lightning hit a tree about a 1/2 mile away in the middle of a pond and the blast came through the reinforcement bolts in my basement. The lightning did not touch the hardware directly, but the EMF blast from the discharge ruined the server along with the rest of the network equipment as well as all PCs plugged into the network through out the house.

MM - you're doing the right thing, or at least this the first thing to try. I would recommend copying your local directory to a DVD or DVDs to save your route just in case something should crash. I also recommend running some system diagnostics such as Memtest86 to test your system memory. Lightning can do funky thinks even if it didn't strike directly as I said above.

John