Trainz Corruption "Scare" after a Windows Update

P

pware

Trainz Veteran
About an hour ago a Windows Update arrived with a notification on my taskbar that I needed to restart my computer - a normal process. I saved and shutdown my open Trainz Surveyor task and opened the Windows Update app to see what was coming in. Three updates in total. I clicked the Restart Now button and left it to do its work.

Upon returning the computer had finished the updates and was waiting for my login. After restarting Trainz and loading my route I noticed that it had been corrupted - baseboards out of place with some looming like Mt Everest over my previously flat desert terrain. I immediately performed a DBR which reported 29 errors and numerous warnings. On running the Faulty filter in CM only two known errors were identified. Fortunately I had made a backup of my work shortly before the update notice came through so I was not worried about losing all my work.

I exited and restarted Trainz only to have it freeze while loading my route. Tried again and it froze while loading the Driver/Surveyor screen.

I then got what used to be called the Windows "Blue Screen of Death" (but is much friendlier these day with a large smiley icon) telling me that Window had encountered a problem and was preparing a report to send back to MS. After which it then rebooted the computer.

Starting it all up again and, with some trepidation, I reloaded my route into Surveyor and found that it was complete and uncorrupted. Phew!

There is a lesson in there somewhere!
 
afe_uy said:
I know the game can run well , but what about the CM? That's the rough part (From what I have understood).
Click to expand...
The problem is that the CM doesn't auto refresh, but it's not such a big problem once you get used to doing manual refreshes. Otherwise it's all good and Trainz runs perfectly fine in Linux.
I started using Debian Linux on my 10 year old HP Xeon computer after my CoolerMaster computer that was running Win 10 suddenly died. It started out as an experiment until I could get myself an ex-lease Win 11 computer at an affordable price, but here I am now owning a perfectly fine Win 11 computer and I hardly ever use it.

https://forums.auran.com/threads/trainz-on-linux-in-2022.168317/post-2011362
 
Last edited:
While I know the stability of Unix and Linux very well, I can't say this is 100% Window's fault for corrupting the data. It's a possibility that TRS22 hadn't completely closed its files before the restart occurred. This restart is no different than shutting down the computer before ensuring that Trainz is no longer running even though the icon was no longer active on the taskbar.
 
I agree with John. Trainz can take a long time to get all its ducks in a row. I don't even shutdown my computer without giving Trainz a good 15 minutes to finish doing what it does with the database.
 
The above explanation could well be correct as I always perform a minor task or two between closing Trainz and shutting down the computer. In this case the time between exiting Trainz and rebooting after loading the Update app was, I thought, sufficient but who knows.

I will take more care in future.
 
If you have worked in the editor or made any significant changes, the process of saving data may take several minutes after the game is closed.
When the game is running, the corresponding icon is displayed in the Task Manager at the very top in the applications section:



After you click save and exit the game, the game icon disappears from the application section and appears in the background processes section below.
Sometimes you need to scroll down to see it:



Always wait before shutting down or restarting the computer until the icon disappears from the background processes section to avoid data loss.
 
Last edited:
But none of which explains the Windows Blue Screen "We have a Problem" message if the corruption was solely within the Trainz data files.
 
My guess is that the update didn't go as planned possibly including leaving your Trainz files open and the crash triggered Windows to use the restore point it created before the update to restore your system including the Trainz files to their pre-update condition. But that is just a guess.
 
Last edited:
pware said:
But none of which explains the Windows Blue Screen "We have a Problem" message if the corruption was solely within the Trainz data files.
Click to expand...
Download and run the BlueScreenView, you will see the reason for the blue screen in an understandable way: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

EDIT: In general, I recommend an excellent program for system backups that I have been using more than ten years - Macrium Reflect.
Even the free version is enough for me: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
 
Last edited:
Don't we need a proper procedure from the N3V to handle this. Relying on various customer "suggested" processes is only asking for trouble. Because of some setting they could be more of a problem than a fix with THIER OWN issues. This is very clearly an N3V process that has flaws. It is their database - fix it. Sounds like a time consuming problem to fix for N3V. Time is money and a fix does not increase sales.
 
Last edited:
KotangaGirl said:
The problem is that the CM doesn't auto refresh, but it's not such a big problem once you get used to doing manual refreshes. Otherwise it's all good and Trainz runs perfectly fine in Linux.
Click to expand...
Thanks Annie.
I'll do a little more research on Wine (I guess it's there). The last time I used Linux was when Mint 16 came out and I loved it ... To be perfect -for me- I just needed to be able to run Trainz. Although it can be difficult to teach an old dog new tricks ... 😉
 
pware said:
But none of which explains the Windows Blue Screen "We have a Problem" message if the corruption was solely within the Trainz data files.
Click to expand...
It could be coincidental that both occurred at the same time. I've had that happen many times and it's worse when troubleshooting a problem because there are two things occurring at the same time. Then to make matters worse, the problems magically fix themselves.

A BSD or GSD is usually indicative of something drastic that has caused a severe OS crash. The usual culprits are corrupted drivers, faulty RAM, and data corruption.

Since you suffered from a GSD, you might want to do some checking around.

The event viewer may give you a hint about the BSD, or for Win 11 a GSD with a smiley face. Windows should create a dump file. Windows will create a large MEMORY.DMP file. Yes, it's in all caps as I typed it. I'm not sure if you have to specifically click anything for that.

Nirsoft mentioned by oldman77 has a nice utility called Whocrashed. I can't remember if it's free anymore, but I ended up purchasing it at the time because I was using the utility in a corporate environment. I think I paid $20 for it.

Even if you can't find the direct cause, I recommend running the following from a terminal window.

You need to open the terminal with admin privileges and shut down all other applications.

Run chkdsk /f to fix any corrupted files.

Run System File Checker.

sfc /scannow

This will have a progress bar with a percentage. It'll say that it will take some time but it's only a few minutes at the most. If anything is found, it'll tell you that files were successfully replaced by those from the Windows data-store located on your hard drive. It's a big wordy paragraph and you can find the actual files and fix by reading the CBS.log using some utility.

The other utility is DISM. This is Window's package installer it uses to install files it extracts from the Wim files.

You need to run this twice:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
then run
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

This will check Windows system files and restore anything from the file repository located on your hard disk located in a hidden partition.

There is one gotcha some people have been hit with after this update. After the update, some people have lost their Bluetooth drivers and connectivity completely. The BT driver and hardware doesn't even appear in device manager even though the drivers and services are running okay. This unfortunately is an old problem, I have been working with my brother because he got hit with it, and there are posts about this on the web dating back to 2017 or earlier about the same problem! The recommendations from Microsoft are the same and never fix the problem, and some of the posts lead down a good path only to end abruptly with no resolution.
 
Thank you for the above John. I ran the first DISM option and it reported that <whatever> "was repairable". I ran the second and the problem, whatever it was, is now repaired. No connectivity issues.

Full throttle now ahead :)
 
pware said:
Thank you for the above John. I ran the first DISM option and it reported that <whatever> "was repairable". I ran the second and the problem, whatever it was, is now repaired. No connectivity issues.

Full throttle now ahead :)
Click to expand...
That's good to hear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Game stuck on rebuild database after update
Replies
1
Views
164
JCitron
J
J
After this update, it's like peeling a rotten onion.
Replies
15
Views
950
SiegesEven88
S
M
Wheels bugged after new update
Replies
15
Views
432
ricomon35
R
G
Windows 11 24H2 Update Causing Black Screen for several seconds when using alt-enter
Replies
19
Views
2K
rebel57
R
J
Trainz Platinum 129335 Now has the animation humping issues!
Replies
4
Views
263
jjeff1955
J
Back
Top