Trouble with Updating Trainz Asset Database

For some odd reason, whenever the database needs to be updated, it stops midway. Is there a way to solve this? If not, is there a way to launch Trainz without having to go through updating the database?

Which version TS12 or T:ANE?

There are a couple of things to check. How much disk space do you have? If the disk is really, really full the program could hang, or run very, very slowly and then stop working. It needs space to put down temporary files as it's working on your database, and if there's not enough space it can hang.

The other more dire situation, which keeps popping up in my head as I was thinking about this, could be the drive is bad and your data is corrupted somehow. I would check the disk for problems as this could be a system hang due to bad sectors on the drive. What might be happening is the disk is retrying to read the sectors over and over. When this is occurring, the program can hang or appear to stop working for a long time.

How would you know? Watch your drive light if you have one, and listen to your computer. Yes, people laugh when I say this, but seriously listen to your machine. If you hear clicking, and lots of clicking, like click, click, click, click, then quiet normal sounds followed by the clicking, BACKUP your data immediately! This is a sign of a failing disk which could quit at any time!

The other bad thing, which might be related to above is corrupted assets. If they are really badly corrupted, the database repair may not be able to repair the data and will hang on it. Again if the disk is failing, that could be part of the problem.

John

JCitron said:

Which version TS12 or T:ANE?

There are a couple of things to check. How much disk space do you have? If the disk is really, really full the program could hang, or run very, very slowly and then stop working. It needs space to put down temporary files as it's working on your database, and if there's not enough space it can hang.

The other more dire situation, which keeps popping up in my head as I was thinking about this, could be the drive is bad and your data is corrupted somehow. I would check the disk for problems as this could be a system hang due to bad sectors on the drive. What might be happening is the disk is retrying to read the sectors over and over. When this is occurring, the program can hang or appear to stop working for a long time.

How would you know? Watch your drive light if you have one, and listen to your computer. Yes, people laugh when I say this, but seriously listen to your machine. If you hear clicking, and lots of clicking, like click, click, click, click, then quiet normal sounds followed by the clicking, BACKUP your data immediately! This is a sign of a failing disk which could quit at any time!

The other bad thing, which might be related to above is corrupted assets. If they are really badly corrupted, the database repair may not be able to repair the data and will hang on it. Again if the disk is failing, that could be part of the problem.

John

Click to expand...

Actually, it's TS2009: TS 12 no longer works and I uninstalled T:ANE to free up space. Anyway, how exactly do I back up my data.

come to think of it, I have been hearing that clicking sometimes, but it mostly has to do with the keyboard somehow typing keys on its own. Currently, I've got 525 GB of storage available.

Forgive me for sounding impatient, but this is a really serious problem. Does anybody have a solution?

To back up your data...

For TS2009, backup the whole thing to an external drive. If you installed TS2009 on your C: drive under C:\Program Files (x86)\Auran Games\TS2009, back up the TS2009 folder.

The drive plugs in the USB port. You don't need to use the software that comes with the drive, so just copy the folder. It may take quite a long time, but it should copy fine.

By clicking, I don't mean typing-clicking. This is more like a repetitive, click, click, tap, tap, tap sound then normal quiet followed by the same again.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/community/showthread.php?p=71251

JCitron said:

To back up your data...

For TS2009, backup the whole thing to an external drive. If you installed TS2009 on your C: drive under C:\Program Files (x86)\Auran Games\TS2009, back up the TS2009 folder.

The drive plugs in the USB port. You don't need to use the software that comes with the drive, so just copy the folder. It may take quite a long time, but it should copy fine.

By clicking, I don't mean typing-clicking. This is more like a repetitive, click, click, tap, tap, tap sound then normal quiet followed by the same again.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/community/showthread.php?p=71251

Click to expand...

Well actually, it turns out the computer just needed some rest: I turned it off last night and later on, the updating was completed! But for some odd reason, even though that just happened, it's now needing to update again!

Is this possible to fix?

Repeated database repairs is indicative of something going wrong. How are you turning your PC off? Do you wait a minute or two after Trainz has stopped running, or do you turn it off right away? Do yourself a favor, when you start up Trainz again go into the Options then Developer Tab and check the box to show the console windows. These will appear in the task bar while you are running Trainz. When you close it down, they will disappear. When they disappear, you'll know it's safe to shutdown or restart your computer.

A backup solution is a good idea anyway. Losing all your Trainz data can be very painful when you start looking for unavailable payware, lost dependencies which you got from some unknown website, or worse from a website you can no longer access because they shutdown. Backups are an under estimated thing.

John

JCitron said:

Repeated database repairs is indicative of something going wrong. How are you turning your PC off? Do you wait a minute or two after Trainz has stopped running, or do you turn it off right away? Do yourself a favor, when you start up Trainz again go into the Options then Developer Tab and check the box to show the console windows. These will appear in the task bar while you are running Trainz. When you close it down, they will disappear. When they disappear, you'll know it's safe to shutdown or restart your computer.

A backup solution is a good idea anyway. Losing all your Trainz data can be very painful when you start looking for unavailable payware, lost dependencies which you got from some unknown website, or worse from a website you can no longer access because they shutdown. Backups are an under estimated thing.

John

Click to expand...

Thsnks for the advice. Usually, I turn it off every time I go to sleep.

Anyway, last night, I just shut it down normally. But sometimes, the computer freezes and doesn't start up again. Then I have no choice but to unplug it and replug it back in, especially when it's time for me to go to sleep. This, however, is a last resort method, for I've learned it can make Trainz forget my login information and the serial numbers.

hholdenaz said:

Thsnks for the advice. Usually, I turn it off every time I go to sleep.

Anyway, last night, I just shut it down normally. But sometimes, the computer freezes and doesn't start up again. Then I have no choice but to unplug it and replug it back in, especially when it's time for me to go to sleep. This, however, is a last resort method, for I've learned it can make Trainz forget my login information and the serial numbers.

Click to expand...

That's good on the shutdown, but let the computer sit for a minute before you do if you have been using Trainz. This will give the database a chance to shutdown. Now, the other issue, if your computer is freezing, that will definitely corrupt things. You may want to investigate that further as there could be serious issues causing the lockups.

JCitron said:

That's good on the shutdown, but let the computer sit for a minute before you do if you have been using Trainz. This will give the database a chance to shutdown. Now, the other issue, if your computer is freezing, that will definitely corrupt things. You may want to investigate that further as there could be serious issues causing the lockups.

Click to expand...

Yeah, my family blames the lack of space. However, I plan to free extra space up, so hopefully, that will solve the issue.

hholdenaz said:

Yeah, my family blames the lack of space. However, I plan to free extra space up, so hopefully, that will solve the issue.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily as you have plenty of disk space.

The issue can be caused by:

*Heat

Check your fans and inside your computer case for dust, fur, and dirt. This can clog up the vents and fans and cause the computer to overheat and lock up and sometimes have trouble starting if the stuffed fans put too much load on the power supply. Using a bit of canned air, available at Staples or BestBuy, you can blow the dust and dirt out of the computer. You need to put a small stick in the fans to prevent them from spinning while you do this. If the vents and fans are really plugged, you may need to get a pig hair (glue brush, the kind with a metal handle and stiff bristles) brush to knock the dirt loose. Once you do that, use the air and a stick in the fans to keep them from spinning as that will prevent them from breaking inside.

*Bad RAM (DIMM Memory)

Using the built-in Windows memory test, or a third-party utility such as Memtest86, available here: http://memtest86.com/

* Failing hard drive, or one with lost links and clusters.

Run a disk check. This will require a reboot once invoked and can take some time while it runs. If anything is found, it will be reported when the system comes back up. Sometimes you can see the errors while it's running. If you here the click, click, click and messages about relocating data, back up your system immediately!


* A corrupted OS

This requires a reinstall of your operating system.

* Viruses/Malware

Scan the system for malware and viruses. Use something like Super AntiSpyware . There's a free version of the program available here. http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

This will do a good job at finding spyware and other things that can cause poor performance in general.

There are other things, but here's a quite rundown of things to do and check for for now.

To add, this is important look at event viewer as disk and memory problems can appear in event viewer long before a diskcheck can pick anything up, same with memory errors, the OS can work round most of them however it usually means you will see worse problems developing if it's not attended to.

Unfortunately, the problem is still occurring and this time, I've been unable to fix it. Should I put all my data on a UDB harddrive and reinstall TS 09 or should I replace it with a new version of Trainz?

Alright, this is annoying: it's now happening with TS 2010. By the way, this problem happens while it's checking for faulty assets. What should I do for the situation?

yer, well dont worry your lil wee booties off !
If where you mite live which be, - somewhere else,
- but as for me i live in australia, and even i have trouble getting anywhere with it all too !!! ??
so as i reside here sydney and there in Qld ? should be fast !!! - yer-right, slower then a snail mail sir ! ive tried to update my trainz new ear verision since new and still ant got nowhere it always ****s me when it disconnects !

oh and also i didnt te you - im on wifi dongle setup so it mite by the cause but shouldnt be as it uses near or same tech so that cat be i ? but this does me,
so as for the setup apon Updateing and ot fix's and crap gee i wish that it would jus go thru - !!!!!
Now this gets people upset and put-off, by that you go out and buy a game, for intending to play, but you find out that - you cant touch it for 6 mths and then maybe somewhat later on, - it sitll wont update ! - Now as for the hotfix's ad stuff now your also wanting me to go chasing for whats no longer there !
Now really that would pee ya off too !!!
But after all we still pay our cash !!!
come on auran get ya crap togeather, or get another server to at least take a bit of more load off, we know ya go the cash for it , its our's !!!!!
thanksx for letting me venting out.... and sorry but this is got to be a bit annoying ... ! this is my 5 cents !

cheers
Krugar
Trainz : new era Ver.

I would definitely copy your complete Trainz installs, whatever they are, to an external USB drive. There is definitely something wrong with your machine's hardware.