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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 15:17 #106183
bugsy
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In an earlier post I said that my Edinburgh sim was freezing. Edinburgh is an .exe file.
I deleted and reinstalled the Edinburgh .exe program, but this has made no difference. It still freezes very shortly after start-up.

I now have the same problem with Peterborough, which is a 'Loader' sim. I reinstalled the system files to see if this would help and it hasn't. It says that the 'Loader' is not responding.

For people's information, I have been using Kasperski Internet Security for the last 6 years without any problems and have recently installed the latest version, but this was several weeks ago and the problems only started yesterday.
As far as I'm aware, there haven't been any Windows updates recently and these usually happen on a Teusday in any case.

I desperately need some help, because my SimSig sims are beginning to be unplayable.

Obviously, something is very amiss, but what?

Please help!

Bugsy

Update:
I've just played 5 minutes of Cambridge and don't appear to have any problems.
I'm going to play other sims to see what happens.

Everything that you make will be useful - providing it's made of chocolate.
Last edited: 26/02/2018 at 15:36 by bugsy
Reason: Update

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 15:21 #106185
postal
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bugsy in post 106183 said:
In an earlier post I said that my Edinburgh sim was freezing. Edinburgh is an .exe file.
I deleted and reinstalled the Edinburgh .exe program, but this has made no difference. It still freezes very shortly after start-up.

I now have the same problem with Peterborough, which is a 'Loader' sim. I reinstalled the system files to see if this would help and it hasn't. It says that the 'Loader' is not responding.

For people's information, I have been using Kasperski Internet Security for the last 6 years without any problems and have recently installed the latest version, but this was several weeks ago and the problems only started yesterday.
As far as I'm aware, there haven't been any Windows updates recently and these usually happen on a Teusday in any case.

I desperately need some help, because my SimSig sims are beginning to be unplayable.

Obviously, something is very amiss, but what?

Please help!

Bugsy
Is it happening with the loader when you try and re-size the sim? Similar problems with Marylebone and Derby reported on the Forum here.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 17:06 #106192
GeoffM
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There have been sporadic reports of scrolling issues over the years. No definitive cause has ever been found and it only happens to a handful of people. Sometimes it would appear that graphics drivers are the culprit which may be worth checking.

It's possible sim size could be a factor. If you can reliably make it happen on a sim like King's Cross, but never on Aston, then that could be a clue.

SimSig Boss
Last edited: 26/02/2018 at 17:08 by GeoffM
Reason: None given

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 17:46 #106196
bugsy
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postal in post 106185 said:
bugsy in post 106183 said:


In an earlier post I said that my Edinburgh sim was freezing. Edinburgh is an .exe file.
I deleted and reinstalled the Edinburgh .exe program, but this has made no difference.

I now have the same problem with Peterborough, which is a 'Loader' sim. I reinstalled the system files to see if this would help and it hasn't. It says that the 'Loader' is not responding. The problem appears to be intermittant though, so I think that I will have to check evry sim to see exactly what happens and when

For people's information, I have been using Kasperski Internet Security for the last 6 years without any problems and have recently installed the latest version, but this was several weeks ago and the problems only started yesterday.
As far as I'm aware, there haven't been any Windows updates recently and these usually happen on a Teusday in any case.

I desperately need some help, because my SimSig sims are beginning to be unplayable.

Obviously, something is very amiss, but what?

Please help!

Bugsy
Is it happening with the loader when you try and re-size the sim? Similar problems with Marylebone and Derby reported on the Forum here.

Sorry to be a pain, but you’ll have to bear with me until I look into this more thoroughly. The lock-up isn't occuring at the same point as described in the other post. However, below is a description of what has been happening:

This is what I usually do with most sims.
I have 3 screens, my laptop screen and one either side.
When I first load a sim, it appears on the laptop. I drag the left-hand side across until it appears on the left monitor and then move it downwards. At this point it resizes, becoming smaller. I next drag the righthand side across so that the sim fits across all 3 screens.

What's happening now is that I can drag either to the left or to the right and get the resizing without any problem, but when trying to drag onto the 3rd screen it reverts to the original size. This may not be a problem with some sims, but it is with others (I've got to recheck which ones) as the layout covers the screens top to bottom and I can’t see the Train List, timetables or messages boxes.

Today I have been having problems with sims regardless of whether they are Loader or .exe programs. So far, I have looked at Peterborough, Victoria Central and Horsham (all Loader) and Edinburgh (.exe)

The freezing doesn’t happen at this point though, it’s usually a couple of minutes from starting to play and at the point where I try to scroll across using the ‘scroll’ buttons. I have now found with the Peterborough sim, that if I use the scroll ‘bar’ and not the arrows, the sim doesn’t freeze.

As I said above. I’ll have to investigate further with both the freezing and resizing.

You’ll get an update at some time in the near future, not necessarily today though.

Bugsy

Everything that you make will be useful - providing it's made of chocolate.
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 19:28 #106206
GeoffM
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bugsy in post 106196 said:
I have 3 screens, my laptop screen and one either side.
This may be a factor, especially if they have different resolutions.

Thanks for the additional information. Clicking in the scroll bar does seem to be a common factor.

SimSig Boss
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 20:00 #106208
bugsy
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GeoffM in post 106206 said:
bugsy in post 106196 said:
I have 3 screens, my laptop screen and one either side.
This may be a factor, especially if they have different resolutions.

Thanks for the additional information. Clicking in the scroll bar does seem to be a common factor.
I've had the 3 screens for at least 12 months, so don't believe that this is related to the problem.

Continuing with the testing this evening.

Everything that you make will be useful - providing it's made of chocolate.
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 20:08 #106209
headshot119
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bugsy in post 106208 said:
GeoffM in post 106206 said:
bugsy in post 106196 said:
I have 3 screens, my laptop screen and one either side.
This may be a factor, especially if they have different resolutions.

Thanks for the additional information. Clicking in the scroll bar does seem to be a common factor.
I've had the 3 screens for at least 12 months, so don't believe that this is related to the problem.

Continuing with the testing this evening.
At a guess if you're running two screens + the laptop screen there is more than one graphics card involved.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 21:09 #106211
bugsy
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headshot119 in post 106209 said:
bugsy in post 106208 said:
GeoffM in post 106206 said:
bugsy in post 106196 said:
I have 3 screens, my laptop screen and one either side.
This may be a factor, especially if they have different resolutions.

Thanks for the additional information. Clicking in the scroll bar does seem to be a common factor.
I've had the 3 screens for at least 12 months, so don't believe that this is related to the problem.

Continuing with the testing this evening.

At a guess if you're running two screens + the laptop screen there is more than one graphics card involved.
I have a Dell Inspiron 5559A laptop with integrated Intel HD graphics 520 and a Radeon R5 M335 card with 4GBs of DDR3. Does that count as more than one?
Don't play any action games on it at all. I bought the machine specifically for work and the fact that it's got a dvd/cd-rom drive. Read reviews first.

Update:

After resizing, I managed to get the Peterborough sim to extend across the 3 screens by initially extending/scrolling to the left using the scroll bar until Hitchin came into view and then extending the layout to the right across the 3rd screen. I did the same with the Edinburgh sim.

The Peterborough sim has been running for approximately 20 minutes without freezing, but as soon as I attempted to scroll using the scroll arrows, it froze. The same applies to the Edinburgh sim.

So, for some unbeknown reason, both of these sims have been misbehaving, but at least I have found a solution.

Now for some testing of other sims.

Everything that you make will be useful - providing it's made of chocolate.
Last edited: 26/02/2018 at 21:12 by bugsy
Reason: edit text

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 26/02/2018 at 21:46 #106212
Steamer
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Does it ever freeze if you scroll using the mouse wheel or the arrow keys on your keyboard?
"Don't stress/ relax/ let life roll off your backs./ Except for death and paying taxes/ everything in life.../ is only for now." (Avenue Q)
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 27/02/2018 at 09:13 #106222
bugsy
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Steamer in post 106212 said:
Does it ever freeze if you scroll using the mouse wheel or the arrow keys on your keyboard?
Actually, I'd never thought of trying those actions.
I have now though and scrolling takes place without any problems. No more freezing!

Although still having minor niggles with the initial resizing and dragging across the 3 screens, with a bit of jiggery-pokery I do manage to achieve this.

The problems that I reported at the beginning of this post, now seem to have a solution of sorts.
So, the panic is over.

Thanks very much to all those who have put forward suggetions.

Bugsy

Everything that you make will be useful - providing it's made of chocolate.
Last edited: 27/02/2018 at 09:14 by bugsy
Reason: added comment

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 28/02/2018 at 22:44 #106250
agilchrist
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I had this same issue and it related to multiple cards not handling the screen going across multiple monitors when on different cards.

I used to have a 2 card Radeon, and had to open view on 2 screens and a new view on the other 2 screens, if I tried across all 4 the machine would freeze, and only a reboot would get it running again, sometimes it would restart on its own.

I now have a single card with 4 ports, I am ok to open and roll over 4 screens with this, not had any issues.

Recently tried on the fifth screen and had the same issue but this again is back to two graphics cards.

Whilst the graphics cards say they handle this seamlessly there just always seems to be issues.
Not sure if that is any help, its hassle to open three views but it seemed to work for me.

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 13/03/2018 at 20:07 #106735
TylerE
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I have had this happen on several sims since the latest update... Exeter, CScot, and Peak Forest at least, maybe one or two more. Never had problems in the past.

I am not running multiple monitors or multiple video cards.

Intel I7, Win10, Geforce 1080TI

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 13/03/2018 at 20:31 #106737
Ar88
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I'm wondering if it is user-specific as I only get this issue when loading big sims....freezes when connecting/loading in for about 8-10seconds, then runs fine!
The Welsh contingent. Aron, or Ar to mates. Also known as 88E or ThatManCalledAr.
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 14/03/2018 at 23:50 #106787
Muzer
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GeoffM in post 106192 said:
There have been sporadic reports of scrolling issues over the years. No definitive cause has ever been found and it only happens to a handful of people. Sometimes it would appear that graphics drivers are the culprit which may be worth checking.

It's possible sim size could be a factor. If you can reliably make it happen on a sim like King's Cross, but never on Aston, then that could be a clue.
I've had scrolling-related freezes, but I'm on Linux with wine. I always put it down to a wine thing and so just got used to using the cursor keys for scrolling (which don't have the problem) — though I've still managed to freeze sims recently by accidentally clicking the scrollbar. This happened with both my old and new laptops, though both with Intel chipsets and the standard Linux Intel graphics driver.

I'm on a dual-GPU laptop now; perhaps I should try using the NVIDIA GPU for SimSig and see if it makes a difference to crashes. There's so sporadic and un-reproducible though that it's hard to be sure.

Last edited: 14/03/2018 at 23:52 by Muzer
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 15/03/2018 at 00:47 #106789
Ar88
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I found quite a lot of lag tonight on the Motherwell host....it always happens on there, single-player or multiplayer!

Scrolling seemed to not be the issue.....typing in chat, route-setting, moving windows around my screens (like dragging F2 from left-to-right) etc....

The Welsh contingent. Aron, or Ar to mates. Also known as 88E or ThatManCalledAr.
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 18/03/2018 at 20:51 #106877
Hawk777
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I play under Wine too, and very, very rarely have crashes. Certainly not due to scrolling. So it’s not universally a Wine problem.
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 18/03/2018 at 21:01 #106878
grahamj42
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I've had scrollbar-related freezes like Muzer in the past (on Windows 7 64bit), but not for some time with the Loader.

Since the 4.6.12 loader update, Cardiff which I'm playing at the moment has frozen several times - I think when I right-click on a signal to cancel the route.

I've never had this problem before.

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 18/03/2018 at 21:07 #106879
headshot119
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grahamj42 in post 106878 said:
I've had scrollbar-related freezes like Muzer in the past (on Windows 7 64bit), but not for some time with the Loader.

Since the 4.6.12 loader update, Cardiff which I'm playing at the moment has frozen several times - I think when I right-click on a signal to cancel the route.

I've never had this problem before.
There is a critical core code bug in 4.6.12 to do with overlaps. The core code team are currently working to have this resolved as soon as possible.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 19/03/2018 at 18:44 #106887
Jimmyj5579
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I am having problem's with SimSig crashing. I have been running Cardiff PSB and it keeps crashing!
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 19/03/2018 at 19:09 #106888
HST125Scorton
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I've been testing out my timetable for Motherwell 2017, I've noticed when scrolling left to right to left in quick concession it lags quite a bit but doesn't do it very often or sometimes doesn't move at all, also loading up Motherwell it tends to hang about but that could down to loading up the data on the sim.

SimSig Loader v4.6.12
Motherwell v4.3.1

Aaron (AJRO) | Timetable Writer
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 19/03/2018 at 19:11 #106889
headshot119
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Jimmyj5579 in post 106887 said:
I am having problem's with SimSig crashing. I have been running Cardiff PSB and it keeps crashing!
See my post directly above yours.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 20/03/2018 at 11:35 #106896
clive
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I'm continuing to investigate this. It happens because of a specific feature in the sim data - if a sim doesn't use this feature, the problem won't happen. If it uses that feature, then the problem will happen when trying to swing the overlap of a signal that has that feature. (It's not a visible feature, so I can't describe it further than that.)

I can see that it only happens with 4.6.12. I can see what's going wrong inside the code. By doing a binary chop on code changes, I can see the code change that causes the problem. I just can't see *why* it causes the problem and therefore how to fix it.

Work continues.

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 20/03/2018 at 15:19 #106899
GeoffM
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clive in post 106896 said:
I'm continuing to investigate this.
"This" being the recent overlap issue, not the original thread starter of scrolling issues with some users.

SimSig Boss
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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 06/04/2018 at 19:20 #107356
Troy100
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clive in post 106896 said:
I'm continuing to investigate this. It happens because of a specific feature in the sim data - if a sim doesn't use this feature, the problem won't happen. If it uses that feature, then the problem will happen when trying to swing the overlap of a signal that has that feature. (It's not a visible feature, so I can't describe it further than that.)

I can see that it only happens with 4.6.12. I can see what's going wrong inside the code. By doing a binary chop on code changes, I can see the code change that causes the problem. I just can't see *why* it causes the problem and therefore how to fix it.

Work continues.
Hi Clive

I've purchased Newport and it's annoying when I forget what areas in the sim are affected by this overlap issue. I've also paid for Cardiff which is supposed to be affected too.

Would you be able to tell me what other sims are affected by this issue so I can avoid purchasing them for the time being until this is fixed?

Thanks for working to fix it, will be much appreciated when it's all sorted

Shaun

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Sims freezing - Things are getting serious 07/04/2018 at 19:50 #107365
clive
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Shaun in post 107356 said:

I've purchased Newport and it's annoying when I forget what areas in the sim are affected by this overlap issue. I've also paid for Cardiff which is supposed to be affected too.

Would you be able to tell me what other sims are affected by this issue so I can avoid purchasing them for the time being until this is fixed?
Those are the only two I've seen reports for. There may be others but, if so, nobody's mentioned it to me. Not that there would be any point in doing so - I can test any fix of the root problem on these two and knowing about others wouldn't make a difference.

I'm pretty sure that none of my sims use the feature with the problem.

Sorry if that's not much help.

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