Error 29 prevents RailWorks4 launching

[OlPaint]

As of yesterday, I am unable to get Railworks4/TS-2013 to launch from Steam or from my Railworks desktop shortcut.

What I am seeing now is as follows:

I start "Train Simulator 2013" by right clicking on the "Steam" icon on SysTray to get the flyup list. Since I only have Train Simulator 2013 game from Steam, I left click the "Train Simulator
2013" to start loading the game. After several moment the "RailSimulator.com" splash screen displays. After several more moments I heard a bonk sound from the speakers and the computer
freezes up. I must do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager/Applications tab. The "RailSimulator.com" splash screen disappears but is minimized as "Train Simulator 2013" on
the TaskBar. The Windows Task Manager Applicatios tab shows that "Train Simulator 2013" is running and "Error" is running. And an "Error" window popup message is displayed

error 29.JPG

When I click the "Error" window popup OK button, the "Error" window popup is replaced by another different "Application Error" window popup that displayed

RailWorks Application Error.JPG

When I click the Application Error window popup OK button, the popup window disappears. And the Windows Task Manager /Applications tab shows no programs running. The "Train Simulator
2013" has disappeared from the TaskBar.

I am running Windows XP SP3. with 4GB ram and 1TB HD. NVidia GForce 260 GTX video card.

Please somebody Help...

I found a reference to "Error: (29): Expected matching end tag..." by Google Search on the RW_Tools Forum at UKTrainSim.com in a thread started by Mike Simpson that there may be a corrupted "scenery" file from a recently installed 3rd-Party route.http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=106490
I have already done a ClearCache.bat. But I am still failing to launch Railworks4 with same errors as described above.
I have already done a "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" and Steam reloaded several files. But I am still failing to launch Railworks4 with same errors as described above..

Do I need to uninstall/reinstall STEAM? Do I need to uninstall/reinstall Railworks 4? Do I need to uninstall/reinstall the Routes?

I could use some advice to help me recover my RailWorks4 game.

OlPaint

[artimrj]

That line 133 error is usually from a bad piece of equipment. A bad bin file. Have you went over your system with RW Tools to see if anything is amiss?

What was the last thngs you installed, that might be the place to start.

[OlPaint]

@ Bob, Thanks for the quick reply. I am a little desporate.

Before the Error 29 showed up, I had just finished swapping out the "K4 Loco" assets in several Horseshoe Curve scenarios using RW_Tools for the new K4Pack01 K4s Steam Loco asset. And I also finished swapping out several K4 locos with the RWA Library K4-Repaints.rwp "Red" Loco on all the PAX trains in the WW2 Scenarios. Of Course, like an anxious kid, I forgot and did not 'clone' the scenarios before I starting "hacking" into them. I should have know better. Do you suppose my "hacking" caused the Error 29?

What should I do?. Can you suggest a recovery process? I have a local archive of all the .RWP assets and scenarios that I have ever installed. Will Steam reinstall bundled DLC assets scenarios if I need to uninstall DLC and then if I do a "Verify"?

I am just learning the Power of RW_Tools. So I don't have experience using all the features and functions available in it. I know how to check for missing items in the Assets lists but is there more I can do?

OlPaint

[artimrj]

Move your scenarios for HSC out to somewhere safe and try to run RW. If no go, move your K4s out and try again. I would also run RW Tools route checker on the HSC and include the scenarios before moving. See if any errors come up from missing or corrupted files.

[OlPaint]

@ Bob, you are a genius!

I did a Route Check in RW_Tools and could not find anything missing or errors reported. So then removed the HSC route folder "000000025-0000-0000-000000000000" from the Content/Route folder and saved it in a save place as you suggested. This time Railworks4 launched successfully and I got to the Collection Screen. At least now RailWorks is running.

Now how to I repair the Horseshoe Curve route? To I do a "Verify" with Steam now? And will "Verify" restore my HSC DLC with its bundled scenarios? I can always reinstall all my 3rd-Party scenarios with Utilities.exe if I have to.

OlPaint

[artimrj]

I would have to guess it is one of your scenarios. Move the HSC back in and move the scenario folder from it out and try again. If you can get the HSC route to open by creating a new scenario for it, that will pin point that it is a scenario causing the problem. Then you have to find out which one.

So you could them move them back in one at a time, test it, move in another, test it and so forth.

I might be a genius, IQ is 142 from back in High School. I imagine after all these years it is higher, unless I got dumber ;)

[PapaXpress]

What is nice about that message is that it gives us a clue. There is a missing end tag. In XML each element has a opening and closing tag.

example:

Code: Select all

<x name="my element">my value</x>

So what its complaining about is somewhere the closing tag (or end tag)

Code: Select all

</x>

is missing. If you can remember which scenario you where working with that should help you narrow down the bad file. As for fixing the file by hand I would open the BIN file in RW_Tools, save it out as XML and load it in Internet Explorer. IE has a handy feature where it will check the XML and tell you exactly where the fault is.

If this is a bit over your head then you should probably verify the game cache to get all your scenarios back to their defaults.

[OlPaint]

@ PapaX

Great information. Turns out it was the HSC WW2 scenario that I hacked into last was the culprit before the Error 29 shut me down. I will know better next time to 'clone' things before I mess around with the originals.

OlPaint