Windows 32bit OS and SBHH

[OlPaint]

In the last few weeks, I have noticed that many of my old 3rd-Party scenarios are failing to load after an extremely long loading sequence. Of Course, the extremely long load times is normal for my Windows XP SP3 32bit OS machine with 4GB of onboard RAM and NVidia GeForce GTX 260 with 1GB VRam video card. These scenarios have run before with no issues for well over a year of playing Railworks4/TS2013 on this machine but now a good many of them are failing to load at all. What is happening now is, after many minutes of waiting time, Railworks4 pops up a SBHH screen and drops me back to the Windows Desktop. Then I get a window that says that Railworks.exe must close.

I know that RailWorks is in the process of warning us RailSimulator gamers that Sept 26 marks the day when TS2014 upgrade will download to us. And my latest scenario loading problems seem to coincide with the appearance of RSC's new "light blue TS2014 advertising" screen that shows while waiting for my selected scenario to launch under the Standard or FreeRoam Scenarios option (apparently associated with Steam.exe launching the GameOverlayUI.exe code). I watch the activity bar scroll the bright light across the bottom of the screen in 'fits and starts' as the scenario trys to load. Eventually the scenario either starts up at the opening scenario screen or drops the SBHH bomb on me.

OK...I recently discovered a thread on UKTrainSim forum, OP by Jarmstro,http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=361&t=120867 that speaks about those of us running a Windows 32 bit OS with full 4GB of RAM and with a least 500MB of VRam getting "freezes". He suggested that I should try to use the "/3GB" switch in the 'Boot.ini' file to force the OS to use the addtional 1GB of unused RAM to load large programs. Of course Steam.exe, Railworks.exe and GameOverlayUI.exe together add up to a very large RAM usage in the neighborhood of well over 1.5 GB. when Railworks4 is running successfully.

Well, I tried that suggestion already with no success. I still get extremely long load times and there is no success launching a good many of my 3rd-Party scenarios. I have collected all the NERW suite of scenarios for all the RSC Payware and 3rd-Party Freeware routes that Bob Artim has posted. I can not get these to run on my machine without SBHH. All of Tori's COARW v.4.5 scenarios are failing to load as well. These COARW ones used to be my favorate scenarios to run. Just about all my installed scenarios are failing now with SBHH. What a frustration!!! Only Michael Stephen's VNHRR route scenarios are well behaved enough to successfully launch on my system. Hurray! RSC's bundled DLC scenarios all appear to launch successfully, at least the ones I have tested so far. And So Far, each TandD scenario I have tested has run without SBHH. It has got to be a problem with my Windows XP 32bit computer configuration.

I wish that SBHH error message had an error code that would give me a hint as to what was the cause of my grief. I have a suspicion that my 2GB program size limitation for Windows XP 32bit OS is the culprit. I want to eventually convert my computer to Windows 7 64bit OS. I even have a copy of Window 7 64bit OEM install disk in my hot little hands. But I hesitate because this is a monstrous undertaking for me to attempt.

Someone, please give me some advice on how to proceed. I know that TS2014 will be a very demanding brute. I wonder if my old workhorse Windows XP machine is capable enough for handling the load of TS2014 at all. Should I bite the bullet and upgrade to Windows 7 64bit? I need someone to hold my trembling hands...and hopefully encourage me which way to go...

OlPaint

[buzz456]

A couple of years back I went to the 64 bit win7 and about 90% of my problems went away. Why do you think it's such a huge undertaking? I even got mine online from a really slow dsl at the time. It just ground away forever and eventually was ready to rock and roll. The best thing about it is you can then increase your ram for further increase in performance. I say do it! Chris told me to do it and I have not regretted it for one minute.

[PapaXpress]

64 bit is the best way to go. If you stay with 32bit you will be underutilizing your hardware, and in some cases (such as 3TB hard drives) you will not be able to use it at all. I have been 64bit since Win 7 came out (actually a bit before that because I dual booted into Ubuntu (linux) x64), and have never looked back.

[dfcfu342]

I will always champion upgrading to a 64-bit system but to say it will solve your TS2013 problems is a long stretch considering its still only a 32bit game.

Since you already have Windows 7 64 in your hands then go for it! Backup all your documents, photos, and videos to a safe place; backup your TS2013 Assets and Source folders and install that baby you'll never regret it. Then reinstall Steam, allow it to download all of your games and DLC's, then copy back your Assets and Source folders. As a bonus you should see a noticeable improvement in game performance as you'll finally be able to use all 1GB of your GTX260's ram

[Chacal]

First make sure your computer is able to run Windows 7 64 bits.

To find out if your processor is 64-bit-capable in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, do the following:

1.Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, and then, in the list of results, click Performance Information and Tools.

2.Do one of the following:

•In Windows 7, click View and print detailed performance and system information.

•In Windows Vista, click View and print details.

3.In the System section, you can see what type of operating system you're currently running under System type, and whether or not you can run a 64-bit version of Windows under 64-bit capable. (If your computer is already running a 64-bit version of Windows, you won't see the 64-bit capable listing.)

Then I suggest you make a disk image of your system disk, in case you want to roll back to the 32-bit version. I believe the Windows 7 backup utility can do this. Make sure you prepare an emergency boot disk. Instructions on the web.

Then make a backup of your documents, personal files, and important application settings currently on your system disk.

Time to think about proper disk usage. I strongly recommend using the system partition for the system and important apps only. No data, no games. I usually reduce the C: partition to 100 GB and create a D: partition on the rest of the disk, on which I put data.

Then perform a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit. There is no upgrade path from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Then install your important applications and utilities. Configure to your liking. No documents, no games yet.

Then make a disk image of your clean system (C: drive). Keep this as a baseline, in case of severe problem (such as a virus infection) you can always roll back to this clean state.

Then restore your files, games, etc, on your data partition. Move users folders (My documents, etc) to the data partition.

As an additional step, I "freeze" my C: partition with DeepFreeze from Faronics. This makes me immune to ANY (and I do mean 100%) unauthorized change to this partition, including any kind of malware.

[buzz456]

I'm sure you know far more than me about all this geek stuff but I just went online and said I wanted to go from 32 bit to 64 bit and me and good old Microsoft got it done somehow. Unless things have changed from a couple of years ago. Not to be argumentative but 90+% of us on here have little or no clue what most of the stuff you said.

[arizonachris]

OK lots of good advice here, let me see if I can say it a little easier.
First, go to MS and run the Win 7 Advisor Tool: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... aspx?id=20 This will tell you if your PC can run Win 7.
Now we need to know if you have or can get an external USB hard drive. This will be to copy all the "stuff" you want to save from the XP install, as was already said.
I recommend, once the external drive is seen by XP (just plug the drive's AC adapter in then connect the USB to your PC) use Windows Explorer to find files you want and simply drag and drop them from your "C" drive to the external.
Don't use windows Backup. I have a "friend" on the Steam/ RW Forum that thought he was making an image of his Windows drive and it didn't work. He lost everything. Just drag and drop.
Files I copy are: "steamapps", my entire Documents folder (that has music, pictures, third party stuff that I made a copy of, personal files). Most other programs I usually will download and install fresh. Oh, and I copy my Firefox Bookmarks as well (Favorites in Internet Explorer)

With a 64 bit O/S, as was said already, you can use more system RAM. I have 8Gb, it wasn't that expensive. I recommend a new set of two sticks, 4Gb each. Trying to match your existing RAM can be dicey.

All my 32 bit programs run just fine with Win 7 64 bit, and I have some older games that I was afraid wouldn't work. Here's a Topic on my Support site may help: http://www.abithelp.com/open-discussion/topic878.html

Installing Win 7 is the easiest I have ever done. Just make sure at the first reboot you take the CD out. Otherwise with a few questions to answer, it's easy peasy. You need any help, you can PM me.

Also, since SBHH seems to have links to an overgrown "assets" folder from more that a few posts I read, this will give you a clean start.

[peterhayes]

Old Prof
I have just advised one simmer to upgrade to Win 7 64-bit as he was getting SBHH after SBHH and he is now a very happy camper as SBHH's are a thing of the past.

One poster said:

I will always champion upgrading to a 64-bit system but to say it will solve your TS2013 problems is a long stretch considering its still only a 32bit game.

That is easy (now Buzz this will be technical); In a 32-bit OS (Win Xp, Vista, Win7) to protect itself Windows loads every program such as TS 2013 into what is called the Virtual Address Space (VAS) which has a limit for 32-bit programs like TS2013 [with the Large Address Aware flag set) at 4GB. This cannot be altered and HAS NOTHING to do with the Physical RAM or paging file (aka Virtual Memory). Now out of that 4GB VAS, 2GB is used by the system but in the 2GB left - most of it can be used by the video card (a video card with 1GB VRAM could almost deplete the VAS as you start TS2013) which can mean that TS2013 has little VAS left to load into = SBHH. Simply the /3G switch takes 1GB VAS from the system and "gives" it to TS2013 which lessens the SBHH's. This is NOT needed in a 64-bit OS.

Now in a 64-bit OS running a 32-bit program like TS2013 - TS 2013 gets the full 4GB of VAS (no impact by system or video card) to load into. The 64-bit OS has 8 TERABYTES of VAS so it doesn't need anymore. This is why a 64-bit OS is much better (even when running a 32-bit program) than a 32-bit OS.

I would also consider upgrading to 8GB RAM as TS 2013 can use up to 4GB RAM and Win 7 runs with about 2.3GB RAM, the most I have seen is a total of 5GB RAM usage when running Cologne-Dusseldorf.

I apologise that this is quite technical but we need to understand the concept of VAS wrt TS2013/2014 wrt SBHH's.

If it were me I would use a clean install of Win 7 64-bit - that way you start off anew with no baggage in the background.
pH

[buzz456]

[peterhayes]

Buzz
Thanks that was a nice touch!!
pH

[buzz456]

Explaining my technical knowledge on this particular subject.

[OlPaint]

Thanks Fellas. Really great advice. This Train Simmer is going Win 7 64bit!

I checked out MS Windows 7 Advisor Tool and I am well within the required specs for the upgrade.

Microsoft, do your worst...I have no fear of April 8, 2014, now...

BTW, I have the extra 2x2GB of memory sticks on order from Crucial. I bought another USB 1TB External HD at Wally World for backing up my C: Drive image. Oh, yes, I have already backed up my documents, photos, music, etc. My Steam/Railworks4 game is safely stowed as well as all my 3rd-Party content. And I am just now digging out all my software installer disks again.

I am seriously considering an SSD for a dedicated Windows 7 OS partition, but for now, I have to save a few coins for that investment.

Can anyone think of anything else I need to do before I take the plunge?

OlPaint

[arizonachris]

Sounds like you have all your ducks in a row, OlPaint! Did you copy over your Favorites or Bookmarks (from IE or Firefox respectively)? If I miss that step it's usually not too bad to get them all back, it's just a pain it the you-know-where.

The verdict on SSD's seems to be they are great for starting a program, like RW or Windows, but don't really speed things up playing a game or while Windows is running. Plus the cost of a large enough drive to have Windows plus some programs. Then you have to split stuff between the SSD and a regular drive, too much overhead for me! I'll stick with a couple 500Gb Western Digital Black drives (one "C" drive, the other my "E" or backup drive).

[OlPaint]

OK, Guys, my 2x2GB memory sticks just arrived from Crucial. I got every thing backed up - even my Outlook .PST file.

Should install the 2 memory sticks before or after I format HDD and install Windows 7 64bit?

OlPaint

[peterhayes]

OlPaint
I would install the RAM - make sure that the RAM sticks purchased are the same as the already installed RAM and installed in the correct slots on the mobo and as the BIOS boots up make sure it recognises the RAM.
That means you watch the boot screen and make sure it reports the correct amount of RAM installed with no errors.
Make sure the RAM is secured in the mobo slots - both ends - a clip should keep them in place as you press the sticks into the slots. Earth yourself so that you don't short out the RAM and anything else that you may touch on the mobo.
Then install Windows as a "clean" install it will automatically format the HDD as it installs.
Regards
pH