The 3GB enabler is an awesome utility that has a magic tendency to fix one of the last remaining outstanding of Sid Meiers Railroads instability. While the process could hardly be much simpler with the script there is one rather nasty reliance; for 32bit versions of windows you need to manually tell windows to allow 3GB enabler to work. Traditionally this was done by use the 3GB switch in boot.ini. Unfortunately Windows Vista and 7 no longer use the boot.ini, but don’t worry users of Vista & 7 32bit, Microsoft didn’t leave you high and dry.
I came across the solution after Sam brought the quandary to my attention. The solution is actually quite simple, go to the start menu and in the search box type ‘cmd’, don’t hit enter. Wait until ‘cmd.exe.’ appears on the menu and then right click and select “run as administrator”. Then run this command:
BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 2900
You can copy and paste that into the command prompt by using the right click menu, keyboard shortcuts CTRL+C and CTRL+V don’t work in the command line. Then restart for the changes to take effect.
Once you have done this and used the 3GB Enabler you should be able to play Sid Meiers Railroads crash free, so have fun and watch what time it is.
Note: Users of 64bit OSes don’t need to do this step and can use the 3GB enabler directly.
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I think I have a 32-bit processor because under the performance tab it says 32-bit (highest) but it will not allow me to “run as administrator because there are no compatibility issues. Help please.
Could you upload a screenshot somewhere? I haven’t encountered that problem before and if you show me what you are doing I can likely spot whats wrong.
Oh wait, “32-bit (highest)” is what is shown on for the dropdown list for selecting the amount of colours you want to use, ie 16-bit colour 8-bit colour or 32-bit colour. This is not what I meant by 32bit vs 64bit. 64bit is the type of processor and version of the OS.
With that said you do have a 32bit version of Windows.
I have Vista and have patched the railroads.exe file as listed on this site. I can manually run the command listed above, but am confused as to how to use the 3G enabler as listed, since there is no boot.ini file. Any directions would be appreciated.
The command listed above does the exact same thing boot.ini would.
HI WARLL
U r doing a great job by hosting this website it is very helpfull for me
I am facing some problem with my game its showing some error after playing for 15 min
Its showing some runtime error
“The application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way”
Please help me with this error
Thank U…..
Hi Hitesh
We should know which map?
It appears to be a missing Events file. Older maps have this problem.
Actually i downloaded this game from Torrents
I am facing this problem with all the maps i play the default maps tha come with the game now i am playing himachal and i am getting the same result
i mean that the game is simply crashing after some time
First: you should have Version 1.1.0.0 of the game.
This will show up in the lower left corner of the opening screen. If not you will need Patch 1.1.0
Next be sure that the UserMaps folder is empty:
This is from the forums FAQ:
How to empty the Game Folder
In order to play most of the custom maps you must have a completely empty C:\user\users\“My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads!†folder.
The simplest way is to delete or rename the folder and let the game create a new one.
Once you deleted the C:\user\users\“My Games\Sid Meier’s Railroads!†folder and start a new stock game, the program will look for this folder. If it can not find one, it will automatically create one.
Now you will have an empty and completely clean folder and you can install the new custom map as the map’s creator directs.
More detailed explanation can be had at http://www.smrsimple.com/2009/06/howto- … ding-maps/
This for the start.
If there is still a problem just post it here or on the FORUM
Thank u Jancsika
Now the game is working fine
Can u suggest me any map in which u can find some new trains or new wagons or new industries
and I hav a problem with america map wen i pasted two fsks in user maps directory i did not fine that map in game
Thank u.
“and I hav a problem with america map wen i pasted two fsks in user maps directory i did not fine that map in gameâ€
You don’t copy and paste maps.
You have to have a clean UserMaps folder for every new game. I know it’s a nuisance but this is how it works!! Just unzip the new map directly in the UserMaps folder.
As for new stuff: try Zimbabwe, Green Mars…..
Wrall ive been wisiting this site for some days now and i love it =) and i wonderd if u coud make a 4gb enebler cus i use max graphics and when i do that my game crashes on maps that is big after 5-10 minutes of game play and i use windows 7 ultimate so if u can pull that off it woud be REALY cool thanx
Keato02
To enable 4Gb use the command BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 3900
thx man i can play the american maps now =-)))
Is there also a way to 3GB enable windows 7 64bits? I realy need it because when I play big maps the game shuts down when I add my 2nd train… 🙁
Roller: You can use the 3GB enabler script, 64bit doesn’t need to do the steps outlined in this post.
THIS DIDNT HELP ME AT ALL
Have Vista 64. Fix worked perfectly for SM Railroads. Thanks!
hey i only have 2GB ram and it allmost never crashes… can i have any use off the 3GB thing ? really love the game and want to play larger maps 🙂
Has anyone ever had a problem where the depots don’t show up when you click buy train? I can’t purchase any trains because there are no depots (dots) on my routing map. Any experience with that? If so, did you find a fix? I have already reinstalled several times… the demo version works fine.
Thanks Mike
Mike – I am having the exact same problem. Depots do not show up. No clue how to fix.
Mike~ I also have the same problem and tried to have 2k games fix it but they can’t. All they say is that my video card wont work for it. Im still able to play with no problem ecept for this
Hey fellas, was wondering if you could help me.
I’m not very computer literate when it comes to all that stuff where you have to go deep into files and change shit and back up stuff and all that… But could someone please explain what is happening here? I’m using a disc – I didn’t buy it off steam.
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ixwsupHr1qlt3eyo1_500.jpg
About 30 seconds into the install this comes up and then it cancels everything and I’m back to the desktop.
I’m running Windows 7 on 64-bit, on a Toshiba Satellite Laptop. It’s got 4gb of ram and 450gb HD and a intel core i3-2310m CPU @ 2.10 GHz… I don’t really know what any of that means but if someone could help me out it would really be appreciated.
I remember playing the demo when it came out on my old toshiba laptop, and that ran fine – That was on steam however…
Please feel free to email me at – element_sk8a@msn.com if you can help me out.
Thanks,
Ed
when i wrote in cmd “Set IncreaseUserVa 2900″ pops up is not defined the environment variable
please help me
Trying these steps on 64 bit windows 7, I keep getting
“EDITBIN: fatal error LNK 1104: cannot open file “RailRoads.exeâ€
Large Address Aware has been enabledâ€
What’s going wrong?
Are you sure the script is in the same folder as the RailRoads.exe?
i tried this fix for win 7 with 32 bit my game still crashes any help
I just downloaded the allready modified EXE and I am running Win 7 64bit. You have to make sure you Patch the game first to 1.1. Rename the exe then paste in the new one. After that right click your shortcut on the desktop and select the Compatibility tab. Make sure you check Run as Administrator. You may have to re-insert your Railroads CD but it should work fine. Some others reported also upgrading your video driver and reducing video quality helps too. This works for me.
still does not work i lay one track and it goes to desktop. already patched before and what do you mean by rename and paste?
I don’t know what happened recently, but Railroads now crashes to the desktop whenever I try to start a new scenario. I uninstalled & reinstalled the game. It will start without using the 1.1 patch, but once I install this patch, the game the CTD starting any scenario. I tried using an older video driver without success. I am running Windows 7- 64 bit, 4GB ram & Nvidia video card 980 GTX.
Is there any way to patch the game with the 3GB enabler without first installing the 1.1 patch. Thanks
never mind, finally got the game to work again.
Hello,
to get any 32-bit Game which crashs to desktop running on 64-bit windows it exist following solution:
*search through google the “CFF Explorer” (freeware) and install it.
*run it and open the EXE-file of the game in the CFF Explorer.
*select the “File Header”
*in the last column “characteristics” click on the button “click here”
*a new window “characteristics” appear.
*enable the point: “App can handle >2Gb address space and confirm with “OK”
*finally save the exe and close the CFF-Explorer
*Enjoy hours of gaming without any crash.
works also with other game titles(Anno1404)!! only enable this if you have crash to desktop during a running game and the crashes come more often as bigger your game progress is.
by the way: if you don’t know what you do always make a back up before you change anything.
ah and yes! it only works if you got more than 2 Gb RAM!!!!! but then you don’t need 64-bit windows….
I just want play sids railroad on window 7. please post a file that i can cut and copy into sids railroad file and have it run. does
‘BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 2900’ sit thew rails diectory ? I dont want to screw up my computer.
thx
prøver at få sidmeiers railroads til at virke har forsøgt meget i Windows 7 64 bit version, og det stopper næsten hver gang efter kortere eller længere tid bliver næsten aldrig færdigspillet
Gunnar says: trying to get sidmeiers rail roads to work have tried a lot in Windows 7 64 bit version, and it stops almost every time after a shorter or longer time is almost never finish the game
Hi.. I tried it and it work…but after a few moments after buying out all my competitors it crashed. Im running in Win7(64bit) and im playing the America_SAM map. at first it solved but when it pass awhile it crashes… I already tried the BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 2900/3900
Still crashes when I play for a long time….
Couldn’t get this fix to work yesterday so I poked around the ol’ interweb thingy and found this: http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php. It’s a tiny little program that will fix any executable to use more than 2 gig of memory with x64 windows. Worked like a charm, even made a backup of my original .exe for me. I’ve used this 3gb enabler before, not sure what happened yesterday. Just thought I’d post to let others know.
Forgot to mention that the 4gb patch above doesn’t require any copying, pasting, or renaming. Just run the program and it will ask you to point it to the .exe you want to patch. This will be in the directory you installed the game to. Usually C: Program Files (X86)/2K Games/Firaxis/Sid Meier’s Railroads/. It’s simple and quick.
Thank you bmemac that should helps a few users I hope.
This fix works great….Thanks a bunch….It’s the first time ive been able to play a full game :O)
WIN7 4Gb Ram
I do not understand anything here…. Where is the simple description… ?
Practical piece , my boss this month was told about
https://goo.gl/Fl17CLto export pdf . It’s comparatively efficient to use and it’s good , I was told that they offer a 30 day trial nowIgnore the directions? So after I do as you say ( in the start menu ) and downloaded the file wtf do I do? You stated to ignore directions for 32-bit users?
This site doesn’t get a lot of attention. This information is a bit old, from the time when 32-bit Windows OSes were in the majority. On 32-bit systems the /3GB is a two-step process, patch your system, then patch your Sid Meier’s Railroads exe. On 64-bit systems all you need to do is patch your exe file. bmemac has a good link for that a couple posts up.
Alternatively, search for the game on pcgamingwiki. There’s a patched exe in the “Issues Fixed” section. Possibly other crash-fixes were applied as well, in any case it’s among the most stable versions around.
I’m running Windows10 64bit. I have tried and tried to find a good example step by step, of how to make this 3GB Enabler work. I’m using the original SMR CD. Can some one please show me how to do it as it is doing my head in.
Example in simple terms:
(1)
(2)
(3)
etc, etc.
Also, please post working links that provide non corrupted 3GB Enabler. I can find the SMR folder no problems. Its just not clear the way it is explained as to where to put each specific file.
Thanks to “bmemac” a few posts above mine who recommended this small, one touch program to fix Sid Meiers Railroads. I was so frustrated with the 3GB Enabler and still couldn’t work it out.
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Here is the info about this “4GB exe Patch at “NTCORE”:
http://www.ntcore.com/about.php
NTCore is the result of many years of experience. The main purpose of this project is to investigate about system internals and software security, in order to build the best software of its kind for developers and companies. In addition to a good number of free tools, NTCore offers (hopefully) the best (and sometimes the first) technical information about related topics to its products. For direct contact write at: ntcore@gmail.com
NTCore started as something very small and mainly for commercial reasons. I needed a name that could be used to work with companies and other developers. It even started as a team. Again, for commercial reasons. However, through the years it became more and more clear to me that I wanted NTCore to become more personal and less commercial. NTCore is now the place where I release my articles and my software, and I hope that you’ll find this material useful for you and/or your company.
Daniel Pistelli
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It comes is a zip file.
(1) Make a folder on your desktop and call it what you want
(2) Then download the zip into there.
(3) Then extract it in that folder.
(4) You will see the name “4GB Patch.exe”, click on it.
(5) A folder appears asking you what exe file you want to patch. You now have to find it.
(6) (Windows 10) Find the Sid Meier’s Railroads folder on your (C Drive), then Program Files (x86), then 2K Games folder, then Firaxis Games folder, then Sid Meier’s Railroads! folder, then look for the Train Icon Picture called “RailRoads.exe”
(7) Now click on it to add the file name to the 4GB Patcher.
(8) Click open and then you are all done.
(9) It’s that easy and it also creates a backup file in your game folder. No more crashes and so much more easier than all the other head bog out there 🙂
I am using the original Sid Meier’s Railroad CD and it works fine. I haven’t tested it on any other old games yet, but I believe it can be used for any old 32 bit games.
With 64-bit operating systems you don’t need to modify your system. All you need to do is make SMR executable Large Address Aware.
Get the last patch from the official 2k site
http://downloads.2kgames.com/railroads/RailroadsPatch110.zip
After installing that, then get the pre-enabled LAA file which also has a memory crash fix here
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Railroads!#Low_Memory_Crash