When starting Microsoft Train Simulator the screen goes black for a few seconds and then returns to the Windows desktop. Other games, in particular Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 and Age of Empires (Age of Kings) all run ok. The computer is a Toshiba 2710XDVD laptop Pentium III 500 MHz with 128 MB RAM. Can you help?

Start by looking at the Microsoft Knowledge Base article support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=299690 which details common video related issues with Train Simulator. I managed to locate the specifications for your computer and found your video card is an S3 Virge MX 3D. With this in mind, I read the above article and there is some talk about the S3 Virge PCI 325 card not meeting the requirements for Train Simulator (you can find this at the bottom of the S3 section of the article). There is an unsupported workaround for that card, which may work for you so give it a go. You can find this workaround in the S3 Virge PCI section of the above MSKB article. The workaround involves disabling settings in Train Simulator. If you find that this works, you could gradually re-enable the settings until the problem starts again so you at least have some of the more advanced graphics functionality.

When checking your computer’s specifications I noted that your graphics adapter does support DirectDraw and Direct3D. We should test that these are working correctly. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘dxdiag’ and click OK. In the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, click the ‘Display’ tab. Ensure that DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration are all enabled. Test DirectDraw and Direct3D by clicking the ‘Test DirectDraw’ and ‘Test Direct3D’ buttons. Should either of these tests fail, you should reinstall DirectX. If these tests are successful, DirectX is functioning properly. It may also be worthwhile to update the video drivers to the latest version. There are video drivers available for Windows 98 SE on the Toshiba website. Go to www.toshiba.com.au and click ‘Personal Computers’ then ‘Support’ then ‘Download Centre’ and select your computer from the ‘Satellite’ drop-down box. I am unsure if these drivers are the same or a later edition of the drivers installed on your computer. If you reach this point, and the problem persists, please contact me again.