Black Screen of Death

[Trigrx00]

Black Screen of Death - epsxe refuses to load a game resulting in a constant black screen - Solved -- Check Page 2

I've been having the same problem as a lot of other people, the black screen of death.

Game: Final Fantasy VIII PAL
epsxe: 1.70

This is what I've tried:
*All internal plugins
*Enabled/Disabled subchannel
*Disabled CDDA
*Tried loading from both image and cd (CD is not scratched and is original)
*Reinstalled about 3 times, each time completely clearing all registry settings for every plugin and epsxe
*Tried external plugins
*Tried different bios's
*Set affinity to one CPU
*Changed compatibility of the exec to windows 2000
*Enabled logs to check console (no errors)
*Disabled/Enabled sound
*Ran the BIOS, works fine

Result: Still the black screen of death

Specs:
AMD4000+ 2.1ghz
2GB DDR2
160GB HD SATA
ASUS EN8800GT 512mb

Previous Computer Specs:
Intel Celeron 2.4ghz
1gb DDR400 ram
120gb IDE hd
Radeon 9550

I have no idea why it's doing this as this game used to work fine on my old computer using 1.60 fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

[jonc2006]

what does it do under other versions of epsxe (1.5.2/1.6.0)? is this the only game that does this? what format did you make the image in, .bin/.cue? did you try mounting it on a virtual drive?

[Lord Budweiser]

If you are using Vista, run ePSXe as Administrator. Also be sure to disable Data Execution Protection.

It seems to be a problem with the disc/image plugin. Try using another plugin.

[Trigrx00]

Well well, it works fine on epsxe 1.60 very odd.

I'm using daemon tools .mdf image and I have mounted it on a virtual drive as well as loading at as an image. It happens to every game.

And i'm running windows xp SP2

[jonc2006]

try making a .bin/.cue image instead and try loading it mounted and/or not mounted on a virtual drive.

[Trigrx00]

Just converted then, and tried mounting it and running it. Still the same, also tried non mounting and running from the bin file, same problem.

[Hard core Rikki]

Configure the internal soft plugin first.

Ideally set it to the same resolution as the other gpu plugin youre using (both either windowed or both fullscreen. both to the same color depth as the desktop as well: 32 bits)


Bud, no witch hunting, please.

[jonc2006]

Just converted then, and tried mounting it and running it. Still the same, also tried non mounting and running from the bin file, same problem.

dont convert the image format, make a totally new image in .bin/.cue because format conversion usually doesnt work.

[Trigrx00]

Converted it properly, still doesnt work, tried setting the internal soft plugin the same as the gpu plugin, still doesnt work.

[Hard core Rikki]

Retried the config wizard ?

Mind to tell the exact plugins and settings in you are using in one of your combinations that show the black screen?

Is the cdr plugin properly set btw (check drive letter and ppf patch. other cdr plugins )?

[jonc2006]

Converted it properly, still doesnt work, tried setting the internal soft plugin the same as the gpu plugin, still doesnt work.

do your .bin and .cue files have the same file name and extension?

edit- are you launching epsxe via shortcut or a frontend? if you are, try using the actual epsxe executable to launch the emulator.

[Trigrx00]

Config1
BIOS: SCPH1001 USA
GPU: Petes OpenGL2 Driver 2.9 - Everything on nice
SOUND: ePSXe SPU core 1.7.0
CDROM: ePSXe CDR WNT/W2K Core 1.7.0

I'm launching from the direct exec

And the .bin and .cue are the same file name

[karas81]

Instead of running games, Did you ever succeeded in running the BIOS ?

[Lord Budweiser]

Do you have any other games to try?

[Trigrx00]

Yeah I have tested the BIOS and it works fine, and its all games that goto the black screen.

[jonc2006]

Instead of running games, Did you ever succeeded in running the BIOS ?

he said he did in the 1st post. its got to have something to do with the copy protection on the games or something if the BIOS are working fine.

Config1
BIOS: SCPH1001 USA
GPU: Petes OpenGL2 Driver 2.9 - Everything on nice
SOUND: ePSXe SPU core 1.7.0
CDROM: ePSXe CDR WNT/W2K Core 1.7.0

I'm launching from the direct exec

And the .bin and .cue are the same file name

you say none of the other video plugins work either? what about the software one?

[Squall-Leonhart]

Your CD drives might not support Subchannel reads

you should get one that does.

[Ferenn]

Actually, I had this same problem a few days ago after ripping my FF8 PAL discs, too. I just patched it with a PPF patch from this site and it started working perfectly :x No idea if that's what's wrong here though.

[Trigrx00]

Yeah tried all plugins that came with the software as well as external plugins, its still unsuccessful. I can't work out why it works on ePSXe 1.60 and not 1.70.

Subchannel is irrelevant also because I'm mounting from a virtual drive.

And my PAL version is ENG Australia, and there is no PPF patch for it.

[karas81]

Redownload ePSXe v1.7.0 (your exe is corrupted)

[Squall-Leonhart]

Yeah tried all plugins that came with the software as well as external plugins, its still unsuccessful. I can't work out why it works on ePSXe 1.60 and not 1.70.Mount with Alcohol 52% with emulate subchannel enabled in the options. use the internal CDR to read the disk, make sure subchannel reads is ticked.


Subchannel is irrelevant also because I'm mounting from a virtual drive.
Sorely wrong, if the image fil does not have the subchannel data, or it has become corrupted (damaged cue file perhaps) then the protection tracks aren't indicated, reripping the images would work in most scenario's. (regardless, i just use my ff8 disks anyway....)

And my PAL version is ENG Australia, and there is no PPF patch for it.Trigrx00, there is no PAL Australia, all our games are European / UK,

The same PPF patch that works on Germany, Spain and France will work on the UK disks.

unpack the attached into the \{main epsxe folder}\patches and run the image from alcohol 52 or daemon tools.

[jonc2006]

yeah thats why i said not to covernt the format into another one too. if the original image contains no subchannel data then its new format wont either, the game disc must be the source of the image data for this to work. when you convert the format you are essentially using that image as the source, and if that image is not a complete copy of the game disc then none of its "offspring" images will be either regardless of what the new format is.

[Trigrx00]

Alright I Re-Ripped the game as .bin/.cue, I mounted the drive with Daemon Tools Pro.
I tried again, it failed.

I dont understand why it works on the older version using even .mds format
http://geocities.com/nomorewedgiesplease/cdrom.jpg

btw go Here (http://geocities.com/nomorewedgiesplease/running.JPG) to see the console screenshot etc

[jonc2006]

is it possible you could post some screenshots of the main epsxe 1.7.0 directory and all of its subdirectories? is 1.7.0 sharing any directory paths with another version of epsxe (1.7.0 being directed to 1.6.0's memory card directory rather than it being directed to its own for example)?

[Trigrx00]

Directory:Here (http://geocities.com/nomorewedgiesplease/epsxedire.JPG)

Its definitely pointing to itself, also I'm pretty sure it's something to do with Subchannel because now epsxe 1.60 only works if I click load ISO from the GUI and point it to the .bin file ....

However when I do that with 1.70 it doesn't work at all.

[karas81]

http://forums.ngemu.com/attachments/misc-psx-discussion/162334d1212573264-psx-emulator-game-fffffg.gif

[Trigrx00]

Alright fellas, thanks for the help, I managed to get it going.

This is also to anyone else who's been having the same trouble:
First I created a .bin/.cue file of the first disc
I downloaded the ppf patch PAL version of final fantasy VIII
I downloaded a program called ppfomatic
I opened the program and added in the .bin file, I then added in the PPF patch to be applied to the .bin file
It succesfully patched the bin file
I re-ran ePSXe 1.7 and press "Run ISO" and pointed to the .bin File I patched.

Works bloody great.
Again thanks for your help.