FF7 Black Screen between scenes.

[Wormbo87]

Greetings {emuforums},
I have been running FF7 successfully under epsxe 1.6.0 for few months now. However since the last format (where i also took the opportunity to replace my aging DVD drive) i have had an issue running the game. I have had the same issue when running the game on epsxe 1.7.0

Sometimes when FF7 changes 'scenes' from one setting to another or to a menu the game changes to a black screen and stays there. The music continues to play as normal and as far as i can tell the emulator receives no inputs from the controller. The computer still runs normally (as I can exit epsxe). The game just seems to stop working fairly regularly.

My computer is currently a:
2800 Sempron CPU
nVidia 6200 256 Mb
1.5 Gb ram

Not impressive, but it has run the game without issue before.

I have run the game from ISO and CD-rom with no improvement. I have also run it with Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9 and P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver 1.17 with no success.

Has anyone has similar issues?

Many thanks.
-Wormbo87

[jonc2006]

how does it run on other emulators like psx? is this the only game that this is happening in or is it any game you try?

[Wormbo87]

Solution found!

The Error was not the result of the Emulator at all. Examining my new DVD drive I confirmed my second deepest fears! My ASUS DWR 2014-L1T is a lemon. The firmware and its upgrades are lackluster and fail at the only task I trusted them with: Operation.

The Black screens were the result of the DVD drive losing track of the track it was supposed to be reading.

So if your Emulators black out between scenes then check the health/effectiveness of your DVD Drive.

Also as far as trying other emulators it seems ePSXe is the only one that will work without me sub-majoring in software and control systems. Good work ePSXe team.

-Wormbo87

[KrossX]

[...] I have run the game from ISO and CD-rom with no improvement [...]

So it makes corrupted images too? I guess it's time for a replacement. I had one with troubles at playing, but it was fine for making images.

And by the way, I like your last post. ^^

[Wormbo87]

Danke, i had noticed a number of small errors in a few other burns, a strange skipping when playing audio CDs and an inability to read DVD movies. A pity, I did like the colour.

Now... where did I leave my proof of purchase and warranty card?

[Squall-Leonhart]

use a DVD-RW instead of a CD-RW or DVD/CDRom

[Wormbo87]

Are you referring to the Disk itself or the Drive?
The games I own are surprisingly enough; Legit. I went to a third world country and picked them up where 1990's tech was being sold as new. My fellow countrymen will know this place as the state of Queensland.

I have a spare Drive, sounds like a blower-vac but she reads true I say.

[Squall-Leonhart]

i mean the Drive itself, most CDRW/Rom drives don't support the necessary subchannel read modes. every DVD-RW i've owned however, does.