ePSXe: Win98=great, WinXP=???

[Cloral]

Well, ePSXe ran great under Windows98 for me. Then I switched to WindowsXP, and it doesn't seem to want to run right anymore. The frame rate has become very irregular (even when I check the 'use fps limit' or 'skip frames' checkboxes under Pete's Plugins configuration), much of the sound no longer plays, and my controller doesn't seem to be recognized by ePSXe even though the configuration utility seems to understand it perfectly well. Any clues as to what is going on/how I could fix this?

[Esturk]

WinXP=Awesome. Make sure to get the latest Windows XP drivers for all of your hardware from the manufacturers site. Especially your Graphics and Sound card. And then make sure to select the NT/2000 core in your CDROM plugin settings. And perhaps post your computer specs for us.

[Dark Watcher]

hehehe...damn XP...okidoke..follow along!

XP has a nasty habit of choosing the crappiest drivers ..particulary graphics..be sure to install the drivers specific to your card..for example Detonator drivers for NVidia cards...

Sound? If the native plugin is acting funny on ya..be sure to visit the downloads section and try out PEOPS SPU or Eternal SPU. However the native should work....hmm..are you using onboard sound or a sound card...maybe driver related too. Try the other plugins first..then check the drivers after..

Control? perhaps another driver issue, but if XP recognizes the controller..try downloading this nifty ePSXe Gamepad Configurator tool by Xorcist....

that should do it...if not you may have to post some plugin settings...

[Yeloazndevil]

u also might need a ASPI Layer

[Snake785]

Or use PEOPS CDR and you wont need ForceASPI...

[Cloral]

Well, there was a newer version of the Detonator Drivers than I had, but they caused my computer to not be able to start anymore. Thank goodness for the 'restore last good state' thing.

As for the sound - I get some sound, but not all. Actually, I am not too concerned about this yet - I figure this may take care of itself if I can get the other stuff working. Besides, sound isn't that important.

I'm about to try the controller configuration thing. In the meantime, here are my specs:

Pentium4 1.7GHz
256MB RAM
GeForce2 MX 400 (I am seriously thinking about replaceing this as it has never seemed to work well with any release of the Detonator Drivers)
AudioPCI sound card
Thrustmaster Dual Analog controller
DVD Drive
CDR Drive (currently I use the DVD drive as it worked better for ePSXe under Win98, however I am going to try it both ways to be sure)

[Shiori]

Always get the WHQL versions of the drivers from nvidia's site. I doubt there are any GF2MX's that can't run well on reference drivers.

[Zeke_D]

I am also unsure of your problems I have run the last 6 or so detonator drivers and I also have a GF2 mx400

[Yeloazndevil]

Originally posted by Shiori
Always get the WHQL versions of the drivers from nvidia's site. I doubt there are any GF2MX's that can't run well on reference drivers.

also disable your Antivirus software before installing the det. drivers

[Cloral]

Unfortunately, that is the version of the drivers I tried. I have a very strong inclination to believe that my card is defective in some way (especially since it also does wierd things under Linux so it certainly isn't a Windows issue), which is why I want to replace it.

After some more testing, it seems that there is not a problem with the controller, and probably not the sound either. Let me explain:

I've been testing this on Wild Arms. If I turn automatic frame skip on, the "SCEA Presents" screen comes and goes, and then nothing happens. If I disable automatic frame skip, the "SCEA Presents" screen appears, and then sits there for about 30 seconds before being replaced by the "Media Vision" screen. This dissapears, but the animated sequence (a FMV) never shows - instead, it goes straight to the title screen. There is no sound on the title screen (which there should be) and I cannot press start to get the game to start. However, if I leave it for a few seconds, it goes into the demo sequence, where the sound plays fine. And I can press start during it to go back to the title screen - which however is still messed up as previously described. Note that all of this worked as it was supposed to before I installed XP.

I'll test another game in a minute and see how it works.

edit:
After some more thought, I have decided that this is probably a CD Drive compatability issue (the included plugin gives me read errors at the points where the game seems messed up, but none of the other plugins seem to bother reporting error messages). I tried the ASPI layer and the PEOPS CDR plugin, but neither helped. What else can I try?

edit again:
Well... I tried Chrono Cross, and it runs perfectly fine. So I guess it could be that Wild Arms got scratched or something.
I'll test it on an actual PSX next time I can get to one (I'm currently in a dorm room at university and don't exactly have much space which is the whole reason I'm running the emu instead of using the actual console), and see if that is indeed the case.

Well, thank you all for your help. I'm sorry I wasted your time. :o

[Esturk]

Originally posted by Zeke_D
I am also unsure of your problems I have run the last 6 or so detonator drivers and I also have a GF2 mx400

Same here. I've tried all the dets since I got my MX400 and they all worked flawlessly.

[cosmopeacock]

*inserts 2 c coin*

aehm... I have XP Home here, it works. well, at least with the 4-5 games I got to test it with in these few days since I discovered the emulator existed... apart from specific games' troubles, so yeah, I'd tend to confirm it must be something to do with the drivers, rather than with the system itself...

[MaxxJag]

Personally I have a GeForce 2 MX 32 megs, and I tried the latest 40 detonator...slow as hell, Alice's Menu was horribly slow as well as Q3A. no idea why. so I figured I'd go to a site and find out which I should be using for my card. 30.82 was what I found and now the system works. maybe it might be because my motherboard does support 4x AGP only 2X, no idea...but worth a try.

[Cloral]

Well, this is odd...
I looked at the Wild Arms CD and noticed it had a large mark on it. So I cleaned it, and now the pauses are gone and the FMV shows up. However, it still does not respond to input during the FMV or title screen, meaning I cannot play it. This is not a controller issue, as I tried the keyboard and it didn't respond to that either. The fun thing is this used to work before...

Could this be an issue with the emulator I could perhaps fix, or should I take this up in the specific games forum?

[Phoenix Flame]

Try pressing F5.

[Snake785]

You should try older det drivers. I am using the onve of they very first WQHL(?) certified drivers which is something like 29.31 or something like that and they work great

[Kirby]

The Detonator 4's are optomized for the never TI series and Geforce4's. Odviously all the new D4s do is slow the whole thing down for the older Geforce users

[Kane]

Hmmm.... This is quoted from an interview with nVidia

[NH]: If we look at driver updates, what type of performance increases can we expect from the current nVidia products? Have the drivers already reached the point of maximum theoretical performance or is there still a bit more to squeeze out of the GeForce 4 Ti-series?
[nV]: nVidia will keep building on our Unified Driver Architecture which means that all nVIdia products across the board (from TNT and up) will receive substantial performance improvements in the future too. You will see the greatest increases when we release new series (such as Detonator 3, Xp and 40). We test new drivers on a daily basis optimized for different applications and features and when we release a new driver we incorporate all those optimization in to our latest driver.