shuts down

[X`terrania]

Hey,

I just started using emulators lately, and I started with this epsxe emulator, and when I play games my computer will randomly shut down, and then it shuts down again when I turn it back on.

Any ideas?

[Dynamo]

Sounds like either your pc is over heating or maybe a graphic driver issue. I'd think over heating though i've had the problem more then once.

[hushypushy]

Could also be a hardware instability, i.e. from an overclock.

So tell us, X`terrania, any of these ring a bell? Bad system ventilation? Bad drivers? Bad OC?

[leo9986754]

its definately a hardware problem. messed up RAMs can do the same thing too, but it might not be the case here.

[X`terrania]

No idea, could you guys possibly hint me in the right direction of checking all of this? plus, not sure if it's worth noting or anything.. but this is a laptop. And I can play Counter-Strike and some other games perfectly.

[RedLion]

Can you give us your laptop specs please?

[X`terrania]

Yeah, I'll just copy and paste it:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.06 GHz 533Mhz PSB
Memory Slots / Max: 1 RAM slot, unoccupied; 512MB DDR built-in (1536MB Max = 1024MB x 1 + 512 x 1)
Memory: 512MB DDR, built-in memory
Memory Slots / Available: 1 Slot, One Available
Display: Type: TFT Active Matrix colour LCD display
Size (diagonal): 15.4” Wide XGA TFT
LCD Panel Resolution: 1,280x800x16.7 million colours (native)
External Support and Max. Colour Support (dependant on CRT) :
800 x 600 x 16.7 million colours
1,024 x 768 x 16.7 million colours
1,280 x 800 x 16.7 million colours
1,280 x 1,024 x 16.7 million colours
1,440 x 900 x 16.7 million colours
1,600 x 1,200 x 16.7 million colours
1,920 x 1,440 x 16.7 million colours
2,048 x 1,536 x 16.7 million colours
Video: ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9000 IGP with 64MB DDR shared video memory
Video RAM: 64MB default (configurable to 32MB, 64MB (default), or 128MB (when system memory is expanded above 1,024MB)
Sound Card: Realtek ALC250 Audio chip
Hard Drive: 40.0 billion bytes (Enhanced IDE, 4,200rpm, 9.7mm height)
Hard Drive Partitions: 37.26GB (40,007,729,152 bytes) NTFS
Optical Media Drives: Read: CD-ROM (24X), CD-R (24X), CD-RW (12X), DVD-ROM (8X), DVD-R (4X). DVD-RW (4X), DVD RAM (2X)
Write: CD-R (24X), CD-RW (4X), CD-RW HS (10X), CD-RW US (24X).

[hushypushy]

Ah, it's a laptop, there you go.

Laptops do a variety of things to save power/cool themselves down.

Your problem is either

1. It's overheating. Keep it off your lap, give it lots of ventilation. It was meant to play games (you have a Radeon as opposed to Intel), so if you keep it ventilated, it SHOULD be ok. But you might want to look into those laptop bases that have the fans in them to keep it cool.

2. Your CPU is downclocking itself. All laptops (AFAIK all of them..) downclock themselves when they aren't using CPU. For some reason, ePSXe doesn't register to the CPU as using CPU power, so your CPU will clock down instantly and freak out ePSXe, causing it to crash or hang your CPU.

I'm leaning towards the first one, though. Keep an eye on your temps.

[X`terrania]

Surely it cannot be the self-clocking thing, because when downloading and such I leave the laptop on for a long time, usually overnight. Could it be that epsxe is a resource hog?

[cloudsBro]

You could try disabling automatic restart in Start >> ControlPanel >> System >> Advanced, so that you get a BSOD. At least then you would know what might be causing it. But you say your laptop shuts down so im not sure if it will still give a BSOD...

[X`terrania]

That was the first thing I disabled.. thanks, though.

[hushypushy]

Originally Posted by X`terrania

Surely it cannot be the self-clocking thing, because when downloading and such I leave the laptop on for a long time, usually overnight. Could it be that epsxe is a resource hog?

Your reasoning makes absolutely no sense. Your laptop downclocks when nothing is going on. For example, since I'm simply browsing the web with programs idling in the background, it would clock down for me. If I was doing something that required CPU, it'd be at full power. When you leave it downloading, either it's plugged in and thus not downclocking, or it's on battery power and it is clocked down.

And yes, ePSXe is somewhat of a resource hog. Have you tried giving it adequate cooling? Does it get hot when you play games?

[X`terrania]

No other game gives me this problem, last night we played an online game of Civilization IV for about 8 hours.. and it didn't get as hot as when I used the emulator.

And when you say downclocking, wouldn't haven aim and a few other programs on prevent that?

[hushypushy]

Yeah, you don't understand the downclocking thing, so I'll explain it more.

When you're on AIM, or just browsing the internet, or using IRC, or uTorrent, or Winamp, or whatever...then the CPU clocks down. Those programs don't need much power. It SHOULDN'T clock down for ePSXe, but there have been a ton of threads made about it.

HOWEVER I don't think that's the problem here, because that problem wouldn't make your computer restart, it would just freeze it.

And since you don't have restart on errors checked, that would rule out the fact that it's a driver issue.

AND since you just made that comparison about heat, we can assume in a roundabout way that you answered my question about it getting hot. You have a P4B--that CPU was never meant to be in a laptop, it's a power hog and a heat generator. ePSXe is definitely going to tax it, and make it get hot.

You can try manually downclocking it via the BIOS, so the CPU runs slower and cooler. You can try those platforms that you put your laptop on with fans so they can run cool.

I don't think that this is a software problem at all. But, just to make sure, go try different emulators. Do the same thing you've been doing, but try PSXeven, PCSX, SSSPSX, or pSX. If they all crash in the same way, then it's a hardware problem (probably the overheating).