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Old May 11th, 2012, 02:46   #1
VelenX
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VBA 1.7 OSX Crashes without reason.

Actually. I'm going to use this thread to state multiple problems I have been having. I'll start with the one-related to the title.

While playing VBA OS X 1.7, I have found that after a period of time, it will simply stop and lock up without any rhyme or reason to cause it. Does anyone know what this happens?

Now for the other stuff...

I have both a Mac OS, and a Win 7 OS on Parallels Desktop on a 13" MacBook Pro.

On the Win 7 side of things I have been having several problems when trying to run VBA at 0 frameskip (my desired frameskip rate). Whenever I managed to get it to run at almost 100%, I would experience audio crackle and stuttering. I want to eliminate these.

Another thing I experienced while trying older versions is a weird issues that suddenly popped up with turning off Synchronization. For some odd reason, VBA will suddenly speed up to over 300% for no discernible reason, and when turned on, it runs as thought it is at a frameskip rate of 1 or 2, even though it is set to 0 at the time.

I also noticed some problems with VBA-M in regards to sound: There is no bass in the music. None whatsoever.

Does anyone know how to fix these problems?
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Old May 11th, 2012, 13:49   #2
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Your first Windows 7 problem and your second basically seem to be direct opposites of each other. Usually when the first occurs it means your system isn't powerful enough (though there's no reason why any modern system would struggle) and the second means your system has more than enough power because it can easily run the game at over 300% since when the audio sync is disabled it runs as fast as your system will allow.

So for the sound problem try updating the audio drivers is basically all I can suggest...and the 2nd is just the way things are since the audio sync is used to restrict the game to 100%.

I also haven't experienced any such issues with VBA-M and I'm afraid I have no clue about the mac side of things.
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Old May 11th, 2012, 16:26   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SCHUMI_4EVER View Post
Your first Windows 7 problem and your second basically seem to be direct opposites of each other. Usually when the first occurs it means your system isn't powerful enough (though there's no reason why any modern system would struggle) and the second means your system has more than enough power because it can easily run the game at over 300% since when the audio sync is disabled it runs as fast as your system will allow.

So for the sound problem try updating the audio drivers is basically all I can suggest...and the 2nd is just the way things are since the audio sync is used to restrict the game to 100%.

I also haven't experienced any such issues with VBA-M and I'm afraid I have no clue about the mac side of things.
Any idea where I can obtain updated audio drivers? I currently I have DirectX 9 drivers installed and I've been trying to get them updated to the DirectX 11 versions.
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Old May 11th, 2012, 16:31   #4
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No that stuff is for graphics. What you need are audio drivers but I can't tell you where to get them since I don't know what sound device (likely an onboard chip of some sort perhaps made by Realtek but that's not enough to go on and it could be something completely different) you have.
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Old May 11th, 2012, 17:41   #5
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Soundchip... Let me try looking up System Profiler for the Macbook.

...

It says I have an Intel Hi-Def Audio built in, but I dunno if that's what you're looking for. How do I check what kind of sound chip / card my Macbook Pro 13" has?
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Old May 12th, 2012, 03:20   #6
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To add to my previous post: I think I may have a theory on why the emulator will suddenly stop and lock up without apparent reason, and it's the only thing I can think off with my limited knowledge of programming: memory leaks.

Unfortunately I don't have the tools to investigate this myself. Someone else would have to check it out.
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Old May 12th, 2012, 13:36   #7
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No that's definitely not the case.

Which version of the emulator are you using in Windows by the way?
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Old May 12th, 2012, 15:19   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SCHUMI_4EVER View Post
No that's definitely not the case.

Which version of the emulator are you using in Windows by the way?
I've tried using several versions in my Windows 7 Virtual Machine.

1.1,2,3,4,5,6 and 1.7.1 as well as the latest version and the latest VBA-M.

No matter which version I use (with the exception of VBA-M), they all seem to have the same problem: audio crackle and stutter no matter how high it's priority is in the Task Manager, or on the emulator itself. Though they are minor to a degree. It's annoying when it's loud-enough to be noticeable, and this is just because I want to run the games like they actually run on the actual GBA itself.

My problem with VBA-M is that it doesn't play the wave data for bass and percussion tracks, or so it seems. Squall Leonheart from the VBA-M team said it's apparently a wave RAM issue, but I think it's more of the fault it's programming.
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Old May 12th, 2012, 16:01   #9
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Hmm if it works on VBA-M then it's likely because VBA-M by default uses a different audio codec, XAudio, whereas normal VBA uses DirectSound or something like that.

Then pretty much the only thing I can suggest is to run the dxwebsetup so that any DirectX files you may be missing can be updated and downloaded.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ils.aspx?id=35

Unfortunately I can't find much on Audio drivers. Googling Intel HD Audio mainly leads me to OSX systems the only stuff I can find which mentions Windows 7 is usually a system that has no sound at all and then they fix it by downloading the latest Bootcamp version from Apple and installing it so perhaps try that.

This isn't a VBA fault though, it's some sort of incompatibility/driver glitch...the only problem is I don't know how to fix it since I've only ever dealt with purely windows computers usually running Realtek onboard sound.

Most likely cause would be some sort of sound buffer issue that exists in Windows 7's default sound driver when used to run Intel HD Audio and since I can't find much mention of Intel HD Audio in connection with Windows I don't know how to fix it.




Edit: Scratch that last bit, I was searching together with Mac, if I just search for Intel HD Audio it appears that it's linked to the chipset of the motherboard which means those are the drivers you would need, which means we need to know what motherboard you have.
Download this:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy
And then give me a Screenshot of the Summary and Motherboard and Audio pages.
(there are other ways to check but I think this is the easiest)
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Old May 12th, 2012, 23:53   #10
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Okay. I'll get back to you when I have it...

Okay. Here is the screenshot.

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Old May 13th, 2012, 00:27   #11
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that's just the summary page, I also wanted Audio and Motherboard
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Old May 13th, 2012, 04:10   #12
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Sorry. Hold on.

. . .

Here you go.

Spoiler:


Spoiler:
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Old May 13th, 2012, 13:03   #13
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Well that doesn't make any sense...you have an Intel system with an Intel processor and Intel chipset but with a sound chip that identifies as belonging to AMD? That's impossible.

And that means I have no clue how to help you.

All I can suggest is downloading and running the latest version of Apple Bootcamp. It helped those with no sound so perhaps it can help you as well.
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Old May 13th, 2012, 18:29   #14
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Quote:
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Well that doesn't make any sense...you have an Intel system with an Intel processor and Intel chipset but with a sound chip that identifies as belonging to AMD? That's impossible.

And that means I have no clue how to help you.

All I can suggest is downloading and running the latest version of Apple Bootcamp. It helped those with no sound so perhaps it can help you as well.
Maybe the audio driver being detected belongs to Parallels Desktop and not the Macbook itself? That might explain the conflict?
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Old May 13th, 2012, 19:35   #15
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I have no idea...but now that you mention it it does seem to be running in a sort of virtual machine (I guess that's what apple bootcamp is) which would mean all my advice has been pointless.

I usually just ignore mac problems since I have no experience with them but since you were using Windows I figured I could fix them the way I usually do but apparently macs still do something different I don't know about so I don't have a clue about any of this any more. I'd been barking completely up the wrong tree since identifying stuff like the motherboard and the chipset and audio device is all pointless in a virtual machine.

So sorry but it seems I plain can't help you.
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Old May 14th, 2012, 01:53   #16
VelenX
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I have no idea...but now that you mention it it does seem to be running in a sort of virtual machine (I guess that's what apple bootcamp is) which would mean all my advice has been pointless.

I usually just ignore mac problems since I have no experience with them but since you were using Windows I figured I could fix them the way I usually do but apparently macs still do something different I don't know about so I don't have a clue about any of this any more. I'd been barking completely up the wrong tree since identifying stuff like the motherboard and the chipset and audio device is all pointless in a virtual machine.

So sorry but it seems I plain can't help you.
Do you know anyone who would know enough about Macs or Mac programs, or programming in general, that would be able to explain why a program being run, at 100% without any problems whatsoever would suddenly lock up without any prior indicators that it would do so?
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Old May 14th, 2012, 02:11   #17
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Well what I meant by I'm barking up the wrong tree is the fixes that I was trying were completely wrong, not the reason for trying them. It's obviously some form of glitch/incompatibility between the virtual machine and Windows most likely linked to audio drivers specifically the sound buffer. But it's not something someone on the VBA side can fix (or something that's broken on that side)...and it's not something someone on the Virtual Machine's side can fix either since I'm pretty sure the guys at Apple don't know or care about emulators (and might even despise them)...so pretty much the only chance is someone with more experience with Macs running Windows seeing this thread so pretty much all you can do is hope and wait (and no I don't know anyone).

Would probably be easier to just makedo with VBA-M.
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Old June 1st, 2012, 05:01   #18
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are you using parallels 7?
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