epsxe and random freezing

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 00:35

Alundra, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and Arc the Lad I are the only games that don't have these random crashes.

tried Final Fantasy 7-9, Vandal Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, Megaman Legends 1 &2, Chrono Cross, Hoshigami, Saiyuki, Tales of Phantasia (translated and default import images).

all games ripped the same way, and all play fine on my friends computer when he brought his up when he was on Leave, so that rules out any improperly ripped images.

all versions of ePSXe get these same random "freezes", with no error log.
tried on windows xp, vista, and linux. same, but random results each time.
iso, disk, various other image formats as well, all have the same result (with running from disk being the slowest of the bunch)

for the games that DO work, they work flawlessly. no framerate drop or anything.

tried a few different emulators, some work on some games, and some dont. or some will work with some things, but not others. rumble in my pc->ps2 dual box pro for example, or analog mode. (tried SSSpsx, psxeven, and pSX. last of which is flawless but I want pretty eye candy for my hdtv i'm playing on)

theres been a few threads in the past, which i've looked at but none had a solution

tried normal clock speeds, even tried overclocking and underclocking my pc components but all trials were moot. tried different bios versions, drivers, reinstalls of various OS'
checked for faulty hardware by swapping to backup components, alas another dead end.

so what exactly is this "freeze"? its exactly that, a freeze that happens randomly. it just affects epsxe. dosen't happen with any of the other emulators i've tried. (but they've had their own problems, mostly with the Dual Box Pro controler adaptor)

PC speccs:
AMD Athlon FX-51
1024MB Corsair PC3200 RAM
ASUS sk8v motherboard
Creative Audigy 2 zs
Nvidia 6600 (AGP, 256MB video ram version)
ATi 9800 XT (backup card, as their linux support blow chunks)

no, plugin settings didn't change anything. still same randomness.

ps - at one point in the past I never did have this problem with ePSXe. then one day it just started. /shrug. i do know i was not playing the same games as i'm trying now though.

pps - computer isnt overheating, nor is epsxe maxing out my cpu. it's close but not quite.

Squall-Leonhart · June 6th, 2008, 02:24

Quote:

tried different bios versions,

Have fun getting support now wise guy.

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 02:34

no no, you misunderstood. i mean my COMPUTER bios, not different playstation bioses.

although i do have two to dump from. (slim and broken laser track original)

Squall-Leonhart · June 6th, 2008, 02:42

yeah yeah, i'll believe this one time.

what plugins and plugin settings.

**jonc2006** · June 6th, 2008, 02:52

do you have DEP enabled in vista?

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Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 03:01

sorry if it came off wrong, but i was talking about computer components and included the naughty word "bios" assuming whomever read would assume it ment computer bios

and thank you for your time, even if it is not able to get around the issue (as i'm just completely stumped)

well as i've stated, i've tried numerous plugins, and versions of said plugins, and different settings per each attempt.

but my current setup is as follows, since Final Fantasy Tactics dont freeze.
Eternal 1.50
Petes OGL2 (latest release)
Mooby disk image (although i just use the "open ISO" option instead)

*edit*
currently using XP. but during my vista trial and error, i tried with both DEP on and off, along with combinations of UAC and compatibility modes. when the emulator would work, i'd get missing triangles and wierd colors in some games such as the Final Fantasy 7-9 games.

====

eternal 1.50 settings
---------------
all default, but with 32 for buffer length and the "new" reverb preset.

====

Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8
Author: Pete Bernert
Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
GFX card: GeForce 6600/AGP/SSE2/3DNOW!

Resolution/Color:
- 1024x768 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing
- Internal X resolution: 1
- Internal Y resolution: 1
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off
- No render-to-texture: off

- Filtering: 0
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- TexWin pixel shader: on
- VRam size: 256 MBytes

Framerate:
- FPS limitation: on
- Frame skipping: off
- FPS limit: Auto

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 1
- Framebuffer effects: 3
- Framebuffer uploads: 1

Misc:
- Scanlines: off
- Mdec filter: on
- Screen filtering: on
- Shader effects: 5/4 *(AA Shader v1.0 - Daisy set to 4)*
- Flicker-fix border size: 0
- GF4/XP crash fix: off
- Game fixes: off [00000000]

**jonc2006** · June 6th, 2008, 03:05

those glitches you saw are caused by an issue between ATI catalyst drivers and the OGL plugins, update to 8.5.

__________________

Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs

The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart.
Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome.
Official jonc2006™ Fan Club
Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 03:19

alrighty, then the next time i use vista i'll be sure to give them a try. that was one of the reasons i've moved back to xp (that and vista hates some of the indy games i have, and my Ideazon MERC keyboard

)

currently running xp, and the nvidia 6600 using latest nvidia drivers.

(and if you must know, i cant use the back up card for more than 15 minutes because the fan broke on it, and i must drag the pc over to the window AC unit and have it blow directly into the case)

thank you for informing me of the ATi fix. *goes to remote download it on his friends pc*

Squall-Leonhart · June 6th, 2008, 03:22

- Internal X resolution: 1
- Internal Y resolution: 1
- Keep psx aspect ratio: off
- No render-to-texture: 2

- Filtering: 0
- Hi-Res textures: 0
- TexWin pixel shader: on
- VRam size: 256 MBytes (doesn't the 6600 only have 128mbs?)

Compatibility:
- Offscreen drawing: 1
- Framebuffer effects: 2
- Framebuffer uploads: 2

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 06:13

still a random freeze in a few games.

i'm gonna try flashing my bios a few different ways, as i ran across an article that said the asus update utility dont flash the bios properly or somesuch.

Squall-Leonhart · June 6th, 2008, 06:48

it might be the 6600 itself, they are prone to screwing up.

**jonc2006** · June 6th, 2008, 06:50

does it crash when using a software plugin?

__________________

Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs

The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart.
Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome.
Official jonc2006™ Fan Club
Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 07:25

yes, it does crash when using a software plugin.
all of pete's plugins all experience this (cant tell if its plugin, emulator, or hardware related)

last time it crashed, it was during some controler feedback/rumbling, and it continued to vibrate until the emulator was restarted and playing another game.

and no, reflashing using afudos or ez-flash didnt help either. (although that did fix some issue with a bios picture not disabling when i told it to. i like to see the POST screen)

i just cant figure out why it works on a few games without crashing (and I've played FFT over the weekend for atleast 6 hours straight.)

i'll try cleaning out drivers, and giving the 9800xt a whirl to see of the crashes also happen on this. *goes to construct a duct from AC unit to PC case out of cardboard*

ps - there are 126 and 256 version of the 6600 (non GT).

**jonc2006** · June 6th, 2008, 08:11

are you using PAL region games? and those games that work are all 2d right? maybe its crashing because there is something wrong with your video card's 3d hardware acceleration.

__________________

Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs

The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart.
Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome.
Official jonc2006™ Fan Club
Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

Squall-Leonhart · June 6th, 2008, 08:18

Quote:

are you using PAL region games? and those games that work are all 2d right? maybe its crashing because there is something wrong with your video card's 3d hardware acceleration.

depending on the model of 6600, it may/may not use a br02 bridge chip..... these are well known for being subject to damage

Kamikaze_Ice · June 6th, 2008, 09:55

xenogears, another that don't crash (except for the known crashing locations like Deus). this, and FFT are 2d and 3d together, so i don't think there's something wrong with the 3d acceleration. that and WoW, LOTRO, and some Source powered games are quite happy with my video card and show no artifacts or overheating image distortion/corruption. then again, there could be something wrong that only emulation would be requesting and causing a hang, but i can't figure out what kind of call it could be since its random.

i tried leaving the game on for extended periods of time a while back, and it never crashed as long as i didnt touch the controller, but whenever i have some kind of input it has always froze. could be coincidence, or something happening thats causing a clash. i'll try playing without a joypad for a while and see if that might be the problem. (using a basic keyboard, not my MERC, just to be careful)

i also looked into that br02 thing, and well if that wasnt working properly i wouldn't have a video card. from what i understand its how Nvidia takes a PCI-X card and rewires and programs it for AGP. so if it went bad, you shouldn't have any card use.
and i used RivaTuner to check if my card had this br02 Bridge, and yes it does. as do all nvidia agp cards since the 6600 atleast.

*Edit*
woke up for some reason and it dawned on me, that my motherboard dosent have an AGP/PCI bus lock, so its changing frequencies even at default clock speeds. perhaps this is why it crashes? to tired to look for a way to test this as a theory. hopefully this isnt the cause.

Last edited by Kamikaze_Ice; June 6th, 2008 at 13:06..

June 6th, 2008, 00:35	#1
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	epsxe and random freezing Alundra, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and Arc the Lad I are the only games that don't have these random crashes. tried Final Fantasy 7-9, Vandal Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, Megaman Legends 1 &2, Chrono Cross, Hoshigami, Saiyuki, Tales of Phantasia (translated and default import images). all games ripped the same way, and all play fine on my friends computer when he brought his up when he was on Leave, so that rules out any improperly ripped images. all versions of ePSXe get these same random "freezes", with no error log. tried on windows xp, vista, and linux. same, but random results each time. iso, disk, various other image formats as well, all have the same result (with running from disk being the slowest of the bunch) for the games that DO work, they work flawlessly. no framerate drop or anything. tried a few different emulators, some work on some games, and some dont. or some will work with some things, but not others. rumble in my pc->ps2 dual box pro for example, or analog mode. (tried SSSpsx, psxeven, and pSX. last of which is flawless but I want pretty eye candy for my hdtv i'm playing on) theres been a few threads in the past, which i've looked at but none had a solution tried normal clock speeds, even tried overclocking and underclocking my pc components but all trials were moot. tried different bios versions, drivers, reinstalls of various OS' checked for faulty hardware by swapping to backup components, alas another dead end. so what exactly is this "freeze"? its exactly that, a freeze that happens randomly. it just affects epsxe. dosen't happen with any of the other emulators i've tried. (but they've had their own problems, mostly with the Dual Box Pro controler adaptor) PC speccs: AMD Athlon FX-51 1024MB Corsair PC3200 RAM ASUS sk8v motherboard Creative Audigy 2 zs Nvidia 6600 (AGP, 256MB video ram version) ATi 9800 XT (backup card, as their linux support blow chunks) no, plugin settings didn't change anything. still same randomness. ps - at one point in the past I never did have this problem with ePSXe. then one day it just started. /shrug. i do know i was not playing the same games as i'm trying now though. pps - computer isnt overheating, nor is epsxe maxing out my cpu. it's close but not quite.

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June 6th, 2008, 02:34	#3
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	no no, you misunderstood. i mean my COMPUTER bios, not different playstation bioses. although i do have two to dump from. (slim and broken laser track original)

June 6th, 2008, 02:42	#4
Squall-Leonhart Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 23,270	yeah yeah, i'll believe this one time. what plugins and plugin settings.

June 6th, 2008, 02:52	#5
jonc2006 Mod of Douchebagness™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA MD Posts: 9,793	do you have DEP enabled in vista? __________________ Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart. Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome. Official jonc2006™ Fan Club Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

June 6th, 2008, 03:01	#6
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	sorry if it came off wrong, but i was talking about computer components and included the naughty word "bios" assuming whomever read would assume it ment computer bios and thank you for your time, even if it is not able to get around the issue (as i'm just completely stumped) well as i've stated, i've tried numerous plugins, and versions of said plugins, and different settings per each attempt. but my current setup is as follows, since Final Fantasy Tactics dont freeze. Eternal 1.50 Petes OGL2 (latest release) Mooby disk image (although i just use the "open ISO" option instead) edit currently using XP. but during my vista trial and error, i tried with both DEP on and off, along with combinations of UAC and compatibility modes. when the emulator would work, i'd get missing triangles and wierd colors in some games such as the Final Fantasy 7-9 games. ==== eternal 1.50 settings --------------- all default, but with 32 for buffer length and the "new" reverb preset. ==== Plugin: Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8 Author: Pete Bernert Card vendor: NVIDIA Corporation GFX card: GeForce 6600/AGP/SSE2/3DNOW! Resolution/Color: - 1024x768 Fullscreen - NO desktop changing - Internal X resolution: 1 - Internal Y resolution: 1 - Keep psx aspect ratio: off - No render-to-texture: off - Filtering: 0 - Hi-Res textures: 0 - TexWin pixel shader: on - VRam size: 256 MBytes Framerate: - FPS limitation: on - Frame skipping: off - FPS limit: Auto Compatibility: - Offscreen drawing: 1 - Framebuffer effects: 3 - Framebuffer uploads: 1 Misc: - Scanlines: off - Mdec filter: on - Screen filtering: on - Shader effects: 5/4 (AA Shader v1.0 - Daisy set to 4) - Flicker-fix border size: 0 - GF4/XP crash fix: off - Game fixes: off [00000000]

June 6th, 2008, 03:05	#7
jonc2006 Mod of Douchebagness™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA MD Posts: 9,793	those glitches you saw are caused by an issue between ATI catalyst drivers and the OGL plugins, update to 8.5. __________________ Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart. Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome. Official jonc2006™ Fan Club Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

June 6th, 2008, 03:19	#8
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	alrighty, then the next time i use vista i'll be sure to give them a try. that was one of the reasons i've moved back to xp (that and vista hates some of the indy games i have, and my Ideazon MERC keyboard ) currently running xp, and the nvidia 6600 using latest nvidia drivers. (and if you must know, i cant use the back up card for more than 15 minutes because the fan broke on it, and i must drag the pc over to the window AC unit and have it blow directly into the case) thank you for informing me of the ATi fix. goes to remote download it on his friends pc

June 6th, 2008, 03:22	#9
Squall-Leonhart Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 23,270	- Internal X resolution: 1 - Internal Y resolution: 1 - Keep psx aspect ratio: off - No render-to-texture: 2 - Filtering: 0 - Hi-Res textures: 0 - TexWin pixel shader: on - VRam size: 256 MBytes (doesn't the 6600 only have 128mbs?) Compatibility: - Offscreen drawing: 1 - Framebuffer effects: 2 - Framebuffer uploads: 2

June 6th, 2008, 06:13	#10
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	still a random freeze in a few games. i'm gonna try flashing my bios a few different ways, as i ran across an article that said the asus update utility dont flash the bios properly or somesuch.

June 6th, 2008, 06:48	#11
Squall-Leonhart Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 23,270	it might be the 6600 itself, they are prone to screwing up.

June 6th, 2008, 06:50	#12
jonc2006 Mod of Douchebagness™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA MD Posts: 9,793	does it crash when using a software plugin? __________________ Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart. Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome. Official jonc2006™ Fan Club Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

June 6th, 2008, 07:25	#13
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	yes, it does crash when using a software plugin. all of pete's plugins all experience this (cant tell if its plugin, emulator, or hardware related) last time it crashed, it was during some controler feedback/rumbling, and it continued to vibrate until the emulator was restarted and playing another game. and no, reflashing using afudos or ez-flash didnt help either. (although that did fix some issue with a bios picture not disabling when i told it to. i like to see the POST screen) i just cant figure out why it works on a few games without crashing (and I've played FFT over the weekend for atleast 6 hours straight.) i'll try cleaning out drivers, and giving the 9800xt a whirl to see of the crashes also happen on this. goes to construct a duct from AC unit to PC case out of cardboard ps - there are 126 and 256 version of the 6600 (non GT).

June 6th, 2008, 08:11	#14
jonc2006 Mod of Douchebagness™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA MD Posts: 9,793	are you using PAL region games? and those games that work are all 2d right? maybe its crashing because there is something wrong with your video card's 3d hardware acceleration. __________________ Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@4.0GHz/Dual eVGA e-Geforce GTX280 1GB DDR3 SLI Enabled/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart. Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome. Official jonc2006™ Fan Club Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

June 6th, 2008, 09:55	#16
Kamikaze_Ice Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: earth Posts: 7	xenogears, another that don't crash (except for the known crashing locations like Deus). this, and FFT are 2d and 3d together, so i don't think there's something wrong with the 3d acceleration. that and WoW, LOTRO, and some Source powered games are quite happy with my video card and show no artifacts or overheating image distortion/corruption. then again, there could be something wrong that only emulation would be requesting and causing a hang, but i can't figure out what kind of call it could be since its random. i tried leaving the game on for extended periods of time a while back, and it never crashed as long as i didnt touch the controller, but whenever i have some kind of input it has always froze. could be coincidence, or something happening thats causing a clash. i'll try playing without a joypad for a while and see if that might be the problem. (using a basic keyboard, not my MERC, just to be careful) i also looked into that br02 thing, and well if that wasnt working properly i wouldn't have a video card. from what i understand its how Nvidia takes a PCI-X card and rewires and programs it for AGP. so if it went bad, you shouldn't have any card use. and i used RivaTuner to check if my card had this br02 Bridge, and yes it does. as do all nvidia agp cards since the 6600 atleast. Edit woke up for some reason and it dawned on me, that my motherboard dosent have an AGP/PCI bus lock, so its changing frequencies even at default clock speeds. perhaps this is why it crashes? to tired to look for a way to test this as a theory. hopefully this isnt the cause. Last edited by Kamikaze_Ice; June 6th, 2008 at 13:06..