Why Don't Games Work For Me?


plopperz

Huh?
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Alot of games and emulators (Beat2X, Gnuboy, Zelda Classic ....)don't work for me. Most of them just go back to the menu, but others display a black screen. The only thing that I can thonk of that would cause this is that my SD is formatted to FAT16, not FAT32; but I don't think that should be a problem.
 
1) Always check readmes, if you don't already. Make sure games and emus are in their default locations if they have one - sometimes this can cause issues, although you'd have to have very bad luck for it not to work on as much as it sounds like is the case.

1a) Unlikely from the crashes you describe, but check your batteries. Make sure they're freshly charged NiMH ones with a decent capacity (say, 2500mAh). If you are using Alkalines, then stop doing so and buy some rechargeables. The GP2x runs for very little time at all even on High Capacity Duracells, let alone on any others. That said battery-related crashes usually involve a white screen with no response to button input, multicoloured lines after a while followed by cessation of response, crashing when overclocking, or randomly turning off. Not black screens or being kicked back to the menu.

2) Return to menu indicates that the programs in question are crashing. Is there any way for you to test your RAM's integrity? If it's gone screwy that would potentially cause programs to crash, which would, of course, go back to the menu (or in those cases where the program explicitly tells the 2x not to relaunch the menu, a black screen). Nb that you should check this before the next point because IF your ram is buggered, then any firmware image loaded into it will get corrupted, so you could conceivably end up with a brick. I would imagine if this is the case you'll be able to ask for a replacement 2x from whoever you bought it from.

3) What firmware are you on? I understand you have an F200, so you should either be on 4.0 or 4.1 (assuming 4.1 exists for the F200). Even if you *are* I would recommend a re-flash - it's conceivable your firmware is just slightly corrupted. As I say, check the ram before a reflash, just in case.

4) If anything is working, what is? Are any working programs those with the mmuhack.o object? If there are, are those programs that are not working those with the mmuhack.o object? If there's a clear pattern, try deleting the mmuhack.o if those with it aren't running. NB that this will mean everything will run much slower than it should, and may indicate that there is a problem with your ram as speculated in point 2. If on the other hand the only programs that work are those with mmuhack.o present, you should try applying it manually in a script before running the requisite programs. I'm afraid I don't know how to do this.

6) Equally, are there any problems with video playback? Video playback uses the second CPU afaik, so if there are problems with that and with other programs that use the second CPU (Picodrive springs to mind, but there are others), that are not traceable to mmuhack.o (i.e. deleting it doesn't change status for that program), then you may have a faulty MMSP2 (the CPU) with a problem in the second core.


Can't think of much apart from those. If you *are* following readmes correctly, and you're using fully charged batteries, then almost any of the other possible issues are manufacturer faults, and mean you should ask for a replacement GP2x. The only one that isn't is the firmware-is-slightly-corrupt-but-not-too-badly, but as I say, find some way to check your memory first before you try reflashing, just in case. There *may* be tests to help in the CPU/LCD tweaker, but I don't know how well they work.
 
I'm in the exact same boat. Tried 3 SD cards, all with Fat32. I can't even get it to re-flash to 4.0 (I wondered if the firmware was slightly corrupt myself). When the flash runs, goes black, and back to menu. I'm currently in contact with the guy I bought it from, but I feel reluctance to get back to me because of the pain they would incure if they have to do something.
 
I am having similar problems. Movies work and I appear to have access to the SD card. However Mame4All and DrMDv seem to be doing the exact same thing... I load the emulator, get to the games list, select the game to be played... and black screen. Is this a non-NiMH battery issue? Assuming this puppy needs a constant flow of juice, not just normal AA batteries.

*sigh* I don't remember fun being so aggravating. Selling it WITH a power adapter would've made to much sense, I guess.
 
Gunsmoke1084 said:
I am having similar problems. Movies work and I appear to have access to the SD card. However Mame4All and DrMDv seem to be doing the exact same thing... I load the emulator, get to the games list, select the game to be played... and black screen. Is this a non-NiMH battery issue? Assuming this puppy needs a constant flow of juice, not just normal AA batteries.

*sigh* I don't remember fun being so aggravating. Selling it WITH a power adapter would've made to much sense, I guess.
Try changing the Sound Rate in the Options to something else for DrMD... that might also help in MAME4ALL.
 
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Gunsmoke1084 said:
I am having similar problems. Movies work and I appear to have access to the SD card. However Mame4All and DrMDv seem to be doing the exact same thing... I load the emulator, get to the games list, select the game to be played... and black screen. Is this a non-NiMH battery issue? Assuming this puppy needs a constant flow of juice, not just normal AA batteries.

*sigh* I don't remember fun being so aggravating. Selling it WITH a power adapter would've made to much sense, I guess.
If you are using normal AA batteries, Then that is your problem, Or at least part of it. Do yourself and your GP2x a favor and purchase some decent rechargable batteries, At least 2500+ mAh should keep you going for around 3-4 possibily 5 hours, And your GP2x should not crash so much either, As long as everything is setup correctly.

Go on, You owe it to yourself and your GP2x.

Trooper
 
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Gunsmoke1084 said:
Selling it WITH a power adapter would've made to much sense, I guess.
Hmm, buying it with an adapter would have made too much sense too. That's what I did :)

trooper said:
... And your GP3x should not crash so much either, As long as everything is setup correctly.
Let us know when he gets that one set up :) Maybe someone can make a video like the xbox portable :)
 
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bman said:
Gunsmoke1084 said:
Selling it WITH a power adapter would've made to much sense, I guess.
Hmm, buying it with an adapter would have made too much sense too. That's what I did :)

trooper said:
... And your GP3x should not crash so much either, As long as everything is setup correctly.
Let us know when he gets that one set up :) Maybe someone can make a video like the xbox portable :)


Lol, Oops, Changed.

Trooper
 
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Maybe it is a problem with the SD card?

The Zelda Classic launcher by default saves all output (error messages and all) to a file named z.log on the game directory, try to see if something is written on it after running.
 
The latest version of Zelda Classic seems to work now. I tried reformating my SD card and most things seem to work OK, but I'm still having problems with a few games. Thanks for all your help
 
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