Problem running games from discs

[silentx3ro]

Hey all,
First of all much respect to the team behind PCSX2 for this incredible program!

Secondly, many appologies if this question is answered elsewhere, I went over the FAQ and the Setup guide a few times and made ample use of the search function but have been unable to find a solution, but that is alot or reading and I may have overlooked something.

So the problem I'm having is that I seem to be unable to run my games from the original PS2 discs, I haven't tested many but I made sure the ones I was testing were listed on the site as Playable on the compatibility page.

When ever I try to run them I get a screen akin to the PS2 Browser screen (but with a red back ground) asking me to "Please insert a Playstation or Playstation 2 format disc". This occurs when selecting both full and fast boot and I have the CDVD set to plugin when trying to boot from disc.

The thing is upon making one of the games (Dynasty Warriors 4) into a .iso image and using that, all booted as expected and the game itself ran great. Although this curcumvents the problem I have ALOT of PS2 games and don't really want to dedicate a ton of HDD space to them if at all possible. So I'm hoping someone can aid me in getting the games to run from the discs

The only message of note I get when trying to run from discs is "GIFTAG warning, size exceeded VU memory size 400" but this occurs during running of the .iso I ripped as well.

So, now you know the problem, here are all the pertinent (I think!) facts;

System;
OS: Windows Vista 32-bit (SP2)
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6700 - 2.66GHz
GPU: MSi N560GTX-Ti TwinFrozrII (OC Edition) - 1024MB GDDR5
RAM: 4GB DDR2

PCSX2 Version: 0.9.8

Plug-ins;
GS: GSdx ver0.1.16 (SSSE3)
--Renderer: Direct3D11 (Hardware)
--Interlacing: Blend bff
PAD: LilyPad ver0.10.0
--Default Settings
--Saitek P2600 Configured as PAD1
SPU2: SPU2-X ver?
--Default Settings
CDVD: Linuz Iso CDVD ver0.9.0 (when starting from .iso)
--Default settings
CDVD:CDVD Gigaherz ver0.8.0 (when attempting to start from discs)
--Set to correct DVD Drive

I think thats everything you need to know! Let me know if I forgot anything.
Any help would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers
Xero

[MyDreamName]

The GIFTTAG WARNING appears because your BiOS does not contain specific data. This is perfectly normal and you should not worry.

However, I can't suggest anything if you don't want to rip your discs except to try and cleaning the disks.

Of course, you could always get an external hard drive and store your games on there.

[Amak]

Hmmm... my best guess would be the discs are dirty or really scratched. That would for sure give you that error. Have a PS2 you can test on?

[silentx3ro]

Hmmm... my best guess would be the discs are dirty or really scratched. That would for sure give you that error. Have a PS2 you can test on?

I take pretty could care of my games and all the discs are pristine, save one or two that I foolishly loaned to people and now no longer run.

The game that has now become my control, Dynasty Warriors 4 is in perfect condition but does the following;

-runs on PCSX2 when I ripped it to a .iso from the disc.
-runs on my PS2 without problems.
-will not run on PCSX2 from the disc.

Dust and/or damage is not the issue

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

Beyond the emulator suffering from being late to get the data (as when reading from the disc) and performance hit... the actual issue may be you need to change the GUI to "Plugin" instead "Iso" and cdvdGigaHerz plugin pointing to the correct driver (It must point to the same drive letter assigned to the actual driver at Windows).

Before 0.98 PCSX2 version, having "Iso" selected and a physical or virtual driver mounted on cdvdGigaHerz led to crashes, that does not happen anymore but the emulator can't find the game if it's not set to read from actual plugin.

Once a greater source of misunderstanding, the "Iso" option is only for the internal ISO reader, no plugin is directly involved and the game is selected at that "Iso selector" option. The confusion arises when mounting an ISO in the plugin and thinking "Iso" and not "Plugin" is to be set (understandable confusion indeed).

Notice when using an ISO image you don't need to mount it in Linus ISO cdvd plugin anymore, it's enough to select it on "Iso selector" and changing to "Iso". Otherwise, when using actual physical disc, mount it on cdvdGigaHerz and change the former option in the GUI to "Plugin", that should be enough.

Footnote: If the emulator is installed on the default C:\Program Files folder, all kind and types of unpredictable problems might occur. You should never install games in specially protected folders on Vista or Seven, not even PC games. Those folders include but are not limited to C:\Program Files, Documents, Desktop... and so on. Just create a folder under C: or another partition and be used to install all games in there. Calling this user created folder as "Games" (or equivalent, without the quotes) is good to keep things organized and in one unique site.

[silentx3ro]

Thanks for the response. I see what you mean about mounting iso's in the plugin or using the inbuilt iso selector. It appears that I have infact been using the iso selector to run the .iso I made from my control game.

The problem I have though is not with running the iso but running from the original disc, however, I don't think that what you suggested is the problem.

As I stated in the OP when I am trying to boot from disc I am using Gigaherz CDVD plugin, I have the GUI set to Plugin, not iso, and I have the plugin referencing the correct (and only) disc drive on my system.

The search for a solution continues.

Thanks all so far for taking the time to respond, I do appreciate it.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

I tried to cover the most common causes of issues, one of these is if you have more than one DVD drive, physical and/or virtual...
In this case you need to certify the cdvdGigaHerz is pointing to the correct drive letter (it is done in the plugin configuration).

Other than this I can only think the plugin is having problem with that specific physical drive itself.

[silentx3ro]

I tried to cover the most common causes of issues, one of these is if you have more than one DVD drive, physical and/or virtual...
In this case you need to certify the cdvdGigaHerz is pointing to the correct drive letter (it is done in the plugin configuration).

Other than this I can only think the plugin is having problem with that specific physical drive itself.

Yeah I'm starting to think that the issue is hardware related to, however the drive has shown no issues with anything else
Regardless I went out this morning and picked up an 500GB external drive and am now in the process of making all my PS2 games into ISO's.

Thanks to all for their help but I've given up trying to get discs to work.

Cheers
Xero

[Bositman]

Try this: In the console window go to sources and check CDVD reads. Then try running the game from disc again. It's possible you get a black screen but the game is just loading the data slowly, meaning you have to wait more

[Eldrants]

Try checking ur discs drive with dvd movies n play the movie with powerdvd or the like of em. Have problem? Or mybe ur bios.. What bios u used? But since iso works ur bios is ok i think.

Try this click system>Run ELF>(DVD Drive)>(eg. SLUS_####.##)

but 1st change the file format option above the 'open' and 'cancel' clicky from 'ELF Files' to 'All Files'. So u can see the file. Haha if its working just put away ur exHDD away and put it into another uses. Actually its an elf too.