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Full Version: PCSX2 frequently hanging mid-game
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Hello; first of all, I want to say a big thanks to the PCSX2 team for working on this emulator. I can't comprehend how difficult it is to work with emulation, so I highly appreciate the efforts that go into this program and for the enjoyment it brings.

My problem has occurred in all 3 games that I have been playing frequently, which are:

- Metal Gear Solid 3
- Burnout 3
- Silent Hill 2

Basically, all of these games are running at 100% speed for the vast majority of the time (60fps for NTSC and 50fps for PAL), but what happens is that each game frequently 'hangs' or 'pauses' for about 0.5-1 second, where the video and audio freeze before continuing at full speed just as abruptly as the pause. It's like the emulator temporarily locks up for that very brief period, but it tends to do it quite a bit depending on the game (ie. in Silent Hill 2 it seems to happen every 10-20 seconds, yet for Burnout 3 it only seems to happen every half minute or so). It's very noticeable and intrusive, so I hope someone can point me in the right direction in order to fix this.

Here's a copy of the PCSX2 Program Log, which includes my PC specifications and plugins used:

Quote:PCSX2 0.9.9.r5128 - compiled on Mar 14 2012
Savestate version: 0x9a060000

Host Machine Init:
Operating System = Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
Physical RAM = 8167 MB
CPU name = Intel® Core™ i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Vendor/Model = GenuineIntel (stepping 07)
CPU speed = 3.410 ghz (8 logical threads)
x86PType = Standard OEM
x86Flags = bfebfbff 1f9ae3bf
x86EFlags = 28100000

x86 Features Detected:
MMX.. SSE.. SSE2.. SSE3.. SSSE3.. SSE4.1.. SSE4.2

Reserving memory for recompilers...

Loading plugins...
Binding GS : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\GSdx32-SSE4-r5135.dll
Windows 6.1.7600
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (8.17.12.9610)
Binding PAD : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\LilyPad-r5112.dll
Binding SPU2 : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\SPU2-X-r5112.dll
(GameDB) 9535 games on record (loaded in 142ms)
Binding CDVD : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\cdvdGigaherz-r4488.dll
Binding USB : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\USBnull-r4949.dll
Binding FW : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\FWnull-r4949.dll
Binding DEV9 : E:\Daniel\Documents\pcsx2-5133-windows-x86\plugins\DEV9null-r4949.dll
Plugins loaded successfully.

My settings are default except for running at native resolution. I play these games using Direct3D11 (Hardware) mode.

I've tried:
  • Software mode
  • Speedhacks (Recommended ones only)
  • Enabling HW hacks for MSAA (16x; 100% speed regardless)
to no avail. I also run all these games via ISO, so there should be no issues in loading data quick enough. PCSX2 and the ISOs themselves are all contained within the Documents folder on my E: Drive, which runs at 5400rpm and has 925GB free of 1.81TB total.

I hope I haven't missed any information; thanks for any advice in advance!




does you HDD have some sort of power saving feature? it's possible the Emu loads the data it needs, then when it's not Loading data the HDD goes to sleep, a lot of laptops do this. you can check in the advanced power settings or perhaps the HDD properties for this, it's the only suggestion i have at the moment. is it just those 3 games? do others run fine?+^_^+
(03-30-2012, 06:29 AM)ChikTikka Wrote: [ -> ]does you HDD have some sort of power saving feature? it's possible the Emu loads the data it needs, then when it's not Loading data the HDD goes to sleep, a lot of laptops do this. you can check in the advanced power settings or perhaps the HDD properties for this, it's the only suggestion i have at the moment. is it just those 3 games? do others run fine?+^_^+

It does indeed, it's a green eco drive that I bought for storage alongside my SSD. I couldn't find out how to disable the power saving feature, so I tried to use PCSX2 on my SSD (I also put the ISOs on that drive as well, which is my primary one where Windows 7 is installed). Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help much.

What DID help somewhat was activating speedhacks (all recommended + 1/2 VU Cycle Stealing), which is bizarre considering I got a constant 50/60fps for those games anyway. I can also run all 3 in software mode with amazing results now (60fps in Silent Hill; about 45-50fps for Burnout 3), but more importantly the speedhacks seemed to have greatly reduced the brief hangs to the point where it is very infrequent.

When I mentioned using speedhacks in my first post, those only included the recommended ones; the VU Cycle Stealing made a big difference. I'm guessing that helped somehow?
hmm, only reason i brought it up was i read in a thread a while back of someone with a similar issue as you and it was fixed by transferring the .ISOs and PCSX2 from an Eco HDD to another HDD, only suggestion i have now is trying to re-rip your .ISOs from your discs with imgburn and maybe re-download PCSX2...
green eco? so... seagate?

disable APM
I have this problem on my laptop too, wonder what i can do about it too
wonder if laptop's HDD are just that much slower to acess data in general not sure.

Super robot wars Alpha 3 for example sometimes when trying to load voice it will hang for 1 or 2 secs
and same happens frequently when loading another voice.

My Laptop HDD specs:
Manufacturer Western Digital
Form Factor GB/2.5-inch
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Speed, Expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm) 5400
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface SATA
Capacity 466GB
RAID Type None
1.5 years resurrection eh?

Start your own thread versus posting in this one. If you want, add a link in your new thread so folks can check this post out.