Chankast absolutely will not run on my Athlon 64.

1) I am using the latest version of Chankast (2.5)
2) I have the two Dreamcast bios. (obviously in the correct directory)
3) I have the Aspi installed on my computer just as instructed in the FAQ on this site.
4) I am using an Athlon 64 3200+ system with 2 gigs of ram and a 128 meg video card. (obviously it has SSE)
5) I am running Windows XP home edition.
6) When I attempt to run Chankast it recognizes my back up discs which work fine in my Dreamcast as mere CDs. I have tried every game I have and it only sees them as music CDs.
7) It does not even play the Utopia boot disc. It sees the Utopia boot disc as a music CD.
8) I am not selecting the "wrong" cd-rom as when I eject the CDs then the chankast sees that they are ejected and the spinning disc disappears. Also the various discs are shown to have different track lengths indicating what disc is in the drive.
9) CDI dreamcast images mounted using alcohol or Daemon tools also are only seen as music CDs. I have tried several at various settings.
10) When I say these games don't work, I do not mean that they run slow. I mean that the Chankast does not even recognize them as games at all. It only sees them as music CDs. None of the following US back up games (which play fine in a real US dreamcast) worked:
Marvel Vs Capcom,
Marvel Vs Capcom 2,
SNK vs Capcom,
SNK vs Capcom 2
Street Fighter 3 Third Strike
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Utopia Boot Disc
Mortal Kombat Gold
Gunbird 2
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil Code Veronica
House of the Dead 2
Zombie Revenge
Sega Smash Pack
Super Street Fighter 2 X
Jo Jo's bizarre adventure (and many more games I have)
(UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION)
11) I am using Daemon Tools v3.29 (the version recommended in the FAQ).
12) I have these games in bootable and disc image format. I also have the UTOPIA boot disc.

Not a dam thing will play. I am very frustrated and so far everyone who had "pretended" to try to help me on other sites has been talking out of their a**. I am not trying to get demanding games to play here. I would be satisfied if simply the utopia boot disc worked.

I have never seen this emulator run on anyone's computer. I know a few people who have downloaded it and they couldn't get it to work either. Obviously, the people in these forums must be doing something differently.

I really hope I actually get some help this time instead of condescending drivel from someone telling me to do what I just said I already did. Unfortunately that seems to be the trend.

Please read original post CLEARLY before responding.

Before I go further I would like to point out that both persons posting to this thread have responded without reading any part of my original post. They both suggest doing things which I clearly illuded to in my original post. It would be frustrating if I hadn't anticipated I would be getting exactly that type of response. Like I said, its the trend. "Hey, I know! Why don't you try what you just said you did?"

PART I
Flowrent says:

Make sure cable type is set to NTSC.
Also go to Options --> Configure Drive and select the letter of the cd drive or the virtual drive

Click to expand...

and from my original post:

8) I am not selecting the "wrong" cd-rom as when I eject the CDs then the chankast sees that they are ejected and the spinning disc disappears. Also the various discs are shown to have different track lengths indicating what disc is in the drive.

Click to expand...

There are only two choices and when I pick the empty CD-Rom, it doesn't show a disc. You know why? Because its empty. If you read my post you would understand that. I did not configure the wrong CD-Rom. Just accept it and move on.

Also NTSC is the default cable setting. I never changed that.

For the sake of argument, I attempted what you suggest and it did not work.

PART II
Agozer says:

Change the CDRom plugin to the xxx type.

Click to expand...

And from my original post:

CDI dreamcast images mounted using alcohol or Daemon tools also are only seen as music CDs. I have tried several at various settings.

Click to expand...

I was referring to the various setting referrng to ASPI. There are only four possible including your suggestion, which was the first I tried, long before you posted. None of the following configurations work (with bootable or non-bootable CDs or with Disc Images)

1) CDRom Interface aspi
Input Interface by ElSemi--->result: only sees Utopia Boot disc (or any DC game) as a music CD.

2) CDRom Interface xxx
Input Interface xxx--->result: IO error.

3) CD Rom Intefrace aspi
Input Interface xxx--->result: only sees Utopia Boot disc (or any DC game) as a music CD.

4) CD Rom Interface xxx
Input Interface ElSemi--->result: IO error.

I tried all four possible configurations. Only ASPI does anything other than simply freeze. I have ASPI installed on my computer as per instructions of the FAQ on this site, therefor if anything works it should. And I DID try the other settings also, remember that.

For the sake of argument, I attempted what you suggest and it did not work.

CONCLUSION
...and from my original post:

...from someone telling me to do what I just said I already did.

Click to expand...

I hate it when I'm right. "Hey, I know! Why don't you just do what you said you just did?"

I'm sorry but if you aren't going to read my original post, please don't respond at all.

Which version of DT are you using?

Click to expand...

What do you mean by DT?

If you mean Daemon Tools, I am using version 3.29 of Daemon Tools. This is the version recommded by the FAQ on this site.

And I am not going to give up so easily. This emulator should work I just need to know what people are doing to make it work on their systems. This is frustrating because most people that apparently have it working don't seem to actually know why it is working on their systems.

Also, it might help for me to mention that the majority of both self booting and boot disc requiring games (and disc images of said games) that I have are on the compatibility list given on this site.

Ok fine. I did read your post but obviously I didn't understand it well enough. Since it seems that you have tried every possible option/combination there is, you are stuck. Get rid of the images and face the fact that you just couldn't get it to work no matter what. Move on. They're just games.

Click to expand...

Obviously, I am not going to get rid of the images as they play on my real dreamcast. However, Dreamcasts are not built to last and they aren't being made anymore so I would like to be able to play the images on my computer when my Dreamcast eventually dies. Its also the closest that I can get to Capcom CPS3 emulation.

As far as the images just being games, did I suggest they were peanut butter jelly sandwiches in my thread somewhere? I think perhaps you misintepreted part of my post again. I am not sure that sort of insight is an improvement over suggesting I try things I have already clearly stated I tried like your last post. If it were help I would appreciate it, but so far you have just required me to cut and paste the places in my post that show you were I already stated that I tried what you just suggested.

You might actually know how to get it to work, but its difficult (or impossible) for you to explain it to me if you don't bother to read my post all the way through. Because there will never be a common frame of reference.

DT=Daemon Tools

Here is are some useful questions for you Agozer and Flowrent:

1) Do you have the ASPI installed on your computer as described in the FAQ or are you simply playing Disc images with Daemon Tools on an XP system without ASPI?

2) Are you playing actually selfbootable discs at all?

This would help for me to know because it could be that I would be better off if I removed the ASPI emulation even though the ASPI emulation was suggested by the person who wrote the FAQ for this site.

Progress Report

I tried something different:

1) I uninstalled aspi emulation completely from my computer.

2) I downloaded a new disc image of the UTOPIA bootdisc.

3) I mounted the image.

For the first time the Chankast was able to play the Utopia disc image. I saw the reindeer. It still plays no games.

flowrent said:

The only explanation still standing is that all the images made from your disks are screwed.
Maybe you did them all wrong.

When you downloaded another Utopia than the one you got, it worked.
So download a game and try it.It will work for sure.

Click to expand...

They all work on an actual Dreamcast. The majority are self booting. I can make copies of them and the copies work on an actual Dreamcast. That would indicate that I did not do them all wrong.

Do you honestly think I didn't download games at the same time I downloaded the Utopia disc? Okay, well let's get this straight. I did download Last Blade and Doom (homebrew). They wouldn't load, although Last Blade 2 at least gave me the Sega symbol before I got a frozen red screen. And I burned both games to disc and played them just fine on my Dreamcast.

Also, most people I talk to have had the same problems and abandoned this emulator. Its not just me. I have noticed that people I have talked to that allegedly have it working seem to have home built systems and XP PRO most of the time and people who can't get it working tend to have pre-built systems (like HP Pavilion/Compaq Presario) with XP HOME. Its just a pattern I noticed. Not sure if its a coincedence.

The "explanation" is unresolved. We didn't start with a set number of possible explanations and logically eliminate them. There is still a lot unknown. And frankly, I after putting the effort into it that I have, unless someone offers a clear solution (which is extremely unlikely to happen) it isn't worth pursuing as the Dreamcast games were not that amazing and I hardly play them.

And for the record, its not the best emulator around anyway. There hasn't been development on it for quite a while now. I just got a wild hair that it would be so much more convenient to play the Dreamcast on a computer than on a Dreamcast.