Multiple Errors

[MajorMinor]

Bear with me on this, I'm terrible with computers. Also, I've searched the forums and didn't see this at all so here it is:

First, whenever I go to play on Chankast 2.5 the control menu doesn't work. There isn't an error message, but when I click on the button to configure the controls the dropdown menu disappears. No matter what button I press, there doesn't seem to be any controls designated.

Second, whenever I use any of the other versions of Chankast it reads the game (Time Stalkers) as a Music CD. When I tired to download an ASPI file I got an error message. I would click "open" on the download prompt and this message would appear:

"This file does not have a program associated with it for preforming this action. Create an association in the Set Association control panel."

I saved the file instead to random folder not knowing what to do with the file.

I'm running on Windows Vista, have a AMD Turion Dual-Core RM-75 2.20 GHz processor, using a NVIDIA 8800, have a generic sound card, have 3 GB of DDR2 RAM, am using MagicDisc to mount CDs, and have Nero ASPI Driver 2.0.1.74 saved (though probably inncorrectly).

Sorry is this has been covered in another thread I really couldn't find it even using the search. Again, I apologize in advance if this is just my stupidity, but I would love help trying to fix these problems.

 

[Agozer]

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you are terrible with computers, Dreamcast emulators (or any emulators for that matter) should be pretty far down your priorities list.

1. What exactly do you mean by "tried to download an ASPI file"?
2. Chankast comes with two GD-ROM plugins, one for systems that use ASPI (mainly Windows 9x) and non-ASPI (Win2000, XP, etc.). There's no reason for you to use ASPI if ASPI doesn't work as is in your operating system.
3. Switching active CD-ROM plugins doesn't magically fix booting errors other than the "Can't read TOC" error.
4. The error you describe often comes up when Windows tries to open a file and doesn't know what to do with it. Meaning, what you are trying to "open" is not an executable or any other filetype that's known to the system. It usually isn't recommended to randomly open files from download prompts if you don't know what you are opening or how to work with the files you download.
5. If you must use Chankast, use ElSemi's controller plugin. The other ones suck.
6. There are other, far better and easier to use emulators than Chankast. Chankast is older than ancient and doesn't really serve any purpose other than evoking misplaces feelings of nostalgia. Look into nullDC and Demul.
7. If a game appears as a Music CD, it's usually an indication of either:
a) The disc image is corrupt
b) The disc image is not selfboot. The actual Dreamcast and emulators can only directly work with selfboot discs and images. You need a boot disc to work with non-selfboot ones.
c) Chankast is giving you the finger and failing at what it's supposed to do. This is very common. No, you really can't fix it.

 

[MajorMinor]

lol okay sounds good then. I'll try and use the controller plugin and see what happens. I think it must be the game file because even when I used nullDC it came up as a music disc. (I don't like nullDC because it lags a lot) Thank you very much for the help!

 

[Agozer]

If nullDC sees the disc as a music CD as well, there's a good chance that the image really is non-selfboot. You can hunt down a botodisc and try to boot the disc withits help (not 100% guaranteed success) or simply say "fuck it" and get yourself a proper selfboot disc image.

P.S. nullDC is probbly emulating stuff with Dynarec disabled, which causes lots of slowdown. If it's enabled and this are still slow, nullDC most likely doesn't like your hardware.