The five minute itch

[Pandy]

Hi all.

I have a problem with pj64 v1.6 and It's driving me crazy, I just cannot figure this out.

System is..

Sony vaio pcg-frv26

Specs

512mb ram
radeon mobility 345m
2.8ghz p4
40gb hdd
generic audio card (ali or via IIRC)
Via chipset.
2x xbox 360 controllers.

Ok, Here's my problem.
When first loading a game (in this instant I will use goldeneye or perfect dark) the game runs amazingly, and looks stunning when using the 1.6 graphics plugin.

The games run smooth and fast, and the sound is perfect.

However, after about 5-10 minutes it all goes wrong.

First the graphics become sluggish and then the sound starts to break up.
And, the more this goes on the less stable the emu becomes until it will just freeze into a black screen.

At first I thought it might have been the level I had reached on goldeneye, but nope, upon reload the emu runs that level swimmingly for aboutg 5-10 mins and then it happens again.

And its not just goldeneye, pilotwings and perfect dark do the exact same thing.

I have cut out all the obvious things like screensavers, power saving, hard drive suspend and so on and also ran registry cleaner to make sure nothing was popping up underneath, but to no avail.

Also bare in mind I only just reinstalled the lappy with xp pro, sp2 and a hacked brand new catalyst driver (you cant install new cats on these mobilitys as ati were being asses) so I had to run a hack to get them to install, but I have the very latest versions.

I just dont get it

TIA

Andy

 

[Pandy]

also, I have tried 1.5 graphics plugin and it just looked worse and did the same exact thing

 

[popux]

i had a friend ( he has a laptop ) which is getting the same problem, with movies, games , everything. it was just because there was a lot of dust in the radiator, and the pc was overheating. so he just clean it and was ok after

 

[Pandy]

it probably is overheating in honesty, but I dont know if I can fix it or not..

The laptop is like new and doesnt have alot of dust on it :S

 

[squall_leonhart]

radeon mobility 345m, not the best ati onboard, but one of the better ones...

Via chipset.....now im in a stabby mood

 

[Pandy]

hey peeps.

Well its not an overheating issue as I opened the lappy up and cleaned it (not that it needed cleaning its like new)

Thing is now its slow all the time.

I have installed other programs since installing PJ64, I can only assume somethings either messed up big style or is pigging memory.

Now, would it be better if I had more ram?

Yeah Ive heard the dirt on mobility chips, ATI stopped supporting them and you have to hack their cat drivers to get the latest ones to install.. however, graphics are not the problem here Id be much more enclined to aim at sound hardware causing the issue.

I just dont understand how one day it flies along flawlessly and then the next it runs like a sloth playing in treacle (molasses to the americans).

What I might also do is make sure theres no programs running on load up (by checking msconfig and sorting out any startup poo I dont need).

I dont have the time right now, but Ill keep you updated.

And no, Im not a big fan of VIA either (nor intel for that matter) but when youre talking a laptop of this kind of power (and I havent seen a faster p4 laptop since) for $550 like new then I cant really get too fussy.

$550 Id be hard pushed to build a p4 2.8ghz desktop.

 

[Pandy]

Also...

Im literally using the laptop to play emulators.. literally.

I was gonna get a psp and run emus on that, but by the time I pay for a fat memory key Id have been looking around the same and the lappy plays dvds and so on.

So I *only* want to use it for pure n64 and snes. (kinda like an expensive oversized DS )

 

[Trotterwatch]

How many proccesses are running in task manager? Maybe you've got a few things that don't need running. If you are unsure you could always post a screenshot of it.

To check if it is a sound issue, you could go to: start>run>Dxdiag>sound and disable sound acceleration (just as a temporary measure to see if it helps at all, if it doesn't open DXdiag again and put the slider back up).

 

[Pandy]

How many proccesses are running in task manager? Maybe you've got a few things that don't need running. If you are unsure you could always post a screenshot of it.

To check if it is a sound issue, you could go to: start>run>Dxdiag>sound and disable sound acceleration (just as a temporary measure to see if it helps at all, if it doesn't open DXdiag again and put the slider back up).

Thanks, above is exactly what I had done

First I ran msconfig, I knew there was stuff running and I needed to kill it.

Basically theres a POS driver that runs for the internal modem, well I have hi speed anyways, so I hacked that out, removed the driver and stopped it reloading itself.

Secondly was some ATI poop that I just didnt need, just the driver thanks.. NEEEEXT.

Then some windows scheduling stuff that again just isnt needed.. off you go.

So in all I hacked out about 12 tasks from running at all and I havent had a single problem since.

However, I *do* need updated sound drivers, but there's a problem there.

The one I'm running is dated 03, ffs that was 3 yrs ago !

So I looked on AD (analog devices) website and all they do is send you through to the OEM you got your computer from... friggin bumpirates.

So Im having trouble finding a driver.. but I will, only a matter of time

Touch wood the problem seems, at least for the temporary, solved.

Ill repost if it happens again and if I have managed to fix it

 

[Trotterwatch]

Glad to hear you managed to sort it out for yourself And congrats on stopping all those useless things from starting up.

 

[HyperHacker]

Here's another tip, BTW: Check how much RAM each process is using (Sysinternals' Process Explorer is great for this, and free). Look at the many instances of svchost.exe. Sometimes they tend to take up several hundred megabytes of RAM. Just terminate the ones that are using up a lot, and they'll respawn using a lot less memory. This might interrupt any downloads that are running, though. Also, don't try to kill them all; Windows crashes when you do. :-/