ePSXe crashes when I push Continue after Exit (pause)

[TheReminist]

Hey everybody, I'm new on this forum and I'm italian, so I apologyze for my quite bad english at first.

I own the ePSXe emulator, last version (1.7.0) and everything works just fine with the video and audio plugins when I start a game from the RUN ISO option. I play to Metal Gear Solid or Tomb Raider with no problem at all but this annoying and frustrating issue: when I press Esc on my keyboard (just because I want to do a little pause or I have to use the change disc tool) and then click on Continue, I get various problem depending on the game.
for example, if I'm playing Tomb Raider, the game will load to the last frame of when I pressed Esc, and it freezes there forever. ok then, you might think what's the problem? just don't press Esc! well, in that case I could and peace.
but in Metal Gear Solid the problem becomes enourmous: after clicking on Continue, the game will restart normally except that the audio is totally messed up! sometimes it just makes no sound at all, other times all I can hear is a constant "BZZZFSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH" which is actually quite disturbing. there is a point in MGS that pushing the Esc button is inevitable: that moment is when you have to pass from disc 1 to disc 2. I am precisely at that moment. allright, when I push esc, change disc, and press start to check the disc, the game will go ahead normally except for the audio, which means that I CAN'T SAVE! yes, because if I call Mei Ling for saving, the codec will not work properly because of the audio crash. I get painly stucked in this part of the game.
all what I ask is please, tell me how to resolve the crash problem after exiting from the emulator.

my settings following:

ePSXe 1.7.0 (I used the 1.5.2 version to do the change disc operation, since in 1.7 it's broken)
regular Bios
video: Pete's Opengl2 driver 2.9
sound: PEOpS DSound Audio Driver 1.9 (many others tried, but this seems the best)
I suppose other settings are irrilevant

my computer is average, with a 2.4gHZ pcu, 1 Gb RAM, GeForce FX5200 and Creative Sound Blaster PCI.

I'm quite good on the computer, but this time I have tried everything and I'm desperate.

Help me Emuparadise Forum, you are my only hope!

thanks a lot

Nicolò

[skullpoker]

A lot of PS1 games let you load the last save point of disc 1 up on disc 2. This was so you could still play your game if your cd door or the sensor were broken. You could save, turn off the PS1, put disc 2 in, and start it again.
Also, save your game more often. You can make more memory cards from the config > memory card menu by just entering a new file name, like "memcard003.mcr" or "Metalgear.mcr".

I wonder if the game might run better if you mount the .ISO in a virtual disc drive like Daemon Tools. I think the Tomb Raider series benefits from this.

Somebody might also suggest to try the default ePSXe plugin for sound. I wouldn't. I like the others better.

[Kouen Hasuki]

Maybe try Hotkey Save Stating before switching disc's

[TheReminist]

I thank you for the answers but they can't help me. I understand what you suggest, skullpower, but metal gear solid won't let you load the last save point of disc 1 on disc 2. infact, if I try to do that, it asks me to insert disc 1, as I foresaw, and the problem keeps presenting. I also tried with the Save state\ Load state tool by pressing F1 and F3 but when I load a state the same exact problem occurs again (game running normally but audio fucked up and impossible to save in normal way by codec calling).

finding no solution to this problem, today I used my lateral thinking and brought back from my garage my old school Playstation 1 with my game collection. I want burn the image of metal gear solid and other games I have lost due to the course of time and want my PS1 to run them. the new problem is: how I do burn on a CDR this three files I have from the RAR package (.ccd .img.emc .sub) to be played on my PS1 (of course I have modified it in the old times)? I have already unpacked the .img.emc file with EMCtools but this was for playing it via ePSXe. I don't know if simply I have to burn the new .img file obtained or what. also, most of the games I downloaded are in NTSC format; I wonder if they can run properly on my PAL playstation.

thanks again
any help is very appreciated.

[skullpoker]

most of the games I downloaded are in NTSC format; I wonder if they can run properly on my PAL playstation.

Be sure that you are using proper settings for NTSC games on your emulator. BIOS version should be scph-1001 I believe. Frames per second should be set to 60 in your video plugin options.

To play burned games on a USA Playstation, you need to modify it. This is probably true with a PAL PS as well. Modding is usually done by adding a chip to the consoles circuit board. To do that will probably be as expensive as buying an official copy of Metal Gear. Maybe more expensive.

As for Mei Ling, try pushing Square button. There was a button that let you skip the audio in the codec. I think it was square.

When you leave your game, try to pause it, but not with Esc key. In Tomb Raider, go to inventory screen and leave the emulator running. In Metal Gear, go to codec and leave the game running.

You might also try to switch discs with Daemon Tools. I am not sure if it will work. If you want to try, mount disc 1in Daemon Tools, then in ePSXe configure your cdrom plugin to look for the virtual drive, then use Run CDROM instead of Run ISO. When you need to switch discs, right click Daemon tools in your taskbar, select your mounted drive, eject disc, then mount disc 2 in place of disc 1. Let me know if it works.