ePSXe 1.9.0 slowing down on my i7 laptop?!!!

[BlackCitadel]

Hello,
I have a DELL Inspiron 15z 5523 Intel core i7-3537U @ 2.00GHz with Intel HD Graphics 4000 and nVIDIA GT 630M 2GB
I have noticed it slows down for a second every now and then in the middle of the game.

My configuration is


I tried psx fin emulator but it doesn't slow down in the game.
pcsx2 didn't even lag like PS1 emulator did!!!

[MaslowK]

It could be an issue specific to the game you're trying to play; does it do it with all games or just some? If it's all games, then the first thing I would try is changing both the "Internal X resolution" and "Internal Y resolution" to either Low or High instead of Very High. If that doesn't help, try switching to one of the plugins labeled Pete's D3D, and using these settings;

[BlackCitadel]

I tried changed that to low instead of Very High, it didn't help.
It happened with "Tekken 3" and "Hermie Hopperhead - Scrap Panic" so far.
I don't think it happens with all games.

Can this be related to the graphics driver? Or it doesn't matter?
Because when I use "Pete's D3D Driver 1.77" or "Pete's DX6 D3D Driver 1.77" plugins in Fullscreen mode, when I press ESC while playing and then when I continue the game, the game lags forever, but when I run these two plugins in Window mode, I don't get this lagging issue when resuming the game.

I would like to re-install Windows 8.1 and try this emulator with the updated Intel and nVIDIA graphics drivers but I am kinda lazy and also this Windows has been running very well and smoothly for one month now.

So please benefit me. Does this have to do with the Intel or nVIDIA graphics drivers?

[MaslowK]

It could possibly be an outdated video driver, yes. You do not need to completely reinstall windows to update them though. For the Nvidia drivers, go here; http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx. Under Option 2, click the grey "Graphics Driver" button to go to a page that scans your system and checks if there are newer drivers for you. It might ask for java permissions, so just click Allow/Accept on any popups that come up for this page. If it finds newer drivers, it'll give you a download link for them.

Intel has a similar system for checking for updated drivers, here's the link; http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics. For this one click the blue "Check your system for updates" button, and click Allow/Accept on any java/activex popups it gives you. Again if it finds any updated drivers it will give you a link to download them.

[BlackCitadel]

Yes, there are newer drivers for my processor "3rd generation U processors" but DELL still didn't announce these new drivers in their site for my model.

[MaslowK]

I've had the same experience with Dell laptops, where the Dell websites drivers are almost always outdated, sometimes by a year or more. I always recommend checking the actual manufacturer of your individual parts websites for updated drivers when possible. When it comes to emulation performance the only two you should really be concerned about are for your video card/chipset and your CPU.

[BlackCitadel]

Well I understand that.
But why this doesn't happen with PS2 emulation. PS2 emulation is very excellent with these outdated graphics drivers using pcsx2.

I also face a problem that I don't like seeing it when I install the new Intel graphics driver.
With both Intel and nVIDIA Right-Click Control Panel Context menu shown in right-clicks. Every time I right click with mouse, I get memory leak for "Explorer.exe" it keeps increasing until I get it 2 GB memory leak.

I have to remove the nVIDIA control panel right-click context menu for this issue to stop happening.
But I would like both Intel and nVIDIA Right-Click context menus exist when I right-click on desktop.

So do you know a way to fix this memory leak problems caused by the Intel context menu?

OK today I am going to re-install Windows and directly try the latest GPU drivers. Re-installing Windows just to make sure that no issues would probably arise from the current Windows or after overwriting the old GPU drivers.

But please MaslowK help me with this memory leak issue. Think of a way to prevent this while keeping both nVIDIA and Intel right-click context menus for the latest drivers.

[MaslowK]

I've never heard of anything Nvidia related causing memory leaks, though I also haven't tried Windows 8 yet so it might be an issue specific to that. Since you're saying disabling the right-click option for nvidia fixes it, my guess is there's some compatibility issue with the newest nvidia control panel software it installs along with the new driver. It is possible to update your driver without installing any of the updated extra software.

If you do decide to reinstall Windows then you can probably skip this paragraph, otherwise the first thing to do is to completely remove the old Nvidia software through "Programs and Features". Then go to the Device Manager and expand "Display Adapters", right click the nvidia card listed and click Uninstall to remove the driver. Then find the newest driver package available on Dells website (the outdated one that worked before), download and install that.

Once you're back where you were before you installed the newer drivers, go ahead and download the newest Nvidia package from their website like before. When you run it you'll notice it shows a location on your computer where it's going to extract the files (Probably C:\NVIDIA etc), so click Ok and then just close the installer window.

Finally, go to your Device Manager, find where your video card is listed, right-click it and click "Update Driver Software". Click "Browse my computer for driver software", then click "Browse..." and find the NVIDIA folder from earlier. Click Ok and then Next, and it should find the new drivers, installing them without the extra new stuff.

If all else fails and it still isn't working right, even though it's less convenient you should still be able to access your Nvidia Control Panel through your regular windows control panel. Really the only time you should need to access it would be to force certain video settings on PC games that don't have those options built in (shouldn't make any difference when it comes to emulators).

[BlackCitadel]

Well, installed the latest Intel GPU and nVIDIA version 340.52
The issue still occurs.

So the problem might be either with the emulator or with the CPU/GPU main card/Motherboard?

[MaslowK]

So the problem might be either with the emulator or with the CPU/GPU main card/Motherboard?

At this point I'd say probably either the games you're running themselves just have stuttering issues in ePSXe or it's the version of ePSXe you're using. Normally using the newest version is best, but every once in a while newer versions can cause issues with games that worked fine before. Maybe try ePSXe 1.7 or 1.8 and see if they have the same problem?

In the meantime, you were saying Tekken 3 was one of the ones with the stuttering issue? I'll go ahead and test that later today and see if I get the same issue on my system using ePSXe. If you haven't already you can also try one of the other emulators for PS1, such as PCSX-R or pSX.

[Ryudo]

This could be a SpeedStep issue. Go into the BIOS and see if Intel SpeedStep Technology is enabled, turn this off if it is and see if that resolves it.

Also check your Power Saving Settings in Windows, to make sure it doesn't bottleneck your CPU to 'save power'. (Set it to HIGH PERFORMANCE).

[BlackCitadel]

Well, disabling Intel SpeedStep which made my CPU always runs at its actual speed 2.00GHz didn't resolve these issues.

I tried Tekken 3 on an i3 HP laptop running Windows 7 these issues didn't ever happened and mine is an i7 . So the problem might be with my CPU? GPU? or it's a Windows 8.1 issue running ePSXe?

I tried running ePSXe in compatibility mode for Windows 7, didn't resolve these issues.

I tried PCSXR it's better than ePSXe. but I can't run the BIOS to control the memory card. When I click run BIOS this screen appears.


I tried to copy BIOS scph1001.bin from ePSXe to PCSXR but when I run the BIOS, this error messages appear.




This is QUITE strange!!!
The lagging issue occurs with ePSXe when I run the GPU Plugin "Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9" BUT when I run this same plugin with PCSXR, I don't get this lagging issue! PCSXR runs very fine. However, when I use D3D plugins with PCSXR as well. I do get the lagging when resuming the game after pressing ESC.

So, the problem is a Windows 8/8.1 issue running ePSXe with these plugins or it's plugins issue that might be not compatible with Windows 8.1?

The lagging issue when resuming the game after pressing ESC when using D3D plugins happens with all the PS1 emulators out there. I tried PSXeven, PCSXR, ePSXe.

So the issue here is related to DirectX? my GPU doesn't like D3D plugins for some reason?

[MaslowK]

I tried to copy BIOS scph1001.bin from ePSXe to PCSXR but when I run the BIOS, this error messages appear.

By default PCSXR uses a BIOS emulator instead of the actual BIOS file like ePSXe does. To use the real BIOS, in PCSXR go to Configuration > Plugins & Bios, then under the "Bios" option click where it says "Simulate Psx Bios" and you should see your scph1001.bin, so select that then click Ok. Now when you click "Run BIOS" it should give you the memory card screen.

As for the "can't open cdrom unit" error, if you plan on playing mounted disc images, actual PS1 discs or starting games from the BIOS screen instead of "Run ISO...", you'll need to make sure your CD-ROM settings are right. Otherwise you should be able to just do whatever you need to your memory cards through the BIOS screen, then just run the game from "Run ISO".

The lagging issue occurs with ePSXe when I run the GPU Plugin "Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9" BUT when I run this same plugin with PCSXR, I don't get this lagging issue! PCSXR runs very fine. However, when I use D3D plugins with PCSXR as well. I do get the lagging when resuming the game after pressing ESC.

It could be related to the version of DirectX that Windows 8 uses, honestly I'm not sure. I usually recommend the D3D plugins because they're easier to set up, but if you have the OpenGL2 plugin working well then just use that instead.

[MaslowK]

That's strange, I have the same version of PCSXR and didn't get that error with the same default setup. Maybe try going to Configuration > CD-ROM and by "Drive Selection" click where it says Autodetect, and select one of the lettered drives there instead. If that doesn't work there's a separate program you can use to manage your saves called MemcardRex, which you can get here.

When you run the program, just go to File > Open and select your .mcr files (you can CTRL+Click to select both at once) and click Open. To copy a save, right-click it and select "Copy save to temp buffer", then right click an empty slot on either card and select "Paste save from temp buffer". If you see any entries that say "Linked slot", that just means they're part of a save that uses multiple slots; copying the actual save listed above them will copy all the slots over.

[gamerdude211]

Its been awhile since I used ePSXe 1.9.0, but I recall running into some minor issues that made me revert back to older versions of the emulator. The one I got on my PC currently is 1.6.0, and I didn't have any issues at all running any of the games I played using that version. So you might want to try using an older version of the emulator. Later versions are not always better for everybody.