Crt Emudriver Crashing when playing youtube (Flash) videos

[69mustang]

I currently have only one PC to use and I am using a Biostar Radeon 4670 on WinXP 32bit and installed the crt_emudriver_9.3_1.2a_xp32_multisync version. I have 1 output hooked up to my VGA monitor and the other output to a TV via component using an RGB to component converter (Kramer FC-14).

GroovyMAME works and looks beautiful on my TV, I have 0 issues with that. The problem is that on the VGA side when I try to use a site like youtube, my pc crashes and does one of the following: resets, black screen, or blue screen with "ati2cqag.dll" error. It doesn't always crash on the youtube main page but if I click on a youtube video from any site, it crashes. Sometimes it starts to play fine and if I click to adjust anything it crashes.

Is there something I can try to eliminate the error or will I have to get a dedicated set up? I have installed the latest ati drivers and have no issues with the card with those drivers, but then I lose all the GroovyMAME goodness. I have tried both outputs and both do it, and my power supply is 550 watts.

[Calamity]

Hi 69mustang, thanks for reporting this.

First of all, I'd check this:

http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6142_102-5085598.html?tag=posts;msg5085598

Also, an important test would be to check if official Catalyst 9.3 crashes too, you can download it here:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/9-3/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx?&lang=English

[69mustang]

Thanks for the reply. Ok so here is what I did.

I uninstalled the latest drivers restarted, then did a driver sweep to remove any amd reg traces, then restarted again. I installed the official Catalyst 9.3 and tried youtube videos with and without acceleration and both modes worked fine. So then I uninstalled like before and installed the crt_emudrivers and disabled flash acceleration.

I went to youtube and no crash, I select the search bar and started to type and the screen froze for a couple of seconds and then both monitors flickered on/off then I had control again. I chose my video and began to play it was fine, then I tried to skip ahead and froze again (about 3-5 seconds) then flickered on/off and continued playing the video.

I can definitely live with this for now until I can afford a dedicated MAME setup. Thank you for the help.

[Calamity]

Glad to see it helped, thanks for your tests. So there's definitely something in the hack I made that can cause Flash to crash when hardware acceleration is used. This may have no relation at all, but the other program known to have issues with CRT_Emudriver is Hyperspin, which is also Flash based afaik (the workaround for Hyperspin is to cut down the mode list to 70-80 video modes). I'm going to edit your thread's topic as this information will help other users.

[69mustang]

Also to clarify the flickering a little, it seems it loses sync then gains it or perhaps switches resolutions and then back again. It happens pretty quick so I don't know what it's really doing.

The new topic title is definitely better.

[JoeB]

I noticed the same problem with you tube .. the first time I went there, Windows XP64 blue screened on me!

[69mustang]

I followed steps 2-8 on this link and it seems to have fixed the problem. I have acceleration enabled and youtube is working. For some reason the acceleration was only at halfway on the second monitor, so I moved the slider to full and all is good. Make sure you do this for both monitors if you have 2 connected like I do.

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-ATI-Graphics-Drivers-in-Windows-Server-2003-X64-Edition

[Calamity]

Excellent info, 69mustang!

[69mustang]

I take it back, I had forgotten to run vmmaker. Once I run that, flash videos are broken again until I disable hardware acceleration (as described in your first post). Though once disabled, everything runs smooth. I was hooked on Demon Front and I was running that on MAMEUI 145u5. Once I tried to run GroovyMAME it played at warp speed, I realized I hadn't run vmmaker yet.

[Calamity]

That's even more interesting. You could try running VMMaker reducing the TotalModes variable in vmmaker.ini to something around 80 to see if it fixes the problem.

[69mustang]

I'll try reducing TotalModes later tonight, here is some other weirdness though. Youtube works fine now but did crash originally, once I disabled HA (Hardware Acceleration) I didn't have anymore issues. Then on another site that had an embedded youtube video, it flickered I managed to disable HA and continue playing it. For some reason it was enabled. I tried to skip ahead and it BSOD same error as before. I restarted the computer, went to the same site made sure the HA was still disabled and it played fine no problems skipping ahead or back worked fine too.

EDIT: I just realized one of my FireFox Addons (BetterPrivacy) was blocking any flash cookies and that's why the HA setting kept getting reset after I disabled it for youtube. I disabled the addon and settings are stored for all sites with flash videos, so they all work with HA disabled.

[69mustang]

Lowering the TotalModes to 80 still caused the BSOD. Disabling HA still fixes it.

[cools]

I'm having the same issue, though it only occurs using the HD 4350 - not with the HD 2400. Very glitchy when playing flash video (youtube & hyperspin). Can't disable HA as it's needed for MAME?

[cools]

Found a solution. Disable hardware acceleration from within Flash itself, not windows. Right click on something playing in Flash, choose options and disable HA. No more glitching.