Is freezing a sign of a bad rom or something else?

[vetteguy112233]

I use Mala 1.05, Windows XP Pro, Pentium 2.9GHz, 2GB Ram, 300GB Hard Drive, Mame32 V120 and many misc emulators.

Today I tried playing Contra on my NES emulator and everything locked up so I had to restart the computer.

I have been playing many MAME games and this has happened too.

I'm sure my RAM is good, checked with MEMTEST. So do you guys think it's a bad rom or something else?

[Dazz]

It could be a sign of a failing motherboard or even a failing power supply that is not sending enough power.

[vetteguy112233]

My power supply is starting to make noises and I didn't even think about it.

I'm going to try that first.

THANK YOU!

[vetteguy112233]

I replaced my 350w power supply with a new 420w. Tonight I played the NES emulator (fce ultar I believe) and 3 games froze all within 10 minutes of starting the game. Mrs Packman, RBI Baseball and 1944.

So now that the power supply is ruled out, any suggestions? I've had it freeze on Mame's Police Trainer too!

[Dizzle]

Do you have the same problem if you don't use MaLa?

I was having some problems with roms freezing using MaLa 1.04, but they'd run fine through MAME.

[vetteguy112233]

Good idea, I'll have to try that in the next few days.  I was able to play SNES for almost an hour without any issues, so far, it's just the NES.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Turnarcades]

You may want to try a different emulator altogether for NES or play around with the video filters/resolutions. If the settings you have are not optimal for your system it could be freezing due to a hge RAM/VRAM backup over time. The effect is similar to running the emulator on a computer with a very low spec, even if your system is quite good.

If using on-board video, try using FCE Ultra. If using a sligtly faster system or one with a graphics card, try using VirtuaNES. For either, I advise turning off all stretching/filters.

The worst case scenario could be that your graphics card/on-board video is burning out. I had this effect start to occur when mine went. You could even have a bad sector on your hard drive where the NES files or the paging file are using.

[northerngames]

next time it freeze's restart it and check your cpu and video cards temp to see if it is overheating sometime's the fans loose there RPM but work but also not doing their job correctly anymore.

also a thing to note is PC psu wattage means noting really it is all about the sustained 12V amp

for instance a 800 watt psu that does 16 sustained on the 12 volt rail is actually alot weaker then a 300 watt that has 28 sustained on the 12 volt rail.

also the 300 watt would weigh 2-3 times the amount of the 800 watt if that were the case

but yeah I learned the hard way so it still may be a power supply issue check both your psu'a for their sustained 12V rail your newer one may have a higher wattage but actually be weaker then the one you had pulled if the amps have a lower rating.

also dont look for the 12V rail rating itself look for the "sustained" 12V rail rating meaning how much it can do constantly and safely without any strain.

also what type of video card are you using as alot of the newer one's are very power hungry.

[vetteguy112233]

I'm using an AGP, ArcadeVGA ver 2, only about 6 months old.

[northerngames]

they dont consume much power so it may be a heat issue 

[vetteguy112233]

I guess it could be overheating, but the side panels on my pc are off (the tower just rests inside my cabinet), and my cabinet is in my basement where it is very cold. I've got 2 extra fans, 1 pointed at the video card and 1 to help circulate the air. I'll have to see if my bios shows cpu temp, next time it locks up.

I'm starting to think it's a problem with my NES emulator or rom, because I can play SNES, Genesis and MAME for more than 10 mins without it locking up.

[northerngames]

yeah those would strain it more then any nes emu so its not a heat issue.

try mamewah instead of mala

what nes emu are you using?