Constant freezing

[Ecscape]

I've only been using Dolphin (version 5.0 with recommended settings) for a couple weeks now and am only playing GameCube games.
I'm playing on a laptop - a Lenovo IdeaPad Y700, and I can only get through about a half hour of gameplay before my computer freezes.
When the freeze occurs, the game will usually continue playing as usual - idle animations aren't effected, cutscenes will play until a new scene would load, but then it will stay at a blank screen.
The rest of my computer, however, becomes completely unresponsive. Videos playing in the background freeze with the last sound held forever, my mouse, keyboard, and power button go completely unresponsive, and the only way to end the freeze is to take apart my computer and remove the battery (or let it wear itself down)

I haven't had any previous issues with my laptop with modern games, and have tried clearing caches, keeping other programs closed while playing, and other recommendations on similar threads, but haven't seen any threads with my specific issue.

Is this just par for the course for emulation, or should there be some way to fix this?

[JosJuice]

No, that doesn't sound normal at all. Not sure what's causing it, though.

[mstreurman]

(04-23-2019, 05:29 PM)Ecscape Wrote: I've only been using Dolphin (version 5.0 with recommended settings) for a couple weeks now and am only playing GameCube games.
I'm playing on a laptop - a Lenovo IdeaPad Y700, and I can only get through about a half hour of gameplay before my computer freezes.
When the freeze occurs, the game will usually continue playing as usual - idle animations aren't effected, cutscenes will play until a new scene would load, but then it will stay at a blank screen.
The rest of my computer, however, becomes completely unresponsive. Videos playing in the background freeze with the last sound held forever, my mouse, keyboard, and power button go completely unresponsive, and the only way to end the freeze is to take apart my computer and remove the battery (or let it wear itself down)

I haven't had any previous issues with my laptop with modern games, and have tried clearing caches, keeping other programs closed while playing, and other recommendations on similar threads, but haven't seen any threads with my specific issue.

Is this just par for the course for emulation, or should there be some way to fix this?

Keep an eye on the temps of your GPU and CPU while playing Dolphin (using HWinfo or the like), this sounds like a hard thermal shutdown of the CPU causing it to hardlock.
Previous experiences with native PC games don't mean anything as native PC games tend to rely on the GPU more than on the CPU, where any emulator is the absolute opposite.

Faulty RAM could also be an issue causing this, but shouldn't hardlock your computer.

Another thing that could be the issue is a faulty drive but that usually doesn't mean that the computer becomes completely unresponsive.

[Ecscape]

(04-23-2019, 08:20 PM)mstreurman Wrote: Keep an eye on the temps of your GPU and CPU while playing Dolphin (using HWinfo or the like), this sounds like a hard thermal shutdown of the CPU causing it to hardlock.
Previous experiences with native PC games don't mean anything as native PC games tend to rely on the GPU more than on the CPU, where any emulator is the absolute opposite.

Faulty RAM could also be an issue causing this, but shouldn't hardlock your computer.

Another thing that could be the issue is a faulty drive but that usually doesn't mean that the computer becomes completely unresponsive.

Thanks for the recommendation! HWinfo didn't show any anomalies before freezing, but was running somewhat high (~70%) while playing.


There does seem to be a bit of overheating, though, so I'll do some dusting and see if the problem continues.


Thanks again for the quick response and solid advice.


Also, thanks JosJuice for confirming it's not a common problem.

[Ecscape]

Issue resolved!

For anyone with a Lenovo Ideapad Y700 that has a similar problem, BIOS version CDCN35WW has some instabilities that Dolphin's emulated controllers can bring to the surface.

Updated my BIOS and haven't had an issue since.

Thanks again for the advice, mstreurman!