Critical: Dolphin Constantly Hangs Windows

[Crashdance22]

When playing Gamecube games, Dolphin frequently freezes and causes Windows to be completely unresponsive. This problem first appeared when upgrading my PC. Everything was swapped out new. I have a feeling the problem is the video card (Geforce GT 240) or my drivers. When this happens Windows can become responsive again, but only briefly. Sometimes the game will resume, and somtimes it will resume with corrupt on-screen textures or mismapped textures of 3D elements. I am of course unable to capture a save state or FIFO frame of this because it locks up Windows. I have only tested this with Mario Kart Double Dash and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger for Gamecube. I have only tested Gamecube games running under DX9. I'll do more testing on this to see if I can narrow down the problem. Here's a quote with full details on what I've done:

Hi, a few days ago I completely upgraded my computer and swapped everything out new, including case, motherboard, and power supply. Since then I've been having freezing and crashing issues in certain games. Ironically, this is not a problem in any real PC games that I know of, as I can play games such as StarCraft II and Portal just fine. However, be aware that these are the only 2 games I've actually tested with and encountered zero problems with. The issue actually crops up when using Dolphin, the Gamecube/Wii emulator. It's a mystery as to why the issue happens so frequently and predictably with this program and this program only.

But on to the actual problem. Here are my system specs:

Code:

Windows:                Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
Internet Explorer:      8.0.6001.18702
Memory (RAM):           3071 MB
CPU Info:               Pentium(R) Dual-Core  CPU      E6500  @ 2.93GHz
CPU Speed:              2929.8 MHz
Sound Card:             VIA HD Audio Output 2
Display Adapters:       NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD
Monitors:               1x; Plug and Play Monitor |
Screen Resolution:      1280 X 960 - 32 bit
Network:                Network Present
Network Adapters:       Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport | Hamachi Network Interface
CD / DVD Drives:        D: HL-DT-STBDDVDRW GGC-H20L | J: JAZE    TYBS1Q7CX6
Ports:                  COM1 LPT1
Mouse:                  8 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks:             C:  465.8GB
Hard Disks - Free:      C:  221.7GB
USB Controllers:        5 host controllers.
Firewire (1394):        Not Detected
Manufacturer:           Award Software International, Inc.
Product Make:           G41MT-S2P
AC Power Status:        OnLine
BIOS Info:              AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 12/31/10 | GBT    - 42302e31
Time Zone:              Central Standard Time
Battery:                No Battery
Motherboard:            Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G41MT-S2P
IP Address:             192.168.0.120 | 5.45.5.184 |
MAC Address:            1C-6F-65-DB-FE-FB
Host Name:              SHUTTLE

The problem is a 15-30 second hang with looping sound while a game is emulated in Dolphin, followed by random textures mapped across the screen upon resuming. This happens multiple times in one setting, and on one occasion the system has crashed to a BSOD. According to my research this is a very common type of crash caused by a Nvidia driver file, nv4_disp.dll. This actually belongs to Windows and exists before any manufacturer's drivers are installed.

I initially came to the conclusion that Nvidia's later drivers aren't very stable after reading countless threads on crashes, hangs, and general stability problems with these later versions. I literally started driver testing at around the 150 series of drivers and went from there. I proceeded doing research on each available subversion for common problems others were having. If I couldn't find anything, and if the driver was compatible with XP and my GeForce GT 240, I then uninstalled the old drivers, restarted, and installed the new ones. I'm aware this is a very bad way to upgrade/downgrade drivers as the proper way is to restart in safe mode, clean with Driver Cleaner Pro, restart in safe mode again, install the drivers, then restart in normal mode. I've only done this with my current version of drivers, 257.21. This is what I'm running now, and I've verified from several threads this is a stable release and works fine for most people.

At this point I've run out of ideas. I've even followed [url="http://howtobyte.blogspot.com/2009/05/nv4dispdll-blue-screen-error-fix.html"]this popular guide[/url]. All my hardware is brand new, the card is securely seated in the PCI-E slot, it's not running hot, there's no dust anywhere. This is starting to look like a bad card or other piece of hardware at this point. Is there anything else I should be checking? Any help is much appreciated.

I've ran an intensive stability test for about 6 minutes with no problems, and Dolphin usually hangs within the first 30 seconds of gameplay. This is really starting to look like a hardware compatibility problem with Dolphin. Can anyone verify this? I can swap out my older GeForce 9800 if needed and test with that.

[dannzen]

reinstalled windows after swaping everythign?

[Crashdance22]

No, but that doesn't matter. I've used Driver Cleaner and reinstalled drivers several times in Safe Mode, and have found no evidence of any problems at all outside of Dolphin. Something Dolphin is doing is causing these frequent hangups.

[dannzen]

jeah but did you swaped the mainboard?
there are mainboard drivers which cant be replaced because they are fixed into windows while installing it on the maschine

just reinstall window
dolphin works without any problems on every hardware...
its in 90% of every cases a man behind the keyboard problem

so just make a clean windows installation... windows is not programmed to be swaped between systems
that never worked and will never work... only in some rare cases it works without any problems

[Crashdance22]

I'll give it a try and report back. Glad it's likely not a hardware problem. Such obscure causes, eh?

[dannzen]

sure its not the first time that a swaped windows makes problems without any trace

[kernel64]

I'll give it a try and report back. Glad it's likely not a hardware problem. Such obscure causes, eh?

Not so obscure I'm afraid. It's a well known issue with those video cards.

http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread...ight=gt240
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread...ight=gt240
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread...ight=gt240
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread...ight=gt240
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread...ight=gt240

[Crashdance22]

I re-installed XP and it works fine now. The video card wasn't the problem, it indeed was the mainboard configuration, one of the last things I, or possibly anyone else, would ever think of. Any way I can rep you for this danzzen? You just ended a very long journey to a very weird problem.

Edit: I'll be darned if the issue isn't happening again! Same problem, clean re-install, everything. But now it's happening much less frequently. But I do suppose I needed to run a re-install anyway (an ounce of prevention... you get it). Figured I'd try my luck with my 240 and still having the same problem as everyone else.

May I ask what the technical reason behind this is? I can't wrap my head around a single program causing the entire system to hang up compared to something like Crysis going off without a hitch (not bashing Dolphin). Looks like I'll be dropping back down to my good old 9800 GT, as I've learned there's little difference between the cards anyway. Good thing this one didn't go for much. Thanks for the help guys!

[Squall Leonhart]

any application or driver that hangs windows is usually caused by misconfigured hardware

[kernel64]

any application or driver that hangs windows is usually caused by misconfigured hardware

Not so much in this case since only two specific video cards are affected. Poorly written-tested-debugged code can also hang Windows.