Random Crashes in ALL games

RadicalRaymondd · 12-15-2013, 04:15 AM #1

Hello. I've been using dolphin for for about a year and a half now and I never experienced such frequent crashing in ALL games I have tried to play. I am unsure of the cause because the crashing appears to be at random. Basically sometimes I get almost a full hour of play and then it crashes and sometimes within minutes it crashes. I just got a new PC and I think this may be the cause but also it may just be the new version 4.0.2
My old PC (I used 2.0, 3.0, many revisions of 3.0, 3.5 and 3.5 and they all ran pretty well brawl in 1080p and windwaker too at most of the time full speed. but now moving to windows 8 and 4.0.2 I am getting crashing like never before. Crashing was very rare with the old version (for me at least) and I am leaning towards it being my windows 8 mostly because I get the exact same problem with PCSX2 1.0.0 which was the same version I had on my old PC. I'm not sure if there is some windows 8 work around or certain settings I should change to make windows 8 more stable because everything runs at full speed in both emulators in HD with AA and texture filtering and everything (quite a wonderful experiencing) but the constant crashing makes the games almost unplayable because I never know when it will happen. If anyone else has this issue or has windows 8 without this issue or knows if it is 4.0.2 please tell me I am looking forward to trying games that didn't run well on my old PC. Help would be much appreciated

**JMC47** · 12-15-2013, 05:38 AM #2

Define crashing in this case. Is it:

1. Hanging/freezing and forcing you to close the emulator?
2. Crashing instantly, Emulator completely disappears?
3. Emulator goes to 0 fps/0 vps or 0 fps/60 vps?
4. Windows BSOD?
5. Other.

RadicalRaymondd · 12-15-2013, 07:14 AM #3

(12-15-2013, 05:38 AM)JMC47 Wrote: Define crashing in this case. Is it:

1. Hanging/freezing and forcing you to close the emulator?
2. Crashing instantly, Emulator completely disappears?
3. Emulator goes to 0 fps/0 vps or 0 fps/60 vps?
4. Windows BSOD?
5. Other.

Basically stops responding and gives me that standard windows option to close to program. So option one from your list I suppose. Also I went back to 4.0.0 and It crashes the same way.

**DJBarry004** · 12-15-2013, 07:29 AM #4

Try opening Dolphin again. Then, open the Windows Task Manager and check the CPU usage. Dolphin should have one of the highest usage number.

RadicalRaymondd · 12-15-2013, 08:46 AM #5

(12-15-2013, 07:29 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: Try opening Dolphin again. Then, open the Windows Task Manager and check the CPU usage. Dolphin should have one of the highest usage number.

Well it does as usual.

**DJBarry004** · 12-15-2013, 09:14 AM #6

Did you try scanning for viruses? They could cause the slowdown/hang by making another process to use all your CPU resource (and only when you run a game in Dolphin).

RadicalRaymondd · 12-15-2013, 11:15 AM #7

(12-15-2013, 09:14 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: Did you try scanning for viruses? They could cause the slowdown/hang by making another process to use all your CPU resource (and only when you run a game in Dolphin).

From what I can see that isn't the case either :/
Do you think it could just be the whole windows 8 thing? My old windows 7 PC ran dolphin pretty well (along with other 6th gen emulators) with only a very rare crash in windwaker that I fixed because apparently you can't save state in that game. But all my 6th Generation console emulators just crash left and right and I don't know if there is an optimal setting for windows 8.
I'm going to see if I can run it in compatibility mode for windows 7 if that is even a thing lol (you can tell I'm new to windows 8. It took me twenty minutes to find the control panel yesterday)

drhycodan · 12-15-2013, 04:57 PM #8

What other 6th gen console emulators have you used?

RadicalRaymondd · 12-16-2013, 02:29 AM #9

(12-15-2013, 04:57 PM)drhycodan Wrote: What other 6th gen console emulators have you used?

PCSX2 and NullDC

I actually left PCSX2 on overnight by accident with a game paused and it didn't crash which surprises me. I followed a video about changing just the audio plugin to stop the crashes and it has seemed to work. Perhaps the same is the case of Dolphin?

RadicalRaymondd · 12-19-2013, 03:48 PM **#10**

I did end up doing the same thing that I did with PCSX2 turns out the Xaudio plugin for both of them makes things crash on Windows 8. Switch to Dsound/Direct Sound if you get Random Crashes in Windows 8. Lol I'm sure someone has had this issue on here before but if not give this a shot maybe I dunno lol