[Yop83]

Hi!

I recently installed 256 mb of 133mhz sdram, which brought the total of my system to 384mb (I originally had 128mb of ram). Ever since, Epsxe slows down rhytmitically from 60fps to about 30fps then goes up to 60fps again about each five seconds... This is quite unpleasant. Whatever the game or the config I use (even when using the same ones that I've been using when I had 128mb of ram), it does this roller coaster thing...

I even reinstalled Windows, thinking that may be the problem, but no chance...

I have to make clear that before I put the added ram Epsxe worked perfectly with the same games.

Is there something to do?

Is it really due to the ram upgrade?

My specs:
P-III 733
384 mb of Sdram
Geforce 256 with 32 mb(detonator v. 12.41)
Windows 98 SE in French
Soyo 7VCA Board

Help!!!
Yop83

 

[gerbilcannon]

Is the ram at the same speed as your other ram? Have you tried taking it out again to see if that fixes the problem? Have you made sure you have the correct clock speeds for your memory in your bios settings? If you have no idea, try setting them to the slowest settings then try.

 

[Guest]

It sounds like it could very well be your ram. When ram modules don't get along, all sorts of weird things can happen. There is a way to test if it is your ram. Take out your original 128 megs of ram and leave just the 256megs in. Then try ePSXe and see if it does the "roller coaster" bit. If it doesn't, then I would say, your ram modules are incompatable. Another thing you can try is to switch DIMM sockets. Put the 128 in the socket that the 256 is in and vice versa. Sometimes that works also. Best of luck w/your problem and I hope that my suggestions help some.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

 

[Yop83]

Didn't work....

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions, but after I tried every possible combination of ram it didn't work any better...

I even reinstalled ePSXe, to no avail.

Now I think it may be a windows problem because I remember that just after having made a clean install (Windows + Audio/Video drivers + DirectX 8.0a) I tried ePSXe and it worked perfectly smoothly.
But then I continued to install programs (Office 2k, Easy CD 5, forceAspi 1.7, Etc...) and tried it back and it was doing the roller coaster effect...

Has anyone ever experienced this or something similar?
Could ONE application influence so much ePSXe's performance?

Help would be appreciated!

(for my specs, see the first post of the thread)

Thanks
Yop83

 

[fivefeet8]

Press alt-control-delete to make sure there are no programs running in the background.. Check your ram settings in the bios.. Defrag your hd.. When you reinstall epsxe, make sure you delete the epsxe registry so it will be a fully clean install of epsxe.. Whats your configuration of epsxe? Pluggins and config...

 

[Arpanet]

Make sure your HD is set to FAT32 (it probably is, but it makes a big difference) - run msconfig.exe and disable any unneeded apps - IIRC, Office 2k can take up a BIG chunk o' processor and memory, so yes, one program can influence ePSXe's performance a great deal.

 

[Yop83]

Thanks...

Thanks a lot for all the help...

I kind of resolved the problem. I got in msconfig.exe and disabled some programs that were loading at start-up (such as Office 2k start-up and Quicktime Tasks, What are those anyway??). It actually gave a lot of speed boost!!

I was first using Pete's OGL plugin but even with the boost it still jumped and skipped a little so I changed to Pete's Software. It really gives more performance, despite the visuals being less "clean"!!

So again Thanks!!
All your suggestions really helped!!!

Yop83

 

[someguy]

Why don't you just pull out the new RAM and see if the problem disappears? At least then you'll confirm that that's where the problem lies.

 

[Yop83]

Done that...

Actually I already did this....
No difference though........

Thanks Anyway!!
Yop83