Help Final Fantasy Tactics Advance crashing!

I'm running VBAGX 2.1.2 and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance keeps crashing. At first it would do it about once an hour, but now it seems like its doing it far more frequently. I can't tell if its directly related to in-game actions, the VBA version itself, or my homebrew stuff in general. Is anyone else having this problem or can anyone help?

Okay its any game. So, VBA GX in general keeps crashing. Any help?

It's the emulator itself believe it or not. It's not exactly optimized for the Wii, though Dancinninja is helping Tantric to optimize it more, as Tantric by himself cant do it alone. He cant do it alone, cause he is also maintaining at least four or so other projects as well. So there's only so much he can do.

Anyways just give it some time, and the emulator will be optimized enough to hopefully play most games 100%.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2009 12:58AM by nightwishfan1.

Actually, it sounds like a stack crash which would be Tantric's fault.

But don't mind me, I'm could easily be wrong.

I was just checking because I get this problem with some Game Boy games, too (Mother3, Metroid Fusion and Shantae). I've had issues with it for a bit now, but it's the only emulator that gives me problems was. What's odd is that, when it crashes, anything you did since running the game will be gone next time you run the game; returning to the last save you made from the previous time you played the game.

I tried uninstalling and deleting it all, then reinstalling it through Wiibrew, but I didn't try transferring the files from my computer yet. Could give that a shot later.

Well, great work on the emulators, Tantric. It's cool how you've done all these in your free time.

Hmm, crashing isn't an optimization issue (unless I screwed something up). When does it crash? Is there a way to get it to crash consistently? The more info you can give the better. Even seemingly needless details can help, believe it or not.

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dancinninja
Hmm, crashing isn't an optimization issue (unless I screwed something up). When does it crash? Is there a way to get it to crash consistently? The more info you can give the better. Even seemingly needless details can help, believe it or not.

Not blaming your work man. Just letting everyone know that the emulator isnt quite optimized to play GBA games full speed, which may yield crashes depending on the circumstances. I know your optimizations definitely have enhanced the playability for GBA games so you're definitely not to blame. Just that some games may not run properly still for w/e reason, though I know your optimizations will be worth it in the end. I for one can wait til the end when it's completely optimized. I cant say the same for others though. So as I said before just take your time. No need to get it done quick.

Just wanted to get that out there so you dont take my posts the wrong way.

Ah, I see. Thank you. I'm glad that my work has yielded positive results!

Getting back to the topic at hand, though. Can Mr. Slimreturns (or anyone else who has had this trouble) tell us when, exactly, it crashes? That would be of great help. I must apologize for this; I lack the software to test it myself. If it crashes in a certain area or when you do a certain action, it could be a starting point to find a memory leak or something. Those definitely affect performance!

I wish it was specific points, because I'm sure that would be vastly more useful to you, but it (seems) random. It never happens immediately, though. I would say usually five to ten minutes in would be a good "safe zone" before it happens. Yesterday, in Mother 3 it happened when I was answering a question, then once again just walking around. When I played Metroid Fusion, it seemed to have the problem more often than the others and it still seemed to happen randomly.

Now, I don't know if it's game-specific or if something changed with an update to vbaGX; I had played all the way through Metroid: Zero Mission and some other games here and there without an issue, then Metroid Fusion was the first game I got the crashes.

Before that I had all the files in the rom folder as-is, but with Mother3, I gave it a shot zipping it and it still works but, as I mentioned, still crashes.

Tomorrow or the next day I can see if now Metroid: Zero Mission will crash now and check to see if I still have the save snapshots for Metroid Fusion (to identify around what version vbaGX was at), if you think either would help.

My Wii system version shouldn't be an issue, right? I still have 3.2. My vbaGX is up to date, though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2009 09:25AM by protoman.

It's very doubtful that your Wii system version would be the problem. Hmm. Is there an error code that it gives you? Does it go back to the main menu, the homebrew menu, or the VBA menu? What kind of crash is it? Does it just freeze? Is it a "hard crash" in that you have to literally unplug the Wii in order to do anything? A combination of any of the above?

That might be able to help us.

Oh, sorry, I could of mentioned that. It goes to this black screen with a bunch of lines of text. I tried to get it again playing a little bit of Metroid Fusion, but of course when you want to recreate something, it doesn't want to cooperate, ha. It said something like a fatal error, says it will reload in eight seconds and then it goes back to the homebrew menu.

Try and write down the error, as much as you can.

Is there any set of buttons I can press to have the error screen not take me back to the Homebrew menu after the 8 seconds? There's way too much on screen for me to get in 8 seconds. It mentions something about a hex dump and a whole lot of letters/numbers. The error screen isn't limited to vbaGX, though. I've gotten the screen before with Mario Wars and one or two others on occasion, if memory serves right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2009 04:14AM by protoman.

^^You dont need every single line. The only part of the crash you'll need is the stack dump section, as it will have relevant information as to possibly what caused the crash in the first place. And dont worry about the 8 seconds if it's always fatal erroring. The crash should yield the same lines of data each time per individual game. So play one game at a time, and repeat the errors with the same game til you record all the lines in the stack dump. Using another game other than the one you're trying to record the stack dump of a crash will not have the same code dump as another game, and to dancinninja wont make much sense when he goes looking for a stack dump composed of various game crashes. So stick to one game, and record as much of the stack dump when it fatal errors out, then play the game again, and record more of the stack dump data when the game crashes again. Just be sure it's giving you the fatal error though, cause that stack dump data in the crash should be the same each time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2010 02:12AM by nightwishfan1.

Hey, the last post was a few months back, so i hope i didn't miss you guys. I am having the exact same problem as mentioned above. mine just started today though, when my wife and i were playing fire emblem. We just finished playing fire emblem sacred stones last week and started fire emblem, and it had a code dump error, erasing our save files up to that point. This happened multiple times. We had actually started this game a few nights before with no problems, but are now in a groundhogs day scenario, having to redo everything everytime it code dumps. :) I tested the emulator by playing advance wars 2, and it dumped as well. the dump code for fire emblem is: 801e8134-->001e0018-->00200e90
The screen is shaking when I wrote it down, but I am pretty sure that is correct. It also happens at various times. When I was getting you this code, it happened the first time after about 3 minutes, and the last time after 15 or so. I'm not sure why this would suddenly start happening, especially since we played the game a few nights back with no problems. The only change I made to my SD card since then is add a few songs to band hero from the download. Other than that there have been no changes, I don't even think there has been an update to teh emulator. The screen it goes to is black and after 8 sec. it reloads to the homebrew menu. I hope all of this helps. And I hope it can be fixed so my wife and I can continue our quest. :) (we split the characters and take turns with who moves first. actually works really well.)

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but do you have anything plugged into the usb ports? The Megaman Battle Network games and Castlevania games crash frequntly on me, but only when my usb is plugged in or my zune is charging.

VBA GX 2.1.2 isnt optimised, and for a long time has had problems running some games properly even several versions prior. Anyways Tantric released that version of the emulator before dancingninja help him out. So pretty much it's a waiting game til 2.1.3 is released, as that version will have all the optimizations that dancingninja contributed to the emulator built in, and should show drastic improvements over previous versions before it.

In the meantime you can post the exact issue you're having at [code.google.com] just click on the issues tab and sign into your google account (if you have one) and report the issue. From there Tantric can look it over and see if the problem persists in the next build of the emulator he intends to release, cause that would help him fix it quicker.

You know.....you may be a genious! I won't be able to try it till after work, but the microphone was plugged into the USB ports. If that was the problem dragonite, your my new favorite person. I'll post later (after 7pm mountain time) to let you know. If that is the problem, this might help others as well. Who knows.

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bevbrigade
You know.....you may be a genious! I won't be able to try it till after work, but the microphone was plugged into the USB ports. If that was the problem dragonite, your my new favorite person. I'll post later (after 7pm mountain time) to let you know. If that is the problem, this might help others as well. Who knows.

That could quite possibly be an issue. You should always remove any external USB devices before you launch an app, unless of course that app uses a USB device.

So I have learned. :) It is confirmed. I have been having no problems since I unplugged the microphone out of the USB port. I appreciate all of your help. I would have never thought to try that.