sudomod

I figured this was a Retropie problem and asked people about it on the Retropie subreddit but no one seemed to know. Someone did say it could be a power management problem though.

So sometimes, not all the time, when I start a game and press select and X to load my save state, the retroarch menu won't open and I can't exit the game at all and I have to restart once, sometimes a few times before I can open the menu.(Thank camble for your awesome safe Shutdown!)

Other times, I'll be in the middle of playing and when I try to open the menu, it will open but will freeze and no inputs work. Most of the time I just have to wait a few seconds to a few minutes while constantly pressing buttons and it will unfreeze and I'm able to save and load, and occasionally it won't unfreeze at all and I have to restart. This is a major bummer when I'm opening the menu to make a save state to save a lot of progress in the first place....

This seems to be contiguous accross multiple emulators. I've had the issue with retroarch emulators for GB,GBA, andSNES(those are the only ones I'm playing right now.

It is my first build. My build includes:
Pi 3
Powerboost 1000c
Leonardo controller
2500mah adafruit LiPo
Many other components but these are the ones I'm mentioning in this post because a ASSUME they may be relevant to this issue.

I am unsure if this is a hardware or software issue.

I assume it could be possible that it's something to do with a sound issue too, because that's the only error messages I used to get but I'm not getting them anymore. Look up my previous posts and you can see my build.

Never had such issues. I may first try a fresh and empty retropie image to see if it’s still the same ? Put just a dozen games and try to stress retroarch by doing multiple saves/load menu/exit stuff

YaYa wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 10, 2017 9:08 am

Never had such issues. I may first try a fresh and empty retropie image to see if it’s still the same ? Put just a dozen games and try to stress retroarch by doing multiple saves/load menu/exit stuff

Does any of your builds use a Pi3? What would I be looking for and trying to diagnose by stressing it like that and if It does the same thing, what would this indicate as far as hardware being the issue? I stubbed accross a build using a Pi3 on here today where the builder installed two capacitors with a statement along the lines of(because of the prevalent power issues) but didn't go into any detail. I asked about it in the tread and I'm anxiously waiting for a reply. I'm very intrigued by it and my gut tells me that if it is a power issue, that that could be a solution.

I do not have a build with a Pi3 but i have a Pi3 and i play a lot with it and never had an issue.
Using a fresh retropie image and stressing the menu will eliminate a software issue. If you do not have again the issue, then your problem is your software.
If the problem occurs again, then it might be hardware but i really do not see any reason why hardware would interact like that with retroarch...

DeRock89 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:45 am

I am unsure if this is a hardware or software issue...

First, access the terminal on the device and run.

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -v --menu --log-file=~/retroarch.log

This will start retroarch in menu mode - and output a verbose log to "~/retroarch.log".

Once it is running, load a core and try to recreate the problem.

When it does, stop the emulator and then post the content of the generated log file here (unless by reading it you can see what the issue is?)

Really to debug this and find the solution you need to be able to recreate it whilst you have some logging going on.

I think you have a power supply issue. The PowerBoost is rated at 1A max.
If the Raspi and the other components (display, controller9 use too much power (current), the voltage will drop, then the components become unstable or crash.
I saw that some builds with the Pi3 use a super cap to stabilize the output voltage of the power supply. But this will only help, if you don't push the Pi to the limits over a long period of time.