.hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth - Cutscene freeze | CDVD read speed timing issue

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1) Did the game ever work correctly (i.e. not have this problem) on the
Official PCSX2 build or an earlier version of PCSX2 playground?
(If so, please specify the latest pcsx2-playground or Official revision
that last worked.)

none

2) What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. boot game
2. intro cutscene loads
3. hang

Also when skipping the initial video and trying whilst ingame, problem is 
reproduced.

3) What exactly happens when you experience this issue (listing any console
errors or screen output you receive)?

No console errors, just freezes on first frame of video.

4) What version of PCSX2 are you using? On what operating system? Plugins?

PCSX2 0.9.8.r4600  - compiled on Apr 27 2011
GSDX 4600 ssse3 0.1.16 (other instruction set versions also reproduce problem)
SPU2X r4600m 1.4.0

5) Please provide any additional information below.

Skip Mpeg hack makes the game playable, but obviously cutscenes can be half of 
the game. I know this is a common problem.

6) Attachments.  *IMPORTANT!*  We have a limited storage quota on
GoogleCode, so please keep attachments to UNDER 200k!  Do not upload
blockdumps!  Do not upload MP3 dumps.  Use 3rd party image hosts for
screenshots when possible.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 24 Sep 2011 at 7:20

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Also running on Win 7 x86 (unfortunately)

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 24 Sep 2011 at 7:22

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UPDATE: problem solved by running on an HDD instead of a flash drive. Any 
interesting reasons as to why? I'm curious.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 1:43

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Have you tried using a compare tool on the flash drive files to make sure 
they're the same as the ones on the hdd?  If there were corrupt or unreliable 
sectors on the flash drive, it wouldn't give any errors when you copied the 
files over in the first place.

Original comment by Kar...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 8:10

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Curious but it could happen, yea.
The flash drive couldn't read data quickly enough and the game decided the disk 
was broken.

Original comment by ramapcsx2 on 25 Sep 2011 at 9:46

• Changed state: NothingToDo

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what I'm going to do, is test both of your hypotheses. Where would I find a 
compare tool? Can I just use MD5sum?

As far as the flash drive read/write goes, usually the speeds are faster than a 
HDD. Remember, the other volume I'm loading successfully from us an external 
HDD with a USB interface. IMO, the flash drive would load fasted being a solid 
state drive.

I will test the read/write though on both of them.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 4:54

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[deleted comment]

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Actually the objective data confirms your hypothesis that my flash drive may be 
too slow.

http://i.imgur.com/8lq7M.png - Flash Drive

http://i.imgur.com/b2Ak7.png - External HDD

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 5:43

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I know that some people were having the same problem, because google turned up 
a lot of people in the same boat. Maybe we should put something in a sticky on 
the forum about this issue?

Thank you for all your help so far.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 5:45

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Well, that speed graph looks fast enough for the flash drive.
Could the bug be simply random?

Original comment by ramapcsx2 on 25 Sep 2011 at 6:09

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Random as far as flash drives or just random?

I can test different flash drives, and I can also check for file differences in 
the ISO.

as far as being just random, no. it works every time with the HDD and fails 
every time with the flash drive in question.

Thanks for your continued support.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 25 Sep 2011 at 6:21

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Okay, so the timing is important in this but it's reproduceable.
Thing is, some games trigger yet unknown bugs in our CDVD emulation.
This might be one of them, so good to know.

Original comment by ramapcsx2 on 26 Sep 2011 at 8:58

• Changed title: .hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth - Cutscene freeze | CDVD read speed timing issue
• Changed state: Accepted

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I can't understand speed being an issue, its completely asynchronous as far as 
the emulation goes. It's more likely windows is disconnecting the device or 
removing the file lock in case the drive is pulled out. 

Original comment by refracti...@googlemail.com on 26 Sep 2011 at 12:45

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I'll try it on linux in addition to changing drive plugins. I'm currently using 
Gigaherz 0.8.0.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 26 Sep 2011 at 8:16

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I can confirm it also happens with linuz iso 0.9.0 plugin as well.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 27 Sep 2011 at 2:32

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are you changing to plugin mode? or still using the internal iso reader? you 
will need to change to plugin mode to test linuz iso..

while the stick is plugged in, can you go in to your device manager in windows, 
find the usb stick under disk drives and change the caching to "performance 
mode" instead of "optimized for quick removal" or as close as you can anyway ;p

Original comment by refraction on 27 Sep 2011 at 9:38

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I've been using plugin mode since I've been getting this problem. I just 
changed the write caching, nothing from that.

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 27 Sep 2011 at 5:33

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can you check them windows settings for me then please?

Original comment by refraction on 27 Sep 2011 at 5:43

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Certainly. Which ones? If you're talking about the caching, I have already done 
as you've asked. :P

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 27 Sep 2011 at 5:55

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ah right ok :P also any power saving options you can find are worth checking :P 
 i honestly doubt this is an access speed issue ;p

Original comment by refraction on 28 Sep 2011 at 7:56

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another thing you could try is formatting the memory stick as NTFS instead of 
FAT32, incase that's the issue.

Original comment by refraction on 28 Sep 2011 at 9:45

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Stick has been formatted as NTFS, as GU Vol. 3 is >4 gigs, and I wanted to be 
sure that I could fit them all on there, FAT32 not being able to support 
contiguous files greater than 4 gigs and all.

I suppose I could try FAT32, and I don't see much about power saving, but then 
again, I haven't looked very hard :P Anything you could advise me to try 
besides what's been said would be appreciated, as I'd love to help bugfix (low 
priority notwithstanding).

I have yet to try to reproduce this problem on BSD or Linux, as I run linux and 
BSD on a VM. It's in the works though.

Thanks for your continued support.

-Brendan

Original comment by Bhardy0...@gmail.com on 30 Sep 2011 at 5:29

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indeed, which is what makes me think its a windows removable storage thing ;p

might be worth checking the power options for the USB selective power etc and 
any other possible things that could cut off the memory stick.

Original comment by refraction on 30 Sep 2011 at 1:02