Black Screen

[SirLee]

Hiya. I downloaded the ePSXe emulator v.1.7.0, the SPCH1001 BIOS file, the GPU plugin D3D Pete and I'm using the built in CD-ROM plugin and sound plugin. My issue is I can't get anything but a black screen when I put in FF7. I did File>Run CD-ROM and File>Run BIOS in the ePSXe menu, and only get a blank screen for the 'Run CD-ROM' option. When I do the BIOS one, it goes to the normal Sony entrance screen for Playstation 1, but then goes straight to the menu with 'Memory Card' and 'CD player'. Any thoughts?

[Mystic]

Try using Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9 it fixes most black screen problems.

[SirLee]

Well, maybe we made a little bit of progress. I downloaded that GPU plugin, but now I'm receiving 2 errors, one saying that "Missing render texture-extension" and then "No pixel format available!" before the program crashes. Any clue as to what settings need to be changed? Oh, and on a side note, I would like to create an ISO image file from my FF7 CD seeing as everyone says they run better than when using CD's.

However, I have downloaded various programs such as alcohol 120%, CloneCD, and ISOBuster, but it seems there's always one step that halts me from making a successful image. For instance, when I click the "Image Making Wizard" in alcohol 120% as instructed and select the Playstation Datatype, I'm not even able to click the "Next" button, which I'm guessing is because I didn't purchase their piece of crap.. Or when I use ISOBuster, I have to go into File System Settings>Communications> Interface and change it from SPTI to ASPI for it to even detect my DVD/CD-ROM RW drive with the FF7 disc in it, and when I right click the CD and extract the image file and try to use it with the emulator, it doesn't work, which makes sense seeing as its only 327KB big...

When I try to use CloneCD and do "Read to Image File" as was instructed by a tutorial and select my DVD/CD-ROM RW drive, it comes up with a new window with "Waiting for such and such drive..", and doesn't seem to go anywhere. So, I guess what I'm really asking is if there's anything out there that won't try to shove their fees at you just to use their shit or if anyone knows what I'm possibly doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

[SirLee]

New Edit: I don't think it is the GPU plugin at all. This new one is bringing up new errors that weren't there before. I was able to actually get into the playstation screen when doing "Run BIOS", now I can't even do that though. I think its been isolated down to the fact that I can't get ePSXe to read my CD/the fact I can't get a proper ISO(yet). Thanks again in advance for help.

[Mystic]

Use powerISO, and what are you system specs?

[SirLee]

It has been confirmed. It was indeed my inability to get ePSXe to read from the CD-ROM drive as well as my inability to get a proper ISO extracted from my CD in the CD-ROM drive. I downloaded an FF7 ISO from google and ran that, works just fine. Got up to the first boss fight in FF7 =D I still want to trouble shoot my issue with not being able to read from the CD-ROM however and possibly find a program that actually can extract ISO's from my psx CD's. Btw, I am on a P-6301 Gateway laptop. Windows Vista, 130 GB HDD, dual core pentium 1.46 GHZ which I believe is actually the mobile(laptop) version of the core 2 duo due to CPUZ readings. Oh, and 1 GB of RAM(soon upgrading to 2), and of course an integrated intel graphics card with like 256 MB or something of memory(I think?), and the cd drive is an Optiarc DVD RW AD-7563A ATA Device(DVD/CD-ROM Drive).

[Mystic]

It sounds to me like you CD drive is faulty. When you get a decent comp use PowerISO to make your own ISOs it works very well. Also, you may see more problems in the future since you have an integrated GPU. Laptops fail.

[FatTrucker]

Sounds most like an ASPI driver problem/mismatch. Try installing/reinstalling something like forceaspi.

[SirLee]

I tried using the "Compress" option with powerISO, not sure if that was the correct otpion for this program or not. Anywho, it detected 3 different drives. A CD drive(G), a DVD RW drive(E), and a DVD drive(F). All the same drive I'm assuming since I only have one physical CD/DVD drive on my computer. Anywho, tried the compression option with all 3, but it couldn't detect the FF7CD. I heard the drive actually spinning the CD inside my laptop, but to no avail. I am going to try using forceaspi. I think I recall trying something like that a while back but with no luck before I gave up the last time on this stuff. Pretty sure its no fault with my actual drive, its the software. Btw, powerISO should work properly for creating an image file for a game WITHOUT having to buy/register it, right?

[SirLee]

Okay, so I have come to the conclusion that I need FrogASPI, not ForceASPI. FrogASPI is compatible with Vista, seeing as Vista is origionally SPTI, not ASPI in the first place. I can't figure out what directory I need to install the FrogASPI file into, however. Any help?

Edit: I think I have just found the correct directory. It is C:\Windows\System32 on Vista. I took out the old wnaspi32.dll file and placed the new FrogASPI.dll in there. I think it may need to be renamed the same as the old wnaspi32.dll file, so I'm going to check into that. Thanks for the help so far guys, hopefully I'm getting closer to the bottom of this = )