ePSXe FF7 black flicker then freeze problem

[Nine1Nine]

I've been playing FF7 on ePSXe on my laptop for a few weeks now with no problems, however for various reasons I need to reinstall the OS and so am transferring everything to my desktop. I downloaded ePSXe 1.8.0 on my desktop along with the same plugins I use on my laptop - scph9002, Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.9 and ePSXe SPU core 1.8.0 - but I'm getting this weird problem I've never experienced on my laptop. Basically I'll be playing the game and the screen will flicker black then I won't be able to do anything. The music will still be playing and if, for example, I was moving left, my character will keep moving left but that's it. I then have to alt-tab out, alt-tab back, hit esc and then resume playing that way. It's not a game-breaker but it's a bit of a ballache and I'm not sure how to sort it out.
All the settings are the same as on my laptop so I'm assuming it's a problem with my desktop but I don't really know what could be causing it and after an hour or so of googling I've gotten nowhere. So if anyone's experienced this before or thinks they know what could be up I'd appreciate any info. Cheers.

[ulaoulao]

All the settings are the same as on my laptop

Well that may be the issue. Never share setting with a desktop to laptop config. I'd recommend running the wizard. Sounds to me like a v-sync issue.

[Nine1Nine]

Ah fair enough, so should I force disable v-sync in Catalyst Control?

[ulaoulao]

No best to do every option at emulator level. There should be a v-sync option but dont assume its going to fix, try the recommended settings from the wix first.