hello all. I’m kinda new to these forums and to retroarch. I’m using retroarch 1.4.1. and its great. its been pretty much easier than I thought downloading cores, video settings and such. ive gotten my nes, snes, genesis, nin64 to work but I cant seem to get any of my ps1, turbographx16, Saturn, sega cd to work. ive tried all cores available, tried adding bios files to the system folder, ive scanned all the directories my games are in, my ps1 games actually show in my library but they just go to a black screen when started. any help is appreciated
The PS1, TG16 and Saturn cores all require bin/cue pairs (i.e., no ISOs), so that could be related. Genplusgx can handle ISOs, though, I think.
In general, the most common issues with CD-based cores are either bad/missing BIOS or malformed cue sheets.
To check your BIOS availability, load the core but no content, then go to main menu > information > core information. This page will list any/all BIOS the core wants and whether it can find them or not. All BIOS files need to be named exactly as the core expects, case-sensitive.
Other than that, we’ll need a verbose log to know any more.
When you load the core and go to: Information > Core Information Does the BIOS show as “(!) Present” ?
EDIT: wow, hunter beat me 
I found what you were talking about. In the info section of the core it says at the bottom its missing 3 bios files. Scph5500,5501,5502.bin. and 3 more with the same bios file name but at the end of it each has (md5) then a long string of numbers after each. I downloaded the bios bundle, renamed the bios files cuz the scph was uppercase and the biosfile that the core was looking was lowercase (tried both upper and lower and still no dice) and put those files in the retroarch system folder and made sure the path was directed to that system folder, updated cores and everything but both of the playstation cores wont take it for some reason. Now i do still have the 3 bios files in the system folder. Scph-5500, 5501, 5502.bin. do i need to add the files with the string of numbers in there too. I am a noob and have had a little experience but not in a while. This has been a pain. Dont know why they would be without a bios but thats just me
The long string of numbers is a checksum for making sure the BIOS files you have are actually the correct ones (i.e., and not just some random file with the same name as the BIOS).
We can’t include BIOS files because they are copyrighted files that have been dumped, just like ROMs.
Ok gotcha. Guess that does make sense. Thanks for the replies. Im now a bit more educated on the matter. Ill keep at it and let u know in a bit. Just a question though and sorry if this is a dumb question but the files in the core info does show the 3 bios files that are missing. 1. The bios files i downloaded the scph are capitalized and in the core info they are not. Is it a problem with case sensitivity? And 2. Are the checksum strands for each bios file i downloaded integrated with them?
Case sensitivity could be a problem, yes. The checksums are a mathematical representation of the files themselves, so I guess the answer to #2 is “yes, sort of”.
Check that your Bios files match the MD5 values posted here: https://mednafen.github.io/documentation/psx.html
You can use http://onlinemd5.com/ to verify them
If they don’t match you have to search for the correct ones.
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I did find that 2 of the 3 bios checksum did not match. I found them online and put them in the system directory in retroarch updated my files and still no dice and ive tried both ps cores. When i go into the info tab of each ps1 core each bios says present unlike b4 but it also says needed. All 3 bios checksums match but the only thing i see is each letter in the checksum is lowercase and the checksum i downloaded is capital letters. Dont know if this makes a difference or not but other than that dont have a clue. Ive tried and failed guys lol
Ok, we’re going to need a log to know what’s ultimately going on. Shift+right-click inside your RetroArch installation’s window (i.e., not on any items) and go to ‘open command window here’. At the prompt, type: retroarch.exe --verbose --log-file log.txt Do whatever you gotta do to make it crash and then take the contents of your log.txt file and copy/paste them somewhere like pastebin and then post a link here.
are you sure that you have manually set set the “system” folder in retroarch and not left it as “default”? even with a mismatched psx bios it should still mostly work(assuming its not a bad download or corrupted file-since there are lots of bios versions available and just not have been named correctly)
For PSX did you try setting the video driver to Vulcan?
Also make sure that you have latest drivers for your GPU installed.
Ive pretty much tried everything. Ive reinstalled, check path for the directories, scanned my rom files, and yes it was set to vulkan, as i said before the checksum at first at the end of each of the 2 bios didnt match then found the ones that did but noticed the only thing that raised an eyebrow was the letters in the checksum were lowercase not capital like th er ones i downloaded and didnt know if that mattered or not. Ive moved on to just using psxe for ps games. Its alot easier and way more video options. I didnt want to cuz i wanted all my games under 1 program (cuz im picky like that)but ive wasted countless hours on this with no dice. Thanks for all your replies guys very much appreciated.
1 - Have you tried hunterk’s suggestion? 2 - Which video card are you using? 3 - please, use line breaks.
Oh wow my PSX stopped working all of a sudden after being fine. Somehow my video driver got switched from Vulcan to GL, I’ve been trying to figure that out for days haha, thanks a lot GeoMan