FF8 randomly crashing PS1 core on Odroid XU4 running Lakka

Libretro Lakka
#1

Specs: Odroid XU4, Lakka and roms on a 128gb micro sd card, wireless Logitech Game Controller, Hdmi out

As the title states, FF8 randomly crashes while playing. The game runs flawlessly up until that point. It has happened four times so far on a run that’s 10 hours in. I’ve had to set the sram write interval to 5 minutes in an attempt to save what data I can if it happens. I can’t tell what triggers it. It can happen when entering a battle, during a battle, exiting a battle, or even in a town.

I’ve tried using both American bios, the scph5501 and scph1001. The problem happens with each. I doubt that the Odroid is overheating since it has a fan and the entire system doesn’t crash, only the core as it sends me back to the Lakka OS. It shouldn’t be the ROM, because the same ROM has played fine on the PC without ever crashing using mednafen. I am not running any unique or particular settings. I’ve checked and double checked to make sure there are no hotkey bindings I’m pressing to exit the core. I’ve disabled all of them. I’ve also reflashed Lakka to no avail. Is there a way to check some kind of logs after a core crashes? Or to check and make sure the bios is taking right?

Any and all advice is much obliged. Thanks in advance.

Update: Tried running FF8 on a different distro with Retropie. Still had the same issue. So it has to be something to do with Retroarch or emulator settings. Created a new post under the Libretro forum:

#2

I would check your rip’s md5/sha-1 against redump, as well as checking the md5 of your bios (depending on your game dump’s region, but if it’s NTSC then spch5501 should be fine)

I have personally played FFVIII using a verified good dump using both the mednafen (beetle) and pcsx rearmed cores on multiple platforms (pc, linux, android) and had no problems. In my experience, 9 times out of 10 it’s something to do with a setting that’s toggled or a ‘bad’ (or corrupted) game dump or bios. If you’re storing your game dumps on an older mechanical drive or flash memory that’s not name-branded/high quality, this tends to compound the corruption problem over time.

Hope your can figure it out, good luck!

1 Like
#3

Thank you for the suggestion and for confirming that info for me. I’ll definitely check it against redump. I’ve definitely kept in consideration that it could be the image. I just haven’t had the time to procure another back up, my internet speeds being the main factor there. At least I should be able to rule out the core then. By the way, I re posted this topic in a new thread under the general Libretro forum after I confirmed the crash on multiple distros. There’s a little more info there. Thank you again. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

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