I use Mednafen PSX HW with the Vulkan renderer, which works when I first load the core and then load the cue-file from “Load Content”. But when I want to start it from my scanned folders (I guess this is called playlist), Retroarch crashes with no obvious error from the console.
Windows 10 x64 GTX 1070
Can you post your log output somewhere (pastebin, etc.) and then give us a link?
This is the log when it fails: http://pastebin.com/FgHEbtfQ
This is the log when I start via Load Content and it works: http://pastebin.com/JiQPx43H
Hmm. The only suspicious stuff I can see is that: 1.) this line exists in the working launch but not in the nonworking one: RetroArch [INFO] :: Updating firmware status for: D:\Path\To\retroarch\cores\mednafen_psx_hw_libretro.dll on D:\Path\To\retroarch\system and 2.) it fails in the middle of some vulkan shader stuff, so that could be related, too.
Can you try downloading a fresh RetroArch build, grab a fresh core from the online updater, copy over your BIOS images, scan and launch? That is, don’t touch anything but the bare necessities to launch so we can rule out any conflicting configs/overrides?
I downloaded this version https://buildbot.libretro.com/stable/1.4.0/windows/x86_64/RetroArch.7z Created a new folder and downloaded the Mednafen PSX HW core (0.9.39.2 aafafde).
I’m using the standard config file shipped with this build. I only changed renderer to vulkan and enabled fullscreen. After that, I copied over the BIOS files and scanned my PS1 images. The situation remains the same. RA crashes when starting from the scanned playlist, with the mentioned line missing and the crash happening after: RetroArch [INFO] :: [Vulkan filter chain]: Not using frame history. RetroArch [INFO] :: [Vulkan filter chain]: Not using framebuffer feedback.
It works when starting the game through “Load Content”.
Ok, cool. Thanks for verifying that. I’ll see what I can do about reproducing it on my end and we’ll go from there. In the meantime, I guess just avoid the playlist 
Thanks for the report.
Thank you for your help. Just tell me when you need more info.
Were you able to reproduce this?
Hmm, no, I scanned a game and launched it from the playlist with no issues.
You are using v1.4? The HW version of Mednafen PSX? Have you set the video driver to vulkan?
What else could be the problem?
I was using a slightly older nightly. I’ll update my executable and core to the latest version and try again.
EDIT: just updated to the latest nightlies for RA and the core and launching from a playlist worked for me via vulkan renderer.
What else can I do to identify the problem? It used to work. Right now, I tested with RA1.3.6 and the latest Mednafen core (0.9.39.2 76b13e1), where I have the Playlist-Crash with the HW core only, software core works. However, with RA1.4 and the same Mednafen core version, both cores crash from playlist.
Can you post a copy of your playlist file (or at least just the section for a nonworking game)?
I just asked in IRC if anyone could reproduce the issue and will report back if anyone can.
EDIT: no one was able to reproduce it in IRC. They did note that the fallback from Vulkan to OGL isn’t working reliably, and that can cause crashes.
Another thing you can do to investigate the problem is get a backtrace with GDB. Go here and download the build for your bitness and then put the gdb executable into your retroarch directory. Then, from a command line, type: gdb retroarch_debug.exe and at the gdb prompt, type: run --menu --verbose RetroArch should launch like normal, so go through the steps to reproduce the crash. Instead of crashing out, the screen will just freeze. Go back to your command prompt and type: bt This should give you a backtrace, which you can copy/paste somewhere like pastebin and then share the link here.
The backtrace is quite short:
(gdb) bt #0 0x000000000aae83c9 in ?? () Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)
Thanks for explaining how the gdb it works!
hmm, yeah, that backtrace isn’t particularly helpful
So what can I do to get more info about this issue? What GPU and which driver version are you using?
Show the content of that playlist causing problem.
D:\Path\To\Roms\PS1\Crash Bandicoot - Warped (USA).cue
Crash Bandicoot - Warped (USA)
D:\Path\To\retroarch\cores\mednafen_psx_hw_libretro.dll
Mednafen PSX HW
00000000|crc
Sony - PlayStation.lpl
I can copy&paste the path to the cue-file in Notepad, so the file exists and the path itself is valid. The same applies for the line pointing to the core dll file.
Nothing suspicious with that playlist entry going on?
Have you checked the cue file itself for errors?
Also, could be a problem with bad settings in the config - try removing the cfg files from the RA home folder into a backup folder to let RA generate new, clean cfg files. Then, in the options set the renderer to vulkan but touch nothing else and see if the crash still occurs. If it doesn’t, then start changing other options back to where you had them to see if you can trigger the crash again.