Retroarch.exe has stopped working

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

hey everyone. I asked around on the webchat freenode channel but couldn’t find a solution to my problem. Basically, I am on an old laptop from around 6 years ago. A Dell Inspiron.

System type: 32-bit OS, x64 based processor

I had to manually install windows 10 from windows 7. To make a long story short, I downloaded the stable Retroarch 1.3.4 & also a new nightly for my Windows 10 operating system. I have tried installing & re-installing this build to run on my machine but to no avail.

The problem with Retroarch is that it fails to load. I continue to get a message that states: retroarch.exe has stopped working… then the program closes. In other words, Retroarch fails to load on my system for some odd reason.

Does anyone know how to fix this?? Has anyone had the same issue & were able to finally get it running properly??

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

#2

It acts like that if you haven’t installed the directx 9.0c runtime. I would check that first. You can use the web installer to get the version that works with win10.

#3

I am having a similar issue with retroarch, the error I get is: RetroArch [ERROR] :: gfx_ctx_init :: Failed to bind API (0, version 0.0) on context driver “d3d” I originally had windows 7 and it didn’t work on that, I upgraded to 10 64 bit and still same error. my directx version is 10 under dxdiag. I’ve been searching the internet for a few weeks and have not really found an answer, any idea where I should start?

#4

Windows 10 doesn’t come packed with Directx9. You need to install it https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34429

I believe dxdiag just reports the latest version that your card supports.

#5

I cannot install dx9.0 on windows 10. I tried some workarounds and it either gave me the windows error that I must have a certain OS, or the retroarch error from before. I went back to windows 7 and installed the 9.0c and now it opens. THANK YOU. I will try to get it set up and let you know what I find.

#6

I’ve had good luck installing on Win10 via the web installer: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=35

#7

hunterk, i have seen that link in so many forums and every time i hit it it just gave me a generic upgrade to windows 10 screen. if i saw that screen again my pc would be thru the window. thank you for you so much for your help. I’m glad it was an easy fix. is there a list of systems that retroarch runs? my hyperspin came already set up and it had default emulator for genesis set to fusion. in simply austins vid he changed it to retroarch. I’m just wondering if there’s a list out there somewhere so i can change as many as possible to either retroarch, mame, or mess.

#8

Fire up RetroArch on its own (just double-click the icon) and then go to the online updater > core updater and there’s a list of all of the cores RetroArch supports. You can download them right there.

#9

Having the same issue here. I downloaded RetroArch Master v1 as per instructions in Simply Austin video. I have tried launching retroarch.exe directly from the folder it is in by clicking on the executable. I get the same game error:

RetroArch [ERROR] :: gfx_ctx_init :: Failed to bind API (0, version 0.0) on context driver “d3d”

I don’t seem to have retroarch_debug.exe in my retroarch directory.

It is a new install of RetroArch on an older desktop computer running Windows 10 64 bit.

I can individually load emulators such as Project64 and successfully play games.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

#10

If it’s an older machine, try using one of the msvc2010 builds: https://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/windows-msvc2010/

#11

downloaded RetroArch for 64 bit Windows from the RetroArch download page. I was able to get the retroarch_debug.exe that way.

Error is…

RetroArch [ERROR] :: [WGL]: wglCreateContextAttribsARB not supported

downloading “RetroArch-2017-07-07-msvc2010-x64-setup.exe” now

#12

That didn’t work either. I don’t see an error when I run retroarch_debug.exe --menu --verbose

#13

ok, try opening your retroarch.cfg file in a text editor and change the line for “video_driver” from “gl” to “d3d”. If that doesn’t work either, change it to “gdi”

#14

“gdi” didn’t work, but it did give me an error message that clued me in to also try “sdl2”.

That got me to the menu. Hopefully I can get it from here. Thanks for your support hunterk.

#15

I’ve tried using “GDI” and it actually worked, but the GUI was all messed up and impossible to use, also, the games wouldn’t boot.

#16

hi im new here and to retroarch not sure how to start my own thread if I need to but I am having the same issue only I downloaded retroarch 1.2.2 when I try to open the retroarch.exe I get a box saying retroarch.exe has stopped working can someone please help but plz bear in mind im new to this so will need to bear with me when helping thank you sorry again if this is jumping on another thread.

#17

1.2.2 is no longer supported. Download the most recent 1.6.0 release and give it a shot instead.

The most likely issue is missing directx 9.0c, which you can install via the MS web installer: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

#18

Greetings to all, I have the same problem of Vetran4, the program wants to start and closes if any solution will be thrown.

#19

that’s ace hunter thank you may I ask another question I have just started a rom but now how do I set up a usb joypad so can actually play cheers again

#20

Usually, you just plug it in and RetroArch will display some yellow text along the bottom of the screen that says something to the effect of “such and such controller configured”. That means it matches one of our many community-provided autoconfiguration profiles.

If it says “not configured” that means we don’t have a profile for it yet. In that case, go to settings > input > p1 input binds and use the ‘bind all’ option to go through and assign all of your buttons. RetroArch uses an abstraction called the “retropad” which you can think of as basically like an SNES pad but with dual analogs and additional shoulder buttons. So, when you bind your buttons, you’re mapping the retropad buttons to your physical buttons and then the cores’ buttons get mapped to the retropad, if that makes sense.

Once you have them bound properly, you can use the ‘create autoconfig profile’ to save an autoconfig profile for your pad so it will be recognized the next time you launch.