Hi there, I downloaded Retroarch 0.9.9 and when I try to start it it doesn’t work at all. Phoenix gives a “retroarch-phoenix.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close” sign, and retroarch.exe stays blank and shows this in cmd:
And here’s my netbook’s specs:
Thanks beforehand.
For starters make sure your using the 32 bit package, just in case.
Also check the intel site to see if maybe their are newer drivers available. Does retroarch crash when using all three video drivers? Have you tried d3d9, opengl and SDL? If not see if any of the ones you haven’t tried work. Did you update retroarch via phoenix before trying to start it? Do you have any libretro cores downloaded or are you trying to start without one? In windows cmd, cd to the dir containing retroarch.exe and type “retroarch -v --menu” and see if that starts at all? If not it may give us more info, so post the results. Make sure DirectX is installed properly. If all this fails you may have a problem with your OS. Consider upgrading or better yet, since you have intel graphics, use Linux and KMS mode 
There actually is a known issue with WinXP32 that can cause this sort of thing, but none of us have such a system to test on. If you don’t need Windows for other things, Linux+KMS is indeed a great option.
Drivers and DirectX are installed, and I don’t see how there could be a problem with the OS. I didn’t get to change anything, either, since phoenix crashes instantly. typing that command outputs this, and then nothing:
RetroArch: [CPUID]: Vendor: GenuineIntel RetroArch: [CPUID]: SSE: 1 RetroArch: [CPUID]: SSE2: 1 RetroArch: [CPUID]: AVX: 0 RetroArch: Loading default config. === Config === === Config end === RetroArch [WARN] :: system_directory is not set in config. Assuming system direc tory is same folder as game: “”. RetroArch: Found default config: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\retroarch\retro arch.cfg. RetroArch: Environ SET_PIXEL_FORMAT: RGB565. RetroArch: Version of libretro API: 1 RetroArch: Compiled against API: 1 RetroArch: Set audio input rate to: 29975.00 Hz. RetroArch: Adjusting aspect ratio to 1.33 RetroArch: Video @ 960x720 RetroArch [ERROR] :: Failed to load library, error code: 0x7e RetroArch: Did not find dwmapi.dll. RetroArch: Found GL context: wgl RetroArch: Detecting screen resolution 1024x600. RetroArch: [WGL]: wglSwapInterval(1) RetroArch: Querying GL extension: ARB_sync => doesn’t exist RetroArch: GL: Using resolution 960x577 RetroArch: [GL]: Not loading any shader. RetroArch: GL: Loaded 0 program(s). RetroArch: Enumerating DInput joypads … RetroArch: Done enumerating DInput joypads … RetroArch: Found joypad driver: “dinput”. RetroArch: Using font rendering backend: freetype. RetroArch: DirectSound devices: RetroArch: 0: Primary Sound Driver RetroArch: 1: Realtek HD Audio output RetroArch: [DirectSound]: Setting buffer size of 12288 bytes RetroArch: [DirectSound]: Latency = 64 ms RetroArch: Sinc resampler [SSE] RetroArch: SINC params (8 phase bits, 16 taps). RetroArch: SRAM will not be saved. RetroArch: [RGUI]: Opening history: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\retroarch.r etroarch-history.txt. RetroArch: GL VSync => on RetroArch: [WGL]: wglSwapInterval(1) RetroArch: GL VSync => on RetroArch: [WGL]: wglSwapInterval(1) RetroArch: Average monitor Hz: 193.199382 Hz. (122.543 % frame time deviation, b ased on 2048 last samples).
And about the linux thing, I’ll get a livecd and see if it works.
well like hunterk said (and he’s more of an expert on this than I am) this is a known issue with XP. So as of right now there may not be a fix for your issue. Seriously though with such an underpowered netbook and intel graphics, you want every last bit of juice you can get; you want KMS, you just don’t know it yet. Consider installing a duel boot of linux (I would do either Arch Linux or Ubuntu if your not comfortable with CLI) if you don’t want to get rid of Windows. Trust me it is worth the trouble. You’ll get almost 0 input lag and you can turn your underpowered netbook into an advantage thanks to intel graphics (I can’t even run KMS mode without dropping frames due to a kernel bug with amd graphics).
I just did a little testing - Retroarch still works on XP. I moved a working Installation over from Vista. The download from the homepage doesn’t work for me either under the newer OS though.
One particular thing that I noticed are the config files, my working install has those in the Windows user folder, whereas the download comes with them (empty).