Several issues

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mywoodstock
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 19 Aug 2018 17:33

Several issues

Post by mywoodstock »

Hi,

Received my retrostone last week and I have been doing quite a bit of playing around with it. In doing this i have run into a number of issues I want to address and the purpose of this post is more to see if others are experiencing similar things. The majority seem like software problems and if so I'd expect others to be having similar problems.

Firstly, I have been using the retrorange slim os recommended in the setup tutorial and I am running Windows 10 using etcher to flash the image. I have little experience with linux and these pcbs but have enough knowledge to follow instructions.

1) screen resolution is blurry making text and options difficult to read
This has been mentioned by most however I am including it for completeness. I know the screen is small but the resolution seems so much better in the Kickstarter video so it must be possible to improve. Is thisbthe fact the video used the HDMI out and the final product is using composite or is it a setting that can be changed in the os?

2) Some roms stop the machine booting
I have found that if I add certain roms it will stop the machine booting until these are removed. (With one time needed to re flash the os to fix the issue) So far these have been mostly psx (.ecm and .bin) and n64 roms but I have had a gba rom do this too and that was when I had to re flash the image.

3) The board has issues saving
I have found on numerous occasions that the board is not saving games properly, sometimes losing what I have uploaded (ie roms) and others not saving save files and reverting back to precious saves. I have found that pressing the reset button seems to help but not always. Once I reseted the machine and it reverted back to
the save file before the last which i really have no answers for. This appears to have gotten worse over time as I am sure it was better at the start but this is happening more often now.

4) Sometimes settings are not saving
On occasion I have found things I am setting inside retropi are not saving. These are things like input controls and settings for emulators. This is probably a similar issue to the precious one but worth mentioning.

That's it for now, but I just wanted to say how happy I am with the product despite these issues. It really is a fantastic device and don't want to worry any that have not received there's yet. I realise that is very early in release and these things are expected just eager to get it all set up and working properly. I'm hoping that the full Orange pi os will fix the majority of these issues but was very curious to see if others are finding similar things or if this is anything wrong with my particular kit.

Thanks,
Adam
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Re: Several issues

Post by Admin »

Hi there,

1) have you tried switching the theme to GBZ35? See other topic on the forum. The inner LCD is using composite so it will still be flickering a little bit but it will be much better. Also in games it should flicker less than in emulation station menu.

2) can you post the title names so other can repport if they have similar problem with them? Maybe the roms are corrupted. You can also try to switch emulator if a rom is not loading. (by pressing Xat beggining of loading)

3) I think this is a software issue that has something to do with specific roms using some specific emulator. Try to switch the default emulator for this game (same press X when booting)

Don't forget to leave a comment on the website btw :)
https://www.8bcraft.com/shop/retrostone/#reviews
mywoodstock
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun 19 Aug 2018 17:33

Re: Several issues

Post by mywoodstock »

1) I have not tried this yet, though it sounds good. I'll give it a try later today.

2) I have tried PSX: Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2, Tomb Raider, Tekken 3 and N64: Ocarina of Time. These are the only roms I have tried for these specific emulators. The issue is not that the roms don't work but that they stop retrorange pi booting at all for me, even through multiple restarts. Removing each of these roms has then allowed it to boot properly again, except one 1 occasion where I had to re flash the image.

3) This has mainly been with the gba emulator, and happens on all of the roms I have loaded onto the device. It has saved once or twice and I have tried all the available emulators in the slim version (mgba and vba-next) with the same effect. I am finding it difficult to work out if it is hardware or software. If it is software, others should be seeing a similar issue though I think that is not the case, and if it is hardware, I shouldn't be able to write to the SD card at all but it works fine when flashing and uploading roms.

I have tried saving and pressing the reboot / safety button and this sometimes works but is not reliable and I have tried saving and quitting emulation station before powering off but this does not work.

On one occasion I had the save file revert to one a previous save, even though I had successfully saved over that file and on others I have it completely wipe the save file.

I will certainly leave a comment / review once I get all this sorted as I know once I can use it properly it is going to be perfect.

Thanks for the advice,
Adam
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Re: Several issues

Post by Admin »

3) I already had such saving problems with GBA roms using retropie on a raspberry pi zero so I think it's more likely a software problem than a hardware issue. Try switching emulator and perhaps have a deeper search on google.

I just found this : https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/173 ... n-t-save/2
mywoodstock
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Joined: Sun 19 Aug 2018 17:33

Re: Several issues

Post by mywoodstock »

I agree that it seems like a software issue, hence why I made this post to see if others were having similar issues but alas, no one seems to be biting. Like I said, I've tried the other emulators supplied with the slim version with the same thing happening and have resigned to waiting for the full release to test further as I have already done what was mentioned in that forum post to no effect. I get no errors when saving, so I am getting no clues as to what is causing the issue.

I'll do some further testing with other roms later tonight, but I just get a feeling that it will be the same for all of the games I have.

Thank you for your time support, I'm sure it will work itself out once I get the full version up and running. I was trying to devise if it was a hardware issue that could simply be solved by purchasing a new SD card.
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Re: Several issues

Post by Admin »

It might be a memory card hardware problem but it does not sound very likely as you could flash the OS and it works correctly.

Have you tried to flash several time? Have you tried formating with Diskpart tool and flash again the software?
https://www.howtogeek.com/170794/ask-ht ... n-sd-card/

I don't know but maybe there's a duplicate partition or something like this.
jutleys
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat 25 Aug 2018 10:51

Re: Several issues

Post by jutleys »

I have been unable to get any rims to show zipped or unzipped when I copy them over they just disappear from the card
dr_bunsen
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed 15 Aug 2018 16:49

Re: Several issues

Post by dr_bunsen »

jutleys wrote: Sun 26 Aug 2018 09:52 I have been unable to get any rims to show zipped or unzipped when I copy them over they just disappear from the card
Are you using the samba shares method via network to copy roms on? That's the only way I was successful. The worst method was using ext4 driver on Windows 10, which looked like it was copying files onto the card but when I put the card in the Retrostone they weren't there. That method also eventually corrupted my SD card and I had to start again with a scratch image build.
jutleys
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat 25 Aug 2018 10:51

Re: Several issues

Post by jutleys »

Yes i used the ext4 method that explains it then lol well i am waiting for the full image it will be much easier to transfer games now.
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