Newbie here, with a couple of questions!

[Dez87]

Hi guys, new to the world of pinball emulation and i have to say it's quite remarkable what you guys can achieve.

But i've got a couple of issues that i have found and can't seem to see any answers for when searching the forums.

Firstly, when playing a table for a short period of time, my system seems to randomly hang and force me to turn the power off and back on again. This never happens when im not playing virtual pinball, and wondered if any of you guys had an experience of such things and how to go about preventing them from happening (it's annoying having to restart the pc!).

Secondly, i can't seem to figure out which key is used to buy an extra ball. I had a look through the tab menu and also the keys bit in the editor and i couln't see it. Is it there somewhere and ive just missed it? Or is there a default key for buying an extra ball that just isn't listed?

Thanks in advance!

 

[shogun01]

Firstly, when playing a table for a short period of time, my system seems to randomly hang and force me to turn the power off and back on again.

I get this from time to time on my PC. I just run my Utilities program (for me it's PC Mechanic) and do a little bit of spring cleaning. Most likely you got some clutter on the hard drive and it can create hangs and distortions. Also try defragging your hard drive.

If the game hangs on you again, try pressing the "Esc" key. It should exist you out of the game.

Secondly, i can't seem to figure out which key is used to buy an extra ball. I had a look through the tab menu and also the keys bit in the editor and i couln't see it. Is it there somewhere and ive just missed it? Or is there a default key for buying an extra ball that just isn't listed?

It depends on the game, but press the F2 key will give you a list all of the unique key commands that vary in each game. Most of the time it's the number '2' key. For some games it's just inserting a coin in during the count down (Wipeout).

 

[Dez87]

Thanks for the swift reply.

Pressing escape doesn't have any effect when it hangs on me at all, whether the emu is running in full screeen or windowed mode. The hanging seems to happen only at the exact moment a switch is being operated (i.e. a drop target, or drain [although its not the same switch, its just any switch at a random time]) which is what leads me to believe it is the programme that is causing the problem.

I'll try the F2 thing for the extra ball later, cheers.

 

[Dez87]

Right, done a bit more searching and i notice that my problem is the same as in this thread here Table freeze - Pinball Nirvana Forums

i've disabled the fading lamps and i'll see how that works.

What, though, is FRAPS? I've seen that mentioned a few times.

 

[Dez87]

ok cheers for the buy in help , the 2 key works :)

early testing on the flintstones machine also seemsto suggest disabling fading lamps has a positive effect.

However on Indy 500 the problem is still there, and pressing F6 does not give the option to disable fading lights. Is there a way to do this?

 

[Dez87]

Think it was the CPU overheating. Cleaned a ton of dust from the fans and CPU temp is now much lower. Hasn't hung since so far...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i know how that is... kinda.

the machine i have set up next to my bed like the old vid-screens in star trek's sick bay has had a dying CPU / mother for over a year. it now runs at half-speed and every few minutes, mainly during heavy CPU activity, it hangs up for 5-10 seconds. further, every few days it totally crashes, and only by unplugging and reinserting a ram simm into a different slot does it boot up again successfully.

the situation is partly hilarious and partly absurd... but as long as it keeps struggling on i sort of don't have the heart to send the mother to the trash heap. my needs are small when i'm loafing towards sleep... along the lines of reading books, graphic novels and playing flash games.

hehe, sorry for the editorial.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Damn, a bed-computer? Must be nice, Mr. Gates!
Dez87: I finally solved my freeze-up situation with a driver update for my videocard. I'm running an NVidia Geforce something-or-other. It seems Sims 2 must have installed some filthy little video codec that basically froze up Sims 2 and VP. I did some online searching and found that it was a pretty common screw-up with Sims 2. Filthy, stupid game! I think I played it for half an hour when I remembered why I got sick of Sims Prime. Anyway, if it's a newer system and there's no real reason why it should be freezing up, try that route.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

well, mister gates and i have some things in common: we both love to trash-pick and build stuff out of milk crates and 2 x 4's. :D

 

[Dez87]

@ruby - it's not a new system by any means - its just under 4 years old. I updated the diver for the video card the other day as well (its just a basic ATI XP 200) so fingers crossed freeze ups are almost eliminated from now on. Played for a few hours last night and it only locked up once, although the cpu temp wasnt that high when it did it, so i shall need to just wait and see!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I gotta admit... that is a pretty cool setup! That instrument looks like my Rock Band guitar, but it has weird string-looking objects on the front of it.