Hacking Game freeze since use hard drive

[fejity]

Dear GBATemp'ers,

Since my 8gig SD didn't suffice for storing all my game backups, I bought myself a Lacie Rikiki 750gig USB 3.0 hard drive (http://www.lacie.com...ct.htm?id=10517)
Never had any troubles with game freezes when I used my 8GB sandisk ultra II SD card, but using the HD I do have problems with game freezes.

I modified my Wii using ModMii, so I'm using all the IOSes that come with that, and I use configurable USB loader to load my games.
The HD is formatted as NTFS and I use WiiBackupManager to load iso / wbfs files onto it.

I already searched the forum for "game freeze" related topics, and these were the results:

• turn off HD spin down
  i did this, so now the drive is turning permanently when it is plugged in
• the game file you loaded isn't a "nicely scrubbed" version
  since the games work absolutely fine on my 8GB sd, this isn't the case for me
• issues with big partitions
  some people mention that drives over 500GB aren't any good?
  can someone elaborate on this? could this be the problem? Do I need to create a separate, smaller, partition where I put my wbfs files on? NTFS / FAT ?

I also have the feeling that the game most often freeze when there is a cutscene coming up, although this is not always the case.

Any thoughts please? Do some of you also have these problems? How did you fixed it? What setup are you using, what might be the differences that explain it working on your setup and not on mine?

If you need any more info, please ask
fejity

 

[Lucif3r]

The wii is a crybaby with USB3.0. Far from all are compatible.

 

[fejity]

The wii is a crybaby with USB3.0. Far from all are compatible.

Are you serious?
USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0 right? I don't see what would be the problem then?
So other people with usb 3.0 drives also have game freezes?

 

[Lucif3r]

Many USB2 hosts such as PCs, phones, consoles etc have problem reading USB3 devices (ok, its not so common on PCs due to millions of drivers...).
Explaining the difference between usb2 and usb 3 with backwards compability to usb 2 would be too long to write here. But the Wii is a bitch even with some usb2 devices, so naturally it will have even bigger issues with usb3.
To put it as simple as possible, its a driver issue and should be fixable in the cIOS's... I think...

Other people with USB3 drive either A) are lucky enough to have one that works B) got one that wont work at all or C) various random issues such as freezes. Most common is C).

 

[PsyBlade]

The problem does not need to be the HDD.
The cIOS usb stack is simply not really USB compatible.
It's an ugly hack. Its pure luck which devices do work.

 

[Lucif3r]

Well thats why I said the Wii is a crybaby
Never said there was anything wrong with the actual hdd.

 

[fejity]

ok thanks guys for the feedback, clarifies some stuff for me.
I actually got 2 more external HDD's (3.5" with external power supply, 2.0 USB). I'll try one of those and hope that on of those work for me.

But if I understand it correctly, usb game loading is actually pretty messy hacked into the softmod? How is SD loading then integrated? Is this more reliable then?

 

[leo.uff]

Try using cios with ios 58 as base. Should work better.

 

[the_randomizer]

The wii is a crybaby with USB3.0. Far from all are compatible.

My 500GB Western Digital My Passport HDD is listed as USB 3.0, but it works just fine.

 

[fejity]

Try using cios with ios 58 as base. Should work better.

Hey leo
When I look in Multi Mod Manager, it says: currently loaded: IOS58 v6176, so I guess this is already the case?

My 500GB Western Digital My Passport HDD is listed as USB 3.0, but it works just fine.

what settings are you using with that Western Digital passport ?

Damn dude really, I had both HD's in my hand when I purchased my Lacie Rikiki, I was seriously doubting which one I should get...
I went for the Rikiki because the price difference was not that big, and it offered 250GB more storage. If I would have known that the WD would work for sure on my system I couldn't care less about those 250GB more...

 

[Lucif3r]

Try using cios with ios 58 as base. Should work better.

Hey leo
When I look in Multi Mod Manager, it says: currently loaded: IOS58 v6176, so I guess this is already the case?

No.
You change cIOS in your usb loader.
The standard setup is having a base 56 in slot 249 and a base 57 in slot 250..... Im not sure what he ment by "using cios with 58 as base"... I dont have any cIOS with base 58 ...

I went for the Rikiki because the price difference was not that big, and it offered 250GB more storage. If I would have known that the WD would work for sure on my system I couldn't care less about those 250GB more...

The only way to know for sure is by trying it. Take my USB flash drives for example. They work perfect in my Wii, but on one of my friends Wii it doesnt work at all. He also have a usb3.0 hdd, which works fine for him... Plug it into my wii.... nothing happens...

 

[leo.uff]

Try using cios with ios 58 as base. Should work better.

Hey leo
When I look in Multi Mod Manager, it says: currently loaded: IOS58 v6176, so I guess this is already the case?

My 500GB Western Digital My Passport HDD is listed as USB 3.0, but it works just fine.

what settings are you using with that Western Digital passport ?

Damn dude really, I had both HD's in my hand when I purchased my Lacie Rikiki, I was seriously doubting which one I should get...
I went for the Rikiki because the price difference was not that big, and it offered 250GB more storage. If I would have known that the WD would work for sure on my system I couldn't care less about those 250GB more...

Sorry but my english is not so good. You can make a cios (like 249) choosing ios 58 as base. In generally we use ios 56 as base for better game compatibility. IOS 58 has better compatibilty with usb devices. I have a toshiba 3.0 that only works if I use ios 58 as base of ios 249.

 

[fejity]

No.
You change cIOS in your usb loader.
The standard setup is having a base 56 in slot 249 and a base 57 in slot 250..... Im not sure what he ment by "using cios with 58 as base"... I dont have any cIOS with base 58 ...

Sorry but my english is not so good. You can make a cios (like 249) choosing ios 58 as base. In generally we use ios 56 as base for better game compatibility. IOS 58 has better compatibilty with usb devices. I have a toshiba 3.0 that only works if I use ios 58 as base of ios 249.

@Lucifer,
If I understand it correctly, you are referring to "changing" (setting) the cIOS in the game configuration when in USB loader? Or are you talking about something different? Currently all my games boot fine selecting cIOS 249.

@leo uff
You're understandble so I guess your english isn't that bad!
What you mean is that I should go to Multi Mod Manager, and try and set the the base of cIOS 249 to cIOS 58?

Currently my Wii is disconnected since I transported it last night, but I'll give it a go after your replies thanks guys

 

[Lucif3r]

@Lucifer,
If I understand it correctly, you are referring to "changing" (setting) the cIOS in the game configuration when in USB loader? Or are you talking about something different? Currently all my games boot fine selecting cIOS 249.

Yes. And its Lucif3r

 

[obcd]

The ios upon which a cios is based needs to be set at the install of the cios. It can't be changed afterwards.
The slot into which the cios is installed can be changed as well. So, basically saying that your games all run fine using cios 249 means nothing.
There is a program called syscheck that analyses all your ios and cios and tells you what rev. they are and upon what base ios they are based. You might run that and post the results.

Some harddisks always spindown, and the feature can't be turned off properly. Maybe yours is like that. I don't think there is a decent solution if that's the case.

 

[the_randomizer]

500GB using just a FAT32 partition and that's it. Just turn off sleep mode with WD Smartware, Snes9xGx used to give me issues with random freezing, but, oddly enough, that stopped. Not sure why.

 

[fejity]

@Lucifer,
If I understand it correctly, you are referring to "changing" (setting) the cIOS in the game configuration when in USB loader? Or are you talking about something different? Currently all my games boot fine selecting cIOS 249.

Yes. And its Lucif3r

Sorry my bad

The ios upon which a cios is based needs to be set at the install of the cios. It can't be changed afterwards.
The slot into which the cios is installed can be changed as well. So, basically saying that your games all run fine using cios 249 means nothing.
There is a program called syscheck that analyses all your ios and cios and tells you what rev. they are and upon what base ios they are based. You might run that and post the results.

Some harddisks always spindown, and the feature can't be turned off properly. Maybe yours is like that. I don't think there is a decent solution if that's the case.

Thanks obcd, I'll check that tomorrow and get back here with the results!
In my case I can deactivate the spindown with the provided LaCie software, so I'm quite sure that it won't spindown

 

[obcd]

I hope you are right about that. I was thinking the same about one of my drives. While the software reports it as disabled, the thing still goes to sleep after a while. You can notice it if you connect it to a pc as well. Leave it unused for a period, and start browsing it afterwards. If it takes a couple of seconds before it shows it's contents, something is not totally right.

 

[fejity]

The ios upon which a cios is based needs to be set at the install of the cios. It can't be changed afterwards.
The slot into which the cios is installed can be changed as well. So, basically saying that your games all run fine using cios 249 means nothing.
There is a program called syscheck that analyses all your ios and cios and tells you what rev. they are and upon what base ios they are based. You might run that and post the results.

Some harddisks always spindown, and the feature can't be turned off properly. Maybe yours is like that. I don't think there is a decent solution if that's the case.

You might be wrong, can't really notice when the harddisk spins, because it is really quiet, also when it is spinning so...
Maybe this was the case for me... Although I marked it explicitly as "dont spindown"..

Tried another USB 2.0 external 3.5" drive and played tenchu for about half an hour without any troubles. With my other setup I had problems just getting through the first cut scene so

Just to make sure and maybe help other people, I'll paste my syscheck here. But I guess it was the hard drive for me that caused the trouble...


sysCheck v2.1.0b13 by Double_A and R2-D2199
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: PAL
System Menu 4.2E (v482)
Priilaoder installed
Homebrew Channel 1.0.8 running on IOS58
Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 68927911
Boot2 v4
Found 84 titles.
Found 44 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stub.

IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS11 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS52 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS80 (rev 16174): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
IOS202[60] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS223[75] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS249[56] (rev 21006, Info: d2x-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 21006, Info: d2x-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10

Report generated on 2011/12/23.

 

[Foxi4]

Try the exact same hard drive with a different cable by the way. Not sure how, but that fixed the issues I had with a 250GB Seagate.