Issue with save/load states.

[RiddleBox]

Hi,

I hope whoever reading this is well.

I am having issues all of a sudden with WinUAE state files. The error started a few days ago and is intermittent so it doesn't always happen.

Sometimes when I save the state of WinUAE it crashes (rarely happens) - had a dmp file but I don't know what to do with it. (Total n00b here).

The issue that happens more often is while loading a state. The picture comes up but the game is frozen. At first I thought it's Windows messing up, rebooted a few times, installed different versions on WinUAE and the issue still occurred, so I ended up reformatting (downgraded from Win 10 to Win8.1 and kept the WinUAE folder).

Now with windows 8, whenever saving, a terminal pops-up with the following text:

PT A=00022180 B=0001E260 C=00012366 D=00029FC0
CON0=0DE4 CON1=2000 DAT A=0000 B=0000 C=CCCC
AFWM=FFFF ALWM=FFFF MOD A=0000 B=0000 C=0000 D=0000
PC=0787B8BA DMA=1

I have absolutely no idea what this is

I also tried googling the message but nothing relevant came up.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

[DamienD]

Hello RiddleBox,

Welcome to EAB

From memory that occurs with a certain version of WinUAE; Toni has fixed this now though. Just can't find the post ATM...

What version are you using / have you tried?

[Toni Wilen]

Attach the dump file (if it isn't too large). I think that useless log message is already fixed in latest version.

Anyway, it is guaranteed nothing to do with Windows version.

[RiddleBox]

@DamienD: I've tried 4.0.1, 4.0.0, 3.6.1, 3.6.0 - Unfortunately they all did the same thing.

@Toni Wilen: Unfortunately I no longer have it. A DMP file was only created once, for some reason, it doesn't create one each time it crashes, not sure why. ??

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by RiddleBox

@DamienD: I've tried 4.0.1, 4.0.0, 3.6.1, 3.6.0 - Unfortunately they all did the same thing.

Weird, I'm using 4.0.1 here and all is ok.

I have seen this before though; usually it occurs once, WinUAE closes, I then re-launch, try doing a Save State again and all ok going forward.

[Toni Wilen]

I checked, log message is only fixed in 4.1.0 betas. It is harmless.

Savefile load may hang if config before loading statefile is too weird. It shouldn't happen but it is still possible...

Run winuae, tick misc panel logging option, load statefile, start. Wait for hang. Quit winuae. Attach winuaelog.txt. (if you can't find it, check winuaebootlog.txt in same directory as winuae.exe, last line of winuaebootlog.txt has full path of winuaelog.txt).

[RiddleBox]

Right so, I tried running WinUAE in compatibility mode for Windows 7 and so far, it is working, I am getting that terminal message but if I click on the game, I can carry on playing and leave the terminal window open in the background, multiple messages were coming in the terminal when I save (sometimes) but it IS now saving and I am able to load. Played the first 2 stages of Captain Planet and saved multiple times on purpose, no crashes just the terminal messages (sometimes) and even though it is not normal behavior I do not mind it.

Loading did not hang once.

I am not saying that this solution is final so I will keep this thread bookmarked for a while and see how it goes. I'll also try different games and keep saving every 2 seconds and then reload to stress test this.

[Toni Wilen]

If compatibility mode fixed it, it could mean: no dx9 installed and d3d9 mode selected. DirectDraw may not work very well in later Windows/driver combinations.

- Try D3D11 mode. (Misc panel)
- Install D3D9 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=8109). (No, full D3D9 is never installed with Windows. Most pre-D3D10 games install it automatically)
- Make sure display driver is updated.

Log is still required if you want better answers.

[RiddleBox]

@Toni Wilen: Is this what you need?

EDIT: This log is more recent, but hopefully it will help us pinpoint the issue.

[Toni Wilen]

So it only happens when you load another statefile after loading different statefile?

[RiddleBox]

I think it happens randomly or when something (which I don't know what) happens.

I was playing no second prize, and was saving after I complete a track (completed 3) and was loading the statefile whenever I totaled the bike. (happened a few times.

So to me, the issue is coming from when WinUAE is saving the file, for some reason it doesn't seem like it's saving correctly or something.

Did that log help in any way?

Thank you again.

[Toni Wilen]

Log has some unexpected lines like "mapped_malloc with memory bank 'UAE Boot ROM' already allocated!?". It does not necessarily cause problems but it shouldn't happen.

Could you attach statefiles you used when creating the log? I'd like to do some tests with them.

[RiddleBox]

Sure, this is the savestate for the log file.

[Toni Wilen]

Thanks. Attached statefile will load properly in next beta, it was caused by bug introduced over a year ago, it affects 68020/68030+more compatible configs.

Problem was mostly random, it depended on type of 68k instruction and if it was only partially executed when state file was created.

[RiddleBox]

@Toni Wilen - Thank you for looking into it.

Is there anything I can do from my end to avoid this from happening again?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by RiddleBox

Is there anything I can do from my end to avoid this from happening again?

...wait for the next beta