Fix to Kega Fusion/Daemon Tools problem

[davidj1987]

This issue happens out of GameEX, and I don't think my images are faulty because they worked before and I never had issues with CD audio.

Anyway, I haven't touched my HTPC/GameEX machine in almost a month and other than updating the Virtual Drive Loader plugin and GameEX I now have a problem not related to either. The CD audio in Kega Fusion is VERY scratchy and it skips when I play a Sega CD ISO - they are in various formats such as .CCD and bin/cue. I don't have any ISO/MP3 rips if that helps any. Now, if I run a REAL Sega CD game via my optical drive, the CD audio works perfectly fine - I tested this with a retail Sonic CD (Japan). Although not being touched in a month, no settings were changed. I get the problem if I manually run Kega Fusion and load the ISO via Daemon Tools - GameEX doesn't make it any better or worse.

Thankfully, other disc based systems are NOT affected - ePSXe and SSF don't give me issues if I run them with or without GameEX.

I've deleted and re-installed Kega Fusion and it doesn't help any, I deleted my SCSI virtual drive and re-added it but again no dice.

Anyone have this issue before?

[Draco1962]

Seems like there are several posts at Eidolon's Inn (Home of Kega Fusion's forum) about the same or similar issue.Could it be a recent Daemon Tools update?

[davidj1987]

It's possible. I read one post about this issue from a long time ago where someone said something about their realtek sound card (or codec?) and updated the drivers so I tried my discrete sound card hooked up to the computer with some speakers and still have the same issue, I use the HDMI output as I have the computer hooked up to my HDTV so I updated my graphics drivers and still have the issue. wtf?.

[nullPointer]

Have you tried mounting your games to a normal Virtual DT drive (as opposed to the Virtual SCSI)? It's worth a shot.

[davidj1987]

It was working before via SCSI, but Kega Fusion doesn't like non-SCSI drives from Daemon Tools.

[nullPointer]

Too bad. I knew that ePSXe needed a SCSI, I couldn't remember with Fusion. Are you opposed to using Fusion to natively load discs? My disc images are all cue/bin but (to my ear) the audio sounds fine when I load them directly with Fusion.

[davidj1987]

I have quite a few games so I prefer ISO's. I even re-installed Daemon Tools but no dice. Because I had some time to kill, and it worked fine on my main computer when I tried it when I tried an ISO with Daemon Tools and Kega Fusion. A legit Sega/Mega CD game works fine no problems.

It used to work but I don't know what happened, I'll reformat during the week and see if that helps. I've barely touched Windows on it anyway so it's not a major loss or would take too long to start over again. Thanks though.

[Draco1962]

Likely a reformat will not resolve it. Likely it is a driver compatibility issue. Would be good to know going forward if you have tested it on more than one system and it works fine on one and not so much on the other. This is helpful info to troubleshooting an issue. I am curious to find out if it ever worked on your other system that you noted the issue?

[davidj1987]

It works fine on my main system which is a 2500k at 4.8ghz and nVidia GTX 680 with a Xonar DGX soundcard. I point out the soundcard because it may be audio?

My GameEX/HTPC computer has a 3570k at 4.2ghz, AMD radeon HD 7750 and Xonar DGX - it may be the sound card. And it was working fine... I see a post on Eidolons Inn where a guy had the same problem - worked fine and no longer works after a while but no one ever responds. I believe I saw a post somewhere about a guy who had the same issue but was fixed when he updated his drivers for Realtek audio.

[DJoneK]

Make sure to use the .cue, .ccd or .mds when loading discs in daemon tools. Open an audio player and see if it plays the tracks. Or open the virtual drive in explorer and see if it shows the audio tracks. If it doesn't, then it should indeed be a problem with daemon tools. If they do show up, then your problem might lie in some audio card setting/driver.

Edit: Also, you don't need to mount disc images in DT to properly hear CDDA in Fusion. It even supports cuesheets with multi file disc images if that's the way you have yours. Might wanna give it a try as well.

Commandline: Fusion.exe -scd -fullscreen "game.cue"

[davidj1987]

I have it load .cue, and .ccd when using gameex, so my issue isn't with GameEX, rather with my computer and Kega.

[Adultery]

As stated in another post, I don't have this problem and I 7-zip all my images (which are bin/cue in this case). I am using an older version of DT though (pretty much figure if it ain't broke don't fix it). I can check my version when I get home if it helps you out any.

[davidj1987]

Can you check what version? It would be appreciated.

EDIT: Here is another person with the same problem over a year ago...no response on how to fix it so I am not alone. Looks like a previous version didn't help. I deleted and re-installed SPTD also but no dice.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=10&comments_parentId=8546&highlight=skip

[Draco1962]

To be honest, I don't think it is necessarily a recent DT version as the posts that reported the problem on the Kega Fusion home forums are several years old at least..

@David - have you tried reinstalling or updating to the latest sound drivers for your machine that is affected? I would recommend updating the drivers from the manufacturer's site as opposed to using MS Windows default drivers.

[davidj1987]

I'll try that in the morning. Sorry I didn't post earlier but here are my whole system specs:

Intel 3570K 3.3GHZ OC'ed to 4.2ghz
Asrock Pro Z77 Motherboard (not the high end or Extreme 4 one, but one step below the Extreme 4 MATX I think the pro4-m?)
Powercolor LP Radeon HD 7750 1GB (light memory OC +50mhz)
Asus Xonar DGX PCI-E soundcard
Asus PCI-E Wireless card
Kingston 240GB SSDnow V-300 SSD
LG HD-DVD/Blu-ray drive
Silverstone Milo ML-03 case
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3
Windows 7 Home x64
Thermalright AXP-100 CPU Cooler.

I do have the same sound card in my main computer and I know about 2-3 months ago I cloned the SSD from an old one to a new one (60GB Kingston V200 to the 240GB) but I doubt that affected anything.

[davidj1987]

Sorry to double post, I reformatted used latest drivers and it worked fine for a bit and now I have the issue but what I think it may be is that I have the soundcard (Xonar DGX), the onboard audio (not enabled I believe) and the HDMI audio. and they may be interfering?

[davidj1987]

For now I believe I have it fixed (crosses fingers!) here's the original topic: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/13431-kega-fusion-and-daemon-tools-lite-cd-audio-is-no-longer-working/#entry109844 and I just realized I forgot my Memory specs (Kingston 2400 memory at 2133) in my specs. Thanks to Adultry and Draco1962, nullPointer and DJoneK for their help back then.

I didn't want to necropost or bump an almost two month old topic. I gave up for a bit due to the fact I've been REALLY busy with work (long story), been focusing on game collecting for the PS1 when I can, spending time with my girlfriend when I can among other things. But now I wanna get back to enjoying my media/emulation computer and I think I found the problem - it was my PCI-E soundcard. I got thinking about it the other day so this morning I took it out it from the computer and removed the drivers as well and right now it's actually working really well. Like I said, it only affected Sega CD games with Dameon Tools/Kega Fusion and the CD audio would start out sounding good then after two-three seconds get really stuttery and scratchy. The main game I used to test was After Burner III and Ninja Warriors, The (Japanese release) and I think I even had the same issue with .bin/.cue games too. Other disc based games (PS1, Saturn etc) were not affected.

I think having three audio devices (graphics card HDMI audio, onboard audio and the PCI-E Soundcard) were all acting up. I even reformatted but after a while it started acting up. But now I think I got it fixed. Phew!

[Draco1962]

@davidj1987 - I went ahead and merged your original topic and your most recent thread as it seemed appropriate to have the problem and probable resolution together as opposed to separate threads. Thanks for reporting back with your findings and, hopefully, this will be the droid you were looking for!

[davidj1987]

Thanks. I didn't want to necropost or triple post.

I will say the issue DID come back after I said I fixed it I think it's a windows issue as HOWEVER I found a really really odd fix:

I restarted the computer after it was working good (did a windows update) and then BAM had some issues, but as I was playing Kega Fusion (does it in or out of gameex), I put in a pendrive for something else, and I'll be right as the audio was skipping and studdering, it went back to normal and I had no issues at all in or out of gameex until I restarted again and then I had to put a pendrive back in. This is one weird problem but at least I got a solution!

[Draco1962]

You may want to take a look at the event viewer to see if there were any warnings during the time of the error just prior or after that may give you a clue. Also, checking the author's web site may give some further ideas as I am sure that others may have reported similar.