Roms and Emulators Troubleshooting

If you have any difficulty running roms on emulators or just emulators; or if you would like additional information to help you run the roms and emulators, you've come to the right place.

Below is a list of common problems with solutions to these problems.

And questions with answers to them. All related to running roms and emulators. I hope this section helps you in whatever the situation you are in. To help us expand this troubleshooting section, you can e-mail your own set of problems and solutions to us at [email protected].

Running Issues

Problem: When I run my DOS based emulator, this error message appears on the screen:~

Stub exec failed:

dos4gw.exe

No such file or directory

Solution: This emulator requires require a copy of Dos4gw to be run.

Without it, you cannot run the emulator under DOS or Windows.

Problem: A rom simply won't run on an emulator I have.

Solutions:

1. The rom is faulty. Some console games are not compatible to the file format to which they are in.

For example.

Some Sega Genesis games work when they're in .BIN and not in .SMD

Vice versa.

Try an alternative format if available.

2. The rom is simply faulty. It could be partially uploaded onto the net causing it to be incomplete and not able to run.

3. If it is a Sega Genesis rom, it could require Raster Effects to be turned on. Some games require this, because they feature it.

4. The emulator could not support that format of the rom, even if it's for the particular platform, because it could be an early version of what is expected in the future of the emulator developers, so therefore doesn't support as much as the completed version.

Problem: My Windows based emulator doesn't seem to run the roms.

Solution: It could possibility be that your colour palette setting is not in the correct setting to what the emulator requires.

Example

Sygmb requires 16 bit colours to run. Nothing below.

Performance Issues

Question: The rom I'm running is too slow to my standards. How can I make it run faster?

Answers and Solutions:

1. If it's a DOS based emulator you are using, try running it outside of Windows.

2. The emulator can be set on a high graphics setting that your computer isn't capable of. Try lowering the graphics settings and experiment with them all to choose the one best suitted to you.

3. The sound quality settings are set on a high quality that your computer isn't capable of. Try lowering the sound quality, by choosing mono instead of stereo and a lower sound frequency.

4. If you are running an emulator in Windows, turn off or shut down all outside running programs. This will free up more in Windows memory.

5. You computer is simply too slow and you should upgrade for more RAM, a higher processor speed, and faster graphics card.

Problem: There is no sound.

Solutions:

1. This normally happens when you try to run a pure DOS emulator under Windows ME and after. This is a Windows problem where Microsoft tried to minimise DOS usage in Windows ME and after. There is unlikely anything you can do about it.

2. If it is a Windows emulator, try turning on the sound in the emulator. Believe it or not, some emulators have sound turned off by default!

3. The emulator does not support sound. Sound is something added in at later stages of emulator development, so emulators in their very early stages are unlikely to support sound.

Technical Issues

Question: I have an MS Sidewinder Gamepad. How can I get it to work in my emulator to play the roms?

Answer: Some emulators under windows require the MS Sidewinder Gamepad to be turned off in the Control Panel. Then try again. If it still deosn't work, then obviously the emulator does not support it.

In Zsnes in particular, you might have to turn off MS Sidewinder Fix in the options.

Problem: I can't save states or load them when my emulator supports it.

Solution: Some emulators have a configuration file to direct the emulator to the specified directory where the save state files are and where to save to. This should be changed to exactly where you run you emulators and roms. The names of your roms have to be the same as your save state names, so they can correspond towards each other, just in case you changed the name of the rom.