Gp32 Gone Bang?


piphil

Still Fresh
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
24
Ok, I've had this GP32 BLU+ for about 2 days having bought it off eBay. I basically bought it to play Megadrive/Genesis games, which is pretty much all I've been doing. And it's been doing it well - I'm impressed with the DrMD emulation.

However, this morning I was playing Sonic (original) and the screen randomly whited out in pulses, and the emulator froze. The batteries are Ni-MH rechargables (1.2v) and were pretty well charged. Now the console won't turn on - either the screen flashes on white for a second then cuts out, or it turns white and stays white. Switching on the console with "Select" depressed doesn't make any difference, and neither does taking the SMC card out. I've replaced the batteries with some fresh from the charger but this makes no difference either.

Have I killed the poor thing? I was running what I beleive to be the latest version of DrMD, v5 b7. I understand the GP32's processor runs at 133 Mhz, but Dr MD's default is 150 Mhz (which I haven't fiddled with). Could this overclock have killed it?

Any ideas as to a fix?

Many thanks. :unsure:
 
slaanesh posted on Sep 1 2006 at 08:59 AM said:
piphil posted on Sep 1 2006 at 05:35 PM said:
Any ideas as to a fix?

Sounds likes it's just run out of battery power - try recharging them... Or using new ones.

Unless it doesn't like freshly recharged branded Ni-MH batteries (which the manual says it does, and it was quite happily running on yesterday) I don't think this is the problem. :p

I knew the first comment would be "change the batteries"... :rolleyes:

slaanesh posted on Sep 1 2006 at 08:59 AM said:
piphil posted on Sep 1 2006 at 05:35 PM said:
Any ideas as to a fix?

Sounds likes it's just run out of battery power - try recharging them... Or using new ones.

Ok, the moment I dismiss the batteries with a flippantly worded comment, I change them for a set of Energizer 1700 mAh batteries (as opposed to the 1300 mAh UNiROSS rechargables I was using before) and the damned thing boots up. I appologise and bow to your greater wisdom. :unsure:

However, it's still only working for a few seconds under the emulator before crashing in exactly the same way. The Energizer batteries are not charged - they're now in the charger for the next 8 hours - but the UNiROSS ones were charged only yesterday. Is the GP32 BLU+ fussy about batteries? Or is it the batteries themselves at fault? I haven't charged the UNiROSS's for about 6 months - would that destroy their performance.

Appologies again, and thanks for the help.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Might be the feared memory effect :ph34r:

Your batteries could be "overcharged". I don`t fully understand the essential physics of batteries and the differences between different types of rechargebles but as far as I know some rechargebles suffer from this effect which appears to kick in when you recharge your set without discharging them before. Easily fixed by discharging them and giving them a fresh recharge I believe.
 
xnopasaranx posted on Sep 1 2006 at 10:21 AM said:
Might be the feared memory effect :ph34r:

Your batteries could be "overcharged". I don`t fully understand the essential physics of batteries and the differences between different types of rechargebles but as far as I know some rechargebles suffer from this effect which appears to kick in when you recharge your set without discharging them before. Easily fixed by discharging them and giving them a fresh recharge I believe.

Sounds like an interesting theory. I'm probably going to buy some new batteries/charger anyway, as my current set of 1300 mAh AAs are looking rather prehistoric compared to the up-to-date 2700 mAh ones available. I'll try discharging the UNiROSS AAs and try again...

aapje89 posted on Sep 1 2006 at 10:55 AM said:
go here for all the battery information you might ever need:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

great site, really :)

Yeah, explains the memory effect quite well doesn't it *Bookmarks*.

I haven't charged these batteries for quite some time, so that's probably the problem. Looks like I'll have to do a "recondition" drain. Or just buy a couple of new sets of batteries... :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Here's my take on it:

1. Only use 2000mAh+ NiMH rechargeables.
2. Change the CPU speed from 150 to 144Mhz. It's possible that your unit isn't stable at 150, but all known GP32's support 144 (and DrMD works very well at that speed with sound on and frameskip 2).

Enjoy your new toy, you bought it for the right reasons, DrMD is one of the most polished emulators around on both the GP32 and on the GP2X!

- Alex
 
Alex. posted on Sep 1 2006 at 02:00 PM said:
Here's my take on it:

1. Only use 2000mAh+ NiMH rechargeables.
2. Change the CPU speed from 150 to 144Mhz. It's possible that your unit isn't stable at 150, but all known GP32's support 144 (and DrMD works very well at that speed with sound on and frameskip 2).

Enjoy your new toy, you bought it for the right reasons, DrMD is one of the most polished emulators around on both the GP32 and on the GP2X!

- Alex

I now have whirring like a small helicopter next to me a 15 minute charger with a set of 2300 mAh batteries in it. Should be ready in half an hour. Yes, it's a 15 minute charger. What it doesn't say is that they recommend you leave the batteries in for 15 minutes after the charger has finished, presumably because the batteries are now hot enough to fry eggs on. 15 minute charge my butt... *grumble*

Anyway, I'll try the CPU speed change. What exactly does the frame skip thing do?

Also, I'd like to try and eek a little bit more speed out of the thing - I'm a fan of Sonic 3, and this seems to run a little jerky at times. Older games like Sonic 1 or MicroMachines run perfectly, so it must be a result of the hardware being pushed with the later games. Will the frame skip help with that?

Cheers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It definitely will. Here's a rough explanation of frameskip:

FS0: all 60 frames are drawn every second
FS1: 30 frames are drawn every second
FS2: 20 frames are drawn every second
FS3: 15 frames are drawn every second (looks quite choppy)

Basically are the processing work gets done normally, but the screen is updated less often, granting an illusion of faster emulation. I found that FS2 at 144Mhz works very well for most games, although Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are a bit slow at times even then. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt trying to overclock your GP32, see if you can get it to 156 - 166Mhz.

Now, you didn't hear this from me, but you should read up on the Pencil Trick, it evolved my 144mhz GP32 into a 184Mhz monster!

- Alex
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If you want to overclock it higher (my GP32 went to 250mhz+) try the pencil trick, just do a forum search for "pencil trick" you will find loads of theads, but the is one long one that has a photo guide on how to do it (it was very easy), that would be the best place to start reading.
 
KoH posted on Sep 1 2006 at 12:33 PM said:
(my GP32 went to 250mhz+)
How high could it go before the pencil trick?

- Alex
 
Last edited by a moderator:
160, anything higher would crash. I had to use 2600 mAh batteries to get it to over that, it would run at 250 stable 250+ was flakey
 
That explains it. Mine was a measely 144, that's why it topped off at 184.

- Alex
 
Back
Top