New Gp2x With Major Sound / Other Problems

[markiej]

Hi,

Just got it from play-asia & I'm 80% sure it's a dud. The sound is horrid. Tons of distortion and buzzing even at lowest volume. Happens in all games / emus. Doesn't happen in movies or startup sound. Does happen in mp3's when I fast forward. Eventually the sound either dies or becomes a loud horrible beep. It's an mk2 with 2.0

It's as if the sound proc' freaks out with the cpu is taxed. Also found a lot of black-screen freeze-ups.

Since it happens on everything (all demos & dl'd stuff) and is in the speakers and headphones I think it's dead. But I still hold out hope that someone will say, "All I did was . . . and it was as good as new."

Thanks for your time,
Mike

 

[TelcoLou]

Well, short of the obligitory "did you use fully charged NiMh batteries or an AC adaptor?" question, I'd return it for a new one.

 

[Trip]

Got the same problems with the blackscreen freeze on the new mk2 myself

Hadn't really taken much notice of the sound (deaf in one ear anyway) up untill now, but I've paid attention to it today & it does seem to be quite bad.
I'm used to emulators not getting the sound 100% right anyway, so I think I had just put it down to that.

I've not really used it for mp3's or movies just yet, but I'll give it a shot today when I get a chance.

I'm starting to think that they are all problems with the 2.0 firmware. The new SDL libs in the firmware could be causing the black screen (as the programs work most of the time) & as you say, the sound is fine for movies & when the unit starts up.

***EDIT***
Was there any improvements made to the mp3 player in the 2.0 firmware, or was it left as it was in the last version?
***EDIT2***
Is the serial number etc. added to the unit before it hit's the stores or after?
Just asking as this could help to trace if it's a firmware problem, or if these units (& others showing the same symptoms) are all from the same bad batch.
Here's mine: S/N 2006.06.15 - GP2XV127 - 00006486

 

[markiej]

newly charged batteries and ac adapter tried. pretty sure it's bad in some way. When I get home from work today I'll try to remember to post my ser number for posterity.

I had a bad feeling when that asteroid game had the same problem. oh well.

 

[Epicenter]

newly charged batteries and ac adapter tried. pretty sure it's bad in some way. When I get home from work today I'll try to remember to post my ser number for posterity.

I had a bad feeling when that asteroid game had the same problem. oh well.

Maybe turn on the volume limiter, then turn up your volume level. If it's overamplified it might sound really awful. Unless it sounds this bad at the lower settings too.. the crashing bit, I don't really know. I mean, I'd need to know what programs crash and where to make any sort of assessment; some software is just faulty.

As for emulator audio, some emulators just have poor sound emulation. The FM emulation in DrMDx has some faults due to a speedup trick implemented back in the GP32 days that Reesy hasn't gotten around to removing yet. SquidgeSNES has scratchy FM sound, though PCM sounds good. Since GPFCE is based on FCEU apparently, its sound emulation is quite good as that's a well-rounded and solid emulator on the PC side of things. For the most part sound emulation in Alexkidd2x (SMS/GG emulator) is quite good too.

 

[markiej]

Maybe turn on the volume limiter, then turn up your volume level. If it's overamplified it might sound really awful. Unless it sounds this bad at the lower settings too.

It came with limiting it on and it was bad. I shut it off and it was bad. at all volumes.

the crashing bit, I don't really know. I mean, I'd need to know what programs crash and where to make any sort of assessment; some software is just faulty.

I tried duke & doom, several emulators, and demos. They all hung at some times, and not at others.

As for emulator audio, some emulators just have poor sound emulation.

I was suspicious of that as well, yet the two pre-installed demos had the same problem. And mp3's would distort when I would skip ahead within the track them. I would have to stop the player in order to make it stop. Same thing in movies. All was fine unless I tried to jump ahead. Then I'd have to start over.

Honestly this reminds of a time when I slightly cracked a motherboard on a PC. everything was fine, but disc access would kill the cpu, causing choked sound.

maybe faulty mfg or shipping damage.

Thanks for your responses. Hopefully play-asia will respond soon and send a working one.

Cheers-mike

 

[Trip]

What's happened with this markiej. playAsia exchanging it or did they put it down to faulty firmware?
Just wondering as mine has behaved itself.. up until today.
I'd just finished a game of SF2 in Mame, then loaded up Vektar for a quick blast & noticed that the sound had gone distorted & quite again.
A simple reboot was all it took to bring it all right again, but it's still worrying

 

[markiej]

I shipped it to play-asia & am awaiting word. My sound problem wasn't intermittant - every time I played anything with sound (except for startup sound, mp3, movie) it freaked.

The test to see if it works, is: launch zektar, hit the button to start:
KRACKLE KRACKLE KRACKLE - BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

something like that.