Game is crashing/hanging/black screen, what do I do?
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 3:53 pm
It's possible that the game has a compatibility problem with the emulator. But if the game is well tested like Pokemon this is probably not the case. Usually the issue is one of the following:
1) The ROM is bad. This can be because it was improperly dumped or patched.
2) Your device storage is bad, and either the ROM got corrupt or it's failing to be read correctly.
3) You have cheats active and they are breaking something.
4) Something broke in the game state somehow
For 1 & 2:
First, make sure that the ROM is correct. If you check the database here:
http://datomatic.no-intro.org/
You can look up the game and see the "decrypted md5sum" number. For example, this is Pokemon White USA version:
http://datomatic.no-intro.org/?page=sho ... =28&n=5584
Decrypted md5sum is: 77C34BA77F8FA44E7CAF04F695DB0560
Now, check your ROM md5sum using an app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ools&hl=en You need to make sure that you are checking the uncompressed ROM with the .nds extension, not .zip/.7z/.rar. If you need to uncompress the ROM you can use an app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... iver&hl=en
If the md5sum doesn't match, it means the ROM is corrupt or isn't being read correctly. You should try again with a different ROM dump, and installed on local storage if possible to remove the possibility of a bad SD card.
For 3:
To disable cheats, you need to make sure to save the game in-game first (not using savestates), disable cheats in the options menu, then reset the game and load your in-game save.
For 4:
It's possible that a savestate got corrupt somehow, or a bug happened that broke the emulator but in a way that's recoverable. Make an in-game save and reset the emulator. Do not load a savestate, load the in-game save from the game.
You should always make in-game saves at least periodically; don't rely on nothing but savestates, and where you do use savestates you should rotate them so you aren't always overwriting them. This is good practice even if the emulation is fine because you don't want to accidentally overwrite a savestate in a bad place.
1) The ROM is bad. This can be because it was improperly dumped or patched.
2) Your device storage is bad, and either the ROM got corrupt or it's failing to be read correctly.
3) You have cheats active and they are breaking something.
4) Something broke in the game state somehow
For 1 & 2:
First, make sure that the ROM is correct. If you check the database here:
http://datomatic.no-intro.org/
You can look up the game and see the "decrypted md5sum" number. For example, this is Pokemon White USA version:
http://datomatic.no-intro.org/?page=sho ... =28&n=5584
Decrypted md5sum is: 77C34BA77F8FA44E7CAF04F695DB0560
Now, check your ROM md5sum using an app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ools&hl=en You need to make sure that you are checking the uncompressed ROM with the .nds extension, not .zip/.7z/.rar. If you need to uncompress the ROM you can use an app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... iver&hl=en
If the md5sum doesn't match, it means the ROM is corrupt or isn't being read correctly. You should try again with a different ROM dump, and installed on local storage if possible to remove the possibility of a bad SD card.
For 3:
To disable cheats, you need to make sure to save the game in-game first (not using savestates), disable cheats in the options menu, then reset the game and load your in-game save.
For 4:
It's possible that a savestate got corrupt somehow, or a bug happened that broke the emulator but in a way that's recoverable. Make an in-game save and reset the emulator. Do not load a savestate, load the in-game save from the game.
You should always make in-game saves at least periodically; don't rely on nothing but savestates, and where you do use savestates you should rotate them so you aren't always overwriting them. This is good practice even if the emulation is fine because you don't want to accidentally overwrite a savestate in a bad place.