PM3.5 | Game crashes when characters are entering INTERMITTENT

[jtm94]

Title of the bug: Game crashing when stages load

Version found in: 3.5 homebrew full set

Hardware you are running: wii

Loading Method: PM on 2GB micro sd card using vBrawl original disc very few scratches

Details: this is indeed intermittent, but has been enough of a thorn in my side for me to create a thread. Played hundreds of hours of 3.02 and never once had repeated crashing like this. What happens exactly is as the characters are loading into the stage the game freezes on the intro animations. I have not been able to duplicate it with success, but I do believe that the freezing is correlated with R.O.B. At first I thought it was Zelda that or Ike was the issue and it has frozen on Zelda/Ike usually while Zelda is UpBing, but the most frequent freeze is right as ROB is entering the stage and being built. It has happened with several characters vs ROB, and when ROB is not in play gameplay often goes uninterrupted for hours.

Though I have not been able to duplicate the issue in a controlled environment, I have wiped my SD card thrice, with a format in between two of them doing a fresh install of Project M 3.5 Homebrew full set. I even went through the hassle of downloading a new .zip after assuming the first .zip I got the night of release was glitched and I have had the freezing occur on every single version of my install. One of them I did not put music onto because that was the only thing different, but after it happened several times on vanilla I put the music back on. I have also had this happen on an entirely different 1 GB SD card.

I'm willing to put more time in to try and further replicate this with hopefully additional help or feedback. With my group of friends we have not been able to pinpoint the true cause of this.

I have the ability to USB Load to test if that will solve anything.

Attachments:

Custom Content: Have used music and no music

 

[Narpas_sword]

Nice Report.

Is it always the same colour rob, or has it happened with different costumes?

 

[jtm94]

Nice Report.

Is it always the same color rob, or has it happened with different costumes?

It is usually the alternate colored Virtual Boy R.O.B.

Ike (Green Armor) and Snake (Big Boss) just froze on Smashville mid game. It froze as soon as Ike jumped and used Neutral B towards Snake.

Having a smash fest today I will document all freezes. I just did a clean install a day or so ago so this should be good to use data from.

 

[Narpas_sword]

It definitely sounds like something is having trouble reading a file. major crashes like this would be well noticed if it was happening frequently to a lot of people.

usually i'd think it's corrupt files on the SD, or a bad SD, but since you've reinstalled PM and used different SD cards it's likely something to do with reading a disc... Just taking a guess here, my tech knowledge on how the system works is not thorough.

You should try using an ISO with USB if it's easy enough, if the disk is getting errors / the disc drive isn't reading well (and we know how bad the wii disc drive is) it could be your issue.

 

[jtm94]

That is true. Most lenses fail in time. I will try USBloading for the next couple of weeks and report back.

 

[jtm94]

So it froze today on Zelda and Ganon using normal method. Decided to USB Load and started up completely normal and fast. Went to play DK vs Ganon picked random and all played well. Until I knocked Ganon into the blast zone and the game froze. We restarted and retried on Dreamland, game froze as soon as someone went of camera into blast zone, tried again with a different SD card and the same thing happened. It didn't happen via regular homebrew loading though so wondering if my iso copied on poorly. Currently reinstalling the iso to the flash drive.

 

[jtm94]

Went to a tournament yesterday and the game freezing occurred multiple times at the venue. It is definitely a serious issue having the game freeze mid game. For me it typically froze at the start, but it seems most other people had it freeze when using Ike alternate costumes and B moves, Zelda from what I heard and ROB alternate costumes. It happened on setups that were USB Loading as well. I do not think this is disc/laser related, but entirely on something unstable in 3.5. It happened several times throughout the day on a few times hanging out after on a wii that was USB loading and one that was not.

It is worth nothing that this happens far more frequently in both teams and free for all. Again more often with Ike and ROB. We've played in so many scenarios, but they are the only constant when the game freezes.

 

[Narpas_sword]

This is sounding strange =/
Only because i've had no such problems, with either of my builds or my flatmates, and we play extensively most weekends, and i'm sure if it was widespread, more people would be here talking about 3.5 crashing out of the blue.

Going to need someone with more authority on troubleshooting.

 

[jtm94]

Alright. I tried my best. I was beginning to think it's just me, but since 3.5 the weekly PM tournament has actually had to address freezing in the ruleset because it has become more commonplace and is now treated the same as power outage.

I asked around and a lot of people have experienced it, but I'm the only one in the 30+ group to report it. I too was shocked no one else brought it up.

I just miss the stability of 3.0 v.v I have never had the game freeze a single time among the 100s of hours and thousands of scenarios in 3.02.

 

[Narpas_sword]

@ standardtoaster have you heard anything about these random crashes?

 

[$heen]

That definitely sounds like a file reading issue. Have you ever had a crash with a non-armored Ike?

Just to make sure your loading procedure is correct:
-When you format your SD card, don't select quick format
-Format to FAT32
-Make sure the card is not locked
-If USB Loading, use Configurable USB Loader and set the hook type to AXNextFrame

If all of that is correct, then maybe it's a problem with your wii's SD port or RAM.

 

[jtm94]

Thank you for your time:
-I did not use quick format
-All of my SDs are FAT32
-Just checked my SD cards are all unlocked
-I use Configurable, but I always thought to use hooktype VBI. I will try this the next few days that I play.

It's just weird that this has happened on numerous Wiis that are not my own.

 

[$heen]

It's most likely because of VBI. I would venture to guess that your event matches would also not work properly too.

 

[jtm94]

Alright. That explains the rampant freezing on USB Loader. I used to USB load with VBI and 3.02 never froze. Is something newly changed in 3.5 to do so?

I haven't been able to play recently.

 

[$heen]

3.02 should have used AXNF but I think there were a lot less things that depended on it to work properly.

 

[jtm94]

3.02 should have used AXNF but I think there were a lot less things that depended on it to work properly.

AxNetFrame still crashes mid game via Configurable USB Loader. I guess I'm just stuck using disc for 3.5
crashed mid game of DK vs Captain Falcon.

Well it's been a good run, but all I can assume is that what is causing my wii and everyone elses wii to freeze is something going bad in them. Perhaps it's the IOS. I will try to remember how to install it/return it to it's original form and hope that works. If not I'm just gonna keep playing with intermittent freezing.

 

[jtm94]

So I just spent a few hours testing things reinstalled CIOS 249 on my wii to see if maybe that was the issue and nothing I have done from trying to boot from IOS 247 to 250 on bases 56/57 each with hooktype varying from VBI to AxNetFrame lets me get far. Everything is fine until a character falls into the blast zone, but sometimes just using a move freezes the game.

I went and tested USBLoading Project M 3.02 with hooktype VBI and I played alone for several matches and the game did not freeze. I really can't see the problem being my Wii.

 

[Phaiyte]

regular hackless method:
Only froze once ever, but for some reason when I was at a friend's house both of our setups froze within about 5 minutes of each other. We looked at each other confused, mentioning we've never had this problem before, got both of them working and didn't have the problem again. Both freeze scenarios were entirely different, neither had a common character or stage picked and it was in the middle of the match both times. Only happened that one time for both setups, and the discs are in basically perfect condition.

 

[kaizo13]

my friend's hackless P:M 3.5 froze yesterday while loading ness on corneria. They were doing a 4 player FFA, i don't know the other characters but it froze loading ness.
it was a clean hackless version.

first freeze i've ever witnessed since 3.0

 

[IGraveWork]

Game has froze on me a few times. every time it was after I left my game on for a few hours in training mode without doing anything and right when I start moving the game freezes. I'm playing on a 3.5 ISO loaded via USB loader.

 

[Life]

We had an All-Star Versus crew battle today, and everything was going off without a hitch until suddenly one of our players froze the setup three times in a row, and then we moved to a different setup and that one froze as well. (All of them happened after selecting a stage but before loading.)

Still no idea how that happened.

 

[standardtoaster]

Do you remember what the player ports were? Knowing the characters may help as well

 

[Life]

Do you remember what the player ports were? Knowing the characters may help as well

The final player was port 4 IIRC. We didn't get anything recorded unfortunately. Only character I remember was Ivysaur last.

EDIT: also, the freezes weren't identical. One of them just sat on the "Now Loading" screen silently while another made the beep of death.

 

[Narpas_sword]

There is an issue with allstar and port 4, i believe it crashes if there's noone in port 1 and someone in 4?
Something along those lines.

//edit http://smashboards.com/threads/player-4-allstar-crash-replicable.381959/#post-18151196

 

[Life]

There is an issue with allstar and port 4, i believe it crashes if there's noone in port 1 and someone in 4?
Something along those lines.

//edit http://smashboards.com/threads/player-4-allstar-crash-replicable.381959/#post-18151196

Yeah, this was it. Thanks!

 

[jtm94]

I have managed to successfully USB load a PM.iso I made with no issue. I really was suspecting my Wii to be dead for CFG usb loader, but after a few games it shows promise as it doesn't freeze upon entering the blast zone. Will continue updating.

This means something about the way codes are implemented may be why I can USB load 3.02 fine and not 3.5? Regardless something is different that my Wii cannot handle. Hopefully the PM.iso will work to prove it.

 

[jtm94]

Had my first game crash on the PM 3.5 iso
It was Captain Falcon in controller port 1 vs a computer on Yoshi's Island Brawl. Froze upon Falcon entering, do not know who the other character was.

 

[jtm94]

Got video of the game freezing in game finally because I was recording.
USBLoading via cfg USBLoader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3kcCyG1n1g&feature=youtu.be

 

[jtm94]

Project M 3.5 froze several times on the AZPM stream today.
Seems this issue is indeed plaguing other parts of the community, just as I expected.

 

[Kingslayer77]

Title of the bug: Game crashing when stages load

Version found in: 3.5 homebrew full set
Hardware you are running: wii
Loading Method: PM on 2GB micro sd card using vBrawl original disc very few scratches

Details: this is indeed intermittent, but has been enough of a thorn in my side for me to create a thread. Played hundreds of hours of 3.02 and never once had repeated crashing like this. What happens exactly is as the characters are loading into the stage the game freezes on the intro animations. I have not been able to duplicate it with success, but I do believe that the freezing is correlated with R.O.B. At first I thought it was Zelda that or Ike was the issue and it has frozen on Zelda/Ike usually while Zelda is UpBing, but the most frequent freeze is right as ROB is entering the stage and being built. It has happened with several characters vs ROB, and when ROB is not in play gameplay often goes uninterrupted for hours.

Though I have not been able to duplicate the issue in a controlled environment, I have wiped my SD card thrice, with a format in between two of them doing a fresh install of Project M 3.5 Homebrew full set. I even went through the hassle of downloading a new .zip after assuming the first .zip I got the night of release was glitched and I have had the freezing occur on every single version of my install. One of them I did not put music onto because that was the only thing different, but after it happened several times on vanilla I put the music back on. I have also had this happen on an entirely different 1 GB SD card.

I'm willing to put more time in to try and further replicate this with hopefully additional help or feedback. With my group of friends we have not been able to pinpoint the true cause of this.

I have the ability to USB Load to test if that will solve anything.

Attachments:

Custom Content: Have used music and no music

Do you know if it happens on the hackless set as well? Or just the homebrew versions?

 

[jtm94]

I had tried hackless but only briefly.
Most of my testing has been via homebrew and removing various things of vanilla like music and testing that vs my version which only has extra music. Everyone is saying that vanilla 3.5 is completely stable and that should apply to homebrew as well seeing as it's just another method to invoke PM.

For science I guess I can start playing vanilla hackless.

This brings me to a question. When building the PM.iso you have to put the PM files in. Does it matter if you use the homebrew version or the hackless version? I know you can make the homebrew version also load via hackless by adding the file that evokes the stage builder exploit.

 

[Kingslayer77]

I had tried hackless but only briefly.
Most of my testing has been via homebrew and removing various things of vanilla like music and testing that vs my version which only has extra music. Everyone is saying that vanilla 3.5 is completely stable and that should apply to homebrew as well seeing as it's just another method to invoke PM.

For science I guess I can start playing vanilla hackless.

This brings me to a question. When building the PM.iso you have to put the PM files in. Does it matter if you use the homebrew version or the hackless version? I know you can make the homebrew version also load via hackless by adding the file that evokes the stage builder exploit.

Sorry. I don't know the technical stuff. I just wanted to know if hackless was safe from this glitch. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[jtm94]

All help is appreciated. It's possible I just haven't been thinking about something simple that I should have.

 

[jtm94]

Freeze using Zelda + ROB upon selection of PS2 on purely vanilla absolutely fresh booting through homebrew on my disc that has no scratches and my SD card that is formatted to FAT32 with 32 kb clusters.

 

[Narpas_sword]

This is weird man,

Like, i've had freezes before, only the odd one though (and i have custom content)
But you seem to be getting a lot.

How much do you actually play?
Wondering if you just have such a high concentration of play time that % wise it's about the same.

 

[jtm94]

Freeze again today using Zelda and ROB, but this time it was mid game on FoD.

I only usually get to play once or twice a week for 6 or so hours each time with my partner.

 

[Magus420]

If you're getting all these freezes as they are entering or mid match with vanilla PM it sounds like your save data is corrupt to me. Freezes precisely at "GO!" when you can first move your character indicate the character .rel was not loaded, but that's not what's happening here. You ever run a .gct (PM or otherwise) that wasn't from the site on this wii at some point?

 

[jtm94]

If you're getting all these freezes as they are entering or mid match with vanilla PM it sounds like your save data is corrupt to me. Freezes precisely at "GO!" when you can first move your character indicate the character .rel was not loaded, but that's not what's happening here. You ever run a .gct (PM or otherwise) that wasn't from the site on this wii at some point?

I appreciate the response.

Brawl- is the only thing that comes to mind and I played that about a year and a half ago while I've been playing PM for 2 years with no freezing until recently. I'm weird and like my save data/records, but do you think it's worth trying a new save file at this point? I can try it out next time we play, it's a pretty old save file so it's possible that weird things have culminated over time.

 

[Narpas_sword]

you should be able to back up your save file to SD then wipe it from the wii, in order to test. (probably best to not have it on your sd card when testing)


Unsure if you can back the file up to pc, or if youd need a differnt SD card.

 

[jtm94]

you should be able to back up your save file to SD then wipe it from the wii, in order to test. (probably best to not have it on your sd card when testing)


Unsure if you can back the file up to pc, or if youd need a differnt SD card.

I'll just use a different SD. I have a few laying around.