Gamma Pack: Wake PSP, play for 7 seconds - & PSP freezes

[yawnstretch]

Ok this has happened to me so many times its really bugging me.

I've tried putting my psp in sleep mode on different menus, paused in game, after a game, whatever - the amount of times my PSP hangs after waking while playing wipeout pure since the gamma update is increasing.

This must be happening to other people - I always make sure the memory stick isnt being accessed but each time I wake the PSP up to continue my game I only get a few moments before it just freezes and then turns off a few seconds later.

[lunar]

I get exactly the same issues. Basically I can only go into sleep mode from the main menus. Do it anywhere in game, or between races in a tournament, and it will crash most of the time - sometimes when I`m 10 seconds into the next race. I do have version 1.50 firmware too.

[Dogg Thang]

Well I'm still on v1 firmware (for the homebrew) and, since installing the Gamma packs, I've had a lot of crashes. After Gamma 3, the game can crash pretty much anywhere although I haven't yet had it crash in the middle of a race. In the main menus, however, if I try to move through them too fast it will crash - I think because it has to access the memory stick too quickly. So I've learned to move slowly.

[Dimension]

Makes me wonder how bad it'll get when all the packs are downloaded onto your stick 8O

[Axel]

looks like it has more to do with the memory stick duo, i heard that mem card is not very good. Even on my k750i it makes my phone chrash like hell. Sony needs to fix up.

[Hellfire_WZ]

I know how you feel. I put mine to sleep during a Descension tournament race. I finished the race, but it crashed when I tried to go to the next one. Wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't the 11th bloody race! :evil:

[eLhabib]

are you guys experiencing crashes using the original sony pro duo sticks or sandisk? I am using sandisk and haven't had any crashes. maybe the stick is better than sony's...

[Hellfire_WZ]

I'm using a Sony Pro Duo. Knew I should have got a SanDisk one...

[defor]

On both my Sony 32M and my SanDisk 512M i get the freezes...

[lunar]

I still have the original 32mb Sony and so I`m going to need a bigger one at some point. So Sandisk here I come..... at least I`ll see if it improves at all. With a lot of the crashes I`m not sure the PSP is even looking at the memory card.

[Dogg Thang]

I'm on the SanDisk 512M too.

[Hellfire_WZ]

Aside from the in-game sleep crashes, a lot of mine actually DO come from memory stick interaction. I scroll through the menus pretty quickly. The game doesn't have a problem with all the standard options, but if I go too quickly through any downloaded tracks or ships, it gives up and crashes. Pretty much similar to what you said earlier.

[phoenixx]

I've got a sony 128 mb and I never had this problem. hope it won't appear with further gamma packs.

[zargz]

is it so hard to save and turn off the psp :? ??!
and will it crash after you do so?

[Hellfire_WZ]

You can't save mid-tournament. If you want to do the Descension, you need to sit through 12 races straight. Also, the PSP goes to sleep automatically when left alone for a few minutes.

[Mobius]

You can disable that in the options as far as i know.

[eLhabib]

what you can do to avoid the after-sleep crashing, is to turn the display off and put the buttons on hold instead of putting the whole thing to sleep. doesn't cut down much on the power consumption (because you are basically on pause), but you wouldn't put it away for hours in mid-tournament anyway, would you?

EDIT: forgot to mention, naturally, you will need to turn off the auto-sleep in the menu first.

[infoxicated]

I have it on good authority that you should re-download Gamma Pack 1 when Gamma Pack 2 is released. Hopefully the updated pack will cure some of your ills.

[Dogg Thang]

To answer your question elHabib, I'd say quite a few of us that endure a working day would leave their PSP off for hours and, quite possibly, mid-tournament.

On top of that, for some bizarre reason Pure makes you go through many loading screens and even a language select screen before letting you load your game, so turning the PSP off is not ideal as the start-up time is long. Strange too as it is utterly pointless - it only matters what language you select if you aren't loading a game leading me to think it might have been a better idea to start with the 'load game' screen. Still, even with that, it would be a long start-up. Remember we're on handheld gaming here. It should be pick up and play, which is why the sleep function exists and is a fantastic feature.

[lunar]

thanks for that info, Foxy. Sorry if this is a dumb question but should we delete the old gamma packs from our mem cards first, or will the update just overwrite the old one?

I can`t say all this has all been a big problem for me - I just have to remember not to start a tournament or race unless I can finish it. I`ve had no trouble with sleep mode on the menus.

[eLhabib]

well I'm not saying I don't use the sleep at all. actually I use it quite often, for I, too, have to work. but for quick action on the go I just do TTs or single races. I only start a tournament (especially a 8 or even 12 race one) only if I know I got some spare time on my hands, like a half-hour train ride to work.

[Hellfire_WZ]

IGN have the story now, and they're claiming it'll be released on June 22nd. That's this Wednesday. Weird thing is, apparently it's gonna have the Gamma Pack 3 content rather than the Van-Uber and Sebenco Peak. IGN have also confirmed what Rob said about Gamma Pack 1.

[yawnstretch]

Oh Fantastic!

Glad they're fixing the bugs - it was really heartbreaking for a bit! So can we have clarification about what exactly we do with our existing gamma packs? If we delete it would we risk losing times or anything?

This thread seems to have a happy ending!

[eLhabib]

since the records and ghosts and medals are saved in folders other than the gamma pack 1 folder, you can securely delete it and won't lose any records or anything. but I think you don't even have to delete it, the newly downloaded gamma 1 will simply overwrite it.

[TMoney]

IGN mentioned you should re-download Gamma 1 when Gamma 2 appears...

It doesn't mention why... but I'm pretty confident freezing issues will mysteriously vanish afterward.

[wirehang]

Thank goodness this will fix the hanging.

I am playing Rapier Ascension and it's been killing me!

matt

[rejj]

is it so hard to save and turn off the psp :? ??!
and will it crash after you do so?
It's a matter of convenience ... it atkes maybe half a second to wake up from sleep, and you are back to exactly where you were. The startup and load time to get to the main menu in Pure is more like slightly over a minute, at a guess. (I've never timed it, I just know it is long-ish.)

If I couldn't use sleep mode in Archer MacLean's Mercury, I'd go insane. The initial load time in that game is very long.

[yawnstretch]

I've downloaded Gamma Pack 2 and re-downloaded Gamma Pack1.

Every. Single. Time I put my PSP in sleep mode the game freezes about 10 seconds after waking.

Im starting to choose wipeout less and less for PSP gaming - not because I've had enough - but because this bug is too serious. Rebooting wipeout every time I want to play is a joke especially as it takes 2 MINUTES from startup to play.

:bombhead

[Sausehuhn]

I haven't got a PSP, but is it possible just to turn off the screen without taking it into sleep mode? Then you could pause the game and turn off the screen. I'm sure that saves energy as well because the screen is the main thing that takes energy.
Not the best answer, but better than freezing anyway. :?

[Space Cowboy]

You can turn off the screen seperately, but as far as im aware the psp automatically goes into sleep mode after a certain time. I havent messed with my power setting in ages so I cant remember :oops:

[Dogg Thang]

It's weird you're having that problem, yawnstretch - mine seems to be (so far) bug free since I redownloaded the packs. I have found it seems to take a little longer to come back from sleep mode though my guess it that it's loading the Gamma pics in advance now. I still have the odd problem coming back to the classic tracks but, by all accounts, that's because I'm still on 1.0.

Although Wipeout isn't the only one - Hot Shots Golf sometimes takes about three minutes to load the next hole when I come out of sleep mode. It gets there eventually but it's not ideal.

[yawnstretch]

Mine is never slow to restart from sleep - you can continue racing straight away. Sometimes its like 20 or 30 seconds before it freezes but it freezes - every single time.

[Drakkenmensch]

My approach to this issue is to simply NEVER go into sleep mode.

Problem solved!!!

[Dogg Thang]

Not really, Drakkenmensch. As Yawnstrech already pointed out, Pure takes a long time to get started and going through that every time kills one of the main draws of handheld gaming. Sleep mode is invaluable.

[Readymade]

I never put the PSP on sleep during a race, partly because of the problems encountered here but mostly because once I lose my concentration there's no point to going on.

I turn on Sleep mode at the menus, and when I wake up the PSP, the screen's frozen for about 10 secs. Then it flickers and comes back to life. The flickering still spooks me a bit, especially since it began after I downloaded the new Gamma packs.

And if I have to quit a tourney halfway, I just do it. I figure I need the practice anyway :p

[Drakkenmensch]

Yesterday while I was in the subway, my PSP battery ran out of charge dead in the middle of a race. I was about to fire a weapon, and the screen turned grey with the "low battery" sign, then turned itself off. Annoying, but what are you going to do. Later, after I recharged it and turned it back on - surprise surprise! The game had KEPT my position in the race at the moment it ran out of charge, with a caveat - while the low battery sign was on, the OTHER RACERS HAD KEPT ON GOING!!! Instead of being in a hot battle for first place in a pack of five, I was now almost 30 seconds behind.

On the other hand, the game had no hiccups resuming the race, nor did it freeze after it did so.

Interestign question now - because a Phantom race makes so MUCH scenery just blur by, does a serie of Phantom races actually chew MORE battery power than say, a Vector class tournament?

[eLhabib]

I don't think it does. Most of the battery life is eaten up by
-1) the screen, which is lit anyway, and has the same framerate in every speed class, so no difference there.
and
-2) the UMD drive. but since the UMD drive is only working BEFORE each race, loading the whole track and surroundings into the ram of the PSP, it doesn't need more battery in one class than another.

[Drakkenmensch]

okay, so I'll just put this one up on coincidence then :)

[Lion]

...since the UMD drive is only working BEFORE each race, loading the whole track and surroundings into the ram of the PSP...I'm not convinced that this is the case...
if it were then the time it takes to load another run on the same track with the same ship would be a fair bit shorter, I recon it more or less streams the track from the disc as it runs. I'd be surprised if it could store that much data in it's memory (which I think is 8mb main, 2mb video, correct me if wrong)

[eLhabib]

hm, we could simply try it out (if we dare) by ejecting the game disk while in a race and see if it still works - like in w'o''2097. Actually, I'm gonna try that right now! 8O

EDIT: Just tried it, and it works! I started a rapier single race on chenghou, popped out the disk right after the start, finished the whole race normally, no changes in gameplay whatsoever. Not even the music was affected, means it isn't streamed either, like it was in w'o''2097. So, the whole track, AI, music and everything is loaded into the PSP's ram. Popped the disk back in after the finish and returned to the main menu perfectly fine.

[Drakkenmensch]

In regards to my earlier comments, the thought occurs that the insane speed of phantom combined with the deadly weapon accuracy of the AI pilots does make one a BIT more likely to get blown up more frequently, especially on a track you haven't practiced yet at that level - thus requiring you to reload more frequently than if you were doing Vector or Venom level races.

So I guess it does add up anyway ;)

[syckls]

EDIT: Just tried it, and it works! I started a rapier single race on chenghou, popped out the disk right after the start, finished the whole race normally, no changes in gameplay whatsoever. Not even the music was affected, means it isn't streamed either, like it was in w'o''2097. So, the whole track, AI, music and everything is loaded into the PSP's ram. Popped the disk back in after the finish and returned to the main menu perfectly fine.

If you're going to do this, make sure that you pop in the disc before the song ends. Who knows what could happen if it tried to load a song off a non-existent disc. It would probably be worse than trying to load a Tigron ghost without Gamma Pack 1.

[eLhabib]

true that. although it never took me that long to finish a race :P

[G'Kyl]

In that case I hope you haven't flew zone mode yet... ;-)

I accidentally removed the disk while I was in a race and the program tried to load new music - gives you a very stuttering gameplay experience. Putting the disk back in didn't help, by the way.

Ben

[Lion]

while we are on the topic of bugs, does anyone else's PSP ever start playing the audio slightly too fast and destroy the quality of it? happens occasionally for me.
plays fractionally too fast and sounds all crackly and horrible. applies to all sounds, not just music. and the only way I've found to resolve it is restart the PSP.
the only other game I have so far is darkstalkers chronicle and I haven't put enough time into that to know if it happens there too, but has happened about 4 times in pure to date.
happened on a friend's PSP with my copy of pure too the very first time he played it. (mine: american 1.50, his: japanese 1.0)

[Hellfire_WZ]

Yeah, it's happened once with me. I noticed it as soon as the PSP started up, the sound quality was awful. A quick restart sorted it but it'd be nice to know why it does it.

[phoenixx]

once a week I got the same problem: distorted sounds. It's okay when I restart.

[yawnstretch]

Sound distortion's only happened to me once so far...

Strange that I get a freeze every single time and others don't. Could it just be that most people dont sleep straight after/during a race but go back to the menu before freezing every time?

[Drakkenmensch]

The sound bug in Pure, yes, it's happened to me about five times more or less since I started playing, which is really not that frequent. It's been happening less since gamma pack 2, I think. Or maybe it's the gamma pack 1 re-release?

Once, my PSP froze solid on the picture of the "loading from memory stick" after clicking on "load profile", but that's only happened once. Freak occurance I guess. I needed to pull out my battery completely to unstick it, much like I've had happen with my cell phone.

The only other PSP glitch I've encountered is in Twisted Metal, where the game will occasionally freeze after you select to save your game.

[Lion]

actually I've had that freeze on startup once too... while I was showing the PSP to a guy at my local EB who'd yet to see one at that point. not the best intro :P

[lunar]

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/memory/SanDisk/128MB/Gaming/Memory/Stick/PRO/DUO

this link is to Sandisk`s new range, specifically designed for PSPs, it says..... though whether there is any useful technical difference between these and the old Sandisk and Sony ones, or whether its just a multi-coloured marketing ploy, I don`t know.

Gamespot had an interesting bit of research on memory sticks. Apparently Sandisk are a lot quicker. With Gamma 2 my PSP has slowed down quite a lot when I come out of sleep mode, on the original Sony 32mb pro duo.

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-20872-2229-x-x-x

[yawnstretch]

You know what's really bizarre about the freezing bug? If you pause and sleep towards the end of a race and then complete it, save your score and then do a race again - the freeze takes place just a little while after you've loaded the level.

- To me this is a truely bizarre bug, I've never known any glitch carry through a loading sequence ever.

The freeze happens regardless - very strange. :?

[wirehang]

The freeze still happens on Gamme #2 Exostra park for me :(

[Drakkenmensch]

It occurs to me that all of the complaining regarding gamma pack 2 glitches are summed in one phrase:

"It freezes when it comes out of sleep mode!"

Do you guys play Pure to RACE or to put it in SLEEP MODE?

I've NEVER used sleep mode even once.

[phoenixx]

what mode? :wink:

[Dogg Thang]

Well you're lucky people to have schedules that permit total uninterrupted gameplay. Unfortunately many of us don't have that luxury. There is some sort of bug with regards to sleep mode - giviong people a hard time for using it doesn't negate the fact that there seems to be a problem.

Strangely enough, I have still not been affected with this since my early days with Pure and, then, only on the classic tracks.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

so you just happen to be in the middle of a race that you cant turn off when you have to go to work or somthing?

[wirehang]

You can do so, but the game may or may not lock up when you go back to it.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

they said a redownload for gamma pack 1 will fix glitch but i havent bothered with it.

[yawnstretch]

I redownloaded.

No joy with the freezing though.

[wirehang]

My problem is with Gamma #2

matt

[Dogg Thang]

For some reason I now seem to be afflicted with this.

Could it have been the addition of Gamma 3 because it didn't happen for me before that? Makes the Descension tournaments pretty tough as I rarely get that much uninterrupted time.

[wirehang]

Something is definitely up

[Sven]

Everything was going well...There were no spontaneous freezes anymore....Then I try to sleep it in the middle of Decension, and it locks up shortly after waking...

[Animagic]

happens to me now...
ever since dl-ing gamma3

[wirehang]

I got a freeze after doing a hold button pause by mistake./ I was playing Phantom Alpha in the Assegai, i was on Modesto Heights at the time.

Please sort these out

matt

[Drakkenmensch]

Okay, I think this topic has lingered and died weeks ago now. Unless anybody can actually provide useful information and/or a solution, it's absolutely pointless to keep adding messages that boil down to "I came back from sleep mode and it froze since I got gamma packs!" because by now that's been said a dozen times.

[wirehang]

I disagree, I am posting every instance where it happens because the developers need the info, as they said they had fixed it but clearly they have not.

matt

[Drakkenmensch]

I fail to see how adding more instances of "it froze when I paused it" adds anything since you don't add more actual information.

What version of the PSP operating system do you have?
Which gamma packs have you installed?
If you installed all three gamma packs, have you tried reinstalling the first one as suggested by Sony?
Have you been able to reproduce the error? Is it consistent or does it happen randomly?

I work in tech support for a living - this is the sort of thing I would ask you if you told me "my email doesn't work"

[wirehang]

I stated which track, craft and class I was playing that's more than just the paused info. You must be in a bad mood!


What version of the PSP operating system do you have?
1.50 USA

Which gamma packs have you installed?
1, 2 & 3

If you installed all three gamma packs, have you tried reinstalling the first one as suggested by Sony?
Of course, yes. When #2 came out.


Have you been able to reproduce the error? Is it consistent or does it happen randomly?
I can reproduce every instance I have posted in this thread.

matt

[Drakkenmensch]

See, now we have more information to work with. Since you have OS version 1.50, I can try suggesting upgrading it to 2.0

Isn't it a lot easier to deal with now that we have something to work with?

[wirehang]

If you are a developer of the game I would be glad to take your advice. If not, I shall thank you for it and ask again: can the developers please fix this?

matt

[Drakkenmensch]

Thank you, I'm so glad to know that you're using this forum as your personal line to speak directly to the developpers and that the fact that I work technical support for a living has absolutely no value in your eyes.

I'm also quite certain that the dev would have asked you the exact same questions - how can they fix a problem when they don't know what conditions in which it happens?

[wirehang]

Thanks for your advice

[G-Hob]

I had Wipeout Pure shut down not long after I un-sleeped my PSP and continued my Descension tournament. This was after d/ling Gamma Pack 3. Is there any more news on getting this problem fixed?

[wirehang]

Not that I have heard.

matt

[Dogg Thang]

Not only that but I seem to have more crashes since downloading the classic pack.

[wirehang]

I've not played it much the last week or two, but what you have just said scares me!

matt

[cappy]

happens to me now...
ever since dl-ing gamma3

Me too - ever since gamma 3 I'm in the same boat as yawnstretch. SUCKS! I haven't tried re-dl-ing gamma 1 - it seems from the feedback here that's it's not quite the ticket. Perhaps the new firmware update AUG 12 will help?

[guinness]

The updated firmware doesn't help either. Doesn't matter which d/l pack, as long as it's something off the MS when I power off, it's pretty much guaranteed to freeze when I power the PSP back up.

edit by Lance: quotation eliminated. read the guidelines please

[Drakkenmensch]

Okay, I know I'm probably going to sound REALLY obvious here, but... have you guys thought of putting the game on PAUSE before hitting the sleep mode? And then waiting a solid 15 seconds after returning from sleep before unpausing?

It worked perfectly for me when I tried it! :D

[wirehang]

I get this from suspending on the end of race menu - I'm unable to pause at that point

matt

[Drakkenmensch]

well, the solution seems obvious then - don't suspend on the end of race menu, but rather pause JUST before crossing the finish line, or while the camera is turning around your craft before the GO! is given on a race.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

I have done the pause thing and it does not work and even if it appears fine, such as finishing your race, after it brings up the next one it freeks out.

I just live with it and try not to put it into sleep mode.

[Dogg Thang]

Drakkenmensch, I can assure you that the solution is not obvious. I have tried many combinations, pausing at different places, not pausing at all and they all result in the same problem. The only thing that stopped it was going back to the main menu (of course that means throwing a long tournament) but, since the classic pack, even that is giving me trouble. It is rare that I can use sleep mode at all without crashing after.

What is very odd is that I rarely have this with the JP version. I do get the odd crash but they are the exception unlike the US version.

Besides - this is something that needs to be fixed. Pausing at one crucial moment to avoid a crash should not be an issue.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

I'm sure that eventually the 4 page thread will get their attention and being able to download for it they will make a patch but in the mean time we will contunue to rant and rave about lost phantom desention tournments. (twitch twitch)

[InvaderF00]

I'm not sure it's a lone WipeOut problem, I have the same issue with some other games with memory stick interaction. Seems whenever you put your PSP into sleep mode, it messes with any data you're using off of the MemoryStick.

We're crashing more and mmore due to the packs we keep adding on (Skins, Tracks, Music... any combination), when your PSP wakes up, it reads the last bit of what's in memory; then when it comes time to read more from the memory stick it craps out.

Just as a test I tried Pure with nothing added on, just my save game on the memorystick and everything was fine. Add a pack, any one of them, and it crashes a few seconds after starting up. If your lucky you have enough time to hit the home button and go back to the menu and restart the game without restarting your PSP.

[Dogg Thang]

So what other games have you had this problem with?

[InvaderF00]

I've had a few sleep mode crashes with Coded Arms, but it's happen on Twisted Metal as well. Not nearly as much as Pure or Arms, but it still happens.


Oh yeah... and a whole slew of homebrew and loaders. But Dr. Mario seems to be fine ^_^