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HELP! Made a mini Launchbox build on a 128GB ultra USB 3 flash, black flashing screen issue in BigBox


cleverest

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LB works fine with my build, but BigBox goes between working fine, to often flashing black (on the same computer I have my main build of LB, which doesn't do this at all...)

Anything I can do to fix this? I'm perplexed...it's set up the same, it's just a smaller collection of the games I have on my 8TB version...

Thanks in advance.

Edited by cleverest
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21 hours ago, fromlostdays said:

Are you maybe using different themes or plugins for the small install?

Same theme and plugins...I didn't change that...but noticed the flashing occurs less when I removed the extra BACKGROUND videos for the theme (city hunter 2), I had like 10 of them, now I have 2 and it's more rarely happening...

But it doesn't happen on my external hard drive install, on the same computer...

Edited by cleverest
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I had the same exact idea by putting a small subset onto a portable usb device. BUT, I found that LB/BB and emulators do not run well at all on a usb flash, not even a usb 3.1 flash!! I tried many of the more expensive usb 3.0 and 3.1 flash keys (I returned them all). They suck ass because of the writes that happen from LB/BB and from emulators. These small flash drives have horrible ssd controllers, so they are not good for this sadly. I ended up moving my portable LB folder to an old usb 3.0 500GB portable 2.5" hard drive and everything runs great that way.

I think the only way you will get things to work well on flash storage is if you use a real external SSD and controller, like a Samsung T5 (link below). The T5 is has a quality controller and flash storage. It's almost as small as a flash key, but not quite, and most sadly requires a cable to connect rather than a direct usb key-like connection.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA250B/dp/B073H552FK

This flash drive should rock your emulator world.

Eventually they may make quality flash key ssd drives, but not today.

ps: @cleverest , i saw the same issue you described when I tried using usb key-type flash drives. after investigating, i found it was from the writes that were taking place.

 

edit: also note that I never even tried using videos on the flash drive setup to keep the storage usage down

Edited by ckp
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I don't know I have a few builds on Windows 10 tablets that all run from the micro SD slot they are ultra light weight and only include front box art and use text list in BigBox while there are some issues with loading (RAM cache has to be turned all the way down or you get out of memory errors) I find that RetroArch is always snappy on them so when it comes to the most important aspect of it actually playing the games I've found that they perform nicely at least for me from a microSD card.

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I've not tried an SDcard, but I think the issue described was using a usb flash drive. I found several emulators didn't work well at all with a "fast" usb flash drive due to the file caching it was doing with temp files, and BB didn't run well either due to the flash. I didn't try to remove all the cool LB/BB stuff to see if that helped the LB/BB aspect because my goal was to use it with all its coolness since it would be running on capable systems. But even if I optimized LB/BB settings for a usb flash drive (assuming any settings would make much impact there), it wouldn't work because of emulators like PCSX2 and others. 

I suppose if you just want to run the older games with RA, it might be possible to tweak things so BB and the older game emulators works ok on usb flash drive. If no media writes are going on, it should be ok. But after seeing what I saw with usb flash drives, I don't want anything to do with using those for emulation, unless they get much better, or unless it's something like a samsung t5.

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26 minutes ago, cleverest said:

This one looks promising for portable SSD and is cheaper for 512GB version than the Samsung, but about $40 something dollars.

https://www.amazon.com/512GB-Passport-Portable-Storage-WDBK3E5120PSL-WESN/dp/B06XNPPRD9/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1515606544&sr=1-6&keywords=Portable+SSD

i wouldn't get a WD SSD. samsung and intel have the best ssd controllers by far. samsung=you are safe

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26 minutes ago, cleverest said:

The most modern games I have on my small flash 128GB collection are a 6 Saturn (mednafen standalone) and 10 dreamcast (demul standalone), 7 PSP (PPSSPP), and 46 PS1 (rearmed retroarch), and they seen fine...but havent played very much on it....maybe I should, lol

yeah i'd suggest you play some games when the emulator and roms are on your usb flash to make sure you dont see weirdness and/or stutters and that you can still upscale as much as you do on the hard drive, of course for BB and LB, make sure you fully cache your images before you try anything at all. you can use resource monitor to see when LB/BB is done caching.

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28 minutes ago, cleverest said:

Probably should remove all vid clips, just love how pretty it makes BIGBOX...lol

you dont have to remove anything or tweak the settings so it's not as pretty if you use a capable drive. keep the bling - that's what's cool about LB/BB in the first place!

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