I can't make 8.7 work

[Bodine Grunch]

I apologize if I'm in the wrong forum but I certainly could use some help please. LB Has worked fine and BB continues to work fine. LB-Next simply will not run and I cannot deduce why. It did not run when started from within LB as an option to try. At the time I did a clean install and rebuilt the entire system only to find that the problem continued so I gave up on it. Now it is my only choice.

 1 - When I scroll through the platforms in the left pane, all is fine. When I click in the right pane to change focus all is fine. (If I start a game it plays and exits normally) When I mouse over the left pane the highlights change and all appears normal. But, as soon as I click anything in the left pane the screen freezes. Eventually (sometimes immediately) LB crashes with the obviously spurious "Your system is running out of memory (RAM) and LaunchBox cannot continue" error.

 2 - Once the screen freezes, I can hear the program chirping as I use the keyboard to scroll up and down. If I check the task manager there is only occasional CPU activity and 400-700Mb memory being used by LB (nothing else running including virus stuff, etc.). Nothing else on the computer stops functioning and I can alt-tab to the desktop where everything else runs. Clicking OK closes LB.

 3 - I have increased memory from 4GB to 6 without any effect.   

 4 - I have rechecked all bios & windows settings for anything exotic.

 5 - I have updated my video drivers to the newest available. 

 6 - I have reinstalled the update several times and gotten the exact same results with 8.5, 8.6 & 8.7

 7 - Everything on the computer including all the emulators and BB are working fine, LB-Next is the only exception.

 8 - I read in the forum that somebody installed the LBPlex theme and it stopped their memory error problem. I tried that and discovered that regardless of what theme I choose, LB uses the default. I deleted the default folder, selected a different theme and LB recreated and then used the default.

 I hope that something in this list will rings a bell because after three days of this, I am brain dead. 

 Help would be greatly appreciated.

Hardware:
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 (Kentsfield)@2.4 GHz
Win10 Pro 32-bit
NVIDIA GeForce series 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 @ 800MHZ (identical results with 4GB and then again using 6GB)
 

[Lordmonkus]

How much system ram do you have ?

[Bodine Grunch]

I'm sorry, the carriage return got dropped.... the NVIDIA is an AGP card and the 6GB is the system RAM system

 

[ea4492]

3 hours ago, Bodine Grunch said:

I'm sorry, the carriage return got dropped.... the NVIDIA is an AGP card and the 6GB is the system RAM system

 

Wait...AGP? I think you mean PCI since if im not mistaking, the old LGA775 core 2 series was PCI and not AGP was already fazed out, and i havnt used or seen an AGP card in a long time since probably when i had an old computer with an Athlon 64.

Edited September 13, 2018 by ea4492

[Bodine Grunch]

You were right. I still run AGP cards in a few of my computers and I knew this one was not using a white PCI slot. But, I had to open it up to check. Sure enough it's a PCI-Ex16. I'm a little mind numb still from trying to sort out this problem. I had just about convinced myself it would be a video card problem but that doesn't make sense as it works for everything else and has worked up until this new version of LB (and even it still works, it just craps out after each game). The theme problem happened and I threw up my hands and decided to ask for help hoping somebody had been down this road before.

*in case anybody was wondering why... I really wanted my arcade to have the analog warmth I remembered from the arcades of my youth. So, I'm using a 36" Sanyo CRT and to get the warmth I was looking for I needed a card with S-Video ( The Sanyo only has RCA and S-Video inputs). This was the newest old card I could find with drivers for Windows7 (which are equivalent to 8 & 10). The screen has been a real attention grabber for everybody who sees it and I've really been pleased with the set-up. Of course, it all still works but maybe I just won't be able to use LB anymore. Surely somebody has an idea. It's going to wind up being something simple that I just can't see right now.

[ea4492]

11 minutes ago, Bodine Grunch said:

You were right. I still run AGP cards in a few of my computers and I knew this one was not using a white PCI slot. But, I had to open it up to check. Sure enough it's a PCI-Ex16. I'm a little mind numb still from trying to sort out this problem. I had just about convinced myself it would be a video card problem but that doesn't make sense as it works for everything else and has worked up until this new version of LB (and even it still works, it just craps out after each game). The theme problem happened and I threw up my hands and decided to ask for help hoping somebody had been down this road before.

*in case anybody was wondering why... I really wanted my arcade to have the analog warmth I remembered from the arcades of my youth. So, I'm using a 36" Sanyo CRT and to get the warmth I was looking for I needed a card with S-Video ( The Sanyo only has RCA and S-Video inputs). This was the newest old card I could find with drivers for Windows7 (which are equivalent to 8 & 10). The screen has been a real attention grabber for everybody who sees it and I've really been pleased with the set-up. Of course, it all still works but maybe I just won't be able to use LB anymore. Surely somebody has an idea. It's going to wind up being something simple that I just can't see right now.

Yeah, im sure your know who Linus is and what LTT is, but if not, you can search him and see a video that he did about building a custom arcade cabinet machine, and he actually used a Flat CRT that is used in old arcades and it the best screen to use for an authentic arcade feel, but those CRTs are very hard to find. I hope to have my own arcade cabinet one day since i have an old core 2 quad computer collecting dust and with newer cards, you can get a converter box that converts HDMI/DVI to analog Composite or S-Video to connect to an old CRT monitor.

Edited September 13, 2018 by ea4492

[Lordmonkus]

So 6 Gigs of DDR2 ram ? If so then that is probably your problem right there in running out of memory with LB.

[bvcbcvbcvbcvbvcbvcbcv]

2 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

So 6 Gigs of DDR2 ram ? If so then that is probably your problem right there in running out of memory with LB.

6 GB of RAM is insufficient? Hell, I have 8 in mine, so is only 2 gigs more that much of a difference? I thought you even said that my RAM was pretty decent from my Windows 10 thread. o_O

[ea4492]

5 minutes ago, MalachiMaverick said:

6 GB of RAM is insufficient? Hell, I have 8 in mine, so is only 2 gigs more that much of a difference? I thought you even said that my RAM was pretty decent from my Windows 10 thread. o_O

if your collection is large and you have a lot of Logos and artwork, and videos, then 6gb wouldnt be enough for the large cache that BigBox creates. I have a pretty large collection and my computer has 16gb of ram so obviously i dont have any problems with BIgBox. Hope this make sense.

Edited September 13, 2018 by ea4492

[Lordmonkus]

4 minutes ago, MalachiMaverick said:

6 GB of RAM is insufficient? Hell, I have 8 in mine, so is only 2 gigs more that much of a difference? I thought you even said that my RAM was pretty decent from my Windows 10 thread. o_O

He said it was DDR2 though which is extremely old at this point, current systems are now using DDR4 and DDR3 was the norm for the past like 10 years.

[bvcbcvbcvbcvbvcbvcbcv]

2 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

He said it was DDR2 though which is extremely old at this point, current systems are now using DDR4 and DDR3 was the norm for the past like 10 years.

Oh wait, I totally missed that DDR2 part. My bad, lol. Quick question: Is DDR4 really "needed" yet, or is DDR3 still fine for the most part?

[ea4492]

1 minute ago, Lordmonkus said:

He said it was DDR2 though which is extremely old at this point, current systems are now using DDR4 and DDR3 was the norm for the past like 10 years.

But it shouldnt matter if he has DDR2 since DDR2 supports up to 16gb depending on the Motherboard and the difference with DDR2 to DDR3 and 4 is the capacity and speed, but speed mainly.

[Lordmonkus]

DDR3 is fine for a little while yet but any new systems nowadays will use DDR4. The new Intel and AMD CPUs both require motherboards that require DDR4, DD3 is completely incompatible with the new hardware.

[Lordmonkus]

Just now, ea4492 said:

But it shouldnt matter if he has DDR2 since DDR2 supports up to 16gb depending on the Motherboard and the difference with DDR2 to DDR3 and 4 is the capacity and speed, but speed mainly.

It's probably just not fast enough to move data in and out of it. Also the fact that his CPU is from 2007 and running Windows 10 on this hardware doesn't help at all. He's basically overloading the hardware.

[ea4492]

4 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

It's probably just not fast enough to move data in and out of it. Also the fact that his CPU is from 2007 and running Windows 10 on this hardware doesn't help at all. He's basically overloading the hardware.

True that could be his problem, since hes using pretty old hardware. But DDR2 shouldnt be that slow, but i cant really say, since i dont have a computer with ddr2 anymore, and my old computer has 8gb of DDR3, and my current computer has 16gb of DDR4.

Edited September 13, 2018 by ea4492

[Bodine Grunch]

Thanks for the ideas, The windows task manager doesn't show memory being a problem. I do have a couple of tons of ROMS but Big Box runs smooth as silk. I don't bog everything down with graphics and glitzy animations. It's old gear but it runs all the software really well. The new front-end is the problem. I still have the install files back to 7.x. I guess nobody has a magic bullet I can just back up a bit. I'd still like to know why the theme stays on default, though. That really bugs me.

[Lordmonkus]

I mean it's possible there is something else going on to cause the issue but that hardware is so old that would be my first place to look at.

You could easily build a new system for under 500$ USD that would completely destroy the one you got and run your emulators better.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vpRdMZ

[bvcbcvbcvbcvbvcbvcbcv]

20 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

DDR3 is fine for a little while yet but any new systems nowadays will use DDR4. The new Intel and AMD CPUs both require motherboards that require DDR4, DD3 is completely incompatible with the new hardware.

But none of that will really matter anyway because if I buy a new computer rather than trying to upgrade all the parts in my current one, which I plan on buying a new computer at some point anyway, then all of those newer parts will automatically be in the PC, right? So I won't have to worry about compatibility, or worrying about whether, or not, the new PC will have all of the newer parts in it. I won't have to worry about a new PC still having old RAM, or out dated parts if I get a new PC from like Best Buy as they're guaranteed to always have nothing but the newest as in what's current right now. In fact I shouldn't really even need to do any research at all into what PC I choose to get from a trusted retailer like Best Buy, or WalMart, because all I need to do is look for a PC with the highest specs within reason at the lowest price possible like I always do when I get a new PC, and like I did with this one. So my stuff being outdated shouldn't really matter too much anyway because when I do finally decide to upgrade to a new PC i'll automatically be up to date in hardware, and software since it will also come preinstalled with Windows 10. Question is: How long do I have before emulators, and LaunchBox/Big Box demands of me to upgrade to a new PC?

Edited September 13, 2018 by MalachiMaverick

[Lordmonkus]

1 minute ago, MalachiMaverick said:

But none of that will really matter anyway because if I buy a new computer rather than trying to upgrade all the parts in my current one, which I plan on buying a new computer at some point anyway, then all of those newer parts will automatically be in the PC, right? So I won't have to worry about compatibility, or worrying about whether, or not, the new PC will have all of the newer parts in it. I won't have to worry about a new PC still having old RAM, or out dated parts if I get a new PC from like Best Buy as they're guaranteed to always have nothing but the newest as in what's current right now. In fact I shouldn't really even need to do any research at all into what PC I choose to get from a trusted retailer like Best Buy, or WalMart, because all I need to do is look for a PC with the highest specs within reason at the lowest price possible like I always do when I get a new PC, and like I did with this one. So my stuff being outdated shouldn't really matter too much anyway because when I do finally decide to upgrade to a new PC I'll automatically be up to date in hardware, and software since it will also come preinstalled with Windows 10. Question is: How long do I have before emulators, and LaunchBox/Big Box demands of me to upgrade to a new PC?

Correct.

[bvcbcvbcvbcvbvcbvcbcv]

6 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

I mean it's possible there is something else going on to cause the issue but that hardware is so old that would be my first place to look at.

You could easily build a new system for under 500$ USD that would completely destroy the one you got and run your emulators better.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vpRdMZ

I paid $1,200.00 for mine back when it was still considered newer, so would $500.00 get me specs as good as the one I currently have right now? I can't see it being possible to pay less than what I paid for mine 5 years ago, and still getting equal, or even better performance than mine.