PSX cd audio stutter only when using external hard drive

thelostsoul

This is not a question or trouble shooting, as I am not going back to try it out; this is more like a report.

Yesterday I finally decided to use one of my unused USB hard drives and transferring all roms to it, as my 32gb sd card was not enough for some more psx games. After some some time, I got it working. I followed the guidance to automatic mount the drive at

Running ROMs from a USB drive

and it copied all files. I was not sure if it was using the drive or sd card and did manually adding a symbolic link (should not work with fat or fat32 filesystems, I used ext4) and it worked. BUT...
... my PSX games with cd music started to stutter the music. It seemed everything else was working, including cd music of PC Engine games. I can't verify this for 100% sure, because I tried different settings and followed different guidances from the web and nothing helped.

The external USB drive is a usb 3.0 500gb WD 2.5" hard drive (power through Raspberry Pi) and very fast on my pc (with usb 3.0 connection). Plus I got unusual over heating problems (right top sign of RetroPie), which I did not experience like before in that grade. After all, I go back to roms from sd card and set PSX emulator audio drive backend to sdl2 and now everything works fine (seems). Maybe it was too much for the usb connection, as the case I have routes 4 front usb connections to a single internal one (hopefully correctly explained).

Raspberry Pi 3
RetroPie 4
I don't need help in this now, because I will not try it again for now. I just report this, if someone have similar problem.

Sano

@thelostsoul said in PSX cd audio stutter only when using external hard drive:

(power through Raspberry Pi)

I think this could be the root cause of your issue.
What's your power supply model ?
Are you sure you see an overheating icon on the top right of the screen, and not a power issue icon (a lightning) ?
An external 2.5" HDD can use up to 1A at peak, and count around 600mA during normal operation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=143207

thelostsoul

Yes, I am sure, its a thermometer icon. I know it, because before I got the official power supply, I had a lightning symbol, even when just plugging the keyboard on. The hard drive is a small portable one, which can only be powered through its usb data cable.
Edit: Is it possible, that there is some sort of incompatibility with usb 3.0 devices?

Sano

@thelostsoul
I really doubt it could be an USB3 issue. USB is fully retro-compatible by nature.
USB3 sure can drive more power than USB2, but only if plugged on an USB3 port, so it's ok AFAIK.
I'm not sure the 2.5A official power supply would be enough to reliably supply a RPI3 emulating PSX while using an external USB HD...

thelostsoul

@sano said in PSX cd audio stutter only when using external hard drive:

About this, I am not sure too, especially because 2 gamepads, an arcade stick and a usb adapter for remote keyboard is plugged in. :D But at least I did not get any lightning icon. Besides the usb adapter for keyboard, all other are on one usb adapter through a 1 to 4 usb adapter (with internal connection of nes case) connected. Maybe there is room for the power in general, but a single usb connection can't handle all those devices at once? Maybe this is the issue.

When will the lighting icon be shown? If the power supply reaches its max or if even one usb connection reaches its max power too? That could explain why I did not get lighting icon.

Sano

@thelostsoul
The best test you could do is to use a powered USB hub :)
I think the Pi will reduce power on USB ports before its own, but this need to be verified.
The NES case is also known to create power issues, by using fan, as well as poor quality cabling and PCB.
See here : https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/13311/nespi-case-power-problems

thelostsoul

The USB hub is internal, I can't change it (well, i could maybe). And I don't use that NESpi case, its a different one called NES case, which even don't look like an NES case (its black). Maybe same poor quality issue. I even don't use the fan, because it is loud as a jet. And that pcb is rated to be used with 4 usb connections plus the fan. Not sure if its a power issue.

For now, I will not try more as I don't want mess it up again. I will get a bigger sd card (from 32gb to maybe 128gb, or at least 64gb) and its all done.