Playstation 2 External Storage Device games Loader (PS2ESDL)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raz45

Answers:
1. SCPH-90001
2. Seagate 80GB - ST98823AS
3. YES
4. Windows Disk Defrag
5. yes to FAT32
6. Mana Khemia 2 : Fall Of Alchemy [U] [SLUS_218.90]

---

As the compatibility status of this game is currently "Unknown", I can't say whether it'll run on PS2ESDL yet (You're the first user to have reported to be playing that game).

As the good doctor has said, you should use a good Disk defragmentation utility like the Auslogics Disk Defragmenter, and make sure that there's absolutely not even a little bit of file fragmentation (Not even one red square left in the graphical representation of your disk).

@all: DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS DEFRAGMENTER OR POWER DEFRAGMENTER AS BOTH DON'T DO A GOOD ENOUGH JOB!!!

chkdsk seems to miss some fragmented files too, so it can't be used as an accurate check for fragmented files.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SP193

How fast is this "fast"?

---

Well, comparing the first loading screen (The only comparable loading times against every loader), if it took 3 minutes for other loaders to pass the first loading screen(flashing LOADING... word with black background), it would only take 1 minute for USBAdvance. For the second loading screen, it took less than a minute and was quite fast compared to other game loaders that reached the main title menu... But during my gameplay, i observed that from the warp zone to loading a selected level, it was really annoyingly slow - USBAdvance. (crash bandicoot or the girl floating with flashing LOADING...) :)

I wish i had another PS2 to test them simultaneously and see it for real... :D

Does that PADMAN refers to the PS2 Controller Driver? Havent really observed the ANALOG led though for any weird light effects :lol:.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SP193

@all: DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS DEFRAGMENTER OR POWER DEFRAGMENTER AS BOTH DON'T DO A GOOD ENOUGH JOB!!!

---

Whoops, I was using Power Defragmenter >.<

I'll try with that one you say, and then re-test some games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SP193

As the compatibility status of this game is currently "Unknown", I can't say whether it'll run on PS2ESDL yet (You're the first user to have reported to be playing that game).

As the good doctor has said, you should use a good Disk defragmentation utility like the Auslogics Disk Defragmenter, and make sure that there's absolutely not even a little bit of file fragmentation (Not even one red square left in the graphical representation of your disk).

@all: DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS DEFRAGMENTER OR POWER DEFRAGMENTER AS BOTH DON'T DO A GOOD ENOUGH JOB!!!

chkdsk seems to miss some fragmented files too, so it can't be used as an accurate check for fragmented files.

---

Still no luck. This time I used Ys:Ark of Napistim as my game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raz45

Still no luck. This time I used Ys:Ark of Napistim as my game.

---

Did you defragment your disk totally with a good disk defragmentation tool?
There must be absolutely no file fragmentation at all.

Try using the Auslogics Disk Defragmenter if you're unsure as to which disk defragmenter you should use.

NEVER USE THE WINDOWS DISK DEFRAGMENTER OR POWER DEFRAGMENTER (Unless you really know what you're doing)!!!

If your disk defragmenter has a graphical representation of your disk, there must be no fragmented regions after defragmenting (Usually represented by red squares).

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - SLUS 20743. working. pretty laggy video sequences. but the game plays fine.. at least i'm in the first level right now. looks ok.

Futurama: SLUS 20439 = working. also pretty laggy on the fmv but plays just fine

Ibara SLPM 66301 = Fully working ;)

Battle gear 3: SLPM 65434 = working

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ceedlorenzo

Does that PADMAN refers to the PS2 Controller Driver? Havent really observed the ANALOG led though for any weird light effects :lol:.

---

Yes, it's the PADMANager (Pad Manager). :lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flahrgenstow

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - SLUS 20743. working. pretty laggy video sequences. but the game plays fine.. at least i'm in the first level right now. looks ok.

Futurama: SLUS 20439 = working. also pretty laggy on the fmv but plays just fine

Ibara SLPM 66301 = Fully working ;)

Battle gear 3: SLPM 65434 = working

---

Thanks. ;)

Thanks to a flahrgenstow, all of the games that I had requested compatibility reports for earlier are actually also working:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by me from page 5

-Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - SLUS-20946
-IBARA - SLPM-66301
-Futurama - SLUS-20439
-Battle Gear 3 - SLPM-65434

---

I'll be updating the compatibility list soon again. :)
@All: could you guys please send the compatibility reports to my PM box instead (As stated in the first post)?
I think that making this thread as cluttered as OPL's main thread is isn't such a good thing (for newbies)... :lol:

----
PS: I lost my other HDD today due to a certain electrical accident... :lol: -_-|||
But the good news is that I've found my family's Sony Cyber-shot camera... so I should be able to start filming a video and taking photographs soon.

I can confirm that anything ive tried so far works :)

hey ive been meaning to ask though. perhaps ive asked this already and forgot... what do the sector cache settings mean and what difference would it make to use one when playing a game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flahrgenstow

I can confirm that anything ive tried so far works :)

---

Great to hear that! :D

Quote:

---

hey ive been meaning to ask though. perhaps ive asked this already and forgot... what do the sector cache settings mean and what difference would it make to use one when playing a game.

---

Good question (I'll include the response to this in the HTML guide that is still in the works)!

There are 2 parts to this answer, because the cache helps to solve 2 issues with the PS2's design.

1st part of the answer:

There are 2 processors: The main processor that's the Emotion Engine (EE), and the I/O Processor (IOP).

The EE doesn't have access to any of the hardware that you can physically access (E.g. ILINK, USB, CD/DVD drive, EXPANSION BAY/PCMCIA slot), and it must send data requests to the IOP.

The IOP can't send data to the EE's memory directly, so it needs to get the DMA Controller (DMAC) to send data to the EE for it (IOW it goes through a 3rd party). :crazy:

Because the IOP only has 2MB of memory (the EE has 32MB) that runs out easily, it cannot read the total requested amount of data into memory in 1 shot, but needs to read and send data to the EE in small amounts at a time.

2nd part of the answer:

Because both processors are MIPS processors, they need data to be read/written into memory addresses that are aligned to 4-byte boundaries (E.g. Reading an integer from address 1000 is valid, but reading from address 1001 would cause a crash).

Some F*** games break that rule, so there's a need to read the data into their buffers that aren't properly aligned with a software fix.

The fix works like this: Read a small amount of data into a properly aligned buffer, before copy it into that unaligned buffer that the game has.

As that aligned buffer is small, multiple reads must be done.
------

The cache size setting controls how small this "Small amounts of data" in both answers will be.
By default, it's 2 sectors large (4096KB).

If this amount is larger, that means that performance should be slightly better as the IOP doesn't have to make so many rounds to read all the data requested by the EE/game that specified an unaligned buffer.

If you don't understand what my previous paragraph meant: You'll take less time to collect a large amount of water from a well if you used a larger bucket, won't you?

battle gear 3 im now noticing freezes on the opening movie unless i select one of the cache settings or hurry up and skip it

and some other games seems to run better if i just use 32

yes i'm using auslogics. the graph telleth no lies