From deb9693f6a902a6bf5eb7eddbab110ed4e35caae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Henrik=20Rydg=C3=A5rd?= <hrydgard@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:24:56 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] EmuScreen: Restart after a failed savestate load before
 drawing the frame

The restart shut the GPU down after PrepareCopyDisplayToOutput had bound its
pipelines in the open backbuffer pass, which trips the pipelinesToCheck_
assert in VulkanRenderManager::CheckNothingPending. The failed load already
stops the frame from running, so nothing is lost by restarting first.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 UI/EmuScreen.cpp | 35 +++++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/UI/EmuScreen.cpp b/UI/EmuScreen.cpp
index c2fec82550..a56906e7df 100644
--- a/UI/EmuScreen.cpp
+++ b/UI/EmuScreen.cpp
@@ -1781,6 +1781,25 @@ ScreenRenderFlags EmuScreen::RunEmulation(bool skipBufferEffects) {
 		// We process savestates before running the frame.
 		SaveState::Process();
 
+		// A savestate that failed to load halfway leaves a reset as the only option. Do it before the frame
+		// draws anything: the GPU can't shut down while its pipelines are bound in the open backbuffer pass.
+		if (SaveState::PollRestartNeeded() && !bootPending_) {
+			Achievements::UnloadGame();
+			PSP_Shutdown(true);
+
+			// Restart the boot process
+			bootPending_ = true;
+			bootIsReset_ = true;
+			RecreateViews();
+			_dbg_assert_(coreState == CORE_POWERDOWN);
+			if (!PSP_InitStart(PSP_CoreParameter())) {
+				bootPending_ = false;
+				WARN_LOG(Log::Loader, "Error resetting");
+				screenManager()->switchScreen(new MainScreen());
+			}
+			return flags;
+		}
+
 		if (gpu) {
 			gpu->BeginHostFrame(displayLayoutConfig);
 		}
@@ -1858,22 +1877,6 @@ ScreenRenderFlags EmuScreen::RunEmulation(bool skipBufferEffects) {
 				draw->BindFramebufferAsRenderTarget(nullptr, {RPAction::CLEAR, RPAction::CLEAR, RPAction::CLEAR}, "BackBuffer");
 			}
 		}
-
-		if (SaveState::PollRestartNeeded() && !bootPending_) {
-			Achievements::UnloadGame();
-			PSP_Shutdown(true);
-
-			// Restart the boot process
-			bootPending_ = true;
-			bootIsReset_ = true;
-			RecreateViews();
-			_dbg_assert_(coreState == CORE_POWERDOWN);
-			if (!PSP_InitStart(PSP_CoreParameter())) {
-				bootPending_ = false;
-				WARN_LOG(Log::Loader, "Error resetting");
-				screenManager()->switchScreen(new MainScreen());
-			}
-		}
 	}
 
 	if (frameStep_) {