Draco1962

UPDATE: Added WD BLACK 4TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Gaming Hard Drive - WDBSLA0040HNC-NRWM - Since this will eventually be my "go-to" rig for retro PC titles, MAME, and other emulators, I needed a little "spinning rust" for ROMS, media, backups, and the like.

So many Star Trek movies - Wrath of Khan? YES! All day! The rest, while entertaining, are not the pinnacle of Sci-Fi movies IMO. Forbidden Planet and the original 1950's War of the Worlds could have easily taken two of the slots.

Not necessarily is this a Windows problem. If you want to proceed, stay the course with the latest version of GameEx on Windows 11.

He was stating that the issue was addressed in latest versions beyond what you had installed when first reporting the issue.

P S Ultimately it is your decision but if Tom is investigating this and there's a way to fix it, I would be patient and wait.

You should be able to copy first, then perform an "over the top" installation for GameEx to that path. Not sure that, given the issues you are encountering, going to Windows 10 is going to be much different.

KB5074109 has been associated with display issues. Perhaps it would be worth a try uninstalling it to see if any possible positive impacts? https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/yet-another-windows-update-is-wreaking-havoc-on-gaming-rigs-worldwide-nvidia-recommends-uninstalling-windows-11-kb5074109-january-update-to-prevent-framerate-drops-and-artifacting

Besides the Switch 2, what other handhelds do you own/like? Any game recommendations for them?

I don't think it could hurt to update.

A few questions as Windows 11 updates have been causing some issues related to display for other systems, non-GameEx related. I did note that you are using Intel graphics so no Nvidia weirdness to worry about. What MAME version are you running? Do your MAME ROMS match your version? When did you last update Windows 11? Was this issue noticed before your last update? Under "Check for Updates > Update History" can you identify what updates (KB# and date) were installed? Not sure if this will help @Tom Speirs if he needs to intervene, but it's where I would start to triage my own issue. I did note within noted in the log.txt file, yours shows as MAME 265 per the path observed, so you are a bit out of date. The latest official MAME release is version 0.284, which was released on December 31, 2025. You may wish to upgrade both MAME and your ROM set to the latest and test again.

OK, gotcha. I did not "pay attention to detail" to realize that, in his workaround, he was selecting the integrated Intel GPU to render, then the passthrough that you noted. So if you have only Nvidia cards GPUs available for rendering, then it is a no-go. Thanks for your clarification!

MS has had some recent disastrous updates for Windows 11, so don't be too quick to rule out an MS implication either partially or in tandem with Nvidia. The GPU selection feature you surfaced, while implemented with Windows 10, it does differ slightly within Windows 11, which may make 10 immune.

What was your solution?

Also, are we only seeing this with Windows 11 or is Windows 10 impacted, too?

Some Asus laptops (like mine and my wife's laptops) have an AMD integrated GPU and an Nvidia dedicated GPU. Willing to bet that some desktop builds do as well. It would be interesting to see if any with purely just one Nvidia GPU still have "Let Windows decide" and the Nvidia GPU as options, select the Nvidia GPU, and try the frontend with the latest Nvidia driver installed.

Did you test selecting a discreet GPU vs. "Let Windows decide" on a rig without integrated GPU?

I have shared your post to a similar topic in GameEx. Thanks for this @Mike_da_Spike!

Please check this workaround out from @Mike_da_Spike for similar issue impacting PinballX users with the latest Nvidia drivers. In the instructions where an app needs to be referenced, replace PinballX.exe with GameEx.exe and GameExAE.exe Even if you do not have a CPU with integrated GPU, just changing the setting if it is set to "Let Windows decide" to your discrete GPU may fix the problem. Try it and let us know if it fixes the issue you are experiencing. Thanks!

UPDATE - As luck would have it, I am having recurring issues with the GRUB loader when it comes to booting into Windows. It will not load from GRUB unless I select the Windows drive first from the BIOS boot order screen, then subsequent restarts will allow me to select Windows or Bazzite from GRUB. 🤬 I am considering ripping off the Band-Aid but installing Bazzite on the 1TB NVME SSD and pulling the 1TB SSD, thus removing Windows 11 altogether. This will make booting to Steam Big Picture mode almost seamless and enhance the "10-foot view" that I am looking for.

Thanks again for the detailed response with your triage attempt and results.

Drats. Thanks for giving it a try.

GPU driver and PinballX versions are different animals! So neener neener! Nvidia driver v591.86 was released today (01/27/2026) - please update and see if this addresses the issues encountered. Thanks!

Nvidia driver v591.86 was released today (01/27/2026) - please update and see if this addresses the issues encountered. Thanks!

Nvidia driver v591.86 was released today (01/27/2026) - please update and see if this addresses the issues encountered. Thanks!

Thank you for reporting back with your solution! Always helpful!