Odd lag on MAME exit to GameEX

[Kenpachi]

This has been driving me crazy so I thought I'd ask here and see if anybody can figure it out. Ever since I went and redid my MAME cabinet's PC setup (new HDD, new GameEX install and setup), I've had the following issue. When I exit a game from MAME to go back to GameEX, it will hang a random amount of time before GameEX loads. This can be a couple seconds (which is fine), or up to 30+ seconds... which drives me nuts. I do not get any errors and things do run fine, but I have had it wait for a few minutes before on exit of a game. Even if I repeatedly test exiting out of the same game, say Donkey Kong, it will have this random length of lag. I've changed options in GameEX, turned just about anything I could off, but no luck. I have had this happen with both on board video as well as a newer graphics card. Am I missing something obvious, or does this sound like a hardware issue? Any ideas are appreciated .

[Adultery]

Can you post a log after this happens?

[Raitsa]

I have the exact same problem and it seems to be quite random, sometimes it happens, sometimes the exit to GameEx menu is instant.

[bkenobi]

Make sure you save a log when this does happen so that it can be investigated. Random/intermittent issues like this are really hard to suse!

[Draco1962]

I noted you installed a new HDD. Have you checked your system's active power settings profile to make sure that the HDD is not going to sleep? I have noticed a similar issue since my storage drive was changed to one of the WD Green drives (will go blue or black 7200+ next time).

[Kenpachi]

Here's my log.txt file. I ran Donkey Kong using the default theme about 4 or 5 times. When I exited out right away it loaded GameEX within a couple seconds, but when I played it for a bit (maybe 5 minutes?) it hanged on exit for about 20 seconds or so. I'll have to do more testing but it seems the longer I play a game the longer it takes to load GameEX?

I double checked the Power Options in control panel as well. I have hibernate, sleep, etc all off. Hard Disk is set to sleep after 20 minutes, changed it to 600 for the heck of it and didn't change anything.

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully can figure this out.

log.txt

[simbamame]

I also have this problem and posted and help a few weeks back with a log, lets hope this can be resolved. It seems to be after the last few GameEx updates that its happened for me, and i havent changed any hardware in my cab. The longest hang ive had is almost 60 seconds and as kenpachi states it does appear to be linked to length of time playing.

[Draco1962]

Not sure of the why, but the following looks really weird to me:

17:14:51.5 12/8/2011: Running: cmd.exe /c C: C:\MAME\mame.exe dkong -rompath C:\MAME Roms (144);C:\MAME CHD (144) -nowindow -joy

17:14:51.5 12/8/2011: Shutting down display

17:14:59.1 12/8/2011: Exiting game

17:14:59.5 12/8/2011: Writing MAME stats

17:14:59.5 12/8/2011: Plugin: Game Exit

17:14:59.5 12/8/2011: Plugin: Process Commands

17:14:59.5 12/8/2011: Restoring Window

17:14:59.6 12/8/2011: Reinitializing Graphics System

17:15:01.6 12/8/2011: Returning to GameEx

17:15:06.5 12/8/2011: Running: cmd.exe /c C: C:\MAME\mame.exe dkong -rompath C:\MAME Roms (144);C:\MAME CHD (144) -nowindow -joy

17:15:06.5 12/8/2011: Shutting down display

17:19:08.8 12/8/2011: Exiting game

17:19:09.2 12/8/2011: Writing MAME stats

17:19:09.2 12/8/2011: Plugin: Game Exit

17:19:09.2 12/8/2011: Plugin: Process Commands

17:19:09.2 12/8/2011: Restoring Window

17:19:09.2 12/8/2011: Reinitializing Graphics System

17:19:11.2 12/8/2011: Returning to GameEx

17:19:15.8 12/8/2011: Running: cmd.exe /c C: C:\MAME\mame.exe dkong -rompath C:\MAME Roms (144);C:\MAME CHD (144) -nowindow -joy

17:19:15.8 12/8/2011: Shutting down display

17:19:22.2 12/8/2011: Exiting game

17:19:22.6 12/8/2011: Writing MAME stats

17:19:22.6 12/8/2011: Plugin: Game Exit

17:19:22.6 12/8/2011: Plugin: Process Commands

17:19:22.6 12/8/2011: Restoring Window

17:19:22.6 12/8/2011: Reinitializing Graphics System

17:19:24.6 12/8/2011: Returning to GameEx

17:19:31.4 12/8/2011: Running: cmd.exe /c C: C:\MAME\mame.exe dkong -rompath C:\MAME Roms (144);C:\MAME CHD (144) -nowindow -joy

17:19:31.4 12/8/2011: Shutting down display

17:24:12.3 12/8/2011: Exiting game

17:24:12.7 12/8/2011: Writing MAME stats

17:24:12.7 12/8/2011: Plugin: Game Exit

17:24:12.7 12/8/2011: Plugin: Process Commands

17:24:12.7 12/8/2011: Restoring Window

17:24:12.7 12/8/2011: Reinitializing Graphics System

17:24:14.7 12/8/2011: Returning to GameEx

17:24:17.7 12/8/2011: Running: cmd.exe /c C: C:\MAME\mame.exe dkong -rompath C:\MAME Roms (144);C:\MAME CHD (144) -nowindow -joy

17:24:17.7 12/8/2011: Shutting down display

17:24:21.0 12/8/2011: Exiting game

17:24:21.4 12/8/2011: Writing MAME stats

17:24:21.4 12/8/2011: Plugin: Game Exit

17:24:21.4 12/8/2011: Plugin: Process Commands

17:24:21.4 12/8/2011: Restoring Window

17:24:21.4 12/8/2011: Reinitializing Graphics System

17:24:23.5 12/8/2011: Returning to GameEx

What would cause this to loop through 4 times? Did you just keep going back into the game each time?

[Kenpachi]

Sorry for the confusion. Yes I played the same game 4 times in a row, changing how long I played it to see how long it loaded GameEX back up.

[fRequEnCy]

Here's my log.txt file. I ran Donkey Kong using the default theme about 4 or 5 times. When I exited out right away it loaded GameEX within a couple seconds, but when I played it for a bit (maybe 5 minutes?) it hanged on exit for about 20 seconds or so. I'll have to do more testing but it seems the longer I play a game the longer it takes to load GameEX?

I double checked the Power Options in control panel as well. I have hibernate, sleep, etc all off. Hard Disk is set to sleep after 20 minutes, changed it to 600 for the heck of it and didn't change anything.

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully can figure this out.

Not sure of the why, but the following looks really weird to me:

What would cause this to loop through 4 times? Did you just keep going back into the game each time?

Seeing that Kenpachi stated that he ran it 4 or 5 times, I would assume so.

[Kenpachi]

Just wanted to say that I think I solved the problem. I put my GTX 465 video card back in to test it against the on-board video and installed the latest drivers for it. Games seem to all exit in uniform length, about 5 seconds which is fine by me. Not entirely sure if it was a bad driver install the first time, the updated drivers since then, or just plain luck. But back in business so it's okay by me.