Unable to view lists of games.

[Dublin London]

Hello. I've had this problem for awhile, but just now getting to seeking help. After an update (probably a year plus ago) I can no longer see lists of all my games. What I mean is if i click Future Pinball, it will act like it is going to the screen to see all my Future Pinball games, but then just come back to the Future Pinball selection again. It is this way for all my emulator lists. My Favorites and Recently played still work and any game I click on still works as well. I am also able to go to search and find some of the games that way, but it makes it difficult to try and find games I haven't played yet.

I thought an update might fix it, but I had trouble with that at first. The box for the update would come up, but then it would load in the weather, news, etc and then the box would be gone. I did find the update at start up in setup and got the update to go, but the problem remains. Any help appreciated. I've probably had this GameEx setup since 2008. Thanks in advance.

[Draco1962]

A lot has happened since a year ago plus! A little info about your system might be useful. Can you upload copies of your gameex.ini and log.txt files? Also, deleting your data files with cache in the file name and extension may help.

[Dublin London]

Thanks for your reply. My system is:

Windows XP 32

AMD Arhlon 64x2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.31GHz

Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX

2 Gigs of ram

I attached the 2 files you asked for. Are the cached files you were talking about in the Data folder? I wanted to make sure before I went deleting the wrong files.

log.txt

GameEx.ini

[Draco1962]

Yes they are in the DATA folder. They will rebuild the next time you start GameEx.

[Dublin London]

I deleted those files and the problem remains. At this point I probably need to reinstall GameEx. Is there a way to save my GameEx favorites and import?

[Draco1962]

I would recommend downloading from the main GameEx site the latest version and run the install. You can copy your existing GameEx folder to another location or .zip it as a backup. Your existing .ini files with your favorites, etc. will not be overwritten, however.

I am also going to defer to other members of the forum and mod staff for assistance as well.

[Dublin London]

Thanks for the replies Draco 1962. I'll do that. One last question. If I reinstall GameEx, do I need my registration key again? It appears I didn't write it down. I thought I saved the email, but I can't find it. Is there a way to request your key?

[Draco1962]

That is updated in the Registry so you should be fine. I would try to locate the email you received with the key, however.

[Dublin London]

I backed up the GameEx folder and reinstalled GameEx over itself. The problem remains though. I guess if I want GameEx working properly, I need to do a total wipe and fresh install. I did find a way to get it to work currently. If I click the Configuration icon and then click on the red x I get a smaller menu. It has the four options: change view, back, home, and exit. They all work until I right click out of them. Then I go to the larger top menu that doesn't work. If I do a clean install of GameEx, what file/files do I need to save to keep my GameEx favorite games? Is it worth the hastle? I was able to retrieve my GameEx key, so that's not a problem. Opinions welcome.

[Draco1962]

First, let's not be too hasty to do a total wipe and fresh install. If you save your Gameex.ini file, your settings (including favorites) will be retained should it come to a fresh install.

Also, are you making changes through the Setup Wizard or the old legacy "blue and white" Configuration utility? If using the latter of the two, it is no longer supported and you should make all changes through Setup Wizard.

[Dublin London]

I think the only change I've made to Game Ex is when the folder changed for background music. I believe I used the blue and white. That works correctly. I've clicked through the new setup but didn't make any changes.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi,

Im not quite sure how to troubleshoot this one. A video may help me see what is going on.

PS: Did I see that you bought a new key (didnt need to do that)? but did you try a reinstal, hence the reason?

[Dublin London]

No I didn't buy an new key. I put in a request for a key and received it in an email (thanks!). I did that incase I needed to do a total wipe of GameEx. I could try and video it on my phone tomorrow. I haven't done that before and don't know if the file would be to large to up load. I did install GameEx over itself and the problem remains. What does GameEx save when you do that? I ask because that could narrow the possible problem.

[Dublin London]

!MVI_0732.MOV

Ok. Here is a video of my problem. I didn't film start up due to file size restraints. At the end of the video I was trying to show that when I go into Configuration and then exit right out of it, I get to that smaller menu and it works once. It takes too long to show up to film. Hope that helps. I'm determined to get this working properly!

[Draco1962]

If I understand what I saw in the video, it is as if it is getting stuck on loading the emulator databases and not returning to show a list of games for the emulated system selected? If that is a correct interpretation, I see that frequently myself. It is as if all the emu dbs have to load instead of just the one for the selection. I know that has been reported before and it seems to go away and come back. It isn't necessarily occurring with everyone so far as I am aware.

[Tom Speirs]

Does the issue happen when you are in the old style flat view? (Change view). Did you try another theme?

[Dublin London]

Does the issue happen when you are in the old style flat view? (Change view). Did you try another theme?

I just switched from the Dark Nebula to BlueEx 640x480 and that works perfectly. I even rebooted into that theme and it still worked. It must just be the 720p themes I downloaded. I'll stick with that until I find a 720p theme that works. I'm curious if it's the 720p or just those custom themes that's the problem. Function over beauty at the moment.

One side note. The Change Theme did the same as my game lists did. I had to do my trick to change it.

[Tom Speirs]

Is it one particular theme that causes the issue or all version 4 themes? Version 4 themes have the horizontal menu. Version 3 themes also have the horizontal menu but there just the ones included with GameEx.

[Dublin London]

I only have the Dark Nebula and Confluence 720p themes. I switched to the Retro Box theme that I like. If you would like me to download certain themes to test just let me know which ones. Confluence works like Dark Nebula does.

[Draco1962]

Both Dark Nebula and Confluence Port are HD version 4 themes. Many of my more recent themes would likely cause the same negative results since I only use version 4 at the higher defs. My Default - Brokeh 1024x768 is lower as is Joust at 800x600 and are v4 themes.

@Dublin - would you mind testing one or both of these themes and I will do the same. I want to see if we can determine whether it is a theme version issue or a resolution issue.

[Dublin London]

I tested both your Joust and Brokeh themes Draco and had the same problems. I went back to Retro Box and have no problems.

[Draco1962]

Thanks! That tells me we are not dealing with a resolution problem and most likely it is how V4 themes are being handled.

[AlphaUMi]

OK, excuse me guys if I interfere with a subject (Themes and relating stuffs) in which I'm not very savvy... But, could it be useful if Dublin attached his/her Theme.ini for the various themes in question?

Some time ago I had an issue understanding why GameEx wasn't displaying the startup video despite "startupvideo=true". The reason was that in Theme.ini (related to the theme I was using) "startupvideo" was set to false. Since that, I understood the importance of Theme.ini. I'm not sure, really, but maybe it would be worth to check the various Themes.ini, although the fact that this problem is extended to more than one theme isn't promising well.

[Draco1962]

In this case it is likely nothing in the theme.ini file. You can obtain the theme.ini files from the actual theme downloads (no need to submit a copy). There is a difference in how GameEx renders the functions within the program based upon the theme version being used. Version 4 themes have the most functionality with regards to the various menu view options, RSS fed and Weather displays, etc.

[AlphaUMi]

In this case it is likely nothing in the theme.ini file. You can obtain the theme.ini files from the actual theme downloads (no need to submit a copy). There is a difference in how GameEx renders the functions within the program based upon the theme version being used. Version 4 themes have the most functionality with regards to the various menu view options, RSS fed and Weather displays, etc.

Understood... Forgive me, it was just a try.