[RESOLVED] No sound in games after hard reboot!!

[Damon]

I think so, let me check and get back to you. Annoying part: the sound is now jacked up to highest volume all of a sudden. I'm not sure what the heck is going on, but this is super frustrating. Apparently I have to choose between EAR EXPLODING LOUD or MUTE functionally

Sigh.

[Damon]

OK, so YES, there's a mame.ini in there.

Could someone also tell me what these options are, and what the possible values are, and what those values would do:

#

# CORE SOUND OPTIONS

#

sound 1

samplerate 48000

samples 1

volume 0

volume_adjust -18 (NOTE, I made it -18, it was at 0 originally, i just changed that a few minutes ago to see if it changed the sounds, but it didn't)

#

# WINDOWS SOUND OPTIONS

#

audio_latency 2

audio_sync 0

Thanks!

mame.ini

[fRequEnCy]

Hmmmm. Not aware of that switch. Just leave at 0. Do you have a default.ini in the ini directory?

Volume is the one you would change to something to change the default value (0). That's of course you wanted to do some testing.

[Brian Hoffman]

Hey Guys,

Couple ideas. After looking at the MAME.ini it looks like it is missing alot of the HLSL, Read Config, Write Config. This may be an issue or the fact it is a non mame brand version used. You can always run "Mame.exe -cc" or whatever the mame executalbe is from a command prompt and it will create a NEW mame.ini. Id do this after backing up and removing the file of course.

There is a option of Readconfig 1 and WriteConfig in standard mame builds that allow Mame to write to the condifg file directly so you may be able to grab those INI values from a Real mame and set them to 0 and add them to your config.

OR

Just get the sound working and set the permission on the file to READONLY. That will stop it from getting overwritten.

Sometimes the simple answer is the best. MAME saves per game settings in a GAMENAME.CFG file anyways.

[wkupike2000]

Bizarrely enough, I have the EXACT issue that Damon has and I didn't do a hard reset or anything similar. The other day I had sound, shutdown GameEx and did something else(left computer on). I came back later, fired it up and bam, sound at -32db for every Mame game. I couldn't work on it until tonight but have had no luck correcting it. If I just open my MameUI 0.148 I have sound on every game.

Should I try backing up my MAME.ini and then run "M=mameui32.exe -cc" from a command prompt?

mame.ini

GameEx.ini

[fRequEnCy]

Bizarrely enough, I have the EXACT issue that Damon has and I didn't do a hard reset or anything similar. The other day I had sound, shutdown GameEx and did something else(left computer on). I came back later, fired it up and bam, sound at -32db for every Mame game. I couldn't work on it until tonight but have had no luck correcting it. If I just open my MameUI 0.148 I have sound on every game.

Should I try backing up my MAME.ini and then run "M=mameui32.exe -cc" from a command prompt?

Do you by chance have a mame.ini file in your ini directory as well?

[wkupike2000]

I'm sorry I'm new but isn't that what I attached to the previous post?

And my last line should have read "Should I try backing up my MAME.ini and then run "mameui32.exe -cc" from a command prompt? No idea where that "M=" came from.

[fRequEnCy]

I'm sorry I'm new but isn't that what I attached to the previous post?

And my last line should have read "Should I try backing up my MAME.ini and then run "mameui32.exe -cc" from a command prompt? No idea where that "M=" came from.

Yes that is the file you posted which should be located in the same directory as your executable to run mame. What I'm asking is if there's also a mame.ini file in the ini directory as well. Being that you're running the UI version, I've seen where it creates another mame.ini file that may conflict.

[wkupike2000]

That was the file from the ini folder, I didn't know they resided in both. In the main mame directory(where the mameui32.exe file is), there is not a mame ini. There is the attached file.

MAMEUI32.ini

[fRequEnCy]

That was the file from the ini folder, I didn't know they resided in both. In the main mame directory(where the mameui32.exe file is), there is not a mame ini. There is the attached file.

Try copying your mame.ini file to your main mame directory and test again please.

[wkupike2000]

No luck, no change. Thanks for continuing to work with me on this.

[fRequEnCy]

No luck, no change. Thanks for continuing to work with me on this.

Meet in chat room for real time support. If not then we'll try to narrow things down.

[wkupike2000]

fRequEnCy has been working with me and we've figured out it's something in GameEx setting my volume to all games at -32db. He asked me to post this bat file(saved as ini in notepad as I wasn't allowed to attach a .bat )

runitgame.ini

[fRequEnCy]

Tom will be directed to this topic as it may be a bug after doing some testing. Please stay tuned! Sorry for the inconvenience guys!

Damon! If you would please post log and runitgame.bat contents after running a game where there is no sound please to confirm this issue.

[Tempest]

Damon and I had already determined that it was most likely a bug previously in this thread. I reported it to Tom, but AFAIK he didn't respond. Now we will find out who Tom likes best.

[wkupike2000]

It's been a few days and I've not seen a GameEx update which means the bug is still keeping my sound at -32db. Is there an update on this?

[Draco1962]

I recommend being patient. I am sure it is on Tom's radar. Some issues are easier to troubleshoot than others, especially when it appears that it may be only impacting a few (global bugs are much easier to find a root cause and resolve). Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

I think if this was a GameEx bug it would have come up a very long time ago. Gameex can set the volume at that level in attract mode but MAME should not be saving it for the future. At least it never has in the past. Maybe its a bug in the version of MAME or MAME devs implemented this functionality. Ill need more specifics on the MAME version you are running. If your convinced its fine pleas upload it here: http://upload.spesoft.com

Thanks.

Tom

[wkupike2000]

I can upload tonight once I'm home from work. Frequency went through tons of scenarios with me through chat and eliminated it down to GameEx. My volume is perfect with just Mame(running MameUI 0.148) and it was fine for several days prior to this starting to happen last Sunday/Monday. We checked every INI file and setting within Mame and then as soon as I load GameEx, it kicks the volume to -32db. You can even see it in the log but we have no idea what is setting it.

Is their something in the attract mode settings I could try to change to see if that corrects it? I thought I tried them all but am willing to do anything. At this point it's a tremendous pain to have to fix the volume in slider options every single time I play a game. Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

Nothing has changed in GameEx. GameEx does not write MAME game ini files. Did you update MAME?

[wkupike2000]

I updated to 0.148 but that was several days, maybe even a week before this started happening. Everything was fine until out of the blue, it started going silent. I had made no system updates, no Mame updates, nothing. I just started up GameEx as always and started playing. I'm not trying to blame GameEx, I just don't have any other logic to see how it's tied to my Mame. If I just run my MameUI.exe, all the sound is properly set to 0 db. I'm just looking for some help as I've exhausted all efforts, searches, and the 2+ hours Frequency(user on here) helped walk me through scenarios to try to eliminate causes.

[Tom Speirs]

Im pretty sure its the MAME update. GameEx sets the sound at that level by default in attract mode and always has. there should be a setting to change "MAME audio mode". It sounds like the version of MAME you are using or perhaps all 0.148 builds are saving that sound setting for future use of the game when it shouldn't. It would take all the games to run through attract mode for it to set it for each game hence why it took a few days.

[wkupike2000]

But didn't the other user on here have a totally different version of Mame? I'm sorry I'm just not following the thought process. If my Mame runs fine by itself, how can it be the cause? I'm willing to go through any steps you want to figure this out but logically there needs to be more to prove it's related to Mame.Especially since I used it fine for several days(through GameEx) without issue. I'm also not understanding the comment "It would take all the games to run through attract mode for it to set it for each game hence why it took a few days." I don't keep my system on at night or much when I'm not playing, so I'd say attract mode only came on 10-12 minutes total the whole week if that helps.

For background, I'm not an average computer user, I have a degree in it and have ran support teams for Microsoft. In treating this like other computer problems, by eliminating GameEx my volume was fine. Introducing it makes the volume go to -32db. That in itself makes the variable of GameEx questionable unless I'm crazy. Is there a way to revert to a previous version of GameEx to see if can correct my issue?

[Tom Speirs]

Im happy to work on the issue with you, don't get me wrong. This is just what I have come up with so far as some what of on an expert on the subject matter as the sole author. I notice you did not post a log. Perhaps a plugin is causing the issue? If it is what I think as temporary measure please delete those ini files again and set attract audio mode for MAME to have sound. You also didn't post gameex.ini which would show me if your settings are the issue.

PS MAMEUI works differently if run from the command line.

[wkupike2000]

Oh okay good. I'd always heard good things about you and thought I had offended you haha You want me to post the GameEx log and delete which specific ini files? I can do all that in about 3.5 hours(be home from work at 5:45 EST from work, maybe earlier).