screen goes black

[wrench]

when running gameex it seems to work fine but if it sits a few minutes with no input the screen goes completely black and I cannot get back to the gameex interface,once in while a game video will play so I'm assuming this is going into its attract mode.I tried to turn off the attract mode to see if that was it but I did not see that option unless I missed it.If I hit alt-tab is see 2 processes,gameex and game exhideos.If I tab back to gameex the interface reappears.Can someone give me some insight on this.

gameex v3.45

winxp pro

[bprell]

I don't know if this is the same for you or not, but I had this same problem a few days ago. The reason was that I was trying to use Gameex on a dual-monitor system. Once I went in and disabled the 2nd monitor, the app worked just fine.

[Tom Speirs]

I don't know if this is the same for you or not, but I had this same problem a few days ago. The reason was that I was trying to use Gameex on a dual-monitor system. Once I went in and disabled the 2nd monitor, the app worked just fine.

In the next release ALT-Tabbing or accidently hitting the windows key, wil close hideos and return to the desktop. This will make it seem a little user friendly.

Yes it is launching attract mode when it goes black. Games sometimes take a while to load up, so thats why.

To turn off attract mode just set the wait time to 0.

Thanks,

Tom

[wrench]

Thanks for the quick replies gentlemen.Tom,after its in attract mode how does it regain focus to the gameex interface,I can't seem to get it back after attract mode starts and this would be problem for my intended setup as it will be in a cab and keyboard access will not be handy to alt-tab.one reason for this may be that I am in the process of creating avi's of the games to display and I'm capturing with a canopus twinpact 100 converter in rgb mode(its inline between the computer's monitor out and the monitor itself).After I get hookups back to normal I'll post if that was the problem.Thanks again.

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for the quick replies gentlemen.Tom,after its in attract mode how does it regain focus to the gameex interface,I can't seem to get it back after attract mode starts and this would be problem for my intended setup as it will be in a cab and keyboard access will not be handy to alt-tab.one reason for this may be that I am in the process of creating avi's of the games to display and I'm capturing with a canopus twinpact  100 converter in rgb mode(its inline between the computer's monitor out and the monitor itself).After I get hookups back to normal I'll post if that was the problem.Thanks again.

Hi,

The idea is you dont ALT-Tab when attract mode starts.

Wait for the game to launch and run, then press a key. Focus should then return to GameEx, and all is good

Maybe your being a little impatient, or your MAME config is not set to run full screen, so the game is not showing.

[wrench]

Tom I'm using the latest ver of gameex and I've set the wait time to zero to disable the attract mode like you said.I've got my system screen savers turned off,power settings are all set to stay on all the time.If the gameex menu sits for a while sometimes less lthan a minute the screen goes black and no matter what buttons I push it stays that way.I alt tab and the hideos is selected,when I tab over to gameex it comes back again.Am I missing something in the config or do you think something else is going on?Thanks.

[bboysnj]

Hi Tom,

I'm right there with Wrench. When GameEx goes into attract mode after sitting idle, I get a 50/50 of the following 2 scenarios: a.) everything is A-Ok and I get nice "previews" of my Mame games; and hitting any button takes me back to the GameEx menu or b.) screen goes black as if its going to load a "preview" - but alas never does and remains black. Hitting any button on my cab when this happens does not bring me back to my GameEx menu and I must power down the PC, reboot and start over.

Sometimes scenario b happens after a few games have "previewed" in attract mode; which leads me to wonder if its certain games that are causing this black-screen lockup.

Anyone else have this issue and found a way to resolve it? I love GameEx by the way man - use it exclusively for my cab (don't use the jukebox features or the other fancy stuff - just the pure emulator front-end) - and I'd gladly pay shareware for the use!

James

[Tom Speirs]

Hi Tom,

I'm right there with Wrench.  When GameEx goes into attract mode after sitting idle, I get a 50/50 of the following 2 scenarios:  a.) everything is A-Ok and I get nice "previews" of my Mame games; and hitting any button takes me back to the GameEx menu or b.) screen goes black as if its going to load a "preview" - but alas never does and remains black.  Hitting any button on my cab when this happens does not bring me back to my GameEx menu and I must power down the PC, reboot and start over.

Sometimes scenario b happens after a few games have "previewed" in attract mode; which leads me to wonder if its certain games that are causing this black-screen lockup.

Anyone else have this issue and found a way to resolve it?  I love GameEx by the way man - use it exclusively for my cab (don't use the jukebox features or the other fancy stuff - just the pure emulator front-end) - and I'd gladly pay shareware for the use!

James

Hi, I think your right, and that MAME is crashing. I'm working on an update now, as I stated a few days ago. This update makes Attract Mode a little more aggressive with MAME, and attempts to 'KILL' (as opposed to close) the process after about 2.5 seconds. This has no affect if the process exited as it should. One other thing I would say is that you may have some bad/corrupt roms. I have had my cab on for three-four days with a 97% Rom set running attract mode quite happily. Windows was complaining it was running a little low on resources by that time, but not a single crash.

I have known certain games crash, but GameEx and MAME recovered fine. I did find one game, a version of Darius of that made me have to reboot.

[wrench]

ok,but that does not explain why I can't seem to turn the feature off so it does not even run in attract mode.I set the wait time to 0 but it still seems to try and launch attract mode.Is there something else I need to do to disable this.Thanks.

[Tom Speirs]

ok,but that does not explain why I can't seem to turn the feature off so it does not even run in attract mode.I set the wait time to 0 but it still seems to try and launch attract mode.Is there something else I need to do to disable this.Thanks.

Hi Wrench.

I think it is turned off. It sounds like it might be some other app on your PC causing a conflict.

If your using 3.47 can you tell me what happens when you alt tab to some other window or press the windows key? When you do this can you also check if any MAME processes are running in Task Manager? Or anything else?

Thanks,

Tom