[RESOLVED] MAME black screen via GameEx

[SpyhunterUK]

Now I have most of my Theme fixed I am looking at my emulators and most work as they should apart from MAME.

It works fine running outside of GameEx but if I run in GameEx then run a game/rom sometimes it shows the game other times it has a blank screen. Task Manager shows the MAME running and I can actually hear it running but cannot see it, its as though GameEx has focus.

Any help would be appreciated.

[DazzleHP]

Is it only a black screen when you launch vertical games? If so try changing:

Setup Wizard> MAME Settings> (scroll down) Use Bezel = Don't Use Bezel

Failing that reply back with your usual GameEx.ini and log.txt - instructions

[SpyhunterUK]

Edited May 16, 2014 by Draco1962
moved to Special BBCode for GameEx Data

[DazzleHP]

No log.txt so can't see potentially important info

You can try changing Hide Desktop to No (Setup Wizard> Display Settings), but that is just a shot in the dark. Your problem may lie deeper.

To help us out can you confirm the following:

Do the offending games work in MameUI outside of GameEx?
If no, do you have the latest DX for your system installed? And do you have the latest drivers for your GPU installed?

Yes to above but, still get black screen - does your romset match your version of MAME? The two must be in tandem, as one, peas in a pod, Romeo and Juliet, OK i know enough analogies when i seem em but you get my point.

Admittedly i've never experienced any black screen issues except when:

1) My firewall kicks in and i can't see the prompt (again it would be persistent, not with some and not others), and 2) When i fail and enter a wrong path somewhere

EDIT - Aha! Found another setting that may have some influence. Try changing:

RunFullScreenInWindow=true to RunFullScreenInWindow=false

using Setup Wizard> Display Settings> Full Screen Windowed = Disabled

One of the assortment of options will help you out surely

Yes, Yes & Yes dammit! - Run GameEx, as soon as you get a black screen through MAME, quit, then post us your log.txt

[MNMax21]

It could be something easy too. His MAME command line in gameex might be wonky. That's what my issue was when I was having a similar problem. I was running dedicated MAME too, not an emulator setup.

[SpyhunterUK]

I will try with non-dedicated MAME (run as another emulator) although I notice that I am using the Config program and it stated 'Disabled' for Fullscreen, whereas the config.txt file stated; RunFullScreenInWindow=true

[SpyhunterUK]

right here's the latest - I have got a few games to run but then the screen goes blank, etc

So I thought I would set everything back to default on MAME32UI.exe But now I have the added issue of the UI controls not being set so I have to edit the mame config file.

Once I get the controls correct I will test again. Although I wonder if its a nVidia game issue or even DVI connection to the monitor rather than VGA - grasping at straws I know but I really need to get this working, appears to only happen on MAME via GameEx and not the other emulators so is GameEx MAME settings or MAME32 settings. Will keep you posted.

And I also have the added problem of the MAME ALLGames list in GameEx showing them as images (and there is no 'Change View' button along the top) - how can I change this back to list form???

Thanks for all your help thus far, much appreciated.

Neil

[Draco1962]

Hey Neil - Open Setup Wizard and select Search, type Change View then OK (likely under Enable/Disable features - Hide Change View) and enable Change View.

[DazzleHP]

You gave me a brain twitch when mentioning your connection to your monitor! Perhaps MAME is switching resolutions when you launch MAME and your monitor doesn't like certain resolutions (some games run at seriously low settings). It would explain why it only happens to some games. To make sure Mame doesn't switch your desktop resolution, load your mame.ini and check the switchres setting = 0 as follows:

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 1
switchres 0
full_screen_brightness 1.0
full_screen_contrast 1.0
full_screen_gamma 1.0

[SpyhunterUK]

there is no mame.ini file, only mame32ui.ini and that does not include the text shown above.

Also, to add all my other emulators are working fine via GameEx (tested over 1/2 of them thus far), but when i run a MAME game such as 720, it starts, I get to see the screen for a split second and then it goes blank. Task Manager shows it is running in the bakcground although I cannot switch to it. There is also another GameEx link open via My Documents, but I cannot see what it is pointing to, possiblty HideOS (although I have tried hiding and not hiding OS).

I am considering waiting for Evolution now or switching to another Menu system, which is a shame as I like to support GameEx

[Draco1962]

A missing mame.ini file is not a GameEx issue proper, so don't give up on GameEx so easily! You have been with this hobby long enough to know it takes a little "dirty work" with the emulators and the frontend to get everything working well!

You can create a mame.ini file by running the following command line within your mame path: C:\Games\MAME\MameUI32.exe -cc

Give it a try!

[SpyhunterUK]

wow thanks. i know i need to work at this but I have never had issues with MAME using GameEx before and I'm using the same MAME folder so that's whats frustrating. It has created the mame.ini but doesn't it use the mameui32.ini though?

[Tempest]

I'm pretty sure that the mameui32.ini contains settings for the Mame 32 Frontend. If you look at the contents you could verify it. Most people use Mame from mamedev.org. There is not much point in running a frontend version of Mame within GameEX which of course is a frontend itself.

[SpyhunterUK]

ok thanks. I have just realised there is a newer version of MAMEUI out, MAMEUIFX - which I have downloaded and will most probably start GameEx from scratch, using the default Theme just in case its my Theme that is effecting settings, etc I am also using a nVidia GFX card so will test by switching to the obnboard one as well just in case its tht one. I will get this working

[Draco1962]

Keep in mind that MAMEUIFX is a) MAME with a GUI (frontend as Tempest pointed out regarding MAMEUI) and a non-standard MAME build. You are probably better off trying to remedy the issue with the version of MAMEUI you currently have.

As for the GPU, likely that is not the issue and you may notice more degradation in performance of your system since it will be sharing RAM with your GPU.

[SpyhunterUK]

will do. I have no tested mame, mame32ui and mameuifx32 and the roms work well directly ran via any of these (apart from mame.exe I didn't test).

Now I have tested each one of those mame versions within GameEx and ALL do the same problem, screen goes blank after 3-4 seconds of play, even though its still running.

I have even reinstalled GameEx, with a clean installation/Theme, added MAME links and it did the same.

I have even turned to the nVidia card, removed this, ran from onboard and the same error occured. So have eliminated that.

I have run othe cabinets using MAME32 so should be fine, either way my next step now is to do a clean window installation and then maybe wait for Evolution LOL

[SpyhunterUK]

guess what... reinstalled windows and the problem hs disappeared. Gameex running the menus and mame running the games via gameex all ok

Thanks for the comments and help guys, much appreciated.

[DazzleHP]

I wish our computer OS's would diagnose themselves and give us this kind of info before we need to get nasty on them Who knows, maybe in the future huh! Glad you got it sorted and thanks for letting us know you did

[Draco1962]

You can usually find some clues via Event Viewer.