Found why no emulators would run bug with GameExtender?

[ShankyMcStabber]

This is a follow up to my resolved issue from earlier.

So after blasting away my install and reinstalling I found all my emulators worked and I went about setting a bunch of them up.

Somewhere along the way I turned GameExtender on and suddenly none of the custom emulators worked.

Turn GameExtender off, they work.

So far I have tested GameExtender on/off a few times (both with the GameExtender Viewer enabled on a second monitor and not) and each time I enable GameExtender none of the custom emulators will even attempt to launch. I have also tried running GameEx in Administrator mode and GameExtender set to launch as Administrator. Each time my custom emulators stop.

Could this be a bug with GameEx or GameExtender?

[Adultery]

Well GameExtender works for me just fine, so I'm a little hesitant to point the finger at it. Maybe your AV software is interfering?

[ShankyMcStabber]

No AV software (this is my dedicated cab)

[ShankyMcStabber]

For now I will just keep GameExtender off, but I would love it if I could run down why it is causing my issue.

[Draco1962]

Might be a good idea to re-upload your gameex.ini and log.txt file from right after the error occurs.

[Adultery]

There should also be an extender log in your GameEx folder.

[ShankyMcStabber]

Sure thing, I've attached the logs where I perform the following steps.

Enable GameExtender in the Setup Wizard

Launch GameEx

Navigate to my Atari 2600 menu

Launch Adventure

Wait until it is clear it doesn't load

Hit ESC

Navigate to Exit GameEx

As you will see in the log.txt GameEx does not even attempt to launch the Stella emulator though if I turn off GameExtender Stella will launch fine.

log.txt

GameEx.ini

Extenderlog.txt

[ShankyMcStabber]

I have been doing some troubleshooting and so far I have figured out that the viewer isn't the issue.

I can run the viewer with the server component not enabled and everything works fine (except the viewer has nothing to connect to). If I run the server with or without the viewer none of my custom emulators even attempt to launch (no runitgame.bat generated, no attempt to run in the log, literally it doesn't even try to run anything).

[ShankyMcStabber]

I also just tested GameEx with GameExtender on a different computer and I can reproduce the issue on it as well. For some reason when I enable GameExtender on a brand new install of GameEx 14 when I try to launch custom emulators nothing happens.

Log excerpt when GameExtender is enabled and I attempt to launch Stella:

21:06:41.3  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 121:06:41.3  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 121:06:41.3  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 221:06:41.3  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 221:06:41.3  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 321:06:41.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 321:06:41.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 421:06:41.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 421:06:41.7  1/5/2015:  Not Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 100021:06:44.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Cached ICONS from File21:06:50.6  1/5/2015:  Creating instance of global keyboard hook21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Exiting GameEx!21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Disposing all videos21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Deleting temporary Karaoke videos21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Disposing Image List21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Disposing Fonts21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Disposing Surfaces21:07:25.0  1/5/2015:  Saving Settings21:07:25.1  1/5/2015:  Closing GameExtender Viewer21:07:25.1  1/5/2015:  Shutting down Bass21:07:25.1  1/5/2015:  Closing HideOS.exe21:07:25.2  1/5/2015:  Disposing Plugins21:07:25.2  1/5/2015:  Disposing Plugins21:07:25.2  1/5/2015:  Closing database connection21:07:25.2  1/5/2015:  Checking for applications to Launch On Exit21:07:25.2  1/5/2015:  Loggging out of GameEx Online21:07:26.3  1/5/2015:  Bye

Log excerpt when I have GameExtender disabled and launch Stella:

21:08:27.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 121:08:27.4  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 121:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 221:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 221:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 321:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 321:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator from Cache: 421:08:27.5  1/5/2015:  Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 421:08:27.9  1/5/2015:  Not Restoring Emulator Database From Cache: 100021:08:29.2  1/5/2015:  Restoring Cached ICONS from File21:08:34.3  1/5/2015:  Creating instance of global keyboard hook21:08:37.8  1/5/2015:  Running: cmd.exe /c D: Stella.exe "F:\Roms\Atari 2600\2005 Minigame Multicart (USA) (Unl).bin"21:08:38.0  1/5/2015:  Shutting down display21:08:42.3  1/5/2015:  Exiting Game21:08:42.3  1/5/2015:  Sending {ESC} to emulator21:08:44.1  1/5/2015:  Exiting Game21:08:44.1  1/5/2015:  Writing Stats21:08:44.4  1/5/2015:  Plugin: Game Exit21:08:44.4  1/5/2015:  Plugin: Process Commands21:08:44.4  1/5/2015:  Refreshing Keyboard21:08:44.5  1/5/2015:  Initialising Audio21:08:44.6  1/5/2015:  Restoring Window21:08:44.6  1/5/2015:  Reinitializing Graphics System21:08:44.6  1/5/2015:  Mouse Input is disabled21:08:45.7  1/5/2015:  Returning to GameEx21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Exiting GameEx!21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Disposing all videos21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Deleting temporary Karaoke videos21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Disposing Image List21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Disposing Fonts21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Disposing Surfaces21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Saving Settings21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Closing GameExtender Viewer21:08:53.3  1/5/2015:  Shutting down Bass21:08:53.4  1/5/2015:  Closing HideOS.exe21:08:53.5  1/5/2015:  Disposing Plugins21:08:53.5  1/5/2015:  Disposing Plugins21:08:53.5  1/5/2015:  Closing database connection21:08:53.5  1/5/2015:  Checking for applications to Launch On Exit21:08:53.5  1/5/2015:  Loggging out of GameEx Online21:08:55.2  1/5/2015:  Bye

[ShankyMcStabber]

Is there any chance I can get a link to GameEx 13.32? I want to test if I have the same problem with the earlier version as I have on 2 different computers with GameEx 14.

[Adultery]

Nah we don't keep or distribute old builds due to the accelerated pace of releases.

I'm going to be doing a bunch of emulator work tomorrow and I use GameExtender quite a bit. Let me get back to you on this after I set up fully.

Just so I can attempt to reproduce your scenario exactly (I'll set it up on my VM if needed) please post an updated ini for me to import.

[ShankyMcStabber]

Actually I just figured out the EXACT setting causing the problem for me.

I literally made a new install with all defaults, setup MAME, setup Atari 2600, enable GameExtender and then made sure it worked when running Stella.

Once I had the baseline I loaded the Setup Wizard and set configured 1 page at a time to match the install that won't work with GameExtender enabled.

Once I got to the Enable/Disable Features page I managed to break the launching of non-MAME emulators with GameExtender enabled by changing "Show Game Information" from Yes to No. Set that back to yes and it works again.

Went back to the non-working install and set "Show Game Information" from No to Yes and I can launch my non-MAME emulators with GameExtender enabled.

I've attached the GameEx.ini with that setting set to No (so it is in a fail state). You should be able to set it to Yes and cause it to function correctly.

(Can you tell I do System Engineering for a living and my Engineer OCD wouldn't let me not troubleshoot this)

GameEx.ini

[Adultery]

As a php developer with a bg in QA I do understand actually.

That will be helpful, but I may already have a hunch as to why that's happening. I don't want to elaborate until I know for sure though. Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.

[ShankyMcStabber]

Any chance the update that was just released (14.02) fixes this particular problem I was having?

[tthurman]

The latest update was more directed towards movie database support, so more of an enhancement for the home theater side of things.

See this post.

Some other enhancements are in there too, but no mention of anything related to this.

[Adultery]

Unfortunately I can't seem to reproduce it. I will continue to investigate it however.

[Krakerman]

I can confirm similar issue however I did not try messing with the game info option but when I turned off GameExtender it would launch the emulator but with it on it would not and just freeze you could Escape and exit back to the menu but not launch anything. I was thinking maybe had something to do with Win 8.1 so I am re-installing Win 7 and going to try it out on that tonight to see if it happens again if so I will try the game info option you mentioned and see what happens but If I remember correctly I had Game Info set to Off as well on my system I noticed the issue. I cuurently don't have GameEx installed but will later tonight hopefully I will have time to fiddle around with more but I can't give you guys any more info than that right now as I am not up and running right now.

Forgot to mention Mame & Daphne did not have this issue (was using gamex default setup for those systems not HyperLaunch) only other emulators you setup like Atari 2600 at first I thought maybe it had something to do with HyperLaunch but no I tested it without HyperLaunch and same issue. also tested my HyperLaunch command line in a cmd prompt outside gameex and it ran just fine.

Note: Tested on GameEx 14/14.01 snd 14.02 all same results