GameEx slow to load

[Dave H]

Hey all,

My GameEx box ix an AMD AthlonXP 2500 with 512mb ram yadda yadda yadda.

I've only got a small (20ish gig) hard drive in there as everything is stored on my network (NAS servers).

When i've been loading gameex I have to wait for the gameex loading screen to appear.. unplug the network cable.. wait a couple of minute for the main screen to appear and then plug the network cable back in.. I can then go about using it fine.

I have got quite a bit of data on my network which i'm guessing it tries to index...

Full Mame (up to latest 'u') plus chd's/extra's

750 albums

150 movies

600 Music videos

11 different TV Series (full seasons).

etc etc etc and those lists are ever growing.

Is it possible for GameEx to maybe cache a list for quicker startups... and then maybe run a differential cache update whilst it's running? Otherwise I can be sitting there for over an hour waiting for GameEx to load!

Or is there a setting i'm missing ?

Any help is appreciated

TIA

Dave.

[Dave H]

No ideas, anyone ?

[Deadly]

No ideas, anyone ?

GameEx does "cache" a list ..... thats the reason you have to run the scan for games option because it writes a file list.

If it were me...I'd unplug your network cable and THEN turn your system on. I am hoping/guessing what you are deeming to be a GameEx problem is probably your system is probably trying to obtain an IP from the server/or linksys router or what ever you are using to provide DHCP .....OR....... if you have a static IP you could have a routing problem "not likely"......OR......you have an internal DNS issue which is unlikely but that'll slow the hell out of anything if it is.

I guess let's just remove the network out of this equation.

If firing up the system "off the network" and GameEx loads up fine then it's probably not GameEx right?

Change your theme to a low res default...does that change anything?

Secondly,

Copy a couple roms to your mame/roms folder and then, you'll need to change your config to point to that folder and then rescan the games. Exit GameEx .... reboot and bring GameEx back up...."off the network" does that load any faster?

Does a game like Donkey Kong load fast across your network? "It better snap right up"

Try Area 51 ...it uses a CHD file....how long does it take for that to load?

IDEAS????? Sure I have ideas for you.

If you plan on utilizing a file server and pulling craploads of data over you need to just buck up and upgrade your network to 1 gig.

OR you do what most people I know do "including myslef" which is cough up $200 for 400 gig from NEWEGG.com so you can pile every game you have on the system locally.

I'd really appreciate a post back on the outcome so others can learn from our experiment.

[Dave H]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply

I'm already running a gigabit network. Games loading itself is pretty quick including CHD's.

I know it caches a copy of mame, but I use it more for watching films and I don't think it caches a list of those (or music etc).

If I play roms locally.. GameEx does load quicker.. I know it is due to the amount of data I have on the network... My NAS server is 2TB.. I doubt I squeeze that many hard drives in to a mini-itx GameEx box I just didn't know if there was an option for GameEx to cache everything (mame and all in multimedia too), which would (I believe) drastically reduce the load time of GameEx for myself and others that hold alot of data on networked drives.

Thanks again for your reply

[Michael]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply

I'm already running a gigabit network. Games loading itself is pretty quick including CHD's.

I know it caches a copy of mame, but I use it more for watching films and I don't think it caches a list of those (or music etc).

If I play roms locally.. GameEx does load quicker.. I know it is due to the amount of data I have on the network... My NAS server is 2TB.. I doubt I squeeze that many hard drives in to a mini-itx GameEx box I just didn't know if there was an option for GameEx to cache everything (mame and all in multimedia too), which would (I believe) drastically reduce the load time of GameEx for myself and others that hold alot of data on networked drives.

Thanks again for your reply

i would try not to have Rom files on your server, 40gb hard drive with windows etc on and a 200gb hard drive with all roms on

i pull video files off a server on a 54mb wireless connection and i dont have lag or slow load times to open a video file it takes 5 seconds or so, gameex its self loads within 15 seconds

might be an idea to get latest network card drivers and even latest chipset drivers its always worth a try

[Dave H]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply.

I am getting another hard drive in there to store the roms locally... however if I point the roms locally (and only have a few)..it still takes a while... which I am assuming is down to the multimedia that I have on the network loading in to gameex... and I guess it's that which i'm wondering if it can be cached or not.

[Michael]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply.

I am getting another hard drive in there to store the roms locally... however if I point the roms locally (and only have a few)..it still takes a while... which I am assuming is down to the multimedia that I have on the network loading in to gameex... and I guess it's that which i'm wondering if it can be cached or not.

do you have video snaps or picture snaps over the network? i would have thought that would make it realy slow as it would be a constantly sending and reciving

[Dave H]

I do have both on the NAS server, but once GameEx is loaded..it's fine.. loading of games/etc is nice and fast, it's just the initial Loading screen that I sit watching for an hour or so.