Freezes when running MAME game

[Philip]

Recently purchased GameEx, the crappy version runs ok but not GameEx Evolution which is what I want.

I have stock MAME 0.214 (tried a few versions back too) nothing modified or anything silly.

In GameEx Evolution setup, I setup the directories etc. I also tested my games by running games directly in MAME ok so I know the roms are fine etc. They are found fine with GameEx Evo perfectly, go to launch, hear the close sound and it seems to soft lock, doesn't launch MAME at all. Tried resetting settings (the 'defaults button is a bit weak?' .

Tried lots and lots of games, same thing, goes to run and just freezes. The only way is to kill the task with task manager.

Hope you can help?

 

[Tom Speirs]

Hi, please post the support files. There is an option to do this in the setup wizard.

Do you have internet enabled on the machine?

[Philip]

Hey thanks for the fast reply!

See attached. I can see some erros in the log starting.. 'ERROR @ GenerateSystemImages (SystemList)' hmm?

Thanks for your help Tom,

Philip

[GAMEEXEVO_LOGS].7z

[Philip]

Ok I ended up doing the 'standard thing' and using your auto download to get a really old version of mame .197. Then I replaced the .exe it with the latest .214. It now  launches ok, but when I exit any game, it goes back to Game Ex Evo, but the interface is frozen, however, I can hear the menus! but the screen/interface is frozen.. I can press the top X to quit..

How do I sort this?

[Tom Speirs]

Could you please post the support files again with the new semi working setup.

Thanks.

Tom.

[Philip]

Sure!

I tried a few more times, games load fine now, exit out (ESC), can hear the menus work etc but display frozen.

[GAMEEXEVO_LAST_RUN_OUTPUT].7z [GAMEEXEVO_LOGS].7z

[Tom Speirs]

I cant duplicate this unfortunately. Working fine for me with latest MAME.

Which video card are you using?

Please run winver.exe and tell me windows version.

Your last run output looks really off too. Plase just use a rehular version of MAME with default settings.

 

Here is mine:
00:00:18.5801141: FileName: 'G:\Dropbox\Mame32\mame64.exe'
00:00:18.5801150: Arguments: 'gtmr -rompath "H:\- RESILIO -\-ROMS-\ARCADE\-MAME ROMS 0.213 -" -joystick -nowindow -skip_gameinfo -output windows'
00:00:23.5892031: System Process Has Exited.
00:00:23.8261193: Total Time Played: 0 Hours 0 Minutes 5 Seconds.

 

Here is yours:
00:00:00.0001871: FileName: 'D:\MAME_LARGE\MAMEAutoDownload\MAME\mame64.exe'
00:00:00.0001906: Arguments: 'pc_1942 -rompath "D:\MAME_LARGE\ExceedinglyMAME\Roms" -joystick -nowindow -skip_gameinfo -output windows'
00:00:05.0162067: === Start 'mame64' Window Info ===
00:00:05.0189666: Index: 1 Handle: 0x333618 Title: 'MAME: 1942 (PlayChoice-10) [pc_1942]' Class: 'MAME' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: True IsWindowOwner: True IsWindowVisible: True IsForegroundWindow: True
00:00:05.0189774: Index: 2 Handle: 0x1185724 Title: 'MAMEOutput' Class: 'MAMEOutput' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: False IsWindowOwner: True IsWindowVisible: False IsForegroundWindow: False
00:00:05.0189897: Index: 0 Handle: 0x202632 Title: 'D3DProxyWindow' Class: 'D3DProxyWindow' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: False IsWindowOwner: False IsWindowVisible: True IsForegroundWindow: False
00:00:05.0189965: Index: 3 Handle: 0x399190 Title: 'Default IME' Class: 'IME' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: False IsWindowOwner: False IsWindowVisible: False IsForegroundWindow: False
00:00:05.0190024: Index: 4 Handle: 0x6821704 Title: 'MSCTFIME UI' Class: 'MSCTFIME UI' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: False IsWindowOwner: False IsWindowVisible: False IsForegroundWindow: False
00:00:05.0190085: Index: 5 Handle: 0x530352 Title: 'Default IME' Class: 'IME' IsChildWindow: False IsMainWindow: False IsWindowOwner: False IsWindowVisible: False IsForegroundWindow: False
00:00:05.0190100: === End 'mame64' Window Info ===
00:00:11.0123113: Average speed: 100.00% (8 seconds)
00:00:11.1735953: System Process Has Exited.
00:00:11.3503564: Total Time Played: 0 Hours 0 Minutes 11 Seconds.

[Philip]

hmm, mame's running now which is good, but just when it exits and goes back to your interface, its strange how I can hear the mouse overs etc. It's not the video card it's a GTX 1060.. Windows 10 the latest version 1903.

I am using the regular version of mame (also a compiled version I did today) and also used the .197 and it did the same thing..

[Tom Speirs]

If I turn off wait for exit I can get a freeze but this is expected behaviour. Do you have that turned off. It should be on for MAME.

PS: Is the other version really that crappy!? lol

[Philip]

Hey your support is really awesome Tom!

I just togged 'Wait for Exit' to NO, loaded a game, it froze as you said (but had no interface sound, total froze), then changed it to YES, re-load etc and it now when I exit mame it works. I noticed a refreshing of the interface now, so it's like it wasn't quite doing it before.

Also I feel bad, No! the older version is not crappy, I didn't mean it like that, it's just the new one is really slick and nice!

Thanks for your support.

PS haha my xbox controller won't scroll 'down' in the games list for some reason, it's sorta bad laggy but scrolls up ok and the other menus jump around snappy (home, return etc), games run fine with the controller, just the interface hmm.

[Tom Speirs]

No worries. I just updated the MAME version to the latest on the site here as that seems to cause a lot of confusion.

As for the controller what exactly is it?

Did you try remapping the controls? It could be that the defaults are off.

PS: I did get the same last run output with some other games.

[Philip]

Ahh, damm the problem returned. I toggled wait for exit to YES/NO several times. Renamed my mame.ini (only had hlsl on nothing else).. used 2 different mame .exe's etc. Run different games..

It's like GameEx is not getting the window back properly once mame quits. I also turned off G-Synk incase it was hijacking something.. I restarted my PC too.

(Controller is just standard X-Box with windows dongle, but cleared and remapped all good now with UI ).

 

[Philip]

Its working now, didn't really do anything.

Oh yeah, I didn't bother mentioning but a few times when Game Ex Evo is going from windowed mode to full screen it crashes too, see attached.

error.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for hanging in there.

Yeah, still a few kinds to work out. That one will need Ben. I will look at the default down button though and also the exit game escape key issue and get another release out.

Cheers.

Tom.

[Philip]

Hey Tom,

I actually gave up with getting this working, but! I figured what was causing the problem.  "Exiting MAME and returning back to GameEx shows screen, you can hear the interface but its frozen"

- it's all because I have Application Scaling enabled with Win 10.

I have a 4k monitor and just defaulted everything to be scaled larger 175%.. this feature has been around for many years, way back with win 7 even. Works pretty good these days, and you can easily override/turnoff this on any application, so I did this and noticed when GameEx returns there is a flicker/redraw and all working!!! I am pretty happy now, I didn't like any other front ends except this.

So, if you right click properties on Game Ex shortcut -> : compatibility -> un-check 'Program DPI' but make sure 'High DPI Scaling override' is set to 'System'.

Cheers!