kakawak Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Hi Guys, I've joined the forum today as i was cleaning my arcade cabinet buttons as they were all stuck. I stripped down all of the buttons and streched the springs inside so they were more firmer and responsive. Anyways, after cleaning i decided to free up some space on the hard drive along with restore positions on windows. Not sure if this is a coincidence but when i tried to restart having played some games earlier, the display monitor will not kick in and says no signal??? i did notice on the vaio pc that it has 2 graphics cards and when i restart and switch vga cable into other vga port i can see the windows xp login but as soon as it boots up to desktop i get a black screen however, i can hear the sounds of the mame menu or hyperspin menu when moving the joystick up and down. When i try and use the original vga port before this issue happened i get no display at all from boot up but i do get sound (i will double check that, doubting myself lol) Is there a default option to get this up and running again? the cables and monitor work fine so im guessing its to do with a software related issue. The main c: has the smallest partition with about 30gb and the d: has the most at around 90gb i am using an old sony viao pc setup with i think hyperspin mame emulator (i think) it scrolls between mame and finalburn options. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_da_Spike Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Hi @kakawak I think this is in the wrong forum. this is for PinballX and not for arcade cabinets. But reading your post, it hasn't anything to do with a gameex product, but it is a regular question. Not sure what you did when cleaning up your harddrive, but looks like you removed the video drivers ? I think you front end is configured to use a certain monitor, and cannot find it when you plug in your other video card. XP is pretty old. I have a Arcade cabinet too with a pre-installed XP version. I added an extra SSD (unplugged the original drive) and installed win 10 on it. Maybe thats an option to check if your video output is not broken ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Can you locate and attach in reply to this thread your gameex.ini (located in the \gameex\config path) and the log.txt (located in the \gameex\logs path) files? If you are using Hyperspin as the gaming frontend, you will need to go to their forums for assistance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedDog Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 This sounds like a hardware issue such as a loose cable, bad cable, faulty monitor, bad video card, etc. Does the display show anything when booting? Can you access the bios and does the monitor stay on during that time? If you can see information on the screen during boot, can you boot to safe mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 3 hours ago, RedDog said: This sounds like a hardware issue such as a loose cable, bad cable, faulty monitor, bad video card, etc. Its not a faulty cable or faulty monitor as it boots from other graphics card and shows windows xp and sony logo. Does the display show anything when booting? as above Quote Can you access the bios and does the monitor stay on during that time? yes on the first graphics card i can. If you can see information on the screen during boot, can you boot to safe mode? i did boot to safe mode once but finding it difficult to do it again. what do you suggest? when i plug the vga cable into the 2nd graphics card i get nothing. i thought i was getting sound but i dont. i will take more photos tomorrow and upload the arcade and the back of my pc so it paints a better picture for you guys thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedDog Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 6 hours ago, kakawak said: i did boot to safe mode once but finding it difficult to do it again. what do you suggest? Do you think this is a GameEx issue or a PC issue? Because this still sounds like a PC issue to me. If you can get into safemode, you may be able to uninstall software, revert to a previously good state, etc. The hope here is to get the PC working in general on one video card. After that, hopefully you can get the other working. After that, determine if everything else works. You sound like you are not inexperienced with PCs and troubleshooting, which is great; however, if this is PC related, you may need to try a forum for troubleshooting WindowsXP or PCs at least. However, if I am incorrect and this turns out to be GameEx related, we will try to help as best as we can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 hi, here are some more photos... i was wrong about hyper spin...its maximus arcade! i managed to boot to desktop today but when i got into maximus folder preferences i check resolution settings and they seemed ok. however, when i started maximus from desktop the frontend was displaying sidewards :/ but it still worked but when i tried to restart it went blank again and would not boot up to desktop. It seemed like it was stuck in a loop! i tried last know best configuration and it didn't seem to work. Maybe i have a corrupt OS or hard drive issue. I think from memory that when i started this from windows it would automatically boot to maximus without it going to desktop. I do not want to reformat anything as i don't want to lose any current configurations that have been set. Do you have a workaround? Looking at the Sony PC graphics card the bottom one (no.1) and the top (no.2) the latter being the current used vga port in relation to my earlier post. I hope this makes a little sense! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedDog Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 kakawak, Please keep in mind that the people who assist others on this forum do so voluntarily. I am here to assist people with GameEx. I do not have a lot of extra time, so I will not be assisting further. I do wish you luck though. However, if anyone else would like to help you, that is their choice. I do suggest that you thank them profusely for offering their time and expertise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 Hi, so am i in the wrong forum section or wrong forum fullstop in regards to arcade machine setups etc...??? I'm confused :/ i realise im in the wrong section but is the forum not here to help with related gaming issues? I have thanked in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 I believe the point we are trying to get across is that GameEx is a frontend, as is Hyperspin and Maximus Arcade. You are asking of us to help you troubleshoot issues that are occuring outside of the frontend you have installed on your rig. Unfortunately, the assistance you are seeking - troubleshooting monitor display and possible OS other hardware problems - is outside the venue of these forums for non-GameEx or PinballX users. All of that said, I am moving this thread to the Social Club forum so that focus in the GameEx forums is retained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tthurman Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 "CMOS Settings Wrong" You CMOS battery is probably dead and has reset all your values. Change the battery, boot , F1 to setup, set clock, load optimized defaults, ensure no onboard graphics are enabled, save and exit. That be where I would start based on what you've provided. Most likely a CR2032, but it'll be stamped on the side of the battery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 2, 2020 Author Share Posted April 2, 2020 thanks guys and sorry for busting your heads with this. it was more of a general enquiry rather than a dedicated game ex one. I only joined the forum because it had gameex on the arcade machine and thought that regardless of frontend maybe your knowledge and help could sort this....fingers crossed! I will replace the cmos battery and take it from there cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 Please let us know if that addresses your issue or not. Thanks for your understanding and know that we and members of the forum will likely try to assist you if and when we can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tthurman Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 Looks like a nice rig, best luck getting it back online! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 Hi Guys, I renewed the battery and restored a a previous restore point and it now works fine I have one more question.... as this runs on winxp should i upgrade to win7 or leave it as it is? The sony vaio is an intel pentium 4HT with 512mb ram, is it worth upgrading the specs on this or get a new rig ? Thanks for everyones help Cammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tthurman Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Congrats on getting it back online! Years ago I chased these type of upgrades and was always disappointed with the results. Your money would be better invested into a newer rig, IMO. You can pick up decent i5 of i7 3 or 4 series for so cheap it's just not worth it to struggle with antiquated parts for a minimal performance gain. I just upgraded one of mine with a Z68, 16GB and a 3770S (since it isn't as power hungry). If you're patient you can score a similar deal on ebay and have a vastly superior rig. VAIO rig might represent an opportunity to re purpose for a Win 98se legacy gaming machine even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Congrats +1! Agree with @tthurman 100% on investing in a new rig. While Maximus Arcade is a reasonable frontend it is a bit dated and support is limited. If you go forward with a new rig, consider giving GameEx a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 sorry i was wrong in terms of ram on my pc....its 1gb doh! is gameex frontend free? and will it struggle on my setup? what are the recommendations on emulators regarding my setup? i only have mame and final burn setup but would it struggle with playstation or gamecube games? can these be played with the current joystick and 6 button combo setup? sorry for all these questions but i have alot of time due to this covid-19 lockdown Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tthurman Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 You can run GameEx without a license, but you'll have to put up with the nag screen each time you launch it. Still, it's a good way to try it out and see if it fits your style. I would venture to guess your setup would do fine up to the earlier cartridge based consoles, but I wouldn't expect much more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 ok thanks for your input i will try and report back when i have some more time to spend on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kakawak Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 I've decided to do a small upgrade on processor and memory. I bought another 1gb ram and a 3.0ghz processor for under £10. I still have issues with the either the OS, possibly drivers for display or the hard drive giving me a head ache on startup. It displays ok up until XP is loading in with the loading bar but when that disappears it is supposed to go onto the light blue welcome screen but somehow doesn't get past this. It goes blank and the screen says going to sleep and sometimes reboots! I can get into safe mode no problem at all but not sure what to do when i'm in there. Should i upgrade the hard drive to a hybrid version or just a normal one? Wha ever option is best i might upgrade to win7 in the process. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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