[RESOLVED] GameEx screen goes black at startup

[Atari2600guru]

GameEx.inilog.txt

Hi.  I have an intermittent issue (happens roughly 50% of the time) where I turn on my computer, launch GameEx Arcade and everything is fine where I can see the menu for a few seconds, then everything goes black (completely blank screen).  From that point on the screen is blank, but I can hear menu navigation sounds.  ctrl-alt-del brings up a visible screen, but if I use task manager to switch to any screen they all create a completely blank screen.  The only way to recover is to reboot the computer.

This may or may not be related to a similar issue I'm having when I launch MAME (also ~50% intermittent).  A second or two after launching mame UI and seeing the list of games, the MAME window will suddenly minimize.  If I then just double click on the minimized icon in my task bar everything works fine.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks,

John

[Draco1962]

Would you mind downloading and installing v16.64 over the top of your current install and reporting back with an updated copy of your log.txt file right after the error occurs? Thanks!

[Atari2600guru]

GameEx.inilog.txt

The error may have changed slightly with the new install.  This time the screen went black, but I could recover by doing a alt-tab and selecting GameEx.

A second problem has plagued me lately and it happened to also show up in this instance.  The menu scrolls rapidly as soon as the menu appears.  Any idea how to fix that one too?

Thanks,

John

[Draco1962]

I have seen issues occurring when GameEx and emulators are installed under a "c:\Users\" path. Your installation is to "C:\Users\MAME\Desktop\Arcade\GameEx Frontend\GameEx Arcade"

Windows has a higher elevation of protection for c:\users and also items to the Desktop. I am not sure if this is the cause of some or all of the issues you present.

My suggestion is to copy the GameEx Arcade folder to the c: root directory and run the install again to set the registry in Windows for it.

I would also do the same for MAME to either c:\MAME or c:\emulators\MAME if you prefer.

Next would be to set paths via Setup Wizard in your MAME setup to the new paths.

The new issue sounds like a stuck mouse input but still could be something that resolves itself with the suggested moves above.

[Atari2600guru]

Thanks!  I'll attempt to do that as soon as I can.

[Atari2600guru]

I got sidetracked with getting all my hardware built and am back to getting all the software kinks worked out.  I followed the advice above: moved mame to c:\mame and installed the latest version of GameEx arcade to c:\.  I still get this issue.  I did notice that sometimes if I jump straight into mame after a power cycle (bypassing GameEx), the MAME window minimizes itself spontaneously a few seconds after it starts.  This will only happen once (per power cycle I think).  When I hover the cursor over it on the task bar it says "MAME: No Driver Loaded [___...".  Maybe this is related to why GameEx Arcade is doing the same thing.  Is there a log file from MAME I could post that may help debug this?

Thanks,
John

[Draco1962]

Hi John - please ensure you have downloaded and installed the latest version of GameEx Arcade Edition and attach new copies of your gameex.ini and log.txt files. Thanks!

[Atari2600guru]

Ok.  Here are the GameEx Arcade files.  Behavior is slightly different in GameEx Arcade:  When I power up and launch GameEx Arcade things look okay for about 15 seconds.  Then the screen just goes black.  I can still move my joystick and hear the sounds of the menu scrolling and selecting things, but the screen is black.  If I hit Alt-Tab then I get two options:  One that is "GameEx hide OS" and one that is "GameEx Arcade".  If I use tab to select GameEx Arcade then it shows me the menu again.  Everything will then work fine until I restart windows.  Test cases I've tried:

2 out of 2 times it did this when power cycling

1 out of 1 times it did this on windows restart without power cycle

When I used the technique above to recover and then just exited GameEx Arcade and relaunch GameEx Arcade it worked perfectly 3 out of 3 times.  So it seems to be correlated with windows starting up.

thanks for your help, Draco1962!

GameEx.ini log.txt

[Atari2600guru]

One other clue: if I wait for 60 seconds after starting windows before launching GameEx, then it always works fine.  If I launch GameEx in the first 20ish seconds after windows starts, then it fails as stated above.

[Draco1962]

So if you delay the start of GameEx for a bit right after the OS has been started/restarted then everything is fine? If that is the case, then something is not finished loading within the OS that GameEx requires.

 You may wish to look at solutions offered in the following link: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/delay-startup-programs-to-boot-windows-faster/

I would probably try leveraging Windows Task Scheduler first, then LaunchLater if still available.

Let us know how you get on.

[Draco1962]

P.S. I tested the method for Delayed Startup via Windows Task Scheduler and it does seem to work well.  Keep in mind that if there are any new startup tasks that Windows requires which add to the total startup time, you will need to adjust your delayed start time to compensate.

I still recommend using the baked-in-the-OS tools over third party as you have better control , in most cases, with things running in the backend unseen. I've extracted the piece from the website I referenced and printed it to PDF for future use. 

Again, let us know if this resolves your GameEx startup issue.

Setup a Delayed Startup Task Using Windows Task Scheduler.pdf

[Atari2600guru]

Thank you, Draco1962!  So far that has worked perfectly using the Windows Task Scheduler! 

[Draco1962]

I am glad it worked out for you! I had forgotten that gem from use on some of our app servers when doing reboots. 

Merry Christmas!