Extreme choppiness

[jck_strw]

Hi

I've been using GameEx for years now. Until last night I had been running GameEx v6.x. I haven't used my cabinet in awhile, but when I fired it up last night, I noticed that GameEx menus might've been a little choppy, but when I launched a Mame game, the games were extremely choppy. I was getting maybe 10-15fps for any game (Centipede, PacMan, Robotron, whatever). Very unusual. I shutdown GameEx and fired up Mame from the command line and the games ran silky smooth as expected. I fired up Mame32--same deal, everything worked great. So something in GameEx I guess.

Since I was about a year behind in versions, I updated to the latest version (v.8.63). Same deal though. All my Mame games are stupidly slow. But if I run them directly from Mame or Mame32, everything works as expected.

So my questions are--what could the problem be? Does this sound familiar to anyone? What can I check? I can post the GameEx logfile that gets created if that would help shed light on some things.

Thanks for any help.

[JohnnyG]

  jck_strw said:

Hi

I've been using GameEx for years now. Until last night I had been running GameEx v6.x. I haven't used my cabinet in awhile, but when I fired it up last night, I noticed that GameEx menus might've been a little choppy, but when I launched a Mame game, the games were extremely choppy. I was getting maybe 10-15fps for any game (Centipede, PacMan, Robotron, whatever). Very unusual. I shutdown GameEx and fired up Mame from the command line and the games ran silky smooth as expected. I fired up Mame32--same deal, everything worked great. So something in GameEx I guess.

Since I was about a year behind in versions, I updated to the latest version (v.8.63). Same deal though. All my Mame games are stupidly slow. But if I run them directly from Mame or Mame32, everything works as expected.

So my questions are--what could the problem be? Does this sound familiar to anyone? What can I check? I can post the GameEx logfile that gets created if that would help shed light on some things.

Thanks for any help.

Hi,

Not quite the same thing, but I had trouble with snap videos taking ages to start running, but Mame was ok. I downloaded a freeware registry cleaner and it made a huge difference. Might be worth a look?

Hope this helps,

Johnny

[Tom Speirs]

  jck_strw said:

Hi

I've been using GameEx for years now. Until last night I had been running GameEx v6.x. I haven't used my cabinet in awhile, but when I fired it up last night, I noticed that GameEx menus might've been a little choppy, but when I launched a Mame game, the games were extremely choppy. I was getting maybe 10-15fps for any game (Centipede, PacMan, Robotron, whatever). Very unusual. I shutdown GameEx and fired up Mame from the command line and the games ran silky smooth as expected. I fired up Mame32--same deal, everything worked great. So something in GameEx I guess.

Since I was about a year behind in versions, I updated to the latest version (v.8.63). Same deal though. All my Mame games are stupidly slow. But if I run them directly from Mame or Mame32, everything works as expected.

So my questions are--what could the problem be? Does this sound familiar to anyone? What can I check? I can post the GameEx logfile that gets created if that would help shed light on some things.

Thanks for any help.

Assuming nothing else changed, and no windows or gameex updates were installed..... (was that the case?)

A wild guess here, is that a memory chip failed on your cab, and its now got something silly like 128MB. Or perhaps some other hardware failed. Assuming nothing else changed. Id look at that. Also something to try is deleting and recreating your windows page file, this was a solution to the choppiness issue in the past. Also do a defrag.

[jck_strw]

  TSpeirs said:

Assuming nothing else changed, and no windows or gameex updates were installed..... (was that the case?)

A wild guess here, is that a memory chip failed on your cab, and its now got something silly like 128MB. Or perhaps some other hardware failed. Assuming nothing else changed. Id look at that. Also something to try is deleting and recreating your windows page file, this was a solution to the choppiness issue in the past. Also do a defrag.

Yeah, nothing changed on this machine (no windows updates, no new hardware, etc.). I did run install the latest GameEx update (which required 2.0 .NET). I did notice after the 2.0 .NET install that I have two version of .NET installed (1.1 I think and 2.0). Should I remove 1.1?

I'll check the RAM and recreate the Windows pagefile (and do a defrag) as well.

I also noticed that GameEx tends to take up all the CPU on the box when it's running. I can't remember if that's normal or not. I'll fire up GameEx and alt-tab out and check the task manager and the CPU is pegged. Is that normal? This system has been tweaked to turn off all unnecessary programs, services, etc. so it's not competing with anything.

[Tom Speirs]

  jck_strw said:

Yeah, nothing changed on this machine (no windows updates, no new hardware, etc.). I did run install the latest GameEx update (which required 2.0 .NET). I did notice after the 2.0 .NET install that I have two version of .NET installed (1.1 I think and 2.0). Should I remove 1.1?

I'll check the RAM and recreate the Windows pagefile (and do a defrag) as well.

I also noticed that GameEx tends to take up all the CPU on the box when it's running. I can't remember if that's normal or not. I'll fire up GameEx and alt-tab out and check the task manager and the CPU is pegged. Is that normal? This system has been tweaked to turn off all unnecessary programs, services, etc. so it's not competing with anything.

That was always the case with the CPU, but NOT in the latest versions.

Can you confirm, you had choppiness before you installed the latest version? Post your log so I can see your system specs.

Unless you specifically need it its safe to remove .net 1.1

[jck_strw]

  TSpeirs said:

That was always the case with the CPU, but NOT in the latest versions.

Can you confirm, you had choppiness before you installed the latest version? Post your log so I can see your system specs.

Unless you specifically need it its safe to remove .net 1.1

Yup, I definitely had the same choppiness in my previous version of GameEx (but only starting last night; before that I had it running for months with nary a problem). And since it was so old, I figured the first step would be to upgrade.

I'll post my logfile when I get home this evening.

Thanks for your assistance.

[jck_strw]

  TSpeirs said:

Can you confirm, you had choppiness before you installed the latest version? Post your log so I can see your system specs.

Here's my logfile. I'm going to recreate the pagefile and do a defrag. I was hoping something in here would make someone go 'aha!'.

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

  jck_strw said:

Here's my logfile. I'm going to recreate the pagefile and do a defrag. I was hoping something in here would make someone go 'aha!'.

I notice your not using the latest video card drivers.

Also try turning off the MAME Bezel artwork in advanced config, basic MAME settings.

[headkaze]

Yes the bezel artwork can cause performance issues I believe but I find changing the default command line option in GameEx from "-video dd" to "-video d3d" can also fix speed issues. Check out "Advanced MAME Settings (1)" in the Setup Wizard. The MAME Options override what your default options for Mame are. So when you run Mame outside GameEx those options are not applied and may make it seem like GameEx is causing performance issues in Mame.

[jck_strw]

I created a new pagefile, no change. I also turned off the bezel option and no change there either.

I changed the mame options to use either -d3d or -dd. No change.

I'll run the defrag tonight because it looks like it's going to take awhile.

Updating video card drivers now.

Is there some sort of debug mode I can turn on to generate more detail? Everything looks fine until it actually launches the game. Then, in 1942, I'm getting like 5-10 fps. Like I said earlier, launching Mame/Mame32 with the same command line switches has everything running silky smooth.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[jck_strw]

I updated the drivers to the latest. Still choppy.

I did notice this re: the CPU--I ran 1942 for awhile (5-10 fps as usual) and then I quit the game, quit GameEx. I had task manager already running, and there was a long section (in the performance chart/graph thingy) that showed the CPU was pegged at 100%. It seems that GameEx runs fine, but when it launches Mame, it pegs the CPU to 100% for some reason.

[jck_strw]

Ok, sorry about this. It looks like it's a bigger problem than just GameEx. Most other applications I'm noticing are running at 100% CPU as well. Mame from the command line though still runs like a charm. But Lego SW I and II are really really choppy all of a sudden. I'll have to dig deeper (running memtest now on the RAM, etc.), but it doesn't look like it's related to GameEx.

[Brian Hoffman]

  jck_strw said:

Ok, sorry about this. It looks like it's a bigger problem than just GameEx. Most other applications I'm noticing are running at 100% CPU as well. Mame from the command line though still runs like a charm. But Lego SW I and II are really really choppy all of a sudden. I'll have to dig deeper (running memtest now on the RAM, etc.), but it doesn't look like it's related to GameEx.

Do you have any antivirus running in backround....Or have you checked your system for spyware and or virus?

I have seen systems behave very strangley when infected with malware stuff. And they mysterously work fine (or better)when disconnected from the network..

You system specs look pretty good.. The processor speed is fine but you would get better performance with a pentuim or a processor that has a L2 cache.

But I do not think that is the issue here.

Download tuneup utilities it has a wonderfull reg program..I recommend Trend Micro for AV and They have a free trial that actuall get rid of viruses insted of saying your infected but shell out $$$ before it will fix them..

[jck_strw]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Do you have any antivirus running in backround....Or have you checked your system for spyware and or virus?

I have seen systems behave very strangley when infected with malware stuff. And they mysterously work fine (or better)when disconnected from the network..

You system specs look pretty good.. The processor speed is fine but you would get better performance with a pentuim or a processor that has a L2 cache.

But I do not think that is the issue here.

Download tuneup utilities it has a wonderfull reg program..I recommend Trend Micro for AV and They have a free trial that actuall get rid of viruses insted of saying your infected but shell out $$$ before it will fix them..

I don't think it's a virus or spy/malware. This machine is never on the network (except when I update something). This system used to work great. All my games ran perfectly (any Mame game, Lego SW I/II, Daphne, NFL Blitz 2k [PC]).

Memtest didn't show any errors in the RAM, so I can rule that out. I ran defrag last night (all night), so I'll check that when I get home. I guess the HD could be going--just running a simple Disk Check spikes the CPU to 100% as well. Sigh. All I want to do is play games again.

[LB11]

Download CPUz and see what speed the processor is run at. Maybe the fan died and its overheating causing it to run at a much slower speed.

Also is the bios boot screen showing the proper amount of ram?

I would guess the fan died and its overheating if you havent used the cab in a while.

Open up the box and check too, just to be sure. Sometimes cpuz is not correct. Check the video card fan if you have one while you are in there too.

[Brian Hoffman]

  LB11 said:

Download CPUz and see what speed the processor is run at. Maybe the fan died and its overheating causing it to run at a much slower speed.

Also is the bios boot screen showing the proper amount of ram?

I would guess the fan died and its overheating if you havent used the cab in a while.

Open up the box and check too, just to be sure. Sometimes cpuz is not correct. Check the video card fan if you have one while you are in there too.

If you fan died the processor will burn and you will have a dead pc.

Can you install an app that checks tempature? or RPM of fan rotation.

I know you dont think you have a virus but did you check anyways?

[bkenobi]

If you think the fan is dieing/is dead, open the freakin' case and check! That's not the type of thing that's worth running a program for. If it's spinning, then go on to finding the program. If you think it's running slow, you should also open the cab to get some airflow in while testing ESPECIALLY if you are running hardware tests like memtest and HDD intensive stuff like defrag!

[jombee]

I had the same exact problem, and it was driving me crazy until I was able to fix it. I went through extreme measures to correct the issue, but nothing seemed to work. By chance I came across someone that was having the same problem with a different program, so I decided to give that fix a shot with GameEX. What I did was "delete" my paging file in windows (by setting it to zero, removing it), then reboot. Then I reset my page file and rebooted again. This completely fixed the stuttering/choppiness in GameEX. Even though I had a powerful computer with the newest drivers, the problem was that my paging file was corrupt. I posted this fix awhile ago in this forum, you can prob search and find the post. Hope this helps!

  jck_strw said:

Hi

I've been using GameEx for years now. Until last night I had been running GameEx v6.x. I haven't used my cabinet in awhile, but when I fired it up last night, I noticed that GameEx menus might've been a little choppy, but when I launched a Mame game, the games were extremely choppy. I was getting maybe 10-15fps for any game (Centipede, PacMan, Robotron, whatever). Very unusual. I shutdown GameEx and fired up Mame from the command line and the games ran silky smooth as expected. I fired up Mame32--same deal, everything worked great. So something in GameEx I guess.

Since I was about a year behind in versions, I updated to the latest version (v.8.63). Same deal though. All my Mame games are stupidly slow. But if I run them directly from Mame or Mame32, everything works as expected.

So my questions are--what could the problem be? Does this sound familiar to anyone? What can I check? I can post the GameEx logfile that gets created if that would help shed light on some things.

Thanks for any help.

[LB11]

  Brian Hoffman said:

If you fan died the processor will burn and you will have a dead pc.

Can you install an app that checks tempature? or RPM of fan rotation.

I know you dont think you have a virus but did you check anyways?

A lot of the new Intel processors (I believe his model as well) has thermal throttling. It will basically reduce the speed and voltage of the chip greatly in order to keep it cool and not burn up in the event something is wrong (Like a dead fan).

Most motherboards also will turn the computer off before the chip gets so hot that you will have damage.

The fan might be working and just full of dust also causing it to go into the "SLOW" state mentioned above.

[LB11]

And I agree, if you didnt actually check for a virus you should do that as well.

[Brian Hoffman]

  LB11 said:

A lot of the new Intel processors (I believe his model as well) has thermal throttling. It will basically reduce the speed and voltage of the chip greatly in order to keep it cool and not burn up in the event something is wrong (Like a dead fan).

Most motherboards also will turn the computer off before the chip gets so hot that you will have damage.

The fan might be working and just full of dust also causing it to go into the "SLOW" state mentioned above.

I burned a few processors in my day and I do not rely on MB sensors to save me.

Yes I do agree you will get stuttering issues as it getting warmer... I have a geforce card that will garbel graphics and stutter when it is really hot...I have since added 4 fans to fix it. (it did)

All this debating aside I'am sure we can all agree an overly hot processor is not a good thing.

[jck_strw]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Here we go:

1. No blockage in the fans. Not overheating either. The case is wide open in a big open cab (typically; right now it's on my desk while I troubleshoot) and there's a fan on it. No dustbunnies clogging things.

2. I thought the pagefile as well and tried that. Still no dice.

3. Checking for virii and malware now. I don't think that's it, but it helps to cover all bases.

4. No bad ram. Ran memtest (13 tests, no errors).

POS Dell (it was one of those el cheapo $300 boxes from about a year ago)? Possibly. I can't figure anything else out.

[bkenobi]

Do you have an extra HDD laying around? One option would be to throw in another drive and install windows to see if that helps. Another option that should work just as well would be to throw in a Linux bootable image like Knoppix. If you still have problems with the first meathod, I strongly suspect hardware. If you have problems with the second, it's definitely hardware! If the both the first and second work (or whichever you try), it's software related, but you might be able to get it going somehow. I usually say if it takes more than a couple hours to fix, it's worth the format and starting from scratch. There are a bunch of threads related to how to backup your GameEx install.

If it were me, I would grab Knoppix and give it a go. If it works, then just format and reinstall from scratch! If you had it working a year ago but it won't work now, I strongly suspect some hardware is failing so that won't work...

[jck_strw]

I threw in the towel on that machine. I was able to scrounge up a Pentium 4-2.6ghz box. Same RAM, vid card. Different HD. Things are much better.

Now that I'm working with an major update to GameEx, I've lost a few things. Where can you specify an intro video? I haven't setup my PC games yet, but I'm sure I'll have a question on those.

Thanks again to all for the tips.

[jck_strw]

  jck_strw said:

Now that I'm working with an major update to GameEx, I've lost a few things. Where can you specify an intro video?

Found it.