GameEx not loading backgrounds after using instantSheller

[alexdog69]

i notice that when i replaced explorer.exe with gameex, using the instantsheller program.....

sometimes gameex comes up and it can't load any snaps/background. (i'm using background/fullscreen snaps btw).

basically gameex loads up instead of explorer but i always get a black background. if i restart gameex its ok.

also i dont get any intro sound.

anyone else have this problem?

[bkenobi]

You'll have to provide more info like your log file and/or your GameEx.ini file and/or ???

Based on what you said, nope...

[alexdog69]

oki here they are.

gameex_log_and_ini.zip

[alexdog69]

this looks suspicious:

19:20:35.7 12/4/2007: 0mb video memory available

hmm wonder what thats all about....

if i kill gameex after im up & running .. and then restart it manually... i get

19:49:36.5 12/4/2007: 503mb video memory available

....

what's interesting is that this problem is ONLY present as a result of running gameex as the shell instead of explorer ........... and only present on INITIAL load up ....

after i kill gameex & restart its fine ....

also, the intro video with the whole *boom*boom*boom*boom* sound doesn't play.

im tending to think it has something to do with the machine not being 'ready' quite yet

any ideas how to fix this one ?

other than......making a wrapper to gameex.exe

[alexdog69]

my hunch, based on this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...mode=linearplus

is that running the VNC service is somehow .... pissing it off. and vnc service is starting WHILE gameex is in the middle of first loading and somehow things get confused.

hmmm. im not really sure what to do about this. i'd like to leave the VNC intact honestly since .... well, the garage is freaking cold and my pc as a vnc client is a much more cozy way to deal with configuring the machine since i have, well, .... heat, my homemade recaro car seat office chair and dual head linux can't really say that about the cab =)

[alexdog69]

hmmm, no, disabling vnc doesn't help. hrm. not sure what to do here just yet.

does seem to be a bug related to that 0mb video ram thing though since that is the only delta from when it works to when it doesn't.

[bkenobi]

I don't know about VNC being a problem, but if you want another way to login remotely to a WinXP system, you can enable terminal services (remote desktop) with concurrent logins. It's essentially turning on a built-in feature that was disabled for home use. The system just needs to be told that it can have multiple simultaneous logins.

Try this patch... It changes the terminal services DLL to the one used with an earlier build of WinXP that still had multiple simultaneous logins enabled. This patch is a single executable that does everything for you. I've been using it on 2 systems for around 3 computer years with no problems.

[iano]

i notice that when i replaced explorer.exe with gameex, using the instantsheller program.....

sometimes gameex comes up and it can't load any snaps/background. (i'm using background/fullscreen snaps btw).

basically gameex loads up instead of explorer but i always get a black background. if i restart gameex its ok.

also i dont get any intro sound.

anyone else have this problem?

Do you have a vertical monitor ? Why is GameEX trying to rotate the display ? I don't know why i'm just looking at the log. Video card driver/ codecs ?

[headkaze]

Here's a possibility... Your video card uses RAM from your PC (some onboard cards do this), and upon bootup it requires loading of it's driver to initiate the memory to use from RAM. GameEx could be loading before the driver/software for the video is loaded. That would explain the 0 MB on initial bootup. Solution: Buy a video card. But this is only a hunch.

I think something you could test though is to create a batch file that waits before launching GameEx. Place the batch file as your Shell instead of GameEx. Use a utility like Wait to wait, say 30 seconds (for testing) and see if it gives enough time for everything in the background to load. You could then lower the waiting time if it works.

-- LaunchGameEx.bat --

@ECHO OFF
Wait 30
GameEx

Place the batch file along with Wait.exe to your GameEx folder, then use InstantSheller to start up LaunchGameEx.bat.

EDIT: I just had a realisation that Window's may in fact wait for the shell to load before moving on to loading the rest of the programs on startup. In this case you will have to create another batch file to run the other, and place it as your Shell instead.

-- LaunchBat.bat --

@ECHO OFF
start LaunchGameEx.bat

Then set LaunchBat.bat as your Shell.

[alexdog69]

well, its a NVIDIA 7600GS so it should be fine. im not quite sure what's going on here.

as far as replacing the shell with an app to introduce a delay before loading GAMEEX.EXE, i think thats my next step if i can't isolate this problem.

probably a AHK exe .. not sure if i can use a .BAT as the win32 shell?

the rotate thing --im not using any rotate stuff, i think its just a standard log entry for people who wonder why it doesnt work @1024x768+ etc

and yes thanks for the tip i figured i would try RDP out if VNC turned out to be the issue..but it doesnt seem to be.

[headkaze]

I would check to see if the video card is seated properly in the motherboard. Might not be plugged in quite right.

[alexdog69]

the problem seems to have been related to my disappearing jukebox/etc under the multimedia menu. i had deleted my second partition (that will be used only for MP3s/videos/photos) when i resized my emu/rom partition... after i recreated it and set up the folders both bugs stopped. kinda strange since the snap bug was only happening on the first load (windows shell) of gameex...killing & rerunning from task manager would fix the snaps (not the multimedia stuff though).

heh too many variables .

thanks