MAME loosing focus

[emphatic]

I'm connecting my laptop to my cabinet and running MAME + a couple of PC games. However, when launching the MAME games, HideOS seems to steal the focus (not everytime though) and I have to ALT+Tab to get to the game of choice. How do I find out why? It seems like games that loads the fastest mostly. The PC games works flawlessly. I'm using a custom build (0.122 built with Headkaze's app) without warnings etc.

Emph

[headkaze]

What do you mean by "connecting my laptop to my cabinet" do you mean by Remote Desktop?

[bkenobi]

I think he said something about using his laptop for the system in his cabinet a while back (as in, instead of having a PC in there all the time, he plugs it in when he wants to use the cab...from another thread). In any case, it sounds to me like you may be launching a program via launch before or something that's not playing nice.

The other thing that could be going on is anti-virus. Perhaps this only happens each time you play a game for the first time? If so, then maybe the anti-virus program scans the archive prior to letting you access its contents (it is a zip file afterall).

[emphatic]

Sorry for the lack of info. I connect the laptop with a J-Pac when I want to play PC games or ridicolously expensive shmups in MAME. Otherwise I play my JAMMA pcbs. No remote stuff no. I just don't have room for a dedicated MAME PC atm.

No Antivirus installed. Can a virus cause the behaviour? MSN? Windowblinds? I'll try to shut down an app at a time. Pehaps in the Wiki a list of "disturbing apps" would be good? Or is it a graphic driver issue? I'm running Omega Drivers 3.8.421 on my ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 with Soft15hz @ 640x480.

Emph

[bkenobi]

The reason you lose focus of MAME is because something else is taking it. I suggested a program being launched at runtime and anti-virus because those are the two I consider most likely. It's possible that the resolution change from GameEx to MAME could cause this if the drivers take focus momentarily I suppose. One thought is make sure you have GameEx set to NOT change the resolution.

[emphatic]

I'll try the "not change resolution" tip next time I hook it up to the cabinet. Thanks.

Emph

[Tom Speirs]

I'll try the "not change resolution" tip next time I hook it up to the cabinet. Thanks.

Emph

Let me know as I like to nip things like this in the bugd If your still having trouble please post your log. I know Ive seen weird stuff happen with Vista with stealing focus.. Are you running Vista?

[Brian Hoffman]

Let me know as I like to nip things like this in the bugd If your still having trouble please post your log. I know Ive seen weird stuff happen with Vista with stealing focus.. Are you running Vista?

I use vista and a compiled bersion of mame. I dont seem to have these issues. Just thought Id chime in.

Take care

Brian hoffman

[emphatic]

I'm running Win XP Home Edition (my laptop is a couple of years old). I'm gonna try disabling SpywareBlaster as I suspect it could be one reason. Perhaps I will have time to test this tonight.

Emph

[emphatic]

Here's my command line for MAME:

-resolution 640x480@60 -video d3d -noflt -joy

.

I tried running GameEx with "GameEx will not change resolution", but then I got graphics in GameEx cut off, so I changed it back to running in 800 x 600.

I also tried setting MAME command line to run games in 800x600@60, and it looks the same.

he weird thing is that I pressed 'printscrn' in MAME running 1943 and the screen dump in clipboard (after GameEx was exited) was 1024x768. So I'm really confused, as this is my standard way of checking what resolution is running in a game. It seems like GameEx setting 800x600 is ignored by MAME (as it should) as well as the 640x480 I've set for MAME.

I've shut off SpywareBlaster protection (so this might be the solution for me when playing games). Focus seems to work.

Emph

[emphatic]

Tested with the SpywareBlaster "off". MAME games seems to run just fine now. I also updated GameEx from 9.16 -> 9.19, not that I think it matters, but for your information.

Emph