Windows 7 - Error Sound (Dur-dur!) Every 20 Seconds

[StalkS]

Hi there,

I am having a really weird issue with a Windows 7 Ultimate (32-Bit) and a GameEx 11 install, Hopefully someone can help.

Basically, I have reinstalled a couple of times now but always have the same issue - every time I start up GameEx on my home theatre system no matter which menu screen I am in, the windows default beep (Dur!-Dur!) repeats itself every 20 â?? 30 seconds!! I am just about to throw it all through the window.

I have noticed that when the sound happens the CPU use spikes, not to 100% but around the 60% mark. There are no obvious errors in the event viewer and from what I can tell nothing obvious in the GameEx log. The noise stops once a game is loaded so I am assuming it is something to do with GameEx?

The machine should have more than enough grunt for the job itâ??s a Dual Core Intel 2ghz Processor with 4gb Ram and 3Tbâ??s of Raid 5 storage.

I have attached my log file and config in case I have someone can spot something obvious.

Any help Advice would be warmly received.

Regards

StalkS

GameEx.txt

log.txt

[StalkS]

OK, I had a quick look at the device manager when GameEx was running. It seems that a HID (Human Interface Device) was trying to activate and was going round in a vicious circle. I have now disabled this device and all sees ok. Any Ideas as to what this could have been?

On another note my Icons have stopped working. Time to trawl through the forums

Regards

StalkS

[Tom Speirs]

I think you may need to update the MAME game list to get your ICONS back. If there the icons yout referring too.

[Tom Speirs]

EDIT: Actually looks like an issue with ICONS. Taking a look now.

EDIT 2: The ICONS are fixed in 11.02

[StalkS]

EDIT: Actually looks like an issue with ICONS. Taking a look now.

EDIT 2: The ICONS are fixed in 11.02

Great News! Thanks for the quick fix.

StalkS

[fRequEnCy]

EDIT: Actually looks like an issue with ICONS. Taking a look now.

EDIT 2: The ICONS are fixed in 11.02

Working great now. Thanks Tom!

[StalkS]

Seems I spoke too soon. I have just realised that the LCD display on my home theatre system is not working!! It seems that the HID device I disabled in Device manager is actually something to do with the iMon control system. Has anyone else run into incompatibiltes between iMon and GameEx?

It would be a real shame not to be able to use GameEx because I cannot get the bloody beeping to stop!

Any ideas?

Regards

StalkS

[StalkS]

Ok,

Well I managed to find a solution of sorts. I did some research into disabling devices via the command line and came across ‘devcon’ a Microsoft tool found Here. With a little more searching I also found this page with useful examples of how to deploy devcon. Here

So the steps:

1. I copied the 386 ‘devcon.exe’ executable in my system32 folder.
   
2. I then ran the following command in an elevated command prompt (elevated = right-click on the cmd icon and select run as administrator) to generate a text file with all my current devices
   devcon find *> list.txt (This puts a file called list.txt into your system 32 folder)
   
3. I then browsed the text file and looked for any ‘HID-compliant devices’ The first result was actually the one I was after (it could be that the results are shown in the same order as those in Device Manager):
   HID\VID_15C2&PID_0038&MI_01\7&7995FBA&0&0000 : HID-compliant device
   
4. The command to disable a device using devcon is as follows - devcon disable “@ the hardware id”
   So I tried the following: devcon disable "@HID\VID_15C2&PID_0038&MI_01\7&7995FBA&0&0000"
   Woohoo it worked no iMon LCD
   And to re-enable: devcon enable "@HID\VID_15C2&PID_0038&MI_01\7&7995FBA&0&0000"
   Boom! It worked as well!!
   

So now I have created two batch files, one to be launched on startup and the other to be launched on the exit of GameEx . This should resolve my issue with iMon LCD. The only small hitch is that Windows 7 UAC pops when they run so I need to work on solution for that.

Maybe this will help someone in the future.

All the best

StalkS

[T-Jay]

I have the same issue with my HTPC, with my imon VFD, but there is a fix. And a reason why....

'This problem occurs because Windows DirectInput Device Enumeration API function requests the device description string of iMON hardware even it talks to Windows that it does not support the description string.

When some games or Windows Control Panels Game Controllers is running, the problem that iMON device is disconnected and then connected repeatedly occurs with some models and some versions of iMON hardware.' - From soundgraphs site.

In order to avoid this problem, iMON device should be disabled before the Windows DirectInput Device Enumeration API function is called. Because some games and Windows Control Panels Game Controllers call this API function periodically, it would be better disable iMON device before these programs are running and enable it again after exiting these programs

The problem seems to be windows, NOT the LCD/VFD's as soundgraphs users think otherwise. For IMON users, go to this link for the app to disable/enable the imon device.

http://www.soundgraph.com/forums/faq.php?faq=sg_faq_sw_imon_manager_g_01#faq_sg_faq_software_products_gamecontrol

There are ways and means on adding a shortcut into more programs in media center. The best program I found to do this was media senter studio, as you can add menu strips and programs to media center. All you need to do though is remember to switch off the Imon device before connecting your game controllers and running GameEx!!

[StalkS]

Hey Thanks T-jay,

I'll give that ago. The Devcon solution works very well but it did mean that I had to lower my UAC hopefully the solution you found will resolve this.

Thanks again

StalkS

EDIT: UAC is still an issue with the iMon app. But on the whole it's an easy solution. The Devcon was kinda fun to learn.

[T-Jay]

I fogot to add that bit, the lowering of the UAC, but, if it's a media center PC, and 'all' it's doing is grabbing the guide, GameEX Live and a few apps that you have installed, it's 'kinda' safer. I know this sounds like the old cliche, but if you have a good anti-virus and firewall, and don't surf the 'net like you do on a standard PC, then it should be ok.

Bear in mind I have had this problem since last year since I bought my case with an Imon VFD, and (crossed fingers) had no isues at all.

EDIT: - In the set-up wizard under 'tweaks and performance' if you add the EnableDisableImon executable to 'launch on startup' and on 'Launch on Exit, GameEx can do this automatically. Makes it a lot easier...I've just found this out hehehe

[Stu1983]

I've just encountered this same problem and although the EnableDisableImon.exe was working 90% of the time last night today it just always says enabling for some reason so I decided to give the devcon method a go.

The problem is the Microsoft don't supply a x64 version of devcon in their package, they only have the i386 and an ia64 (which is not the same as x64)

The i386 version will list devices ok but can't seem to enable or disable them.

To get the x64 version you have to download the Windows Driver Kit which is 600mb so here is the x64 devcon.exe extracted from the WDK, hopefully this will save someone else from having to download the full kit

The devcon method seems much more reliable than the EnableDisableImon.exe though the EnableDisableImon.exe method had the nice touch of turning the lcd off rather than causing it to freeze like devcon does

Stu

devconx64.zip

[fRequEnCy]

Thanks for the fix guys. Is very useful to the community for users who have this issue.

[Traffik]

Guys I have this problem with my imon display too and was very pleased to see this thread.

However, I have tried all the things suggested here and nothing is working for me.

Im running Win7 64bit.

The enable/disable imon program from Soundgraph does not disable the device in the device manager, it only quits the program that runs on Windows and does therefore not resolve the problem for me at all.

Not only that but if I run this enable/disable program using the launch and startup feature in gameex it hangs.

The batch files route using devcon seemed to me to be the best option. I created my batch files and tested them and it works prefectly. However, when executing these batch files using the launchatstartup feature in gameex nothing happens. The batch files dont run at all. I have tried setting them to run as administrator, but the option is greyed out. I have tried creating shortcuts and running them as administrator but again nothing.

What am I doing wrong??