[RESOLVED] Gameex pausing before Startup

[Rodney]

I have been a user of Gameex for a couple of years now. As of this week during an update I noticed during startup a long pause would occur directly after the intro video. The screen freezes and then distorts the menu before starting. I am using a modified V3 theme that I have been using for 4 years. I have only had this problem for two weeks. I am at a loss on what is causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

Gameex config.txt

[Draco1962]

Rodney - the attachment appears to be a partial log file. Please attach a copy of the entire log.txt file and gameex.ini file. Thanks!

[Rodney]

Rodney - the attachment appears to be a partial log file. Please attach a copy of the entire log.txt file and gameex.ini file. Thanks!

Sorry about that mate I hope these are the files you are looking for. I also tried this on a completely different machine with the same issue.

log.txt

[Rodney]

I had to rename my Gameex ini file in order for it to attach.But nevertheless here it is.

Gameex Config file.txt

[Adultery]

If it's anything to you I'm having the same issue with a 60-second pause after my intro logo goes by but before the menu loads the list of options up. I've noticed nothing new or unusual in the log and haven't made any changes at all to my machine. It's only started since 10.82 update. If anyone can tell me an easy way to do a video capture (free) I'll upload a video of this happening.

Hmm, I noticed you're also using GameExtender (as am I), wonder if the delay is related to that? Can you try and disable GameExtender and run it again and see if that helps?

[Rodney]

Hmm, I noticed you're also using GameExtender (as am I), wonder if the delay is related to that? Can you try and disable GameExtender and run it again and see if that helps?

I disable the game extender and I still having the same issue good thought though. On my laptop I reverted to the backup folder and updated with the same issue. I normally do not ask for help in fact this is my first time. I am stuck on this problem and do not know the solution.

I also am using an intro video but this does not seem to be related to the problem since during the long pause my menu distorts after a few seconds and then is normal. This all happens consistently.

[Draco1962]

Are either of you using the "Pop-up Descriptions" option? If so, you may want to try disabling this option via the Setup Wizard under Display Settings to see if this speeds things up.

[Adultery]

No Drac, my theme doesn't support pop up descriptions.

I'm gonna try and reinstall the Shark007 Codec Pack and see if that makes a difference.

[Rodney]

Are either of you using the "Pop-up Descriptions" option? If so, you may want to try disabling this option via the Setup Wizard under Display Settings to see if this speeds things up.

I disable the Popup description option and this made no change to the speed. I also made a video of the start up but it will not let me attach it here. This seems more like a glitch rather than a process error. Thanks for the comments I am willing to try anything.

[Rodney]

No Drac, my theme doesn't support pop up descriptions.

I'm gonna try and reinstall the Shark007 Codec Pack and see if that makes a difference.

I am also using shark 007 let me know if that changes anything. Since I do have that on every system I own.

[Rodney]

Here is a video I made of the problem that I am having

GameEx 2011-06-28 08-06-48-12.zip

[Draco1962]

I'd be curious to see if there are any events showing in the diagnostic logs on the PC at about the time GameEx is loaded. There wasn't anything notable in the log file.

[Adultery]

Headkaze suggested I do the same, but I won't have time until tomorrow or Thursday. I will get back to you on that.

And for the record, reinstalling the codec pack did not work either.

@Drac: just wanted to mention that if you look at the time from "testing main loop succeeded" and "exiting gameex" it's almost exactly 58 seconds. It's a good minute before you can select anything and this is nearly identical on my rig. It can't be coincidence...

@Rodney: Do you use any kind of A/V software? If so what is it? Also what kind of video card do you use? It may just be coincidence but this only just started happening to me when the comlib for playing hi-def snaps came into the mix.

[Rodney]

Headkaze suggested I do the same, but I won't have time until tomorrow or Thursday. I will get back to you on that.

And for the record, reinstalling the codec pack did not work either.

@Drac: just wanted to mention that if you look at the time from "testing main loop succeeded" and "exiting gameex" it's almost exactly 58 seconds. It's a good minute before you can select anything and this is nearly identical on my rig. It can't be coincidence...

@Rodney: Do you use any kind of A/V software? If so what is it? Also what kind of video card do you use? It may just be coincidence but this only just started happening to me when the comlib for playing hi-def snaps came into the mix.

I am using an ATI 5770 with the latest video driver I first thought the driver was the issue so I updated it with no change. On my laptop the video card is a 6750 with is basically a 5770 desktop equal. On my laptop I was using no Antivirus software. On my HTPC I am using AVAST. I will add an exception tomorrow and disable to verify that. Both systems are very well equipped to handle anything although I know that this does not matter with emulators and Gui's. For the record I had to send my 5770 for repair and was using onboard video with the same problem. I actually was hoping it was the codec pack

[Draco1962]

OK, one other thing - are any files being loaded from an external or secondary hard drive? If an internal secondary drive, make sure that there are no settings in Windows that would cause the drive to spin down after a certain amount of time and that indexing service is disabled for all drives. Both of these will cause latency. Not sure how you would control spin-down on an external drive. I may have better luck pissing on a spark plug, but wanted to make sure that was ruled-out as a possible cause.

[Adultery]

@Drac: I do use external drives but indexing is off on both and never had a problem with "spin down" before.

@Rodney: Here's the thing: I also use an ATI card, but mine's a Sapphire 4650. Wonder if that's a problem all the sudden? That would suck balls if it were, never had any reason not to love ATI cards. My lappy uses an nVidia card so I'm gonna test the same install on that and see if it also has this problem.

Looking for similarities in both our machines, do you use mapped network drives or shared network folders at all? I'm just grabbing at straws now. Oh and let me save you another step. I also use Avast and disabled it (I already had an exception added for the GameEx folder). No change there unfortunately. I'm running out of things to look at here. I will be digging through system logs tomorrow, and I'll try out this Process Logger app Ben told me about.

I may have some more questions for you though, so stick around. We'll nail this thing, I promise.

[Draco1962]

I'd like to know what process logger you will be using as I have had a few hiccups on my end that I would like to investigate. If I can think of anything else for you to shoot down as a possible cause I will post it! The joys of troubleshooting from the 2nd person perspective!

[Rodney]

@Drac: I do use external drives but indexing is off on both and never had a problem with "spin down" before.

@Rodney: Here's the thing: I also use an ATI card, but mine's a Sapphire 4650. Wonder if that's a problem all the sudden? That would suck balls if it were, never had any reason not to love ATI cards. My lappy uses an nVidia card so I'm gonna test the same install on that and see if it also has this problem.

Looking for similarities in both our machines, do you use mapped network drives or shared network folders at all? I'm just grabbing at straws now. Oh and let me save you another step. I also use Avast and disabled it (I already had an exception added for the GameEx folder). No change there unfortunately. I'm running out of things to look at here. I will be digging through system logs tomorrow, and I'll try out this Process Logger app Ben told me about.

I may have some more questions for you though, so stick around. We'll nail this thing, I promise.

I share folders over my network. I do not use external hard drives. In fact I have been using the same configuration for the past four years the only thing I would change is the hardware and then do an update of the latest gameex version. When I first noticed the problem is when I done an update it almost seems like it is related to video thumbs. The reason why I say this is because when I initially load gameex after the pause my videos do not display until I move to the cursor. Of course I will stick around I want to find the answer myself

I will check the logs on my windows setup as well to see any possible problems.

[Rodney]

I share folders over my network. I do not use external hard drives. In fact I have been using the same configuration for the past four years the only thing I would change is the hardware and then do an update of the latest gameex version. When I first noticed the problem is when I done an update it almost seems like it is related to video thumbs. The reason why I say this is because when I initially load gameex after the pause my videos do not display until I move to the cursor. Of course I will stick around I want to find the answer myself

I will check the logs on my windows setup as well to see any possible problems.

Are you using video thumbs on the menu?

[Rodney]

I ran my event logger and could not find any errors I was hoping it was do to some common glitch through windows. I am using Windows 7 64bit SP1. Two weeks ago I did install service pack 1 on all my machines. I know that service pack 1 made a lot of changes in regards to video.

[Adultery]

I'm on XP SP3 though... I do use video thumbs actually. So for now, it seems we both have networked drives and video thumbs in common, so it's time to start looking at these two things. I'm around for the rest of the day and I will be doing some extensive testing. I have some ideas on where to start looking, so hang on a bit. I'll keep you posted.

:UPDATE: Well I looked at a lot of stuff, watched processes, disabled and enabled stuff, and found nothing. I'm starting to think this is related somehow to .net framework 4, it's the only real update that's happened as best I can recall. My last option is to try and uninstall that and see what happens.

[Rodney]

I'm on XP SP3 though... I do use video thumbs actually. So for now, it seems we both have networked drives and video thumbs in common, so it's time to start looking at these two things. I'm around for the rest of the day and I will be doing some extensive testing. I have some ideas on where to start looking, so hang on a bit. I'll keep you posted.

:UPDATE: Well I looked at a lot of stuff, watched processes, disabled and enabled stuff, and found nothing. I'm starting to think this is related somehow to .net framework 4, it's the only real update that's happened as best I can recall. My last option is to try and uninstall that and see what happens.

That is a good clue I will try to do the same thing. Although it may cause a problem with my MY MOVIES software.

[Adultery]

To save you a step, it's not.

I'm out of ideas here.

[fRequEnCy]

@ Rodney! I just downloaded your video file. Kinda hard to tell from my end but looks like your background is shifting a bit. If so then try this. If not then sorry. Report back and we'll troubleshoot from there.

[Rodney]

@ Rodney! I just downloaded your video file. Kinda hard to tell from my end but looks like your background is shifting a bit. If so then try this. If not then sorry. Report back and we'll troubleshoot from there.

It was indeed set to true since I run an animated background. I set the value to false to see if it made any difference and it did not. I still have the long pause and the subsequent menu distortion pause before going to normal. Thanks anyway I appreciate the idea.