Big issue that started in 9.X. Games often don't launch property after startup.

[Arcade1993]

Hello! 

I've been using LaunchBox for about 2 years now, ever since I finished my MAME cabinet. I never had an issue until the 9.x update. I am currently on the latest version. I am running MAME 0.203.

Ever since updating, I always have an issue launching my first game. For example, I'll click on Street Fighter 2 in Big Box mode. 9 times out of 10 it will start correctly flashing the buttons and speak its commands (LEDBlinky) and everything will go well. But then the game will never start. I will either get a black screen, or it will get stuck at the first screen where MAME tells you the info like screen res and such. I always have to force close Big Box and then start it up again, and then everything works fine. 

Obviously this is a pretty big issue because my young children want to play it sometimes when I am not home and it's not easy explaining to them or my wife how to force close a program and then open it again, especially with arcade controls. 

Does anybody know what changed from 8.x to 9.x that is causing this?  I doubt it's my computer as it's an i7 @ 4.0ghz with 12GB of RAM and an SSD. And this issue did not exist with 8.X for me. I disabled "show loading screen" but that didn't seem to fix it. I even have issues sometimes when I exit games, where I exit and it takes forever and I have to force exit (kill Big Box then open it again), though this exiting issue is a lot less common than the startup one. 

I am running Windows 10 Pro. 

Any info would be greatly appreciated! 

[Retro808]

The biggest update was likely the implementation of Startup screens in 9.2. To date Mame has worked without issue for the vast majority of users. Some have noted some problems though. Try turning off Startups for Mame and see if it helps. >Tools>Manage Emulators - Edit Mame and go to the Startups tab. 

Additionally, you can try tinkering with the settings in the tab to see if it helps when you have it on. 

 

[Arcade1993]

1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

The biggest update was likely the implementation of Startup screens in 9.2. To date Mame has worked without issue for the vast majority of users. Some have noted some problems though. Try turning off Startups for Mame and see if it helps. >Tools>Manage Emulators - Edit Mame and go to the Startups tab. 

Additionally, you can try tinkering with the settings in the tab to see if it helps when you have it on. 

  

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately this did not fix anything. 

I did notice an oddity with 9.x that also might shed light onto it. In 8.X and lower, I would select my game, it would say out loud "Street Fighter 2" and then would start blinking the buttons and telling me what each button does (via LEDBlinky). In 8.x if I pressed any button it would stop the voice announcement of the buttons and would then proceed to load the game. That no longer happens in 9.X. If I press a button to skip it, it just keeps repeating the buttons over and over, every time I press. When the game finally loads, it tries to load a ton of MAME.EXE processes. So If I tried to skip it 3 times, it will load up 3 instances of MAME. 

Did 9.x change the way it handles LEDBlinky or something? To tell you the truth I am not even sure it's related, but it's something that also happens randomly. Sometimes it loads the game properly and lets me skip the instructions as well!

[Arcade1993]

I made a video of the issue:

 

 

[Retro808]

If you revert back to one of the prior versions you remember it working with does the issue go away? If you look in your /Launchbox/Updates folder you can see prior version. You can choose one you know worked and reinstall it. It will not hurt any of your media or game imports. 

I honestly cannot recall if anyone has posted LEDBlinky issues with the latest releases. 

 

[twobucks]

I also have a cabinet setup with mame version 185,  ledblinky 6.6.0.1 and bigbox 9.7. Everything on my end works including startup screens, lights, and speech. I have witnessed some minor issues with ledblinky getting confused on which rom it lights buttons for but nothing like your experiencing. Is your ledblinky version up to date?

Edited May 10, 2019 by twobucks

[Arcade1993]

12 hours ago, Retro808 said:

If you revert back to one of the prior versions you remember it working with does the issue go away? If you look in your /Launchbox/Updates folder you can see prior version. You can choose one you know worked and reinstall it. It will not hurt any of your media or game imports. 

 I honestly cannot recall if anyone has posted LEDBlinky issues with the latest releases. 

  

OK I installed version 8.9 but I get these two errors upon launching (not sure if it's related) and then Big Box opens and just freezes when it opens and refuses to do anything. 

2 hours ago, twobucks said:

I also have a cabinet setup with mame version 185,  ledblinky 6.6.0.1 and bigbox 9.7. Everything on my end works including startup screens, lights, and speech. I have witnessed some minor issues with ledblinky getting confused on which rom it lights buttons for but nothing like your experiencing. Is your ledblinky version up to date?

Yeah I am on the latest MAME and the latest LEDBlinky

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Arcade1993 said:

OK I installed version 8.9 but I get these two errors upon launching (not sure if it's related) and then Big Box opens and just freezes when it opens and refuses to do anything. 

Yeah I am on the latest MAME and the latest LEDBlinky

VLC was updated recently, so rolling back has to use the older version, but the updated one is still in the folder. Just close launchbox, and delete the Launchbox/VLC folder, and re-open Launchbox. It will re-create the now missing VLC folder at launch.

[Arcade1993]

OK so I ran it again after deleting the VLC folder and those pop-up errors disappeared. However, I am still having the LEDBlinky issue. 

I think it might have something to do with how LaunchBox talks to MAME in the MAME versions released in the past 6 months or so. All these issues started creeping up when I updated MAME. I had no idea how MAME could effect any of this but apparently it is because I am using the same LEDBlinky version, and now verified that the older LaunchBox still gives me issues. 

The MAME version before the latest I noticed I had an issue where a lot of times my MAME games would not boot full screen. This happened right after I updated MAME. I didn't think of it until now. Is there something new in MAME since, around mid summer last year or so, that would affect the way it talks to LaunchBox and/or LEDBlinky?

[twobucks]

Did you try regenerating the mame.xml file using the 203 version and ensure ledblinky is pointing to the new file?

[Arcade1993]

On 5/10/2019 at 6:36 PM, twobucks said:

Did you try regenerating the mame.xml file using the 203 version and ensure ledblinky is pointing to the new file?

Did you mean the mame.ini file?

[twobucks]

No, There is a mame.xml that is generated using the -listxml command from mame. I would suggest regenerating this file since you did upgrade your mame version. I don't remember the full command but if you check the mame documentation it should tell you how to generate the file.

I believe for the mame.ini file the only setting you need to be concerned with is making sure the "OSD output setting" is set to "windows". Did you regenerate the mame.ini file when you upgraded mame or did you just copy your old mame.ini? This could cause problems if config options have changed between versions of mame.

Now go into LED blinky config and make sure the mame tab has all the paths setup correctly.  If you installed the new version of mame in a new folder then your paths may be wrong.  Here is a screenshot of what mine looks like

If you still having trouble i would suggest checking out this video on youtube which takes you step by step integrating LEDblinky to mame using a launchbox frontend.  My thought is when you upgraded mame something in the ledblinky config may have gotten broken.

 

 

[Arcade1993]

Thanks but I have determined the issue is not LEDBlinky by renaming the LEDBlinky.exe to LEDBlinky2.exe so it would not load up. Unfortunately, MAME has a huge issue loading with BigBox still. 

Basically when I first go to a game after BigBox starts, the game refuses to start. I can hit enter in Big Box 5 times and nothing will happen. Then like a minute later it tries to open like 5 instances of MAME (one for every time I pressed it) which completely screws my computer up to the point where pressing WIN+D won't even give me my desktop. I have to wait a while (about 2-3 minutes) before everything will finally close. Then when I start BigBox up again and select a game, the issue goes away. But this is a very big issue to be dealing with. None of my kids or tech-unsavvy friends are ever going to want to play this thing like that. 

I thought it could be that maybe some weird process was starting with my computer that was revving my CPU up to 100% or something, but I checked task manager and the CPU never went over 12%. BigBox seemed to use a LOT of RAM (800 MB when I checked, which seems like a lot since I have the least-flashy setup possible), but I have 12GB of RAM regardless.  I have no idea what else I can try here. I can start a new thread if I got too off the original topic since I now know LEDBlinky is not to blame. 

Also remember that I did nothing to this computer besides update MAME and BigBox at the same time. I didn't install anything new. My cabinet isn't even connected to the internet. So I have no clue what is going on.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Arcade1993

[Retro808]

If you run just Mame and LEDBlinky without Launchbox does the issue still persist?

[Arcade1993]

6 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

If you run just Mame and LEDBlinky without Launchbox does the issue still persist?

I am going to sound like such an idiot but I have no idea how to do that (and I am pretty good with computers). I mean I can find the command prompt I need to run MAME and load Killer Instinct but I have no clue how to tell it to use LEDBlinky as LEDBlinky is set up to use Big Box. 

[twobucks]

Hmmmm, i didnt know you were still having issues with bigbox opening five instances. I had assumed you got that sorted. Yeah i agree that ledblinky is not the problem in this case. If i get time this weekend i will add a new version of mame (version 203 or greater)to launchbox and a couple roms to see if i get the same issue. 

I have been debating updating my mame set and this will be a good test.

 

 

[Arcade1993]

7 hours ago, twobucks said:

Hmmmm, i didnt know you were still having issues with bigbox opening five instances. I had assumed you got that sorted. Yeah i agree that ledblinky is not the problem in this case. If i get time this weekend i will add a new version of mame (version 203 or greater)to launchbox and a couple roms to see if i get the same issue. 

 I have been debating updating my mame set and this will be a good test.

 

 

I greatly appreciate that. And yeah, updating MAME and the ROMset is such an aggravating process that I too only do it maybe once per year.

[Arcade1993]

Oh and I want to make it clear that LEDBlinky was not the problem.

[twobucks]

Ok, i added mame 202 and so far i didnt run into any issues. I added mame 202 and 202 roms that were new since the 185 set. I had no lockup issues opening and closing mame 202 games in bigbox. Ledblinky is also working fine. How often would the lockup happen to you and any particular games that would cause it?

[Arcade1993]

On 5/19/2019 at 10:00 PM, twobucks said:

Ok, i added mame 202 and so far i didnt run into any issues. I added mame 202 and 202 roms that were new since the 185 set. I had no lockup issues opening and closing mame 202 games in bigbox. Ledblinky is also working fine. How often would the lockup happen to you and any particular games that would cause it?

Thanks for the reply. 

It happens with any ROM. It could be Pac-man, it does not matter. The lockup *always* happens if I try to load a game within a few minutes of Windows 10 booting up. After the first round of it locking up, it will always work fine. However, this is not a good solution because the entire reason I bought an SSD and Windows 10 was for the incredibly fast boot-up time. Adding an extra 5-10 minutes is not really acceptable. Especially because there's no way if my kids go to play it that I am going to have them hook up a keyboard to force close LaunchBox and MAME every single time. Also, force closing takes forever to work. It takes a good minute of waiting just to show the desktop when I press Win+D or CTRL ALT DEL. It is completely unresponsive this entire time. 

Any help would be incredibly appreciated!