Unable to start MAME

[degetalwolf]

Hi Guys,

Hoping for some help. I've managed to get BB working with most emus but I'm hitting issues with MAME. It won't start at all, even outside of BB/LB. All I get is a glimpse of a command prompt and then nothing.

I've tried installing the latest driver for my graphics (a 1060), as well as a few other things I've seen, but still nothing. Open to any ideas from anyone as I'm quite stumped!

[neil9000]

4 minutes ago, degetalwolf said:

Hi Guys,

Hoping for some help. I've managed to get BB working with most emus but I'm hitting issues with MAME. It won't start at all, even outside of BB/LB. All I get is a glimpse of a command prompt and then nothing.

I've tried installing the latest driver for my graphics (a 1060), as well as a few other things I've seen, but still nothing. Open to any ideas from anyone as I'm quite stumped!

Does your romset version match your emulator version?

[degetalwolf]

Yep - I've downloaded 0220 today and the romset I have is the 0220 ROMs (split)

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, degetalwolf said:

Yep - I've downloaded 0220 today and the romset I have is the 0220 ROMs (split)

Have you told MAME where you roms are located if not in the MAME/roms folder?

[degetalwolf]

That's the issue really - I can't even get into MAME to do that  But the roms are all in the MAME/roms folder

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, degetalwolf said:

That's the issue really - I can't even get into MAME to do that  But the roms are all in the MAME/roms folder

So double clicking mame64.exe doesnt open MAME? did you download the wrong version?

[degetalwolf]

No - it displays for a fraction of a second a command prompt window and then does nothing. So it does nothing at all, randomly. 

I downloaded the mame0220b_64bit version earlier - I assumed that was the right one.

[Headrush69]

4 hours ago, degetalwolf said:

No - it displays for a fraction of a second a command prompt window and then does nothing. So it does nothing at all, randomly. 

I downloaded the mame0220b_64bit version earlier - I assumed that was the right one.

That's strange as it should start MAME with the builtin UI without requiring any roms.

Can you open a Command Prompt or Power Shell and navigate to the MAME directory and run

Quote

./mame64.exe -v

and post the results. (or see if you see the error)

[degetalwolf]

Cheers man - here's what I've got

Attempting load of mame.ini
Parsing mame.ini
Attempting load of mame.ini
Parsing mame.ini
Reading translation file English: 1 strings, original table at word offset 7, translated table at word offset 9
Loaded 0 translations from file English
Starting plugin data...
Attempting load of mame.ini
Parsing mame.ini
Attempting load of mame.ini
Parsing mame.ini
Video: Monitor                                                            65537 = "\\.\DISPLAY1" (primary)
Direct3D: Using Direct3D 9
Physical width 1920, height 1080
Direct3D: Initialize
Direct3D: Configuring adapter #0 = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Direct3D: Using dynamic textures
Direct3D: YUV format = RGB
Direct3D: Max texture size = 16384x16384
Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)
Unable to initialize Direct3D 9
Fatal error: Unable to complete window creation

Should not that before running this I don't think I had the .ini - I ran another command first (mame64.exe -cc) to get that sorted.

Since getting this error I've tried installing files from here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

But still no luck  says that I have newer files installed already

[degetalwolf]

All working guys. Did a hard shutdown after sorting the ini and I think that resolved it, as that was the only real change made I think.

Thanks for the help!

[spiderman1234]

can you give me more detail degetalwolf im having issues on this same video cadr.

[donpachi]

Hello,

 

I have downloaded MAME V0,0242 and installed Launchbox and roms as described. However, Mame does not launch. I have the same error description:

Can anyone give advice?

Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)
Unable to initialize Direct3D 9
Fatal error: Unable to complete window creation

 

Can anyone give advice?

 

thank you

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, donpachi said:

Hello,

 

I have downloaded MAME V0,0242 and installed Launchbox and roms as described. However, Mame does not launch. I have the same error description:

Can anyone give advice?

Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)
Unable to initialize Direct3D 9
Fatal error: Unable to complete window creation

 

Can anyone give advice?

 

thank you

That is a graphics driver issue, i would check that your GPU drivers are up to date, and i would instal directx9 as well.

[donpachi]

thank you! This solved the problem..

Cheers

[FrailMachine]

I have the same issue but I already have DirectX9 and updated Drivers(to get M2 emulator working).  Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

6 hours ago, FrailMachine said:

I have the same issue but I already have DirectX9 and updated Drivers(to get M2 emulator working).  Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)

You can try using the opengl renderer. Open mame.ini with a text editor. Under [# OSD VIDEO OPTIONS] set [Video] to [opengl].

[mgiampa]

Hi. So I was trying to get the games to display on the proper screen, and I caused another issue.

I ran MAME in verbose mode from command prompt (all very out of my comfort zone), and I was in the MAME interface, and I went into some settings, and in a couple places I changed number of screens to "2" hoping that might help. Then MAME crashed and now it won't open back up and gives me the error discussed above:

Unable to create the Direct3D device
Unable to initialize Direct3D 9
Fatal error: Unable to complete window creation

My .ini file is in the right folder. I tried changing video from "auto" to "opengl". Note I also changed some of the 0s to 1s based on the above screenshot. I also went and updated DirectX. Feels like I just need to undo that setting that I changed within MAME, but I can't get in there to do it.

Running MAME257, btw. Unclear where that install file still is and too afraid to try to update these things. I had this all working but switched computers....

Edited April 27 by mgiampa

[mgiampa]

Hi, just bumping this. I guess the next thing I would try is to uninstall and reinstall MAME, which may mean finding a whole new version and redoing anything I've done to set up my games in this version.

[sundogak]

On 5/9/2025 at 3:43 PM, mgiampa said:

Hi, just bumping this. I guess the next thing I would try is to uninstall and reinstall MAME, which may mean finding a whole new version and redoing anything I've done to set up my games in this version.

1) MAME doesn't need to be uninstalled as it doesn't really "install" like normal Windows programs. Anytime you want to update to newest version of MAME go to the mamedev link  and download the EXE (which is just a zipped file with unzip executable).  Unzip in temp directory then select the whole set and overwrite your existing.  MAME install file above does not overwrite any user modified files such as your INI files.  However, your issue isn't related to these files so would hold off on this step and try next one first. 

2) More than likely you messed up settings in your INI files.  For future, always make backups before making any major changes. Attached are "vanilla" default INI files for version 277 for the three main settings files that MAME uses and more than likely are one (or more) of them causing issues with a wrong setting.  I would start with the MAME.INI file as most likely one that has issue based on your error. 

Change your video option back to AUTO and your numscreens to 1.  Numscreens is only if have multiple screens and do not need to change that even in multiple monitor setup to force MAME to monitor 1 (see #5 below).  Look to see if you made any changes to the OpenGL-Specific OPTIONS as well. 

See if works. If still having issues then backup your INI files and then use the three attached (rename to remove "vanilla" and place where they were located in your existing setup. See if MAME at least runs. If it does then there is another setting (most likely in your MAME.INI) that is causing issues.  Then just process of elimination.  Easiest way I find is to use Notepad ++ with the compare plugin so you can open the default MAME file and your version and it will highlight deltas.  You can also in future generate default INI settings files by using this command in the MAME directory (make backup of your files first):

mame.exe -createconfig 

mame_vanilla277.iniui_vanilla277.iniplugin_vanilla277.ini

3) If the default MAME INI files don't work then try #1 and see if a MAME install file got corrupted (very unlikely but easy to eliminate as problem).

4) If neither work than likely you have corrupted video drivers or Direct X files and would try reinstalls for those.  

5) As to your original intent on forcing MAME to a specific monitor you do that with setting below:

Note that Windows isn't always logical on the numbering in multi monitor setups, so you may have to use \\.\DISPLAY2 depending on how the monitors enumerated (and won't always match the number in Display setting).