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Problem: after game loading screen Bigbox shows for 1-2 seconds


martijnsx

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Hi,

I am currently updating 2 cabinets. I have gone the setup proces a couple of times for various reasons. 

The problem i have is with one cabinet and i encountered it on all new setups. 

When i start a game in Bigbox the game loading screen shows up. Then after some time it returns to the Bigbox menu for 1-2 seconds (as if the game did not start) and then it starts the game. 

I have an I7 2600 CPU, Radeon HD 7750, 8GB Ram (just added 4) and a 500GB SSD (MX500) for Launchbox/Media and a 1TB mechanical hard drive for all the ROMs.

On my old installation (1 year ago) i did not have this problem. 

On both cabinets i followed the same procedure:

  • Install windows 10 on the new 500GB SSD
  • Partition the disk (70GB for Windows and the rest for Launchbox).
  • Install "allruntimes"
  • Update all drivers with Driver Booster (only on the last installs)
  • Then install Launchbox. 

Does someone know why i might have this problem after every new install? And why only on 1 cabinet while the procedure is the same on the other? The other cabinet has a newer processor (same speed) and a better video card (GTX 950).

Thnx!

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  • 2 weeks later...

How long do you have your Startup Screen set for?  Have you tried increasing it by 1-2 seconds?  Are you seeing this with every emulator (i.e. Platforms that use Retroarch, PCSX2, standalone MAME etc.)?  I know for me, this sometimes happens with Steam games.  Especially when Steam isn't already running in the background (sitting in the icon tray).

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I just tested this...

It happens with MAME only. I am on one of the latest versions (0.239). I also replaced the mame.exe with the mame no nag version exe. This makes no difference. 

I tried to increase the MINIMUM STARTUP SCREEN TIME to the maximum seconds (5) from within bigbox and this had no effect. 

Then i found out that under MANAGE EMULATORS and then under MAME there is a tab called STARTUP SCREEN where you can set different options. I messed around with all options and found that if you set the STARTUP LOAD DELAY to a high value (10 seconds or 20 seconds). The problem is gone.

I notice however that the load time for emulators is very long from within bigbox (7 seconds or so). I just upgraded to an SSD for launchbox and media. Only the games are from a mechanical drive. However, if you load street fighter it is not a big file. 

I also notice that if i edit MAME under MANAGE EMULATOR and click the EDIT button it takes 10+ seconds to load the settings for MAME. Only the first time when i edit does it take this very long time. If i go back and try edit another time it is instantanious. If i close launchbox and start it again then the first time takes very long. Seems a lilttle buggy.

For now i hope it works (will test a little more). 

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/10/2022 at 9:50 AM, martijnsx said:

...

Then i found out that under MANAGE EMULATORS and then under MAME there is a tab called STARTUP SCREEN where you can set different options. I messed around with all options and found that if you set the STARTUP LOAD DELAY to a high value (10 seconds or 20 seconds). The problem is gone.

...

tl;dr = I have this exact same problem/symptoms and the exact same fix works for me.  Thanks for posting the solution @martijnsx.

On my setup it usually takes 7 seconds for BigBox to launch MAME.  With the default STARTUP LOAD DELAY of 5 seconds after starting a game I see the "NOW LOADING" startup screen for 5 seconds, then it comes back to BigBox for 2 seconds before switching to MAME.

Setting my STARTUP LOAD DELAY to 20 seconds resolves the issue (my computer doesn't jump back to BigBox, it correctly goes straight from the startup screen into MAME).  Interestingly, my MAME still takes about the same time to launch (7 seconds).  It appears this setting controls the max time LaunchBox will wait for MAME to start, it doesn't force LaunchBox to wait 20 seconds.  Therefore I don't see a downside to setting this value high.  I assume that if MAME still hasn't started after 20 seconds then you'd be returned to BigBox.

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