Launchbox repeatedly launching. Please help

[FALSE]

I've got a weird thing going on where LaunchBox just auto starts on its own repeatedly. 
I'll launch LB, shortly after that it tries to launch again, and again, and again. 
Each instance gives a popup window stating an instance of LB is already running. 

If I launch Bigbox it loads, then LB starts launching itself repeatedly.

In both cases it quickly bogs the system down and I've had to frantically close instanced of LB via Task Manager while they were duplicating themselves.

I've tried rebooting countless times. Ran the installer again. Checked startup apps in windows, setting in LB.

I'm using a pretty standard setup. Like an old 4th or 5th generation I5, 16gb ram and an Nvidia GT970, windows 10.

It was running totally fine two days ago. I've been refreshing my long neglected cabinet. Changes made, messing with led blinky (still cant make it work right), reconfiguring button controls in MAME and Bigbox, added thin 3d printed button inserts in my led buttons. A couple buttons are disconnected, waiting on replacements, but their switches are all connected and work fine when manually toggled.

This is a paid licensed copy of bigbox.

Happy to provide any other info if folks could help me troubleshoot?
 

Edited Wednesday at 01:21 AM by FALSE

[JoeViking245]

11 hours ago, FALSE said:

I've got a weird thing going on where LaunchBox just auto starts on its own repeatedly. 

• Try disabling Use Keyboard Automation 
• or un-assign the key used for Show LaunchBox 
• or assign Show LaunchBox to a button you won't keep pressing on the cab
• or assign a Hold Key which will make those presses become key-combo presses

System Menu < Options < Keyboard Automation

 

In the meantime, I'll let the developers know that the Keyboard Automation for Show LaunchBox isn't functioning properly. That is, I think it's supposed to work the same as selecting Switch to Desktop Mode in the main menu.

[FALSE]

I thought for sure that was it but keyboard automation was already off. I went ahead and removed the assigned keys on all of those options but it's still doing the same thing. 
Thanks for the suggestion. Any other ideas?

[JoeViking245]

On 8/12/2026 at 7:41 PM, FALSE said:

I thought for sure that was it but keyboard automation was already off. 

You and me both.  

There is also a Show LaunchBox in Controller Mappings.  Though should be {None} by default, worth checking.  (maybe something happened when "reconfiguring button controls in [...] Bigbox"?)  Is your encoder set to Keyboard mode or Xinput mode?

 

This is the 1st time I've heard of this happening in my 8 years here. So it's an odd one to say the least.  Other than something triggering Show LaunchBox, the only thing I can think of would be, however you're starting Big Box, it's like the key (or whatever) is stuck.  Say, you select the icon on your desktop and press Enter, the Enter key is being "held" down causing repeated "presses".  Not saying you're doing that. It's just the effect that seems to be occurring.