DirectX error in MAME

[pinballwizard79]

Hey guys, got any ideas?

So I updated to Windows7 (32bit), Went to run MAME & ended up with the Mother F'n DirectX error messages = FML

If I run it in a window all is fine but once I select 'full screen' & run it all I get are error messages. I have DirectX installed & updated, I'm guessing MAME just cant find it when told to run @ Full Screen VS in a window which pisses me off & doesnt make sense to me but....

WWBYOACD?

EDIT: Nvidia GeForce 460 GTX with current drivers & all HS/MAME settings @ 1080p

IIRC it ran @ 768p but stuttered

[compute]

I would start by saying what the error is

[pinballwizard79]

Word

Error 1: Unable to create the Direct3D device (8876086C)

I then click ok & get...

Error 2: Unable to initialize Direct3D

Thanks

[pinballwizard79]

A lot of google results = this is a MAME bug

Lucky me

Back to XP, damn!

Does anyone else have a work around?

Thanks

[Haze]

Install DirectX9, seriously, Win7 doesn't ship with the older versions.

[pinballwizard79]

I wish it were that simple, there have been more developments.

MAME runs in FS with my PC monitor but not on my 37" LCD

I just went back to XP, problem solved.

Thanks for the input thought

PW79

[tangodownNZ]

This actually helped me in 2020. I am having the same issue with MAME 220. I have been trying everything to figure this out!

I think now that it is almost certainly an issue with MAME. Because all my other games run fine with Direct X and Direct 3D. Plus dxdiag shows no errors. And Direct X is the latest version, and so is my GPU driver. Which only leaves the program MAME!

So thanks to the op, I tried running MAME in window mode, and sure enough it worked! That's great news! But of course I still want to run my games in full screen mode, so I'm still trying to figure out whats wrong. I will start a topic in the mame dev forum.

Just a note. The front end, the game select screen, runs in full screen mode. Its only when you try to run the roms that it crashes.

[Sky25es]

If your hardware supports it, install windows 7 64 bits. Mamedev's already said that they won't support (officialy) 32 bit systems anymore. And btw. Mame runs faster on a 64 bit Os.

[Robbbert]

Like it said above, windows 7 doesn't come with DirectX 9 - you have to download and install it yourself.

[Howard_Casto]

Heh I'm always surprised when people completely ignore the error message a program gives them.  It's there to help you.  "I'm getting a direct-x error."  "Well then you need to install/reinstall directx."  "Nope I changed my OS instead".  lol I guess that's one way to fix the problem.   

[BadMouth]

My knowledge on emulators is getting dated, but a lot of them required these runtimes:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

Newer versions of Direct-X do not contain all the previous runtimes.

[Howard_Casto]

Yup.

I believe 9c is the last one to contain the older ones.  That being said that probably isn't the issue for mame (unless you are using a really old version) as it supports direct x 9 and above.  The thing is, people think just because windows tells you that directx is installed that directx is installed.  Those version checks typically only search for a few files to "confirm" that a particular version is installed, so if it's corrupted or damaged in any way there's no way of knowing.  So you have to uninstall direct-x, which might require a special tool at this point and then reinstall and yes, since we are dealing with emulators, some of which use really old versions, you might as well install the 9c package as well to avoid future issues.

[Shambles1980]

made an account to reply here..

if your desctop resolution isnt in the dafault available resolutions, (example, you created a 4:3 1400x1050 resolution using nvidias custom resolutions tool for an arcade cabinet.) mame will fail to render the window and will spit out a directx error.

if you absolutley need to make a custom resolution for your cabinet, edit the edid data your pc sees for your monitor so that resolution becomes a default resolution or preferably the native resolution.
the easiest way to do that is to use CRU (custom resoltion utility)

just had the same issue exactly as i described above. and thats how i fixed it..
The strange thing is, it worked fine when i set it up last week, but then we went on a long weekend trip so i powered the cabinet down.. when i came back mame had the above errors. (i knew i had the runtimes installed. but installed them again along with gpu drivers and other runtimes i knew i needed.
Finally i decided it had to be the resolution, and when i saw it wasnt available as an option in mame i figured out what the issue was.

so there ya go. hope that helps people, you dont need to reinstall your OS.