Author Topic: MaLa %100 Frozen, what to do ? (Read 9055 times)

mike boss · « **on:** July 03, 2012, 05:14:52 pm »

I was having some issues with MaLa getting stuck when scrolling my MAME games list.
At "Dirt Devils" MaLa would simply get stuck @ not move.
It seems I must have left off with that game hi-lited as now when I power up the PC and goto MaLa it minimizes to my tray instantly.
I can't do anything, and whenever I close MaLa I get an error message.
I'm stuck and don't know what to do. Should I uninstall and re-install ?

EDIT - I tired to install the folder again overtop the existing MaLa folder. However same issue.

drventure · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2012, 05:55:11 pm »

It sounds like either the video associated with the game or the image(s) associated that Mala is trying to display are corrupt and hanging it.

Just to test, i'd try renaming your images folders and video folder (just put an x in front of the name or somesuch) so mala won't' be able to find the images/videos. then Try and start it up.

I've see this a few times on my own system. Usually video. Deleting the bogus file fixed things for me.

mike boss · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2012, 06:43:14 pm »

Ok, awesome.
Thank you, I will try.

I'll post the results.

mike boss · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2012, 07:20:46 pm »

Did that, and NO DICE !

I'm so pissed, I've spent so much time getting this PC set up.
I don't want to have to start from scratch.

Whats the next thing I could try ?

drventure · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2012, 07:24:45 pm »

Ok, try renaming your SELECTION.INI to something else, effectively blanking it out.

That should reset mala to point to the first game in the list instead of the last game you'd selected.

See if that will let you back in.

mike boss · « **Reply #5 on:** July 03, 2012, 07:29:31 pm »

Thank you.
Had to walk away for tonight, getting stressed out.
I'll give that a try later on (or tomorrow).
I'll post the findings.
Thank you very much

drventure · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2012, 08:20:06 pm »

No worries.

Main thing is don't panic and wipe everything. Unless you've had some kind of subtle hardware failure or gotten a virus that's mangled things, it should be repairable.

Have a beer and enjoy the 4th!

Gray_Area · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2012, 08:52:49 pm »

I'd get rid of the rom, and see what happens. I'm betting it's a media error like dv is saying.

mike boss · « **Reply #8 on:** July 04, 2012, 07:12:33 am »

Yesterday I was KO'd with a brutal heahache. So looking @ the PC screen killed me.
I'll revisit this today, thanks all for the help.

I'll need to look again, but I believe I did remove the ROM, snap, and video, but again I'll look.
I'll try the selection.ini tonight.

Fingers crossed !

mike boss · « **Reply #9 on:** July 04, 2012, 05:26:46 pm »

Ok so I tried to rename the SELECTION file, no go !
So I renamed the SELECTION file + added an X to my ROM,SNAP, & VIDEO folders....also no go.
So then I also deleted the two ROM files ( + snap/+videos) that followed Dirt Devils.
Also a no go !

Still stuck here.

drventure · « **Reply #10 on:** July 04, 2012, 07:07:08 pm »

Damn. That is perplexing.

Do you have any plugins set up? You might try just renaming your plugin folder to prevent all of them from loading. maybe one of them has gone south.

Another thought is load up your mala.ini file (same folder as mala)

Search for a [debug] section

make it look like this

[Debug]
Log=1
LoggingLevel=2

save and try loading mala.

Once it hangs, kill it and see if anything was written to the log file. at level 2, mala logs a lot of potentially helpful stuff. It might clue you in to the last thing mala was trying to do before it hung.

mike boss · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2012, 08:16:47 pm »

Man still no dice.
Would an uninstall and install work ?
If so, could I save any file that would simply replace and bring MaLa back to the way I had it ?
Or do I need to set this up again.......................FROM SCRATCH !

drventure · « **Reply #12 on:** July 04, 2012, 08:22:40 pm »

Were you able to get anything from the log file?

mike boss · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2012, 08:27:31 pm »

Would it show on the line I changed ?
I looked and it didint show anything.

mike boss · « **Reply #14 on:** July 04, 2012, 08:31:19 pm »

Is the debug file a seperate file ?
Should I look in the MaLa folder ?

mike boss · « **Reply #15 on:** July 04, 2012, 08:39:47 pm »

Ok found what I think is the debug file, I have a ton of them.
This is the file names and info I pulled

MaLa.exe20120702-1
2012/07/02 18:20:19.54 Info: Found game: Power Sports Sounds in dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Mario\My Documents\Arcade Related\ROMS\TURBO GRAFX 16
2012/07/02 18:20:19.54 Info: Found game: Power Tennis (J) in dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Mario\My Documents\Arcade Related\ROMS\TURBO GRAFX 16
2012/07/02 18:20:19.54 Info: Found game: Pro Tennis World Court (J) [b1] in dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Mario\My Documents\Arcade Related\ROMS\TURBO GRAFX 16

MaLa.exe20120704-1
2012/07/04 20:10:08.28 Debug **: Video: Scroll restart
2012/07/04 20:10:08.28 Debug **: DisplayGameList: Gamelist= All Games Total games = 10626
2012/07/04 20:10:08.28 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:08.28 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1

MaLa.exe20120704-2
2012/07/04 20:10:08.89 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:08.89 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:08.89 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1

MaLa.exe20120704-29
2012/07/04 20:10:53.79 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:53.79 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:53.79 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1

Last three lines
2012/07/04 20:10:55.37 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:55.37 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1
2012/07/04 20:10:55.37 Debug **: RemoveBrackets: Removing unpaired bracket in - Disco Fever (L-1

drventure · « **Reply #16 on:** July 04, 2012, 10:12:00 pm »

Weird. It looks like mala is getting hung parsing some file, but it's hard to tell what from that snippet.

Best bet is....

Delete all the log files to start fresh
Rerun mala let it hang
Kill the process after a minute or so
Grab the log file, there should only be one
Zip it and attach to a post here so we can see the whole thing

mike boss · « **Reply #17 on:** July 05, 2012, 06:57:22 am »

Thank you once again.
This has me very upset, I wanted to wrap up a project for Saturday, but three days have been eaten with this issue. I'll do this tonight and post the results.

Do I once again change it to look like this :

[Debug]
Log=1
LoggingLevel=2

drventure · « **Reply #18 on:** July 05, 2012, 08:42:14 am »

Yes, that would go in the Mala.INI in the same folder as Mala.exe.

You'll want to search the INI to make sure there isn't already a [debug] section. If there is, just set the log and logginglevel entries in it. if no, just copy paste those 3 lines to the end of the file and save.

mike boss · « **Reply #19 on:** July 05, 2012, 09:46:11 am »

Thankyou, I'l ldo this tonight.
Off memory the INI did have a debug section and it was set to level 1.
So I'll make the change and post the copy of the ini with & w/o changes, as well as the log for help.
Again a million thanks.

Question ,should all esle fail and I remove the folder (MALA) and install again do you think I'd have the same issue ?

drventure · « **Reply #20 on:** July 05, 2012, 10:57:14 am »

Quote from: mike boss on July 05, 2012, 09:46:11 am

Question ,should all esle fail and I remove the folder (MALA) and install again do you think I'd have the same issue ?

It's hard to say about that. I'm just not sure what the heck the problem is yet. Reinstalling +might+ fix things, but it might not.

What you +Could+ do, if the log doesn't tell us anything, is rename your existing mala folder (add .OLD to it or something), then reinstall mala, and try to run as a plain vanilla setup. If that works, add back in some roms and videos, etc.

But here's the thing. If this is caused by a corrupt video/image/config file, then everything could end up seeming to work just fine, +UNTIL+ you hit the same area in the config (say select the same game as you did before, or whatever), and then it could hang all over again.

That's why I'd continue doing everything I could to work out why things are hanging now.

mike boss · « **Reply #21 on:** July 05, 2012, 05:14:40 pm »

Ok tried a few times, here are the zip files.

Thank you once again

mike boss · « **Reply #22 on:** July 05, 2012, 08:21:52 pm »

LOSING MY MARBLES with these MaLa delays.
3 days eaten up trying to resolve this.....argh! Has me so frustrated.

Anyway, tried a fresh install as suggested.
Didn't set up any emulators, just MAME with all required files.
Had MAME only show working games (and whatever the other option was, I forget now) and it works.
Funny enough the games causing trouble (or as suspected I should say) are eliminated as they don't work anyway.
I can make it into the E's where as prior I could not.
So do I just go with this install and reconfigure ?

drventure · « **Reply #23 on:** July 05, 2012, 08:26:14 pm »

Just had a look at you zips. I don't have access to the mala source, but it sure LOOKS like one of your game lists has gone bad, possibly one called "ALL GAMES". If I'm reading the log correctly, there's something like 10000+ games in that list, which seems like a LOT.

I'd try removing just that list, it should be easy to spot in the mala folder, usually has an MLG ext, and reload. Then maybe all the game lists. just to see if you can get mala back and running.

Barring that, if you kept a backup of your mala folder, you should be able to copy over all the layouts, and mala.ini, just leave out the game lists, and repopulate them.

mike boss · « **Reply #24 on:** July 05, 2012, 09:38:36 pm »

Awesome, thank you.
If I copy everything over do I need to reinstall the emulators and point everything to the required path ? Or will moving all files (less lists) replicate the way I had it set up ?
Thanks again (I did indeed keep the folder intact, simply trying a new fresh install. The only thing I changed was the MAME snaps, however I duplicated that folder and renamed it.)

drventure · « **Reply #25 on:** July 05, 2012, 10:12:34 pm »

Quote from: mike boss on July 05, 2012, 09:38:36 pm

If I copy everything over do I need to reinstall the emulators and point everything to the required path ? Or will moving all files (less lists) replicate the way I had it set up ?

Mala doesn't have any effect on the actual emulators (or any of their files) under normal circumstances (this is assuming you haven't installed the emulators in folders within the Mala folder). So deleting, reinstalling mala or changing it's files +shouldn't+ effect your installed emulators in any way.

So, if you backed up you mala folder, installed a fresh mala into the same folder as where you had the old one, then, you should be able to move your config over as is. Just move bits at a time (maybe the config, then the plugins, then the layouts, etc).

In your case, I'd leave the game lists for last, and I'd definitely have a look at that one "all games" list, because it seems large. You might be best off just leaving it behind all together and starting that list fresh.

to give you an idea, none of my MLJ or MLG files are bigger than about 2.5mb.

mike boss · « **Reply #26 on:** July 06, 2012, 07:03:30 am »

I appreciate the info.

What I have (had) done is prepare a folder named "EMULATORS" , all emulators including MaLa were in specific folders contained in EMULATORS. So MAME in MAME, NINTENDO in NINTENDO, etc.
I then had a folder for VIDEOS and one for SNAPS.

In testing MaLa I did as you suggested and changed the name of the original install to OLD MALA, and did a fresh install of MaLa.

What I will do tonight when I get home is delete the games lists and see if that works with OLD MALA and resolves my issue. If so I'll repopulate the list as suggested, then delete the fresh install.

It's not that much work to set up the emulators again but if I can simplify things then why not ?

mike boss · « **Reply #27 on:** July 06, 2012, 07:07:21 am »

Reading again what I wrote I noticed I was not clear in my question.
I said reinstall the emulators and what I actually meant was do I (will I) need to reconfigure everything in MaLa.
IE - pointing MaLa to the folders for EXE, SNAP, VIDEO, setting up the hot keys, etc ?
Or if I move over everything will somewhere in the MaLa folder be the info required so that all be it perhaps a fresh install it still knows where everything is.

I'm sorry, my PC skills are somewhat novice so I might not even be woring this correct.

drventure · « **Reply #28 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:21:10 am »

Ah, that makes more sense.

Virtually all of mala's config can be summed up in just a few places.

1) Mala.ini (the main config point).
2) selection.ini (this appears to keep track of the last selected game in all game lists)
3) the plugins folder (Mala automatically loads plugins in this folder)
4) the layouts folder (but the Mala.INI has to point to a specific layout to use)
5) the game lists (MLG/MLJ, etc files in the same dir as mala).

There are also some assorted additional files in the mala folder
ML0, ML1, MLC, MLD, MLE, MLF, MLT, etc
As far as I know, most of those as "state tracking" files that mala writes to keep track of where you last were in the program when you close it. Most of those can be deleted and they'll automatically be recreated (though I'd always make a backup first, just in case).

Long story short, if you preserve the Mala.INI, selection.INI, plugins and layouts folders, that's almost all the mala config. The only thing that would be missing are the contents of the game lists, and it sure looks like one of your lists got corrupted somehow (from the log, it looks like Mala's getting stuck in a loop trying to parse something about the list).

mike boss · « **Reply #29 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:33:31 am »

So would you suggest just deleting all the games lists, and firing up the old folder to see if that works first ?

drventure · « **Reply #30 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:41:45 am »

Back them up first, and then delete. But yeah, I'd try that first, based on what's in the log.

Do you know if you have "Disco Fever" in any game list other than the All Games list?

mike boss · « **Reply #31 on:** July 06, 2012, 09:17:17 am »

drventure first of all thanks again for taking the time to help me.
Secondly, I'll seach for "Disco Fever" on my PC before attempting the resolve.
I'll then back up the lists, delete the lists, and give it go.
I'll post the results.

Thanks again

mike boss · « **Reply #32 on:** July 06, 2012, 05:54:06 pm »

Happy to say it would seem the issue was indeed my list.
All seems resolved and I can keep on working to get this PC set up.
Thank you very much.

drventure · « **Reply #33 on:** July 06, 2012, 05:56:14 pm »

Awesome! Glad to hear it.


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