Monitor goes black when launching ROM

[47ronin]

I am just finishing my first MAME cabinet and I'm hoping someone can help me with a monitor problem. my current config is as follows:

MAME32
athlon 2000+
256 meg sdram
ecs motherboard
win 98se (minimal load)
radeon 9000 graphics card
sb 16 pci soundcard
cd rom
120 gig harddrive
Compaq p110   21' monitor

I initially had the radeon 9000 installed and working (meaning I could launch Roms OK) but no sound. I installed the SB sound card and had some problems with it interfering with the onboard sound for my ecs MB. When I finally got that corrected and tried to launch a rom all I get is a black screen (oddly enough the mouse pointer is still visable) and a single ding (the type associated with an error message being displayed) from that point my only option is a soft reboot to get back to the windows screen. Any Ideas I have tried numerious different settings in MAME32 but to no avail I am thinking a clean wipe of the system and then a sysimatic install of all components with the onboard options already disabled, but was looking for any advice as to what is going on.

Thanx

[MBaran]

ill put bets your colors are less than 16 bit. If you are runnign a low res, color depth may only be 8 or 16 bits, and not allow mame to run. Try upping color to 32bit, and i would imagine it would work.

[StephenH]

Try making sure your video and sound card are not using the same IRQ.

Also, try setting your MAME to use a common resolution.  

You might try reinstalling your video card drivers as well.

[tiggertoo]

Sounds like a conflict.

Go to device manager (right click my computer on the desktop, select properties, in the window that opens pick the device manager tab.)

Look for any yellow exclamation marks. If you have any then you need to remove that device from the list and reboot windows. There may be other icons that indicate other problems, like conflicts (something red?). In that case remove the device that you do not want.

To remove a device, simply select the device, click the remove button, and answer yes to the dialog box.