DOS MAME .59 - will not run at bootup?

[jammadave]

hey guys -
scenario:
i have set my computer up to bootgui=0 and autoexec.bat goes to c:\windows\desktop\mame\dmame.exe esb -joy

now, going in from the command line and just doing dmame esb -joy works great when the comp is already running.  However, when i use the above scenario, it asks me to select the audio device, and no matter what i hit, it says audio initialization failed, unable to initialize system!  [note:  i even tried adding to it to read "-1 joy" to indicate soundblaster...]

WTF, over?

thanks in advance
dave