CRT disconnecting issue

[dakkon444]

Hi! First post, been lurking since last August. I recently finished my first from-scratch cab a couple months ago, and it was working (amazingly enough) seamlessly, until a rather aggravating issue with the display started to occur.

I'm running MAME on an '07 Vista laptop on a 27" TV. Initially, there was no problem, but lately the TV has been disconnecting frequently from the laptop. At first, it wasn't often. But now, when this issues starts to occur, it doesn't stop, disconnecting and reconnecting incessantly. I'm using an S video converter. The screen also jumps often when this happens. Does this sound like a MAME, Mala, other software, or hardware issue? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks much, even if you can't help!

[mgb]

Hello and welcome,
  Unfortunately I don't have any quick answer for you but my bet would be that its an issue with vista maybe.

a couple of things I would check:

1) the cable, could it be bad. sometimes there can be a flaky internal issue that's not readily visible.

2) Is Mame or mala loosing focus? sometimes a driver or something running in the background may cause an issue. google for more on that. also think, did you change anything on the system when this started happening.

3) Is the tv itself getting buggy? Try running something else on s video into the tv.

[ed12]

+1
try running the ty on something else.
nice advice btw.

ed

[dakkon444]

Thanks again, guys. I took yalls approach in weeding out the problem, and started by hooking up another laptop to the TV. Found that there was no disconnection problem there at all. Went back to the original laptop, and discovered that this was happening both while Mala ran and while simply sitting at the desktop screen; however, it wouldn't start until I started Mala up and played some games. I have no idea how it worked, but I resized the zoom on the USB-to-S-video converter box, and the disconnecting has since ceased!

..however...for whatever reason, I can no longer get some ROMs to work--one of them being Street Fighter II CE (the USA and JAP roms), which is not good, that being the theme of my cab and all...I have no idea if it's related to the 'fix.'

Speaking of cabs, I really like your control panel, mgb.

[mgb]

Thank you for the compliment. I put a lot of work into it and it and its always nice when someone compliments it.

Maybe you need to experiment with resolutions on the games that are now giving issue.

[dakkon444]

Okay. After some monitoring (so to speak) of the problem, it hasn't subsided. But I have noticed that in addition to the monitor disconnecting temporarily, the sound disconnects as well, which isolates the issue to the laptop. Yet, this only becomes a problem when the laptop is hooked up (via S-Video and the sound jack) to the TV and the speakers. What sort of miscommunication or trouble setting might be at play here?

I've deleted MAME and Mala both, got new roms, new iterations, and nothing on that level seems to affect the problem.

[dakkon444]

*Believe* the issue is solved: power supply to the S-video converter box. This was being provided from a usb connection to the laptop. Yanked and replaced with an a/c source plugged into the power strip, and problem has yet to recur. If I'm not mistaken, I think this was the same laptop that had one or two usb ports damaged by a surge (from lightning) several years ago, which might account for the inconsistency. Has yet to show up in the controls, though.

[mgb]

Glad to hear you found it.
Power issue with the s video converter definitely makes sense as the culprit.