Mala + Old PC (setup help needed)

[mame_noob]

Hi there people!
This is my first topic and u can say I'm a newbie regarding bartop cabinets using mame+frontend
but I decided to give it a shot some week ago to build my own bartop arcade and started researching.. 

Have read some topics here and there on different forums n I can say it was very helpful.
However when it comes to make it work in real life there can be problems. Here's mine.
The system I'm trying MALA to work with is an older PC called AcerPower S285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103009

I've tried the romset 0.149 earlier this week with no luck. Black screen (nothing happens)
when trying to start from mame.exe. Then I read here somewhere in the forums that using
older mame version often could do the work so I found another set of roms and made it
work on the computer (mame32 and 0.37b5 romset)

On the Mala homepage there is written abot Mala.. "It supports the Windows command line
version of MAME with XML ROM info (> 0.84), PC Games and all command line based emulators.
You can easily make it run on earlier versions of mame (as I do) by using a XML file generated by a later version.

How do I do this? I was later able to pass all steps using this guide until step 5)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,83570.0.html
I used mame 0.37b15 version to make it accept the mame.exe file (earlier versions are DOS based)
 
"MaLa will inform you that there is no .xml file associated with MAME.  Click OK to create the file automatically.
(yeah good luck with that when you are dealing with version 0.37!) Since there is no support for doing this in the
command line (mame -listxml) for this version it didnt work automatically.

Then I tried to fix a xml list with ROMlister and named it mame.xml and put in to the main folder where mame.exe is.
When I click on it and view it on the browser I can see all the games in the list. But when using the same list in Mala
it will end up saying

-No games in the main game list of this emulator. Refresh main game list?
Clicking OK and I come to the Mala fronend telling me All Games:0 of 0

And I'm stuck..   
What am I doing wrong?!  Anyone clever out there?
Much appreciated thnx in advance

[mame_noob]

I did made a quick check up on the motherboard my pc uses.
It is a 661FX-M7 chipset from ECS (Elitegroup)
http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/ECS/661FX-M7/

Seems like the integrated gpu can be the answer to why the 0.149 romset
never worked in the beginning. Not the best one out there.. 
http://www.notebookcheck.net/SIS-Mirage-M661FX.23308.0.html

I have also ordered a Sparkle Geforce 8400GS 256MB graphics card.
Don't know if this can solve the problem but with only 3xPCI and 1xAGP slots
left and a 300W power supply this was my best shot since I don't want to
make any further investments on hardware.

I will also use some spare parts to extend the memory from the former 512MB
to 2GB.

[jaharr01]

That computer is plenty fast enough to run Mame. Obviously the computer works because you tried to set up Mala. I don't think it's the video card.Are you trying to set up Mala before you set up mame? Go get a copy of MameuI32.Put your Roms in the Rom folder. load it, get Mame working.Then set up then set up Mala after you get all the controls and everything else working properly. You don't have to do all of that folder crap, just point Mala to your Mame folder,exe, and Rom files and it will set everything else up.You are making it way too complicated and complex.Also in Mame you have to audit all your games or they wont show up.

http://www.emu-france.com/news/21460-arcade-mameui32-64-v0-147/ Thats a French site but the download is in  english

[mame_noob]

Thnx for the reply. I did actually try both romsets with their compatible GUI versions of MAME.

Mame32ui with 0.37b5 all games working with great speed (2240 working games)
Mame32ui with 0.149 game list takes almost 7-8min only to load. When trying to enter
any game the screen goes all black and I have to kill MAME from the activity manager (ctrl+alt+del)

The problem with the mameui32 and 0.37b5 (the only working combo) was that Mala setup
did not accept the mame32ui.exe. I think you only can combine a windows command line version of
mame with it and not any GUI version. Didn't work for me at least. 

And oh, yes I did actually got the second romset (0.149) to work but it was with another
XP installed quad processor computer so both romsets work with their compatible mameui versions
but the later one (0.149) only works on the newer PC.

[jaharr01]

I have a Windows GUI version and Mala and it works fine. Are you saying Mame version .36? if so that is a really old version of mame,if that is what you are talking about. It sounds like a software issue and not a hardware issue, but i'm definately no expert. Maybe you need to reload windows or update drivers or something.Not really enough info to tell. I think mame has a log file you can debug it with to see where it is going wrong. Although i'm not 100% sure. maybe somebody else can chime in and help

[apfelanni]

your " old " computer should run fine with any mame version on a standard pc monitor .

- get a full working and clearmame checked romset . i recommend something like 0.1xx . forget about the 0.3x . i got 1.06 , 1.16 , 1.27 in use on older comps with smaller 20-40 gb hd  . without the chd files even a 0.15x will fit on your hd . 

- start with the gui version of mame , its more nerd friendly . gui and nongui version can be in the same directory . if all runs well >

- setup mala with default layout .. set paths etc.  for testing u can stay with the gui mame version . configure mame settings via the mame gui  . if all runs well >

- use the nongui mame version . edit the mame ini manually ( direct  3d , ddraw , hw stretch , tripple bufffer , auto switches  bla bla ...

-  switch to other layouts , edit the layouts , previewvideos + videocodec install ( ps . cccp works nicely with m4 videos . ) etc..



if the system should connect  to an arcade monitor there are some steps like soft 15k , crt emudriver installation needed .