MameHooker LED Blinky and marquee monitor

[sshaw10]

I am soooooo close.  I have everything tested and now as I put things together the fun starts.  I am doing a marquee monitor with hooker that will show a marquee and control layout for each game.  (I even have a video that runs while not playing a game using dreamscene screen save, it's awesome).  Set up Blinky and started testing games and it appears they won't run together.  I found this post, http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=148079.0, and someone said they solved the problem with scripts.  That's beyond me.  I'd be more than happy to pay someone for their time to help resolve this issue if there's a solution.  Both features are really important as I have a rotating 3 way CP and the functionality of both programs is needed.  Aside from the time it took to make custom marquee images for hundreds of games and the fact that I bought a marquee monitor!

PS...running windows 7, MALA, I only use mamehooker to take a marquee image and put it on monitor 2 when a game starts.  i could live without the other hooker features if needed. here's the relevant parts:

update: i've come across Mr. Do's description of using lay files and bezels to the second monitor.  I had found this before but could never get it to work which led me to hooker.  Followed his directions and they make sense but the png isn't showing on the marquee monitor.  My head hurts and my eyes are shaking so I'll be back in the morning.  If anyone can tell me this is the right direction I'd be grateful. Here's some excerpted info:

*** Took Do's sample file and adjusted width/height to match my marquee monitor, the png file is the exact same resolution.  zip file is in mame/artwork with png and lay inside.

<!-- xevious.lay -->

<mamelayout version="2">
   <element name="marq">
      <image file="xevious_marquee.png" />
   </element>
   <view name="Marquee_Only">
      <bezel element="marq">
         <bounds x="0" y="0" width="2560" height="1080" />
      </bezel>
   </view>
</mamelayout>

<!--

*** Got the monitor names from inside mame.  When i run the game starts but the second monitor doesn't get image.  If I change numscreens to 2 it flashes the screen then returns to list again right away.

# PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS
#
screen                    auto
aspect                    auto
resolution                  auto
view                      auto
screen0                   \\.\DISPLAY1
aspect0                   auto
resolution0               auto
view0                     standard
screen1                   \\.\DISPLAY2
aspect1                   auto
resolution1               auto
view1                     Marquee_Only


# CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS
#
artwork_crop            0
use_backdrops           1
use_overlays            1
use_bezels              1
use_cpanels               1
use_marquees              1

# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                   d3d
numscreens              1
window                  0
maximize                1
keepaspect              1
prescale                1
waitvsync               0
syncrefresh             0
menu                    0

Thanks for taking the time.

[arzoo]

LEDBlinky should work fine with mamehooker as long as you uncheck the “Speak and Blink Controls On Game Pause” option – this is the only option that uses mame outputs (the same as mamehooker). As an extra precaution, you can remove or rename the mame.dll file in the LEDBlinky folder – this is the function library for mame outputs. Without that file, LEDBlinky will automatically disable any mame output features.

[sshaw10]

As a follow up to this post for anyone who may have similar trouble.  After weeks of playing around I had a hunch there was a problem with the display naming.  The way windows and the video driver were handling the displays just seemed off.  I installed a dedicated video card and now things work.  I thought maybe good onboard video would be fine but I think a dedicated card with updated drivers is essential.