Display turn off causes mala freeze...

[sshaw10]

Got my cabinet together and working somewhat.  I was having some trouble with Mamehooker and LED Blinky.  I'm at the point where if I start the computer, run Mamehooker as admin and start Mala things work properly.  I can start dozens of games, the marquee loads and Blinky lights controls and announces games.  So long as I keep everything on I'm good.  But if I set the displays to go off after 15 minutes (or any time) and only the displays (I've set everything else to stay on with power settings at maximum and no energy saving, drives all on, etc.) when I hit a key and bring Mala back right where I left off, I go to launch a game and the marquee doesn't load, I get a blank Mala screen and it sits there until I ctrl alt del.  In task manager it shows Mala running and the game I tried to start as not responding.  The only way to get it working properly again is to power off the computer (restart doesn't work) and start over. 

I am totally baffled how simply having Windows turn off the displays would cause such a problem.  I can power off the main monitor with a remote but I can't access the controls for the marquee monitor.  If anyone has any experience or ideas please let me know.  I can't have the cab flashing all the time and don't want to leave the monitors on for long periods of time I'm not using them.

[big10p]

Not sure what the problem is but MaLa can be flaky - sometimes it crashes if I just alt-tab out into the desktop.

I think you're best option is to not turn off the monitor and just run a screen saver instead. I do this on my MAME cabs using the TRON light cycle scene as the screen saver. 

[ppv]

Mala is rather old, by now (last update in 2013). Unless it has functions that that you really need, like mamehooker, a more modern FE  might be in the cards.

Mala is a great choice if it works for you, but it seems that it doesn't play well with some hardware. I had a lot of trouble with MALA not regaining control after exiting an emu and did experience crashing from time to time. But to be completely fair, I haven't used the newer versions...

Started using Attract Mode FE and loving it. It's easy, light, fast and stable.

I also invested a lot of time in AtomicFE, which is also very good but is a  to configure.

Other members will have other experiences...
 
So explore options, find what works and Game On!

[ppv]

Not sure what the problem is but MaLa can be flaky - sometimes it crashes if I just alt-tab out into the desktop.

I think you're best option is to not turn off the monitor and just run a screen saver instead. I do this on my MAME cabs using the TRON light cycle scene as the screen saver. 

Having windows just blank the monitor, without putting it in sleep mode might do the trick. I have a Dell Laptop at work that only support two monitors. So to have my two external plus the laptop one working, I had to use a USB video card just for one monitor. Problem was, when the the forced lock screen timed out, it also forced the monitor into sleep mode. It completely disabled the USB vid. card and I had to reboot just to get it working. So I went into the advanced power setting and disabled all monitor sleeping behavior. Now the monitor light doesn't go orange (sign of sleep mode) and stay green even though the screen is black (you can still see that the monitor is active as the back-light is working).

MAYBE this will help to alleviate the problem...

[Mr. Peabody]

If you're running 7 or above, that is probably why. Something more than monitor sleep seems to happen. If you're that worried about power consumption, I'd have the cab turn off.