PC in Arcade #1 Crashed - No video signal

[Alaska]

I built my first MAME five years ago and it flashed the blue screen of death and will now turn on but not display any video. I have an ArcadeVGA card in the computer and it is connected to a Wells Garner k7000. I tried connecting an LCD via HDMI or the DVI port, both with no luck. It just says no signal. If I take the card out, I get the multiple beeps stating that there is a card seating issue. Any idea on how to get this back up and running? It is running XP, but I have a copy of W7 64 bit and a spare AMD HD 4k card if needed. All my software is backed up on a spare HD. Any suggestions to get a picture out of the old computer?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Alaska]

Removed the ArcadeVGA card, removed the MB battery, waited... turned on and got a picture. Turned off, Installed battery, rebooted and continued using the integrated graphics card. Windows is now stable

This PC works great for old arcade games but is pretty lousy when anything 3D gets thrown at it... 1.86 ghz with 3 GB ram. The ArcadeVGA card is essentially an HD 5450 1Gig card. Better than the 4k card I have lying around. I need some advice though. Should I:

- upgrade XP to Win 7, update and try the ArcadeVGA again?

or

- upgrade  to Windows 7 and reconfigure with GroovyMame and CRT Emudrivers, which would mean I need a new graphics card and likely a few more sticks of ram?

or another option that I am unaware of at this time.

I am also currently knee deep in RGB modding a JVC TV to work with a newer PC (first build from the ground up) and wrapping up a console type setup using an Alienware PC with Xbox one controllers.

[Alaska]

Nearly five years ago I jumped into this hobby purchasing a "broken" arcade from a guy for $100. All I needed to do was replace the caps on the monitor chassis to get it back up and running. How I found out that was the issue was from great folks here on the forum walking me through troubleshooting. The same like minded individuals fueled my interest and now here I am working on building a new arcade from the ground up with an old CRT TV that I am RGB modding, salvaging PCs and updating their parts for pennies to help friends, etc. However, it seems like the forum has shifted over the last 5 years and there are far less people posting nowadays. Is this hobby and site dying out? I certainly hope not... but I can't help notice people getting excited to purchase a one-game arcade 1up for more than it would cost to build a multicade from scratch...

Anyway, my last post in this thread was neearly two weeks ago and it was still 10-15 posts from the top on the main forum....

[Osirus23]

Anyway, my last post in this thread was neearly two weeks ago and it was still 10-15 posts from the top on the main forum....

Yeah, it's a bit sad. If I had useful advice for your issue I would have responded.

[Alaska]

I upgraded XP to W7 - 64 bit and upgraded to the latest MAME set. The W7 coupled with lowish RAM (3.512) and the Arcade VGA is making gameplay a bit sluggish... Next step is to add another 4 GB of RAM and try a different graphics card. If I get better gameplay then I'll go with emudrivers. Any other options? Currently most settings in my MAME ini are set to auto. I tried opengl for video, no difference. Effects are set to 'none'

[meyer980]

Nearly five years ago I jumped into this hobby purchasing a "broken" arcade from a guy for $100. All I needed to do was replace the caps on the monitor chassis to get it back up and running. How I found out that was the issue was from great folks here on the forum walking me through troubleshooting. The same like minded individuals fueled my interest and now here I am working on building a new arcade from the ground up with an old CRT TV that I am RGB modding, salvaging PCs and updating their parts for pennies to help friends, etc. However, it seems like the forum has shifted over the last 5 years and there are far less people posting nowadays. Is this hobby and site dying out? I certainly hope not... but I can't help notice people getting excited to purchase a one-game arcade 1up for more than it would cost to build a multicade from scratch...

Anyway, my last post in this thread was neearly two weeks ago and it was still 10-15 posts from the top on the main forum....

I think the forum is still pretty active. Interests change and preferences with them - but people still love arcades and working on 'em! For whatever reason, some posts just don't grab everyone's attention. You can help by being a solution to the problem. Hop in and answer other people's questions. Post updates on threads you start (even if nobody else joins in) so people can follow along. It'll help the next guy that comes along - it's why I continue to post in my threads even if it seems like no one cares.

[fuchi_jeg]

Seems like the forum has shifted over the last 5 years and there are far less people posting nowadays. Is this hobby and site dying out? I certainly hope not... but I can't help notice people getting excited to purchase a one-game arcade 1up for more than it would cost to build a multicade from scratch...

Anyway, my last post in this thread was neearly two weeks ago and it was still 10-15 posts from the top on the main forum....

I don't have a solution to your problem, but maybe some insight into the slowdown on the forum. I have been active on a tobacco pipe making forum for about 12 years and the decline in participation is very noticeable there. I think the fact that both are "dying" industries, coupled with the fact that internet forums are losing out to facebook groups and apps like discord are both contributing to the decline. As long as there are crusty old dudes looking back on the old days, there will still be niche forums with an active core.

[Alaska]

Agree with the slow down @funchi_jeg and @meyer980.

I ramped up the RAM in the PC and have tried two lower end graphics cards HD 4k and HD 5k. I get sluggish game play with Metal Slug using MAME. Oddly enough if I launch the game in RL UI using RetroArch the game play is dramatically better.

3D games like golden tee Fore still lag a lot but that, I believe, is more due to the graphics card.

All in all I am pretty happy. I am going to try out my freshly finished JVC RGB mod using the current card and if all pans out build another shell of a cabinet during this impending quarantine.
 

[fuchi_jeg]

My pc is running 3.6ghz processor and a r9 380x 4gb graphics card and GT fore is still choppy.  It was just as choppy with a HD 4500 card though. No problem with any 240p ish games though. GT fore will probably require a 4+GHZ processor. I dont know that the graphics card matters much.

[Alaska]

So... I got a clean W7 install. Updated everything and installed the necessary programs. Reconfigured MAME and the frontend. Everything worked great. I tried to install and configure the ArcadeVGA card and got the blue screen of death! So... I deleted the drivers (QuickRes NT is still installed...) dropped in an old HD 4330 and everything seems stable. I finally took the advice of the masses and installed CRT Emudrivers... man was that an easy install and the screen looks fantastic! There were a few issues with hardware acceleration not allowing videos to play in HyperSpin but I resolved that by installing VLC player and turning hardware acceleration off. Based on my experience with the ArcadeVGA graphics card, I would definitely recommend going with a mass produced card and using CRT Emudrivers!

 **EDIT** WITH GroovyMame! I started off the cab 4+ years ago and wanted to use HyperSpin. I can't remember why I didn't go the GM route... perhaps I didn't think they were compatible or maybe they weren't at the time. I now have a HyperSpin cab running GroovyMame and all of the underlying issues that were surfacing from machine to machine using MAME or RetroArch have now gone away... especially the audio latency. Great work Calamity et al! Many thanks for all the posts on this forum and help over the years.

***cracks a beer and warms up the tubes