MameWah as XP shell - resolution problem

[SadGamerGeek]

I've been putting off posting this appeal for help for some time, because I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, but no amount of searching seems to find any details on this problem.

I'm sorting out the PC software side of things in advance of building my first cabinet (http://SadGamerGeek.com). I'm using Windows XP (pro) and want to run the fantastic MameWah as the shell. I've followed the instructions regularly posted here, but can't get it to work. After I've made the registry change & restarted, the screen just goes black and seems to freeze at this point. It will allow me to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to start Explorer to get out of the situation though.

When I then look at the MameWah log file, it shows that MameWah certainly tried to start, but seemed to have a problem with my display settings. This is what it shows:

09/02/2005 18:22:57 MAMEWAH launched
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Cursor scheme: Windows default, Arrow: (None), Wait: (None), AppStarting: (None)
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Desktop colour: 10841658
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Wallpaper filename:
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Display mode: 1280x1024 @ 75Hz, 32 bit colour
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Decimal symbol: '.'
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Games list read: mame-1.lst
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Mode 640 x 480 @ 60, 16bit colour not available
09/02/2005 18:22:57 Mode 1280 x 1024 @ 75, 32bit colour not available


The last line was repeated many times (maybe 100 or so)


When I start Mamewah within windows normally, the good log looks like this:

09/02/2005 18:47:45 MAMEWAH launched
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Cursor scheme: Windows default, Arrow: (None), Wait: (None), AppStarting: (None)
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Desktop colour: 10841658
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Wallpaper filename:
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Display mode: 1280x1024 @ 75Hz, 32 bit colour
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Decimal symbol: '.'
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Games list read: mame-1.lst
09/02/2005 18:47:45 Layout selected: C:\Arcade\programs\MAMEwah\layouts\Classic 640x480\layout.lay
09/02/2005 18:47:46 Ctrlr file selected: C:\Arcade\programs\MAMEwah\ctrlr\default.ini
09/02/2005 18:47:50 MAMEWAH quit

(The immediate quit was because I was straight in and out - not a problem).

As you can see, it will start OK at 1280x1024x32 @75Hz when not run as the shell.

Have I missed a vital step?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Richard.

[Ronny]

Make sure that your hardware supports the layout settings in size and refresh rate. If your hardware is setup with 16bit colors then you are in trouble .  If yopu don't want to change your hardware settings then user the mameway layout designer to change the color dept and resfresh rate.

[Minwah]

The settings must be fine or it wouldn't work when run normally (not as shell).

My guess is Windows is being a git and doing something to make MAMEWAH think the mode doesn't exist.  Maybe it is a timing issue, not sure what you can do to avoid that tho.

It is wierd because it shouldn't hang on a black screen like that, it should quit straight away.  Sorry but I don't know the solution

[Tokey]

I had a similar problem, I just pointed it to mame32 and now it works fine.  I know it's supposidly better to run the command line mame, but i haven't had a problem yet since I pointed it to mame32.

[SadGamerGeek]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

As Minwah said, exactly those settings work when it is run normaly, so I don't think it is a hardware problem.

I'm not sure that the emulator (MAME or MAME32) would have any impact on this, as the problem is before MameWah has attempted to call one. I could give MAME32 a go though.

Now I think about it, I don't believe MameWah is a actualy freezing. I think it just reports those errors and exits, leaving me with a black screen because of the lack of shell.

The strange thing is, I've now had this problem on 2 completely different PCs. The only thing in common between them is that they both run XP Pro SP2. Is anyone running a MameWah shell OK from XP Pro SP2 I wonder....

[jfunk]

I'm having the exact same problem    If I set MAMEWAH as my shell, I get those errors, and it craps out.  If I then hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE and run mamewah (still no explorer shell) it starts right up 

I'm thinking of running something innocuous as my shell (have a simple 'sleep' program that might work) and then seeing if I can get MAMEWAH running right after that.  Still won't have explorer and MAMEWAH might work..?  Anybody tried this?

Will the 'startup' folder work without explorer as the shell?  Isn't there some sort of registry entry to start up programs?  I'll have to do some more research, I guess.

Any other thougts?

[SadGamerGeek]

I've not had any more success with this - I've had to resort to running MameWah from the startup group.

I'd thought about the "sleep" idea myself. I was contemplating doing a sleep followed by MameWah in a BAT file.  Not sure how to do a sleep in an XP BAT file though - anyone know?

I beleive you're correct to think that the Windows startup folder doesn't get used outside of the Explorer shell. I'm not sure how to do it from the registry.

[Silver]

Sounds like an odd problem this...

Could you 2 with the issue post what graphics cards you have, and what graphics drivers? Do you run clever gfx stuff like powerstrip?

I'm not sure if you can set a batch file as your shell, but try it. As for the pause there are a couple of options:

There is a Sleep.exe command that lets you pause for X seconds. ("Sleep 5" pauses 5 seconds before next command). Try Sleep 20 in your batch to see if Mamewah then runs.

Sleep.exe is part of the Resource kit that should be on your windows CD if you are using NT/2000/XP.

A workaround if you don't have sleep is to use the ping command:

 PING -n 61 127.0.0.1>nul

would pause for 60 seconds (this makes your pc ping itself). For less time change the 61 to something lower (n+1 seconds)

[Silver]

Oh, and something else to try (in XP anyway):

IN HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon

(presumably where you changed the Shell value from explorer to Mamewah.exe...)

Add the following REG_DWORD:

RunLogonScriptSync

and set the value to '1'. This will "Wait for the logon script to complete before loading the desktop"

I don't if this will help the problem, but it should not hurt 

[youki]

Hi Guys,

I never tried with mamewah, but i had did a quick try with my front end (Atomic FE) And i had the same problem.

My guess was  that at load time , when you load the Front end as XP shell , Direct Draw driver are not yet initialized. And when the Front End tried to set the resolution is got an Error. And then when we exit, as there no shell you got a black screen.

I had some idea to fix that for my frontEnd. But i didn't have time to experiment yet and i don't know if it works! . I will do that soon.

cheers,

Youki

[jfunk]

Yeah, I've got sleep.exe..  The batch file works, but doesn't fix the problem.

I'll try the registry entry later today.

I've also been experimenting with 'LiteShell'..  It's a shell alternative with nothing but a right-click menu.  So, keeps the desktop clean..  And it's TINY.  It SHOULD use the windows startup folder, too, but I'm having issues..  Will post more results on this, later.

I'm running an ASUS mobo with integrated graphics..  GeForce4 MX, I believe.  Nothing like powerstrip running...

Thanx!

[kujina]

Hi

Try this
Go to control panel go to the user accounts
Once there press on "change the way users log on and off"
Untick use the welcome screen and Untick use fast user switching

[SadGamerGeek]

The user account settings worked for me - fantastic!

Any idea why this was required?

Thanks very much to everyone for all the suggestions.

Cheers,

Richard

[kujina]

The user account settings worked for me - fantastic!

Any idea why this was required?

Thanks very much to everyone for all the suggestions.

Cheers,

Richard

No problem 

[jfunk]

Kujina, YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!!! 

I can't believe it works!  It's perfect    I now have my custom bios boot screen, then my custom WinXP load screen, straight into MAMEWAH!!  With WINXP!! 

I had it figured out in Win98, but you've just made my year by helping with this 

Maybe Minwah should add it to the FAQ 

THANX AGAIN!!!