Well, I think I've confirmed it. When I used the Mala screen saver to pull pictures from the c:\mame\snap directory, the system has a hiccup like something else is running. When I use a windows screensaver, it's fine. Here is my setup:
Dell Dimension 1100
Celeron D 2.53ghz
19" Vertical monitor
Male RC5 set in Vertical orientation
I thought it was my system so I reformatted it. It worked fine, until after the screen saver kicked in. So, I powered it down and tried the windows screen saver - I left it on for a day. It worked without issue. Switched the screen saver to Mala and as soon as the screen saver kicked on - it would play a game for about 8-10 seconds and do a little skip (sound and motion).
Hope this helps. It's not a big deal really, I just switched it back to the windows screen saver.