Frontend Help

[Razor]

Hi, ive followed the guide on the Wiki to get Mala to load instead of Windows in my new cab. 

Ive followed it to the last detail, but cant seem to get it to work properly.  When I initially start up the pc instead of loading Mala, windows proceeds through its normal bootup and I get a message pop up saying :

" The system could not log you on.  Make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again.  Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case"

This doesnt make sense as I created 2 Admin accounts and have specified not to have to enter passwords manually on both, I have also triple checked the password I have selected to "auto run" into windows is correct and it is.  I then click OK on this and it proceeds to load up Windows, so its not restricting me access, even though its saying I have the wrong password?!


Has anyone got any ideas on whats going wrong, ive been over and over the guide in case id missed something and the Shell entry is correctly set to my front end as specified.

[loadman]

Are you q Windows XP Home user?

If so do not try auto-login on the Administrator user, you will received a error make another normal account up to auto-boot from..

To clarify:
To setup the auto login feature in window xp, simply follow the steps below:-

- Click Start -> Run -> Type CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 and press enter

- Highlight the user account from “Users for this computer” list
- Uncheck “User must enter a username and password use this computer”
- Click OK
- Automatically Logon Dialog will appear, then enter your password and confirm the password
- You are done!

or...

Download TweakUI from Microsoft and you can have Auto-Login working in less than 5 minutes with no worries about disappearing accounts either.

[Razor]

Hi ive managed to get the pc to boot up using that account and not asking any passwords, but still cant get Mala to run instead of windows.  All that happens is windows boots up as normal but theres nothing on the screen (obviously because ive taken out Explorer.exe), does it matter that my front end location is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Desktop\Mala\Mala.exe?

[loadman]

Hi ive managed to get the pc to boot up using that account and not asking any passwords, but still cant get Mala to run instead of windows.  All that happens is windows boots up as normal but theres nothing on the screen (obviously because ive taken out Explorer.exe), does it matter that my front end location is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Desktop\Mala\Mala.exe?

First when you take out explorer.exe and replace it you need to put the full path in

I'm not sure but try putting your mame and mala stuff in a simple directory structure

EG:

c:\cab\mala\mala.exe

I have had problems with windows before

[Razor]

Yeah thats what I was thinking, ill try moving it to a much simpler path see what happens...

[Razor]

Well changing the path has managed to get the front end booting up, but before this I get the normal Windows XP loading screen followed by "loading user settings" screen, then Mala loads (and works fine, with sound etc).

I was under the impression this method bypassed the logo screens, but obviously not?  I guess that means using one of the those BootXP programs as mentioned in the Wiki?

[Razor]

Forgot to mention takes about 1 Min from startup to front end is this normal?

Im running an Athlon 2800+ 256mb ram and a Geforce 4400MX GPU

[headkaze]

This should probably be moved to the software forum

[Razor]

This should probably be moved to the software forum

Sorry my bad, was in a rush last night and posted in the wrong forum, if any admin/mod could move it please would be appreciated

[Razor]

Well im getting there kind of, I have a custom boot screen loaded (although im thinking about just leaving it blank), but then there is a pause of a about 10 seconds where a blue screen with Windows XP logo on the right hand side pops up, then Mala sucessfully starts.

EDIT :

This is the screen im getting on bootup after the custom logo...

[img=http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1387/dscf0109nb6.th.jpg]

Sorry for the bad quality pic its on camera phone, but you can just make out the screen it is.

[loadman]

I was under the impression this method bypassed the logo screens, but obviously not?  I guess that means using one of the those BootXP programs as mentioned in the Wiki?

you can

I can boot and the only thing you see is a quick flash of the video card text right at the beginiing.  As my motherboard even lets you cover up its info with a BMP

Have a look here:
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/backwash/index2.htm

[Razor]

Hi thanks, not long after I posted I managed to sort it completely.  From startup to front end is now about 10-15 seconds, and shut down about 5.  Everythings completly hidden although I get about 3 seconds of Bios at the startup, im not bothered about that.  Theres a few settings in Mala I need to tinker with, other than that everythings fine

[ahofle]

It would be helpful if you explained what you did to fix the problem in case someone is searching the boards for this issue later.

[Razor]

It would be helpful if you explained what you did to fix the problem in case someone is searching the boards for this issue later.

Mmmmmm to be honest with you the only issue I was having was a very small one and im not entirely sure how it was resolved, I changed the desktop background to black, I found the mouse disappearing thing didnt work for me from the Wiki, so I just made a black block for the mouse cursor, using a mouse cursor editing program and set everything to do with the mouse to that.  I also edited MSDOS.SYS although it was completely blank, I added "Logo=0" in there, not sure if that was what did the trick, works fine for now though.  Only issue is with loading pic I used in place of the normal windows one, it seems to go a bit weird and has a few "lines" through it.

[ahofle]

I was mostly curious what you fixed to go from a 1 minute startup to 10 seconds.

[Razor]

I was mostly curious what you fixed to go from a 1 minute startup to 10 seconds.

Sorry that was an estimation, I just counted exactly its 20 seconds, still nice and fast though. 

Apart from following the steps ive already mentioned, I used System Mechanic 7 to defrag the hard drive, clear out all the junk and optimize unwanted processes at startup.