sound issues in mala - Please Help

[itstonye]

(1)
I'm running Mala, with Mame .111 command line. I'm having some sound issues and i don't know why. Almost everything works fine. I will be playing 1942, metal slug, or puzzle bubble and after 10 minutes the sound goes silent. Then i exit the game and my Mala sound effects no longer work. then i will exit Mala and fire it back up again and everything works perfectly. If any one has a solution to this problem please post. Or if anyone has encountered a similar problem please post.

(2)
I'm also having some trouble 'Shell'ing into Mala. The windows 'Welcome' screen still comes up, i want to get rid of it. and once Mala is running to sound effects are echoed they sound like we are in the Sistine chapel.
P.S. the sound issue's i was having in (#1) was before i shelled MaLa. Once I Shelled MaLa I am having both issues(#1 & #2)

[SGT]

For the sound issue, I would first take Mala out of the loop to see if the problem truly goes away.  Until then you won't REALLY know whether to attribute the problem to Mala, Mame, Windows, or hardware.  I would set the shell back to explorer.exe.  I would then reboot and run Mame without Mala to see if the problem has disappeared.  Does the sound disappear with other apps besides Mame?  Does anything show up in your event log when the sound goes silent.

[itstonye]

I have since been running Mame from command line in the windows environment without Mala. I have no sound issues. Only when running Mala do i have this problem. You'll be right in the middle of the game 3rd or 4th level and all the sudden no sound. I check all the wire in-case of a loose connection... Nope. The only way to remedy this is to exit Mala and start it back up again = Problem solved. But this is a pain.

No other sounds in the windows environment do this. They never just stop working.

There is nothing in the event log when this happens.

Help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

[SGT]

There's also a Mala log in the Mala folder.  Can't remember if you have to enable something to get it to work or if Mala automatically logs errors.  You might check it for an error message?

[itstonye]

in the mame folder there is a file named: error.txt.

 I was just playing tetris and the sound went out so i exited and as soon as i did the windows sounds work. I opened error.txt in the mame folder it read:

Code: [Select]

Physical width 1280, height 1024
soft reset
(vblank) watchdog armed by reset
I can't find anywhere in MaLa to log errors, nor can i find an error log file or anything like it in the MaLa directory.

[SGT]

You have to enable it.  See the screenshot below.  Not sure if it will help with your problem though.

[loadman]

Try:

1) Updating your Sound driver to the 'latest and greatest'

2) Copy your mame and Mala setup-up to another PC to see if you have the same issue. Doing this is easy for me as I have mame and mala as sub-folders of a mametable folder.

[itstonye]

Well i have had the log running for 2 days and its finally happend the sound went out twice. Here's copys of some of the log and i have idicated with arrows where the sound went out. but there's nothing in the log which indicates that the sound should've or did go out.

Code: [Select]

2007/12/24  17:03:47.48   Info: Starting MaLa 1.0.4.5
2007/12/24  17:03:47.48   Info: Check plugin directory: C:\MaLa\plugins
2007/12/24  17:03:47.48   Info: Collecting event plugins (*.mplugin) in C:\MaLa\plugins\
2007/12/24  17:03:47.48   Info: Check backup directory: C:\MaLa\backups
2007/12/24  17:03:47.48   Info: Loading hook dll
2007/12/24  17:03:47.54   Info: Loading params from ini file
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Setting params from ini file
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading mame cl conditions: C:\MaLa\mame.clc
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading mame info pages: C:\MaLa\mame.mli
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading other emu info pages: C:\MaLa\otheremu.mli
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading filter sets: C:\MaLa\mala.mlf
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading non mame emulators: C:\MaLa\mala.mle
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading layout ...
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Collecting layout files (*.mll) in C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading mala tree
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Collecting game list files (mlg) in C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:03:47.62   Info: Creating and loading bios
2007/12/24  17:03:47.68   Info: Creating audio object
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Creating and loading mala lcd screens
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Creating and loading mame lcd screens
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Creating and loading jukebox lcd screens
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Creating and loading led config and attroct mode list
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Collecting attract mode files (*.mlc) in C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Loading game list: C:\MaLa\newgamelist.mlg
2007/12/24  17:03:47.82   Info: Loading layout: C:\MaLa\pixas_1022.mll
2007/12/24  17:05:05.88   Info: Saving game list: C:\MaLa\newgamelist.mlg
2007/12/24  17:05:05.88   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  17:05:06.21   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\Mame\
2007/12/24  17:05:06.21   Info: Starting: Create process: mameat.exe pbobbl2n
2007/12/24  17:09:36.18   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:09:36.20   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  17:13:41.84   Info: Saving game list: C:\MaLa\newgamelist.mlg
2007/12/24  17:13:41.87   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  17:13:42.21   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\Mame\
2007/12/24  17:13:42.21   Info: Starting: Create process: mameat.exe pbobbl2n
2007/12/24  17:27:01.85   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:27:01.85   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  17:30:06.88   Info: Saving game list: C:\MaLa\newgamelist.mlg
2007/12/24  17:30:06.92   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  17:30:07.28   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\Mame\
2007/12/24  17:30:07.28   Info: Starting: Create process: mameat.exe pbobbl2n
2007/12/24  17:42:55.99   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  17:42:55.99   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  18:40:21.46   Info: Saving game list: C:\MaLa\newgamelist.mlg
2007/12/24  18:40:21.46   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  18:40:21.78   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\Mame\
2007/12/24  18:40:21.78   Info: Starting: Create process: mameat.exe pbobbl4u <-----Here's Where sound went out
2007/12/24  20:27:49.29   Info: Starting: Set dir: C:\MaLa\
2007/12/24  20:27:49.29   Info: Programming Encoder: C:\Program Files\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe arcade.ipc
2007/12/24  20:28:03.73   Info: Destroying audio object
2007/12/24  20:28:03.87   Info: Writing params to ini file
2007/12/24  20:28:03.99   Info: Launching application on exit: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
2007/12/24  20:28:04.01   Info: Showing taskbar
2007/12/24  20:28:04.01   Info: Closing MaLa 1.0.4.5

Where the arrow idicates i played for about 5 minutes. Then left the room. When i returned there's no sound coming from the computer. so i exited and 'boom' sound again. This is very strange.

If anyone can help send some light on this. Much thanks.

[SGT]

I wonder what this means:

2007/12/24  20:28:03.73   Info: Destroying audio object

Nevermind the above.  That's apparently normal.  I now lose all my sound when Mala starts up.  It doesn't wait, but does it as soon as it loads up.  A brand new install of Mala in a different folder does not lose the sound.  I'm going to start copying my old configuration over to the new install to see if and when I lose the sound again.

[SGT]

itstonye

Do you use the Mala built-in screen saver?

[loadman]

itstonye

Do you use the Mala built-in screen saver?

What is it James?

[SGT]

Just grasping at straws on his problem.  He mentioned leaving it and coming back to find the sound not working.  I'm wondering if his audio goes out after x amount of time of inactivitiy when the ss is kicking in.  Just shooting in the dark which is usually useless. 

My problem isn't related.  In my Mala.ini file,  under [BGMusic] my volume was set to zero which was silencing Mame.  I don't know how the volume got to zero.  All that was grayed out in Mala options because under the Sounds and Music, audio was not enabled.  I left that disabled, but changed Volume=0 to Volume=50 in Mala.ini which restored audio in Mame. 

[loadman]

A- ha 

[itstonye]

No, Im not using the mala screen saver.

It's not just when i leave the arcade for a while, it will just stop playing in the middle of a game. It only happens once in a while, once or twice every 1 or 2 days.

I don't know if this has any relevance but when i check my device manager, I have a yellow question mark next to my 'Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller' under the 'Other Devices' option.

[itstonye]

i have just fixed the USB contoller problem I will see if that for some strange reason will fix my audio problem.

[loadman]

No, Im not using the mala screen saver.

What about your windows screen saver settings?

[itstonye]

it happend again! During 1942. I checked the windows screen saver. I have it set to come on after '9999' minutes. The option's i also checked were never turn the hardrive or the monitor off, in the power options menu.

I also checked the Mala.exe.log, nothing unusual there I will post it if anyone thinks the info i contains will be useful in helping me solve this problem.

Again, all I had to do was exit then restart MaLa. Sounds work fine again after that. I have also tried to launch other games after the sound goes out to see if it was just the game i was playing, but theres no MaLa sound effects and the games don't have sound.
Only after restarting MaLa is there anything.

I appreciate everyone contribution, to helping me in this. I can't believe no one has ever had this happen to them.

[loadman]

Sorry I'm out. Never heard of anything like that other than to re-suggest you copy your set-up to another PC to see if you have the same issue or it is just your hardware.