BootSkin causing MAME slowdown??

[the720k]

I was having problems with my MAME cab running WinXP, MaLa, and BootSkin.  Wasn't sure when the issues started until I wiped the installation and installed XP on a brand new hard drive.

Everything ran smoothly and perfectly until the point where I installed BootSkin to add a finishing touch.  After the machine restarted, my BootSkin image showed up fine, and entered MaLa with no issues.  However, when I launched any MAME game at all, the games were severely slowed down.  Skipping frames, double-playing audio, etc.  Even after I removed BootSkin (which was a job in and of itself,) the issue remained.  I'm now in the process of reinstalling Windows again.  I'm not inclined to reinstall BootSkin again unless I can figure out why this is happening.

I'm using a P4 Machine with a Biostar motherboard and a gig of RAM.  ArcadeVGA AGP card for video, and an I-PAC interface.  The thing that really gets me is that I also have a cocktail MAME table that is only running on a P3/533 with 512MB RAM, and BootSkin causes no problems with MAME at all. 

The only thing I can imagine could be the problem would be an incompatibility with the P4 machine's BIOS... Would I likely run into this issue if I were to manually replace the Windows startup screen by hand? 

Worst case scenario, I can leave the logo screen as-is, and just enjoy my games.  I just really wish I didn't have to settle for the Win logo, especially when I see everything run perfectly on my P3.  Ick.

Thanks in advance,
Jeremy

[the720k]

Nevermind.  I don't think it's Bootskin causing this now.  It's extremely aggravating, however!  Possibly my EMS TopGun?  Has anyone ever heard of it slowing down MAME?

[headkaze]

Well my cab runs a P4 with a Biostar motherboard and a gig of RAM. I don't have an ArcadeVGA, but I have an IPAC and 2 EMS Topguns. What driver are you using for the Topguns and if you suspect them to be causing problems have you tried uninstalling the drivers?

I would suggest you take a look in Device Manager and look out for any drivers that are having problems.

I have successfully used a custom boot screen but I used a program called BootLogo.

Are you running the latest video drivers for your AVGA from the Ultimarc website? And what graphics mode are you using in Mame? I know your "supposed" to run it in DirectDraw mode, but have you tried Direct3D?

Open up your mame.ini file should be in the same folder as your Mame executable (or run Mame.exe -cc to create one). In that have a look what you have next to "video" it can be gdi, ddraw or d3d. I run in d3d because that gives me the best performance.

Another thing is are you shelling directly into MaLa because if you are that stops all the programs from running at startup and it could be an important driver thats not being loaded.

[the720k]

Thank you for the reply, Headkaze.  After playing around with the machine virtually all day and re-installing XP a couple of times, I'm 99% positive that the issue is related to the TopGun.  I'm using Gun2Mouse v3.2, and the ArcadeVGA drivers supplied with my card, since, as far as I can tell, Ultimarc does not have an updated version available on their site. 

As for running d3d instead, I have tried that in the past with no improvement.  MaLa is also running from the "Startup" folder, rather than as a shell for exactly the reason you mentioned.

The TopGun (or gun2mouse) seems to be the culprit, but I have now noticed that the issue only occurs when the gun is plugged in at boot.  If I leave it unplugged and wait for Windows to load, I have no issues whatsoever with speed or gun functions.  This works out alright for me, as I have installed two front-mount USB ports on my cabinet.  However, it will continue to gnaw at me until I can figure out a way to get the machine to act properly whether the TopGun is installed on startup or not.

Have you had any luck with other TopGun drivers?  I see that EMS has a new version of the driver available, and I downloaded it.  However, I was reading in a forum somewhere that people were having issues with MAME not responding properly to the gun with the newer driver. 

BTW: BootSkin isn't the problem.  I posted the topic before I had my facts in, my bad!

[Popcorrin]

I can tell you withouth a doubt that it's the TopGun causing your issues.  It is a known problem with them.   I'm surprised your computer will boot at all with them plugged in,  mine wouldn't even boot. 
As far as why it happens, I'm not sure.

I wonder if the new topgun has the same issue?

[the720k]

You're right.  Even the new driver didn't fix the problem.  As much as I like the gun, I really wish EMS would aim for some QA standards (not likely.)  I'm not going to buy the TopGun II just because they had crappy firmware in the first one.  They need to fix their technical problems!  Oh well, though, accountability and Chinese/Hong Kong hardware rarely go hand-in-hand.  Shame.

[Popcorrin]

Yea, alot of people swear by the TopGun.  I, personally, am not that impressed, but the gun options out there are pretty limited.

[headkaze]

There are several other drivers you could try. I think I used Smog's drivers initially and they worked fine. I recently read on here that people were using the updated EMS drivers and they were supposedly working okay now. I have not being able to get my guns calibrated again since doing that, so I think I might go back to Smog's drivers when I can be bothered trying to calibrate them again.

More info about the different drivers can be found on the wiki here

[northerngames]

what type/rating psu you using?

[the720k]

It's an ATX 400W PSU, can't remember who manufactures it offhand.  Do you think it could be drawing too much power through USB?  I never really thought about that.  Maybe today I'll give my powered USB hub a shot.

[northerngames]

it is possible I added a power hungry vga card to my system and I was having all kinds of problems where my mouse would not work sometime then I would shut it off turn it on and the mouse would work but the ipac keyboard encoder would not respond.

I thought maybe it was the ram so I got a new set then I thought it was a heat issue becuase everything on the mobo was running hot so I got all kinds of awsome aftermarket cooling.

spent tons of hours and money only to find none of them was the problem it was my PSU the whole time.

I also was using a 400 watt sustained 12 amp or something so I had went to a 650-watt 16 sustained amp and it still had the same problem.

I then went to a 550-watt corsair that had 40 amp sustained and now it has no problems with anything all problems went away and I can hook anything extra up to it and it does not effect any other parts now.

in the end I found that the watts on a pc PSU mean absolutely nothing really it is all about the 12V Rail sustained amperage.

 for instance a 800-watt psu that is 16 amp on the 12V would not out do a 300-watt with 20 amp on the 12V rail the 300-watt would actually power more and out due the 800-watt even know it is actually 500 watts less.

also after I got the correct power to the card it made my cpu ram and AGP card drop a ton of  degree's wich is a huge difference for performace.  it went from damn near burning up to almost running like I have a a/c unit on it now.