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MAME not remembering anything? Help!!
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javeryh:
I finally got everything set up in my cab but for some reason between last night and tonight MAME refuses to remember anything - high scores, dip switch settings, etc.  Every time I power on the computer I'm starting from scratch.  I have friends coming over tomorrow to play some games and I need high scores to work!!!

I am running a compiled version of MAME .119 with the high score patch/diff - it has worked flawlessly in this computer for at least a year and just last night it went bonkers.   Should I copy over the mame.exe file from my backup?  I can't remember what files are created when you compile MAME since it has been so long...

Any ideas???  Thanks in advance!   :cheers:
protokatie:
Prolly won't help, but since you said it just "all of a sudden" started doing this, I am imagining that it is more on the OS end than MAME.

Did you log into your computer under a different name or account that may not have write priveleges to the directory (or root directory) that you have MAME in? I found this to be a huge problem when dealing in Vista (until SP1). Dunno what OS you are using. Just on a lark, try running MAME using admin priveleges and see if that fixes it. Also might want to check dir/file attributes to see if they got switched to read-only for some odd reason.
If you are using MAME32 or MAMEUI, I have found that it often doesn't save anything if you just close the window with the "x" button, but will if you use the menu to close the program (although you said you made a custom compile, so I bet you are using command prompt MAME).

Another seemingly dumb question, did you use taskman to see if there was another copy of MAME sitting in the background? If that copy has ini/etc files open for writing, the copy you are using wont be able to write to those files.

EDIT: Even if a program has a file open for reading, it exempts (locks) it from being written to until the file is closed from reading. I forgot about the "File open for writing, program has exclusive access; File is open for reading, any program can open for reading, but no program may open for writing" thing.
javeryh:
Thanks for the response.  I'm using TinyXP as my OS.  I did not log in under a different name or anything - I don't have the log-on screen when I turn the computer on. 

How do I run MAME using admin privileges?  Ideally I'd like to always be the admin, right?  This computer is doing nothing other than running MAME and MaLa.

The read/write suggestion is interesting - can I make entire folders read/write?  Everything is in the "C:\Arcade" folder.

I also didn't check to see if MAME was running in the background or anything - that is also a good idea.  I noticed this problem started around the time I told the computer to launch MaLa on startup (this is a setting in MaLa - I checked the box).  Perhaps this is causing some trouble?  I haven't started trying to hide XP or mess with the registry settings.  Although shouldn't it only be running once after booting up?  It should be shutting down when I turn the computer off, right?

I am using command line MAME (not MAMEUI or MAME 32).

Does any of this help?  I have about an hour tonight when I get home to figure it out before people start arriving!

Thanks!   :cheers:
Dr Zero:
You can right click the folder where MAME is and look at the properties and if you see the read only checked. Checking that box will make whole folders where they are just readable.

And to run as Admin right click on the program and there is a option to run as.

 :cheers:

Oh the read only sometimes happens when you copy files from say a back up cd cause the cd is read only.
javeryh:
Thanks - I'll make sure my entire "C:\Arcade" folder is writable (and not read-only).

Where do the high scores get saved?  In the "hi" folder, right?  What about highscore.dat?  I just don't know what I could have done to mess this up... :-\
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