MAME/Mala setup problems.

[Crazydiver]

I have an ongoing problem, which I have still to resolve. I recently tried to reinstall MAME and MaLa, with the latest versions, on a mates machine after my kids stuffed it up. The in-game controls stopped responding as they should, and when one of the buttons were pushed, master volume pops up and the joy stick is able to alter the volume. It is only the in-game controls that do not respond as they should. I still have the original setup saved in a temp folder, and have transfered all the roms etc over to the new setup, as far as I am aware. When I check the game metadata for the games where the controls do not work, it contains information that relates to the old setup, and there are no settings for controller inputs listed. The option to refresh the game list is not available, unless I delete the Rom pathway and re-enter it, and even then it does not come up as an option every time. When it does, and I hit enter, it doesn't seem to do anything at all, and I would have thought that this process would take some time. I am wondering if this is the reason that the game metadata does not relate to the new setup. I also downloaded a control.ini file, and put it into the Mame directory, as there was not one before, but this hasn't made any difference anyway. So if anyone knows how to sort this problem out, it would be appreciated.

Things I have already done: Checked that the Rom pathway is correct.
Made sure that the MaLa setup is correct, to the best of my knowledge.
Tried to config the controller mapping in MAME, but I may have not done this correctly.(as clearly things are still not working)
Tried to refresh the game data, but this option is unavailable.
Applied all the patches to MAME
Spent absolutley hours trying to sort this problem out 

[Crazydiver]

I think it would be fair to say that MAME and MaLa are not very intuitive programs, at least for me that is. This controller things is doing my head in. I have also found that I am having problems with alternative layouts.
Firstly some more info on the controller mapping problems. I went into MAME (latest version) and set Player 1 controls as follows. Joystick is not a problem so I will ignore that here.
P1 Start =  kbd 1
P1 Select= kbd1
P1 button 1= kbd`,
P1 button 2= kbd alt
P1 button 3= space
P1 button 4= kbd H
P1 button 5= kbd A
P1 button 6= kbd W
P1 button 7= kbd D
P1 button 8= kbd Z
All other buttons have been set to none, and all other players buttons have been set to none also, to simplify the setup, in an effort to sort the problem out. I have check that the controller settings in MaLa correspond to these settings also. When I check the game metadata for one of the games that is not working it refers to an older setup, and I am not able to change or edit this metadata. The option of refreshing the game list is unavailable (like I said before). The game metadata contains no settings for any controls, which is probably part of the problem. Anyway that is where I am at with that problem. Basically nowhere. The other problem I have had, which I am sure is a really simple one, is the alternative layouts I am trying to use. As an example I tried the one by Black Knight. I have put all the files in a layout folder, told MaLa where to find them, and can select it as an option, but all it does is change the layout, without any of the background graphics. It does the same when I use the Halloween one, no background png image. So obviously I am doing something really stupid here. Any help would be so appreciated like you wouldn't believe. I am about to throw in the towel and stick with my XBox 360 slim and kill some Zombies

[fallacy]

Mala has it’s own form… you can ask Loadman after you search the form for the answer.
I just did a search for backround . http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=60271.0

[Crazydiver]

Cheers for that. At least that has solved one of my problems. Now just need to sort out the controller mapping problem.