XP screensavers a problem? not sure

[Druin]

I asked about this a long time ago and noone knew, and I'm not sure if it's an issue for modern FEs, but when I was using arcade@home, and switched to XP, I found my screensaver would kick in during the game after my XP screensaver time lapsed (using the PC Gameport for games, the PC saw no key activity and timed out).

THe problem was i couldn't figure out how to disable the screensaver in dos apps like I used to in all other windows versions prior.

Is XP screensaver a problem still, or do people just shut it off and use a FE screensaver?  (My problem was the PC is not a dedicated game system so I use the XP saver)

[tep0583]

I just don't use screensavers.

They really aren't nessessary with modern monitors, anyway. (all bets are off if you're running a arcade monitor, but I'm pretty sure you're not)

[Druin]

yeah I'm using an LCD monitor and I use the power save as well, but I like the password protection aspect of screensavers, not to hide anything, but to prevent people accidentally leaning on keys...at work I once lost half a year of emails because I didn't realize someone at my desk was leaning on the delete key for 10minutes, and I exited outlook before noticing the result (purging deleted mail upon exit)

So I'm a little paranoid over stuff similar to that.

[tep0583]

That IS the only remaining legitamate use of screensavers, IMO.

You could lock the PC when your're away from it. Same effect, without having to set the saver....

[Druin]

only thing is when I end up being away but didn't plan on it, it would be nice to have it time out after the 20minutes if I don't come back.  It happens.

Well once I get a real system dedicated to mame I won't worry about it, it'll be meant to run 24/7 with an active screen, I'd be turning screen saver off.  I think for me a part of the arcade experience will be to be able to come home to a running arcade machine, complete with attract demo sounds (sometimes).  It would kind of cheapen it to have to go boot itup. I already have lived with a 24/7 computer philosophy for as long as I can remember, at least a decade.
I only turn them off when they crash beyond recovery and I am forced to hold the power button for 4 seconds!

[MameMaster!]

only thing is when I end up being away but didn't plan on it, it would be nice to have it time out after the 20minutes if I don't come back.  It happens.

Well once I get a real system dedicated to mame I won't worry about it, it'll be meant to run 24/7 with an active screen, I'd be turning screen saver off.  I think for me a part of the arcade experience will be to be able to come home to a running arcade machine, complete with attract demo sounds (sometimes).  It would kind of cheapen it to have to go boot itup. I already have lived with a 24/7 computer philosophy for as long as I can remember, at least a decade.
I only turn them off when they crash beyond recovery and I am forced to hold the power button for 4 seconds!

...I've always been concerned to keep my mame machine running for days/hours at a time....you never have any performance problems?....any thing wear out prematurely?

MameMaster  

[Druin]

The only thing I ever really had fail was hard drives, 3 in my 13 years of running PCs like this...and I've owned...let me count.....

40 Meg Western Digital (yes I had to think about that twice)
80 Meg Seagate (very smooth running)
270 Meg Quantum
270 Meg Quantum
1.2 Gig Seagate
2.1 Gig Quantum SCSI
2.1 Gig Quantum IDE
4.3 Gig Seagate (FAILED)
10.1 Gig Western Digital (Still running in slave PC)
13 Gig Western Digital (Still running in slave PC)
45 Gig Western Digital (FAILED last month)
80 Gig Western Digital (FAILED a few years ago)
120 Gig Western Digital (Running in main PC right now)
120 Gig Western Digital (Running in main PC right now)
200 Gig Maxtor Serial ATA (Replaced the 45gig, running in main PC right now)

So who knows, I don't attribute my failed hardware to running 24/7, how would all the businesses out there survive....especially those porn sites!

[DougHillman]

FWIW, I've owned plenty of systems over the years that are left on basically 24/7/365 and am currently experiencing my first ever hard drive failure.  

Just as with an automobile engine, the hardest part of its life is during the startup phase.   Personally, I think you extend the life of most electronic components if you minimize the startup/shutdown.  How many lightbulbs you ever seen that just blow out while they're on?  Most pop when they're being turned on.

[cdbrown]

Most companies leave their PC's on all the time and only use power saving options on the monitor.  I never use power saving on the hard drive for the pure porpose of not powering down and up this critical part of the system.  In the world of reliability - most things fail on demand - ie when you turn them on.  Also a lot of compenents are expected to fail within the first few weeks of operation.  Generally if they don't fail during the initial period they will work for a very long time - generally.  Can you tell I've spent time looking through failure data and failure curves.

[Howard_Casto]

About screensavers... you think you don't need them... think again!  ALL displays suffer from burn-in if a static image is left on the screen long enough ESPECIALLY lcds, televisions, and arcade monitors.  The trick is not to let windows handle the screensaver.  I think the major fes support external windows screensavers at this point.  They won't interrupt your game as the fe is controlling the saver, not xp.  

(For the record arcade@home is not a major fe.  Try something less "windowsy", you might like it.)

Power saving generally won't work with arcade monitors or televisions, so if you have a cabinet, you should really be running some kind of screensaver if you leave it on 24/7 or pause for extended periods of time.  

[cdbrown]

Also - why don't you set up 2 profiles on your PC
1. MAME
2. PC

That way when in mame profile you can set it to go straight to the FE of your choice which will have an inbuilt screensaver which kicks in after a desired time.  The PC profiles can have any normal screensaver/powersaver settings you want.  Best of both worlds I think.

[daywane]

hmmmmm? I dont get it. I am just now switching to windows mame
(command line) I have had mame 32  with windows XP for a long time now and I have never had my screen savers pop in. I can not think of a time it did with 98se eather. my CP on the vertical is 2 sidewinder game pad hacks, My horizontal CP is 4 Playstation game pad hacks.
 I bet its the joy to mouse program running doing it. I just thought of that... never mind  

[Minwah]

About screensavers... you think you don't need them... think again!  ALL displays suffer from burn-in if a static image is left on the screen long enough ESPECIALLY lcds, televisions, and arcade monitors.

What he said.  I mean all full-time arcade monitors have burn-in, it's only a question of time.  While a MAME machine is probably less likely to cause burn due to running various games etc., it is still going to happen if left on long enough.

My FE launches a screensaver after 5 mins (I'm mixing between slide-show, movie playing and game-launching atm).  I hate power-saving on monitors normally, but I use it on my cab after 30 mins, for peace of mind

Edit: btw I use a 15khz monitor...I wouldn't be quite as worried about a PC monitor.

[Druin]

It would be nice if a "screensaver" on a FE consisted of the ability to launch a "random" mame game and of course just have it sitting in demo mode, for a defined time, then have mame exit to FE again,a nd the FE launches another game so say every 10 mins you look at the cab and it's like it's running a brand new game sitting there in demo mode waiting for someone to insert a coin.

I guess there's SOME way to launch MAME and then kill the process or something, dunno if there's anything messy about doing something like that idea...

[Minwah]

It would be nice if a "screensaver" on a FE consisted of the ability to launch a "random" mame game and of course just have it sitting in demo mode, for a defined time, then have mame exit to FE again,a nd the FE launches another game so say every 10 mins you look at the cab and it's like it's running a brand new game sitting there in demo mode waiting for someone to insert a coin.

I guess there's SOME way to launch MAME and then kill the process or something, dunno if there's anything messy about doing something like that idea...

See Howards EmuSaver ( www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus ), and MAME Screensaver ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~michieln/luciddreams/ ) - they allow just that