Monitor (or ArcadeVGA/MAME) don't obey to my orders (I mean to the .ini files)

[LePic]

Good Day,
I started this thread in another forum (ArcadeOS & MAMEWah forum) and my first problem was quickly solved by MinWah (thanks again).  However, the next problem I encountered wasn't MAMEWah related so I decided to move my questions over here.

My setup.
OS:           Win98
MAME:       0.99
MAMEWah 1.61
Cabinet:    Dynamo
Monitor:     Zenith horizontal 25" ( I've seen it run it's original game and the monitor is OK.)

When using a computer monitor with my system, everything works A1.  When moving it to my cabinet I get some problem with the arcade monitor.  In the cabinet, I use a JPac and the ArcadeVGA. 

What is my problem?
When running Win98, the picture fills the screen completely.  It's the same when running MAMEWah.  The problem occurs when I run MAME (with MAMEWah or not).  The aspect ratio seems OK to me but I get a big border all around the game, something like 5 inches on both sides and 3 inches on top and bottom.  What I don't understand is that playing with the MAME.ini or the resolution in the game's ini file doesn't do ANY difference.  The only time I can make the display change is when I set MAME.ini to
'keepaspect 0
Even then, the side borders go from 5 inches to about 2 inches but the top and bottom border don't change.  Also, I don't think I should play with that setting.  I need to find the proper way of doing it.

From the help I received so far, I made sure MAME.ini had those two lines set properly: 
switchres 1
switchbpp 1
and that I had this too:
hwstretch 0

There is no change in how the monitor display my games.

I know MAME makes reference to the game's ini file since I get this  when using the -verbose option (see 3rd line):

parsing MAME.ini...OK.
parsing drivers/pacman.ini...N/A
parsing mspacman.ini...OK.
Using DirectInput 7
Keyboards=1 Mice=0 Joysticks=0 Lightguns=0
Enumerating video device display
Enumerating video device \\.\Display1
Enumerating video device \\.\Display2
Best mode = 0x0x0 @ default Hz
Primary surface created:640x480x16 (R=0000f800 G=000007e0 B=0000001f)
Primary buffer: 44100 Hz, 16 bits, 2 channels
SSE supported

I know vertical games on an horizontal monitor don't show up exactly as they were meant to.  However, what I have is far from what it is supposed to look like.

Maybe this is important to solve the problem: when booting, the POST is displayed upside down.  I use the tools in ArcadeVGA to rotate my monitor and mouse 180 degrees.  As a result, as soon as I get into Windows (or MAMEWah if it's set as shell or in startup folder) the display is properly oriented.

By searching this forum, I found a similar problem (with a different setup) but no solution was given  (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=37095.0)


Any help would be appreciated.