*DANG* I am pretty sure I nuked my D9200- HAPPY ENDING

[Santoro]

So today I am working in upgrading my faithful DOS/AdvanceMame/AdavanceMenu/D9200 Mame cabinet to WinXP/ArcadeVGA/Mamewah/D9200.

I was able to get Mamewah to work at 640x480x60, but when running MAME I would get 'out of range' on the D9200.

[Santoro]

I should add that I tried the D9200 on my laptop at 640x480x60 to no avail so the AVGA didn't die.

[Bones]

I am a monitor retard so nothing I say will help, but you have scared the crap out of me now when it comes time to load Mamewah on my cab.

[Santoro]

I want to be real clear.

[dax]

The mamewah.ini file being trashed is likely a side-effect of poor programming and keeping the file open during operation of the program.  If it improperly terminated, the file could easily be corrupted. 

I ran into some similarly scary situations test-running MameWah with a WG 7000-series and AVGA.  I am running three different FEs: Mame32, ArcadeOS and MameWah, and both Mame32 and AOS run fine but on a regular basis, using MameWah throws the monitor in some weird mode that blacks everything out.  I posted something about this earlier and got no responses...  It doesn't surprise me a bit that your monitor got crapped out, however, I am not so unwilling to leave MameWah blameless, even though I agree anyone who fools with any of this software basically assumes all the risks they take, which may include the use of less-than-ideally-designed utilities that might be destructive.

I posted a message yesterday trying to get to the bottom of where the config files are exactly for mame and the FEs that say what modes are available and which ones to use (both for current and earlier versions).  I'm still trying to figure this info out so I can check the settings prior to testing the software and having it go into some destructive video mode.

For example, I think MAME.DAT has some info relevant to these issues, but I can't get docs or info on it, but I configured MameWah to use the same MAME.DAT that ArcadeOS uses, but they behave a lot differently.

[Santoro]

OK - false alarm.

It seems that during its klunking the brightness and contrast on the d9200 got turned waaay down, maybe as a protection, I don't know.   All is OK now, not sure what exactly happened though.

I have disabled 800*600 again just to be safe.

[SirPeale]

Man, I can't believe MameWAH destroyed your monitor.  Once I got a CD containing the word MameWAH on it, and it destroyed the whole town.  Then Chuck Norris kicked it, and it was okay again.

[Mickey Juice]

Then Chuck Norris kicked it, and it was okay again.

Plus with some help from Mr T, a 44 gallon drum and skim milk.

[Breaker]

This is the first I've heard of MameWAH causing monitor issues. I've had issues with the AVGA Resolution Tool not saving video settings to INI files but never anything like what you've just experienced Santoro. I'd be interested to hear Minwah's comments.

Breaker.

[Minwah]

3) Why would Mamewah.ini clear out?

I am not sure, but I think it has happened to a few people before. 

Now I'd just like to say that as you know Mamewah uses it's Layout files to set the resolution.  If no valid layout file exists, then Mamewah will just quit without switching resolutions.  Also, if a layout exists with an invalid mode set within it, it will again quit without switching mode.  So I'm pretty confident Mamewah would never cause a serious problem in this way, but of course the usual disclaimer applies.

[Minwah]

The mamewah.ini file being trashed is likely a side-effect of poor programming and keeping the file open during operation of the program.  If it improperly terminated, the file could easily be corrupted.

Incorrect, the file (in fact all files used by Mamewah) are only open while they are being read, or writtten to. 

I ran into some similarly scary situations test-running MameWah with a WG 7000-series and AVGA.  I am running three different FEs: Mame32, ArcadeOS and MameWah, and both Mame32 and AOS run fine but on a regular basis, using MameWah throws the monitor in some weird mode that blacks everything out.  I posted something about this earlier and got no responses...

IMHO this is probably more likely due to a poor MAME setup.  Are you using 'resolution auto' per chance?

It doesn't surprise me a bit that your monitor got crapped out, however, I am not so unwilling to leave MameWah blameless, even though I agree anyone who fools with any of this software basically assumes all the risks they take, which may include the use of less-than-ideally-designed utilities that might be destructive.

Well thanks for the vote of confidence, but as someone else said no-one else has ever complained of similar hardware failures.  FWIW, I use the exact same versions of Mamewah you lot do with my standard-res monitor (arguably more likely to be damaged than a monitor like a D9200) - never had any problems.

I posted a message yesterday trying to get to the bottom of where the config files are exactly for mame and the FEs that say what modes are available and which ones to use (both for current and earlier versions).  I'm still trying to figure this info out so I can check the settings prior to testing the software and having it go into some destructive video mode.

?

Mame uses ini files, which you can place where ever you like as long as you point to the 'inipath' in \mame\mame.ini.  What modes are available depends on your video card (& monitor).  If you use my Resolution Tool, then you must specify which modes are available in a text file (it comes with examples for ArcadeVGA cards & a standard VGA card IIRC).  Therefore it will only pick modes which are in this 'available mode list' - ie any bad modes picked will be due to bad configuration, OR if you allow 'resolution auto' to be used, it is possible MAME itself may pick a mode your video card or monitor does not support.  To prevent the latter from happening, I recommend you NEVER use 'resolution auto'.

For example, I think MAME.DAT has some info relevant to these issues, but I can't get docs or info on it, but I configured MameWah to use the same MAME.DAT that ArcadeOS uses, but they behave a lot differently.

mame.dat has no relevance...Mamewah doesn't even require it (although you can use it with a 'dat_file' list_generation_method, which has no real benefit) so you don't need to worry about it.

[dax]

The mamewah.ini file being trashed is likely a side-effect of poor programming and keeping the file open during operation of the program.  If it improperly terminated, the file could easily be corrupted.

Incorrect, the file (in fact all files used by Mamewah) are only open while they are being read, or writtten to. 

I don't mean to be so critical, but why re-write the file each time the program is run?  Why strip out any user-specified comment lines?  What purpose does that serve except to make the program that much more difficult to document and use?

I mean, I understand that you've got some variables in the file that change each time the program is run, but did it ocurr to you that for the most part, most of the config data is static?  Why not separate those two bits of data?

[Stingray]

Dax, since you seem to know so much about FE programming, why is it that you have not wriiten one yourself? Sounds like yours would run flawlessly.

Tool.

-S