Mame Crashing ... Going Crazy

[IncrdblHulk7]

 

Here is my frustrating problem ...

I have had an arcade cabinet up and running for about 1.5 years.

The System Specs are a AthlonXP 1800+, ATI Radeon 8500, with 512Mb of RAM.  It runs MameWah, Mame, and a hand full of other emulators.

When I started - I was using Mame version 0.86.  Everything worked fine.

Since then I have attempted to keep up to date and do periodic updates to Mame and the games.

About 8 months ago, I noticed that my system would crash during some games.  And by crash I mean - either freeze the screen and lock up (requiring reboot) or reboot itself.

Any of the Street Fighter games are a sure way to get it to happen.  YOu might be able to get ONE fight in before this happens.

Meanwhile I can play a GBA game for hours and it keeps on chugging?

Can anyone think of a way of debugging this?  I am at wits end!   

I have tried re-installing windows and ATI drivers and it still exhibits the same problem. 

Would it be the Mame software?  if so, has anyone else dealt with this?  Or would it be a peice of faulty hardware that only gets pushed to the limit during Mame?

Thanks in advance!
Matt

[IncrdblHulk7]

Also ...

I have tried removing any and all Mame cfg files - so just running Mame right out of the box.

And the problem still persists.

[Pi]

Sounds like faulty hardware (memory?) or overheating problems. Althoughy you have an Athlon 1800, I'd say overheating. Check if more demanding games trigger the reboot/freeze faster than less demanding games. To see if it's really overheating, leave the computer to cool down a bit between checks, so they start with the same temperature.

[SirPeale]

I was just going to say the same thing, Pi. 

Clean out your PS and your CPU fan of all dust.