ArcadeOS/dmame/ArcadeVGA locks up

[MrD]

I'm running a dos cab (7.0) and using ArcadeOS (2.50-2.52).  I have a P2 500mhz, 384mb.  I'm using an ArcadeVGA card.  dmame (.53, .67, .74). I have emm386 installed because my SB card needs it.   

When I run ArcadeOS, I can play a few games (or select the same one, exit, back in, etc) and it will work for a while, then the system locks up / crashes either when exiting a game, or just after selecting a game.   I can't make it exactly repeat the lock up and it never locks up during the actual game playing., just the loading.

I've thought it might be some kind of memory conflict.  I've moved the SB IRQ around.  I've disabled the CD Rom drivers.  I've changed mouse drivers.  I've set emm386 to NOEMS, RAM, and assorted other flavors.  I've tried Arcadeos 2.50-2.52.  I've tried different versions of dmame.  Just when I think maybe I've gotten it fixed, it happens again.

I have some other non mame dos games that I can run from ArcadeOS and they seem to work ok.  I'm thinking there must somehow be a problem with the shelling it does to execute dmame.   OR it has to do with some setting or video mode for ArcadeVGA, but if that were the case, a "bad" setup shouldn't run a game at all.  It would always lock up.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?  I'm only trying to play the "classics".  Nothing too fancy.  I just don't know what else I can disable or change.   It just becomes very annoying when I have to restart the machine constantly.

Maybe I'll try and swap out the actaully RAM.   Maybe I've got a bad chip that only shows up now and then. 

Any help would be appreciated.