MAME 32 problems

[hi_resurrection]

Please, can somebody spare a few moments to look over the following problem and offer any advice. I am at a loss as to what’s happening with MAME.

 

My MAME version is MAME32 0.104u1

 

There seems to be something completely weird going on with Mame32. I don’t know what the heck it is. After having my computer for a while MAME seems to have just ignored whatever resources my computer has and games that worked without dropping a frame, have now become a frame-stuttering, sound-crackling mess. NBA Hangtime, WWF WrestleMania, Mortal Kombat 3 and Elevator Action Returns are games I use as benchmarks. These games start crackling and jumping before other games, but titles as memory un-intensive as Bomb Jack and Popeye are also affected. I have two PCs and I actually bought my new one so I could run MAME perfectly (as I used to be able to). My old PC’s specs are; Pentium 4 2.53GHz, 1024MB RAM, nVidia GeForce ti4200 with 128MB RAM. This older machine could perfectly run MAME (including the notorious games I mentioned) with many of the games on the highest resolution. Then after a year or so MAME started dropping frames and the sound crackled on everything that it used to have no trouble with.

 

Now, after six months, my new computer is afflicted with the same problem; MAME crippling itself. This is absurd, as my new machine is a P4 3.21GHz (with HT), 1024 MB RAM, nVidia GeForce 6800 with 256MB RAM, SoundBlaster Audigy 2. More than enough to run anything in MAME easily, bar some of the 3D games, which was proved when I first unboxed it. I haven’t got a clue what’s happened since.

 

You can’t seemingly do anything to make MAME run properly again. You can’t lower the game resolution and settings, you can’t end more system processes on your PC (my processes are already right down to the bare bones, purposely). There are no viruses or spyware items that may be causing it (I’m very conscious about watching for these and blocking them before they can install).

 

Does MAME place any importance on Hard Disk space? Because that is the only area of my computer that has changed since I first bought it (and since it could run MAME perfectly). The amount of files I have on the hard disks has increased dramatically and so has the amount of programs I have installed, but nothing else has changed.

 

In games that don’t drop frames (the older, simpler ones) there are still sound problems.

I have linked to an MP3 file of me playing Bomb Jack to show the kind of sound anomalies that are occurring.

http://www.newmedia.lincoln.ac.uk/bjtilbro...k_bad_sound.MP3

 

Things I’ve tried to alleviate these problems are;

 

* reducing the sound card’s hardware acceleration to various levels.

* running a game without USB pads

* reverting game resolution and graphics quality to defaults (and lower)

* running games using Direct 3D alone, Direct Draw on its own and both in combination.

* using RDTSC timing

* increasing audio latency

* deleting MAME’s cfg files

* turning off my 5.1 speakers and using headphones

 

The only change I made that has done anything was reducing the sample rate to ‘11025’. Which seemed to stop the sound anomalies in Bomb Jack etc but the sound is (obviously) too low quality to use permanently. 22050, 44100, 48000 sample rates are all as bad as each other when it comes to this problem.

 

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Edited May 10, 2006 by hi_resurrection

[James]

Lemmy Kilmister perhaps you should stop useing U releases and stick with the offical builds for one.

 

 

The main thing I notice with Slowdowns such as yours is that the CPU is getting hot. I suggest you check that before putting blame on the emu. Cleaning your CPU fans is the thing that is needed to keep the CPU cool.

Do you do a defrag at all ? thats also a good thing to do once in awhile.

Other things that can cause this is spyware or a virus and or software that you have installed.

 

 

My PC is an old P4 2gig with 1 gig of ram and its still works like it is new simply becuase I make sure my CPU fan is clean and any other fan that is in the case.

[Robert]

I'd agree with James, your CPU is most likely overheating. Get yourself a temperature-sensor program such as Speedfan. It will read the sensors on your mobo and if it goes over 60 deg C, you have a problem.

[hi_resurrection]

Lemmy Kilmister perhaps you should stop useing U releases and stick with the offical builds for one.

 

 

The main thing I notice with Slowdowns such as yours is that the CPU is getting hot. I suggest you check that before putting blame on the emu. Cleaning your CPU fans is the thing that is needed to keep the CPU cool.

Do you do a defrag at all ? thats also a good thing to do once in awhile.

Other things that can cause this is spyware or a virus and or software that you have installed.

 

 

My PC is an old P4 2gig with 1 gig of ram and its still works like it is new  simply becuase I make sure my CPU fan is clean and any other fan that is in the case.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No need to get defensive! MAME is the best emulator out of the lot of them (if you've got the power) and I adore it to bits. That's why I'm so frustrated when it starts running slow. I'm not putting blame on the developers I just can't understand why this has happened to two PCs (they run everything else well, but not MAME) especially when they are as clean as a whistle and running smoothly otherwise; no viruses, no spyware, no uneccessary processes running etcetera).

 

Thanks for making suggestions though, I didn't know the CPU could overheat and affect its performance so badly but the CPU thing is a serious possibility because my computer sounds like it is straining due to the heatwave we are having, although this MAME problem hasn't only just happened, it started around Christmas when it was freezing (and we don't have any central heating!)

 

I'm having it checked out by the guy who built it in a few days.

Edited May 13, 2006 by hi_resurrection

[hi_resurrection]

I did a full defrag of the drive which took over five hours. That didn't make any difference.

 

I also did what James said and got the official build (0.105). This stopped the weird sound anomalies in the older games (Any of the the newer games, and by that I mean games as old as WWF Superstars and Super Contra, are still diabolical).

 

A few hours later, after closing and re-opening MAME for the third time, the sound anomalies came back as well. So, despite having the official build, I'm back to square one. I don't understand what's happening. If the processor overheating isn't to blame when I have it checked out I haven't got a clue what I'll do...

Edited May 13, 2006 by hi_resurrection

[James]

I did a full defrag of the drive which took over five hours. That didn't make any difference.

 

I also did what James said and got the official build (0.105). This stopped the weird sound anomalies in the older games (Any of the the newer games, and by that I mean games as old as WWF Superstars and Super Contra, are still diabolical).

 

A few hours later, after closing and re-opening MAME for the third time, the sound anomalies came back as well. So, despite having the official build, I'm back to square one.  I don't understand what's happening. If the processor overheating isn't to blame when I have it checked out I haven't got a clue what I'll do...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Did you change any of the settings ? As for checking the CPU I suggest checking it out yourself that way you will know if the fan is dirty or not.

[hi_resurrection]

Sorry for the long delay. Thanks for all your help your suggestions were right.

The fans were clogged and the CPU was over-heating. I didn't realise that could cause such a problem. Anyway I took it to the builder and it was cleaned and I had an additional fan fitted (and an extra 1GB RAM for good measure).

 

It works perfectly now.

 

Thanks again.