Attract-Mode Support Forum

Attract-Mode Support => General => Topic started by: AngryRedHerring on January 17, 2020, 04:51:56 PM

Title: Issues with AM on my XP machine w/arcade monitor
Post by: AngryRedHerring on January 17, 2020, 04:51:56 PM
Running the XP version on a 3 gHz P4 w 2 gigs of RAM.  First time trying a frontend; been running MAME v112 (MAME32) and a variety of console emulators on this machine for about 12 years now (wow, just did that math).  So far I've set up 2 of my 10 or so emulators on Attract Mode; MAME and Snes9x.   I have 2 recurring issues:

1)  The display is not properly resizing on game exit.  Often when I come out of a game, the menu is zoomed in to roughly double size, shoving most of the menu offscreen, and only restarting AM fixes it.  I'm running a 19" Wells Gardner monitor off of an ArcadeVGA card, and all my MAME games are running at or as close as possible to their original resolutions.  I'm constantly jumping back and forth between a desktop at 640x480 and a variety of resolutions like 320x240, 512x512, etc., so I figure this is contributing to the issue.  I've gone through pages of the forums and while I've found some references to this issue, I haven't come across a solution.  Is there one?

2)  Screensaver locks up system.  I realize this is a much trickier diagnosis, and could be caused by a variety of reasons, but I thought I'd throw it out here just in case I'm missing something obvious. Sometimes it only locks up for a few seconds, sometimes permanently; usually I can Alt-Tab out to quit AM via Task manager, but sometimes a hard reset is required. 

This has always been a very stable system, but I'm running into these issues a lot while playing with AM.  I like the program a lot otherwise, but these are game killers. :(

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Title: Re: Issues with AM on my XP machine w/arcade monitor
Post by: AngryRedHerring on February 03, 2020, 11:31:26 AM
...Well, thanks anyway.  It's too bad, I really liked this one.
Title: Re: Issues with AM on my XP machine w/arcade monitor
Post by: progets on February 03, 2020, 07:49:19 PM
Have you tried the latest AM specific to XP download?

You're using very old everything: OS, hardware, software, etc. It's unlikely that many people have a similar setup to help test and trouble shoot. That being said here are a few guesses.

1 - Configure-->Plugins-->ResFix (this will redraw AM after leaving a specified emulator)
   - Try a different version of AM
   - Define the desired resolution in your layout
   - Try a different Window Mode (Configure-->General-->Window Mode)

2. Chances are the the screensaver isn't the problem but an image or video that it is randomly handling is issue. It's also possible that you're using videos that require too much processing for your system to handle. Try to adjust your screensaver settings to only use still images as a test.
   
Title: Re: Issues with AM on my XP machine w/arcade monitor
Post by: AngryRedHerring on February 19, 2020, 12:48:09 PM
Thank you for the reply, I've moved on to another program that's working well.  I had already tried the options you listed, but never could pin it down.  I appreciate the help, though.