dos mame hangs starting up

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I put the DOS version of MAME on my old Pentium machine and tried starting
it up. It just hangs right away. I hit enter and the cursor just sits
below the command line and nothing.

When I hit ctrl+c it prints a signal interrupt message and then returns to
the prompt.

Any ideas on the source of the problem, things to try, or how I might do
some diagnostics.

Thanks,
John


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* John Leveille wrote in alt.games.mame:
> I put the DOS version of MAME on my old Pentium machine and tried starting
> it up. It just hangs right away. I hit enter and the cursor just sits
> below the command line and nothing.

What version of MAME, what PC Spec? What are you typing at the prompt?

If you type just mamed and hit enter, what happens?

--
David
There is a 20% chance of tomorrow.
 
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It is mame090b_dos. Binaries downloaded -- not built by me. Using various
mame91 roms. If I type dmame at the command line I get the usage doc
printed to the screen. So that seems fine.

The PC I am using is 133MHz Pentium. I got the advice to use Vantage when I
realized that the system might be underpowered for mame, but I really want
to get mame running too so I can compare. The video card is a 16M nVidia
card. The video card has been pretty flaky in the past. I am running Mr
Bios and I don't think the BIOS and nVidia card like each other. When I do
a cold boot I have to enter the BIOS screen and exit in order for the screen
to reset. Otherwise the video card will stay on the BIOS startup screen
even though the computer is continuing through the boot sequence.

But if I enter the BIOS config and exit the computer seems to work just
fine. I have run Win98 in the past, and all the DOS utilities I have on
there now seem to work just fine.

John

"SINNER" <99nesorjd@gates_of_hell.invalid> wrote in message
news:4icne2x2b4.ln2@news.gates_of_hell.com...
> * John Leveille wrote in alt.games.mame:
> > I put the DOS version of MAME on my old Pentium machine and tried
starting
> > it up. It just hangs right away. I hit enter and the cursor just sits
> > below the command line and nothing.
>
> What version of MAME, what PC Spec? What are you typing at the prompt?
>
> If you type just mamed and hit enter, what happens?
>
> --
> David
> There is a 20% chance of tomorrow.
 
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John Leveille wrote on 20. February 2005:
>
> It is mame090b_dos. Binaries downloaded -- not built by me. Using various
> mame91 roms. If I type dmame at the command line I get the usage doc
> printed to the screen. So that seems fine.

So you type something like:

mame defender

and nothing happens?

Disk activity or anything?

[...]

> But if I enter the BIOS config and exit the computer seems to work just
> fine. I have run Win98 in the past, and all the DOS utilities I have on
> there now seem to work just fine.

Does it work to start MAME in a DOS window in Win98?

And please don't top- and fullquote.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
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John Leveille wrote on 22. February 2005:
>
> "Andreas Kohlbach" <ankman@email.com> wrote in message
> news:eek:nly_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpy1mtv.fsf@usenet.ankman.de...
>>
>> So you type something like:
>>
>> mame defender
>>
>> and nothing happens?
>>
>> Disk activity or anything?
>
> That's right. Nothing happens.
>
> When I first tried this I got the standard DPMI error, but I installed the
> DPMI package and now I get the hang. Nada.
>
> I don't know if it works to start Mame in a win98 window because I wiped the
> drive and just installed DOS before trying mame. Sorry.

Sorry, no idea. Seems it hangs somewhere and waits for something. I
dounbt there is something for DOS which logs or shows stuff while
executing like you can do on Linux.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
Linux without installation? http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
OE user? Ease the pain and try the better newsreader http://xnews.newsguy.com/
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Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

"Andreas Kohlbach" <ankman@email.com> wrote in message
news:eek:nly_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpy1mtv.fsf@usenet.ankman.de...
> John Leveille wrote on 20. February 2005:
> >
> > It is mame090b_dos. Binaries downloaded -- not built by me. Using
various
> > mame91 roms. If I type dmame at the command line I get the usage doc
> > printed to the screen. So that seems fine.
>
> So you type something like:
>
> mame defender
>
> and nothing happens?
>
> Disk activity or anything?
>

That's right. Nothing happens.

When I first tried this I got the standard DPMI error, but I installed the
DPMI package and now I get the hang. Nada.

I don't know if it works to start Mame in a win98 window because I wiped the
drive and just installed DOS before trying mame. Sorry.

Thanks,
John
 
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Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
> John Leveille wrote on 22. February 2005:
>
>>"Andreas Kohlbach" <ankman@email.com> wrote in message
>>news:eek:nly_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpy1mtv.fsf@usenet.ankman.de...
>>
>>>So you type something like:
>>>
>>>mame defender
>>>
>>>and nothing happens?
>>>
>>>Disk activity or anything?
>>
>>That's right. Nothing happens.
>>
>>When I first tried this I got the standard DPMI error, but I installed the
>>DPMI package and now I get the hang. Nada.
>>
>>I don't know if it works to start Mame in a win98 window because I wiped the
>>drive and just installed DOS before trying mame. Sorry.
>
>
> Sorry, no idea. Seems it hangs somewhere and waits for something. I
> dounbt there is something for DOS which logs or shows stuff while
> executing like you can do on Linux.

Perhaps it simply needs a different /version/ of DPMI. In yesteryear, I
kept two or three versions around because not every program works with
the latest version.

--
Thnik about it!
Dead_Dad
 
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Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

"Andreas Kohlbach" <ankman@email.com> wrote in message
news:eek:nly_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2650jssvd.fsf@usenet.ankman.de...
> John Leveille wrote on 22. February 2005:
> >
> > "Andreas Kohlbach" <ankman@email.com> wrote in message
> >
news:eek:nly_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpy1mtv.fsf@usenet.ankman.de...
> >>
> >> So you type something like:
> >>
> >> mame defender
> >>
> >> and nothing happens?
> >>
> >> Disk activity or anything?
> >
> > That's right. Nothing happens.
> >
> > When I first tried this I got the standard DPMI error, but I installed
the
> > DPMI package and now I get the hang. Nada.
> >
> > I don't know if it works to start Mame in a win98 window because I wiped
the
> > drive and just installed DOS before trying mame. Sorry.
>
> Sorry, no idea. Seems it hangs somewhere and waits for something. I
> dounbt there is something for DOS which logs or shows stuff while
> executing like you can do on Linux.

Thanks anyway. I am willing to bet it is the video card. That thing has
been a pain in the a@# for a long time. I have a friend with some other
vintage PC parts so I think I'll try those and see how far I get.

Thanks,
John
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

John Leveille wrote on 23. February 2005:
>
> Thanks anyway. I am willing to bet it is the video card. That thing has
> been a pain in the a@# for a long time. I have a friend with some other
> vintage PC parts so I think I'll try those and see how far I get.

You could try to press "ok", "5" "1" and see if you have sound.

Or try another OS, like Linux booted from CD.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
Linux without installation? http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
OE user? Ease the pain and try the better newsreader http://xnews.newsguy.com/
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Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

"John Leveille" <jleveille@nc.rr.com> wrote in
news:zk5Sd.10446$Go4.1050109@twister.southeast.rr.com:

> Any ideas on the source of the problem, things to try, or how I might
> do some diagnostics.

After reading this entire thread, I have to ask: how long did you wait?
On my test 133 it takes about two minutes to launch a game. It even
takes quite a few seconds on my Athlon.
--
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G

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Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Peale wrote:
> "John Leveille" <jleveille@nc.rr.com> wrote in
> news:zk5Sd.10446$Go4.1050109@twister.southeast.rr.com:
>
>
>>Any ideas on the source of the problem, things to try, or how I might
>>do some diagnostics.
>
>
> After reading this entire thread, I have to ask: how long did you wait?
> On my test 133 it takes about two minutes to launch a game. It even
> takes quite a few seconds on my Athlon.

And the winnder is Peale! I failed to wait a minute or so before
assuming that the machine was hung. After I waited a little over a
minute mame spit out the sound configuration menu, I made a choice, and
the game fired up!

It turns out that I am going to need an upgrade on the motherboard and
cpu. An average game seem to run about half the speed I need it to on
my Pentium 133. At least I can use this setup for prototyping my
cabinet. :)

Thanks, and yes, I do feel a little stupid to find out that this was the
answer.
 
G

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Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

John Leveille <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in
news:%moUd.7704$ha.419674@twister.southeast.rr.com:

> Thanks, and yes, I do feel a little stupid to find out that this was
> the answer.

Don't feel bad; I had the same problem. Then one day I walked out to get
something and was gone for a bit. When I came back the game was running
(of course it was running @ 3/4 speed). I don't know why it takes so
long, validitychecks are off, and the exe is uncompressed.

--
Do you want a free Gaming Console?
http://consoles.prizecube.com/?ref=12216