Having problems with MAME v106, color and screen size problems

Hey guys, im new here and I am trying to build a MAME machine for my workplace break room.

I have built up a PC with a Pentium 4 3GHz
4GB ram and running Win 7
X-Arcade 2 player joystick

Because of the hardware I am running MAME v106 and I am attempting to put HyperSpin as my frontend.
I am really drowning here trying to get this to work, I have been at this for months and I just can't seem to get it running right.

I can get some games to run (Mortal Kombat 1&2, Gradius, SF2) but I am finding that i am having some crazy color issues. Some of the color layers are coming out in this rainbow jumble while some of the other layers are just fine. Game speed wise it seems to be ok and playable but the color just is unacceptable. Also I am having issues with the game screen being far too small. I have no idea how to set the game resolution to at least be filling the top and bottom of the screen, I know that I cant get the left and right all the way filled, not an issue.

The problems are stemming from MAME itself I think, I have not been able to successfully launch a game from HyperSpin.

I hope that you guys can help me, this thing is WAY overdue and my co-workers are getting impatient, Id like to have it done before Christmas.

Thanks a bunch
Jynx Black ^_^

EDIT:
I'm an idot sometimes, First thing you should do if your rom is fully emulated is check if its corrupt

Code:

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cd /D "C:\path_to\mame"
mame -rompath "C:\path\directory" -verifyroms RomNameWithoutExtention

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END EDIT

little late for xmas but if you hadn't figured it yet...

theres a mame.txt and windows.txt file in mame\docs path, that may answer all your questions.
thought it may takes some tinkering with, as it did I at one point to actually grasp some of there odd settings behavior.
so in a nutshell:

from command console if not already
start/run/cmd

Code:

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cd /D "C:\path_to\mame"
mame -cc
notepad mame.ini

---

from there you can modify the resolution settings and stuff

your prob maybe similar to one i had which was the aspect ratio. I don't use frontends so perhaps yours may correct for it, but unfortunately it uses the default aspect for all the games unless otherwise specified in the indevidual INI's in:
"C:\path_to\mame\game_name\ini"

aspect ratio will vary depending on your screen and the game ofcourse but quick exampls of a couple i used:
screen_aspect 4:3
screen_aspect 16:9
screen_aspect 16:11

then theres this to turn off aspect ratio completely
this helped me get a larger screen for scanlines on a game where ratio wasn't that big a deal
keepaspect 0

resolutino example
switchres 1
resolution 640x480x16
resolution 800x600x32

the graphic color being screwed up, I can only guess would to be:
Some sort of system instibility, Drive or Hardware related. You using the proper Intel Bus Driver? and Gfx Driver? Install DirectX before either of those drivers if not already.
Or depending on the game ofcourse, maybe just not fully emulated in that version... if you know thats not the case, and don't suspect hardware/software conflicts.

maybe could test by switching D3D off
ddraw 1
direct3d 0

or also i just thought of, check and see in your Advanced Graphics card options, if Anti-alias and all that stuff is set to /Application controlled or something else... set it to application controled may help compatibility.


sidenotes:

triplebuffer 1
helps prevent screen tearing in *Fullscreen mode without the performance drawback of vsync

scanlines 1
hwstretch 0
D3D has a larger performance hit than ddraw, but scanlines work without D3D with this option, however hardware_stretch needs to be Off.