Sound Problem with Mame

efbee

New member
Just recently I have noticed I have been having sound problems when using Mame.The sound tends to lag or repeats(especially when pressing the insert coin button). I am using the newest version of Mame but have also tried mame plus, mamefx and an older version of mame but the sound problem still exists.

I have checked my sound card (Sound Blaster Live 24-bit), uninstalled and reinstalled and updated to the latest drivers but still have this problem. I am thinking it may be a hardware issue. I also have a problem with the game Battlefield 2 where the sound SKIPS at the intro and then no problems after that. I have no other issues with sound on any other games or ZSNES.

I would appreciate any help with this problem
 

efbee

New member
P4 3.6GHz with hyperthreading
1GB Ram
256mb nVidia Geforce 6800 GTO video card
running windows XP SP2
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
Since 0.112 mame will have issues with sound when running games at the wrong refresh rate because the emulation of the different components is all tied together. What you should do is allow the game to run at its native refresh rate and use frameskipping to jump a frame or two when needed. This will clear up your sound issue.

So for example if you are running Mame fixed at 60hz then any game that doesn't natively run at 60hz will cause skipping because the emulation timing is off. To fix the problem, in your mame.ini (or mame32 options if you are using M32) turn throttle 'on', set allow frame skipping to 'on', (or 'auto' in mame32), turn off any options regarding synchrefresh etc. Leave screen and aspect settings at auto.
 
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2097

sonic springboard
Also check that you dont have any large programes running in the backround specificly sharing ones such as bearshare,rapidshare etc the sound on my mame went choppy due to this problem.
 

efbee

New member
I am definitely not running any resource hogging program in the background, so that is not the problem. I am currently back to using Mame .107 and still have these sound issues. FatTrucker I have the Mame settings set as you mentioned and still this problem persists
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
Have you deleted any old config files for the games you are testing?.

Although the settings may be ok, if the games have been used in a different state previously if this has been saved to a config file then this will override any global settings you make to mame.

Its worth trying a completely fresh install and just transferring your rom folder to it.

If you have already done this and the problem persists then I'm not sure what to suggest, particularly if you still have stuttering in v0.107 which should still support the old synchrefresh mode (which you should turn on in versions prior to 0.112), that resolved it.

Mamedev are aware of the sound synching issues and afaik are actively looking at an acceptable solution/workaround that doesn't involve going back to the old method.
 
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Robert

Member
For the newest MAMEs make sure auto-frameskip is on, and triple-buffering is off. Also, that your monitor refresh rate is higher than 60hz.

If it's still doing it on 0.107, it means mame is not getting enough processor time to run properly. There must be something else running or something not tuned properly in your pc.

Oh, is Battlefield 2 even in MAME?
 
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FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
One possibility could be system hogging or a memory bottleneck but since he stated that all other games and emu's work fine, I'm guessing the issue is centred around mame.

It seems likely he's running on an LCD with a fixed refresh (which is known to cause issues like this with mame).

Versions prior to 112 using the synchrefresh option could throttle mame back to update at the monitors refresh rate. It solved sound glitching but caused problems with improper emulation with mame having to miss or jump over video frames to maintain the lower refresh rate, so mamedev killed it. Now all games in mame run at their native speed regardless of the system they are running on. The emulation is far more accurate but the tradeoff is that if you aren't running on a CRT or other display that supports 60hz+ you may experience sound and graphic tearing issues.

My first guess is that when switching mame versions he is simply replacing the mame.exe in an existing mame folder so it is still grabbing its settings from existing cfg and ini files.

A completely fresh install on any version prior to 112 should fix the issue.
 
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Zach

New member
If you ask me this change to MAME was a mistake. Destroying playability over accuracy is ass-backwards when they KNOW people use MAME to play games, not just "store" them and look at the pretty screenshot.

And then letting Haze argue their point is probably the second mistake on any change, hah
 

FatTrucker

Abusus non tollit usum
Yup there have been some 'interesting' exchanges about it over at mameworld.

It can be a real pain when the development of mame sits at odds with the rest of us that just want to enjoy playing games with it. Still, I suppose there are always derivative builds that address some of the issues.
 

Zach

New member
True.. I doubt MAME32qa will though.. Which is my favorite by far. (simple and to the point)
 

efbee

New member
Fixed! All I did was uninstall my video card then reinstall and everything is fantastic!!! Now i can go for the world record in Donkey Kong!
 
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