Mame doesn't launch native but does in RL/HS

[lcsgeek]

Copied mame emulator (I think version 1.70) from buddies drive to mine. It launches games from RL and HS but what I don't understand is why I can't launch the emulator executable from native Windows without throwing a Windows error. Starting this thread in restaurant so don't know exact error - I do know it kicks event id 1000 in event viewer - it's not an informative message.

I suspect that the .ahk module is tweaking the emulator which allows it to run from RL/HS. How do I diagnose what the module/s are doing to the emulator? Do I need to learn the scripting language in order to diagnose? Am I barking up the right tree? - is it possible for the module to allow the emulator to run inside the front end but not natively?

Thanks in advance.

-dog