> without the chd's in them (I would like to merge them into the zips but lets do
> this one step at a time.)


You can't have chds inside the zips. MAME doesn't support this. They have to be placed in a rompathsubfolder named after the setname.



> F:\ROMS\Arcade\ = root folder.
> F:\ROMS\Arcade\randomromx.zip = Each game in it's own zip file
> F:\ROMS\Arcade\randomromx\randomromx.chd = CHD files for the above mentioned
> game.


Looks good (don't forget for some chds, the chdname is different to the setname and the setname has to be the subfolder).


> I have set the "ROM-Path" setting to F:\ROMS\Arcade but i dont know what other
> settings i need...?

Nope..that's fine for Settings.




> On the scan window, i have selected both 'Sets' and 'ROMS' in the 'You want to
> scan' section. Non-Merged Sets is the only option i can pick under 'You
> Prefer'...

Erm...not-merged sets is very uncommon and a waste of diskspace (since every set got all the needed files in it, so clones even include the parent roms again). I'd prefer split or merged.



Prompt me before fixing and show stats also = 1.
>
> under the check/fix option, i have everything under 'check' selcted, and nothing
> under 'fix'. (i just want a result of the current state of things... i dont want
> to mess with anything yet.)


yep...all check (and fix) options is correct. Generally you can't mess anything. Deleted files are put into backup.



> then i set the SysDefPath to F:\ROMS\Arcade\

If you only use one rompath, you don't really need sysdefpaths. It's more for people who want to split up sets (based on their used bios) in different paths.


> The following not empty rompaths dont contain any valid set
> F:\ROMS\Arcade\


Looks like all of your sets have a wrong name. Then this

> listed as an 'unneeded file'

Ok...this is interesting. The only possibility I think of is: You're using a wrong database. Be sure to get the database data directly from the MAME version you're actually using. Forget about datfiles, use Profiler->Create and let it point to your MAME executable.




of course, be sure to use the latest cmpro version (3.115b), no additional weird background tasks which interfear zip scanning (like some old virusscanners) etc....


Roman Scherzer