A working QSound zip is not just an empty folder. It must contain the internal ROM data, typically labeled: dl-1425.bin (The most common QSound DSP ROM) qsound.bin
Here's the critical point that solves 90% of issues: . That is, a correctly updated qsound.zip from a 0.201 or newer ROM set itself contains the modern dl-1425.bin file instead of the old placeholder. MAME's naming convention simply evolved. Therefore, a common and perfectly valid fix has always been to make a copy of your qsound.zip file and simply rename the copy to qsound_hle.zip . qsound hle zip work
If you try to use a ROM set (which includes everything for LLE) with an emulator set to HLE , the emulator gets confused. It sees the QSound CPU roms, tries to boot the virtual sound CPU, fails to find its memory handlers, and crashes. A working QSound zip is not just an empty folder