Ok thanks guys for you guidance, ive got a few things working.
I think one of the main problems was my sound card, an AC97. Just loading MFME took an age. I downloaded an update file, WDM_A403.exe from the realtek site. After applying that everything went a lot faster and smoother.
There are a couple of niggles. I've loaded all four versions of snappy viper and tried them on four versions on mfme and every time you try to put a coin in the alarm goes off so you cant play. Also seen sometimes on razzle dazzle. Is there any workround to this?