DS Lite + Flash Cart help

[shukudai]

Hi,

I recently got a R4 SDHC flash cart for my DS Lite. Games load just fine, but saving doesn't seem to work, it creates a .SAV file, but trying to load it ingame just states that it's a corrupted file.

Anyone else had this problem / know of a work around?

Or should I just say screw it and find another flash cart, and order that?

[GentaiShinigami]

A quick google search showed that R4DS can only create .sav files of up to 512kb and some games require larger saves. The game in question in this thread was Pokemon Platinum which requires a 1mb save file size. Go here and see if this sounds like your problem, they link to a thing that should allow your R4 to make saves bigger than 512kb:

http://www.r4ds-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2922

Good luck, and just an FYI I got myself an Acekard 2i for Christmas, and it works wonderfully and flawlessly thus far, and was still relatively cheap. The R4 seems to have a fair bit of compatibility issues from the looking around I did prior to ordering my flashcart which is why I went with the Acekard despite it being more expensive. Just something to keep in mind if you do decide to get a different flash card.

[shukudai]

Thanks, but unfortunately that's not it, Tried already, with several games ; ; I tried formatting the card in FAT, FAT32, deleting the old saves, making new ones, converting old ones, still shows as a corrupted save file in all games. There's a YSmenu thing that I was trying too, until I found out it doesn't work with my model appearently...

I haven't found that "cheap" a place online to order one of the more popular carts, CycloDS seems popular, but 45-50$+ (I'm in Canada).

[GentaiShinigami]

Honestly if you just want to run games, and have them work without issue I think Acekard would definitely be enough for you. CycloDS seems nice but for twice the price of an Acekard its features aren't enough to me. I just want to play the games like I could if i actually owned them and nothing more lol. Acekard works well for that, and the place i got mine from is actually located in Canada.

http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/c...it-p-2864.html

That is the link to what I bought. They shipped fast, and everything has been working well. They cost a bit more then you can find it some places, but the cheaper places websites looked so shady I really didn't trust them having my credit card info. XD

On the topic of your R4 it sounds like you must just have a busted card. Not sure what would be wrong if none of the stuff you tried didn't help at all. Can you get a refund/exchange on it still?


Edit:

Here are some very good reviews for you to weigh the pros and cons of Acekard vs CycloDS vs R4 if you haven't seen them yet:

CycloDS: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=53450

Acekard 2i: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=122563

R4 DS (newest review they had for R4): http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=41279

The areas to note are the R4's compatibility with homebrew and some games, and lack of download play support, and Acekard not locking up on Castlevania while CycloDS does, and has some problems with a few other games/glitches.

[shukudai]

Thanks for all the info, the card you have looks to be a decent option, I'm not sure so much that my card is bust, but there's some kind of compatability/firmware/something wrong, the only thing that doesn't work is saving, which is just plain odd.

[GentaiShinigami]

No problem. Have you updated the firmware for your R4 at all? If so did you do it first thing when you got the card? If so then try rolling back to the original firmware if you can find it. If you haven't messed with the firmware at all then I suppose try updating it to the latest though you likely have already done this. It's a shame it's being tarded like that. I hope you get it sorted out.

[shukudai]

Yeah I tried that too, it was a pain to track down the firmware, I tried the latest, and the previous one as well. It's weird, because I had heard good things about the R4 cards bard

[GentaiShinigami]

Hmmm maybe if you haven't you could try downloading some save games off the net, and see if those will work properly. If they do then it's definitely something screwy in your cards firmware causing it to not write saves correctly. Out of curiosity which games have you tried so far? I'll keep looking around the net to see if I can find an answer. ^^/

Edit: Keep thinking of things lol... Where did you get this card if you don't mind me asking? There are supposedly a lot of counterfeit R4's on the market. Always a possibility I guess so figured i'd toss that out there. =/

No idea where you've gotten your ROM's but try out http://www.romulation.net/NDS/ and try the same games from there if you didn't already get them from there, and see if they will work.

[shukudai]

I'm using this on a DS Lite

I've tried Megaman ZX, ZX Advent, Chrono Trigger, a few random games that were on it to start (Mario games, Revenge of the Sith, etc).

Got the cart of CL >_> Guy made sure it played games before I took it, showed me different functions, but never tried saving at the time (who would think of trying that lol?), i'm guessing he doesn't know shit, when I spoke to him after, about this, he was like "Oh, they're hacked games, you can't save in game, there must be another way, no one's ever had this problem", i.e: sucker, i'm keeping your cash.)

[GentaiShinigami]

Yeah definitely wouldn't have been something I would have thought to check. After reading though it seems like R4's have problems with saving pretty frequently. Here's another thread I've found, but you may have already found it:

http://www.romulation.net/forum/index.php?topic=30617.0

I saw something when i was skimming through things where someone said to post his R4 question under the M3DS section since they are the same thing (I couldn't tell you one way or the other). If that's true then perhaps you could use the M3 firmware on your card, and see if that works? I'm out of ideas at this point ._.

[shukudai]

Yeah, to be honest, the YSmenu thing seems to be a workable solution, though i've seen it said that it's not compatible with my card, and I tried following the steps, but honestly, i'm likely retarded and fucking it up, trying to follow this:

http://www.romulation.net/forum/index.php?topic=28719.0

Instead of filling up this thread, i'll PM you my AIM and MSN, if you wanna chat instead of refresh a thread

[GentaiShinigami]

Issue fixed! ^^ The fix will work for any R4(R4 III, SDHC, etc) model card. It simply needs to be extracted to the root of your MicroSD card. Leave your original/current R4 firmware in place however before extracting this over as it's still needed. The new firmware is loaded as an auto-loading .nds file because only the original plain R4's can load it as a standalone firmware.

That said I can't seem to figure out how to post .zip files anymore as attachments, but I had once previously posted one. Was the option recently removed or something? If there is a way to attach it could a mod let me know please. Thanks.

Edit: I see thanks for the explanation Cehpius. For now since I think it won't be needed very often I'll just handle it by PMs. If someone needs the fix just PM me asking for the R4 "clone" fix (as in not just a plain old original "R4" - R4i, R4, SDHC, etc are all clones from what I read). The R4 original can run the fix as a straight firmware replacement rather then a piggyback auto loading NDS file. Alternatively just follow the guide in the link in the post above this one, and you'll get the same result.

[Cephius]

That said I can't seem to figure out how to post .zip files anymore as attachments, but I had once previously posted one. Was the option recently removed or something? If there is a way to attach it could a mod let me know please. Thanks.

Can't attach zip files anymore, but you can host them elsewhere and link to them

[Ondori2020]

From my past experience with dealings in flash carts having owned a legit R4 and Acekard 2 myself, any form of R4 that you may have purchased that can use SDHC memory sticks is a knock off or fake. This being said quite a few knock off carts do work but not always as they should. I would suggest like it was previously said to get an Acekard 2 as it is quite a nice cart and can be found at quite a decent price.

Try checking out kickgaming or deveno to purchase a new cart if you do. I cant post url's so just google both of those they are easy to find. Deveno is my first choice as they sell all legit carts and test each one to be fully functioning

[Chicomagiko]

I'm not sure if I can really trust deveno. It just looks too damn good to be true. Acekard 2i and an 8gb microsdhc card for 33 bucks? I dunno. I want to, I reaaaally want to..but I dunno. My instincts are screaming don't do iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. But its only 33 bucks...i dunno.

Edit: Eff it, I will take one for the team and bite this bullet. I ordered the flash cart only(I'll just use one of the sd cards I have around). Came to 16.99USD with shipping. Lets see if they're really legit.

[toonces]

hmm deveno is pretty legit site.. i would get it. But with this economy and the "industry" they are in.. you never know so GL

[GentaiShinigami]

Not that it necessarily means they are no good, but I personally wouldn't buy from them. Seems they are/we're on GBATemp as blacklisted at some point from what i gather in this thread (old thread but still...):

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=81021&st=75

Main list: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=81021

Take that as you will, but I personally don't want to ever see my sellers name mentioned in those kinds of situations. Usually if something sounds really cheap like that... well it's because it's probably fake. XD I'd rather spend more and give my money and information to a known reputable dealer with a legit product. If the seller isn't on this list I personally wouldn't touch it:

http://www.acekard.com/distributors.php

Either way good luck with your purchase. Hope things work out for you in the end.


Edit: Remember that the actual homepage for the acekard is http://www.acekard.com. If you update your firmware do it from there. I've seen a lot of people go to http://www.acekard2icard.com which as far as I can tell is a fake.

[Chicomagiko]

I saw those threads and went through them. Also, found this thread a bit after

http://www.r4ds-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=1893

Went through that thread as well. I already placed an order and have received an update that it has been shipped. all there is left to do is wait to see if the Cart I get is fake/non-working. I'll post pix on here when I get it.