Hardware Feedback GBA EZ Flash Omega corrupted saves even after doing everything right?

[JeffWinger]

Hello all! I'm new so if this is covered or I've violated any rules, I apologize. So I just got an Omega; behind the times but wanted to test the water before jumping into the DE model at the higher price. So I followed every step provided by EZ Flash and even looked at boards where people had issues to avoid any pitfalls. With that said, I couldn't find the answer to the only problem I had. I was getting the dreaded "save corrupted, loading previous save" message even though I was following the EXACT steps for the minimum 5 seconds and at times up to a full minute before exiting anything as if the Lord made an 11th commandment just for EZ Flash users. I was getting corrupted saves in every combination; addon, no addon, 5 seconds, 60 seconds, etc. Every folder freshly made instead of copies of copies, followed the set-up religiously, all roms triple checked for header/patches, SanDisk and Samsung micros only, and no change. Nothing pertaining to corrupted saves even after doing everything right popped up so when I solved the issue I came here to see if anyone else has my issue and wanted to offer my findings for verification and to maybe help someone not waste so much time through trial and error. I can now cause the corrupted saves on command or keep them from being corrupted when none of the other reasons for corrupted saves are the issue. It's a power issue. I noticed (after a ridiculous amount of time trying to get consistent saves to stick) that whenever a save is made when the power light is just starting to flicker or is at a steady red, those saves are always corrupted. I started saving at the first time the light changes for a second from green, to red, back to green, wait the 5 or more seconds, and not one corrupted save since. Every save (after figuring this out and backing up my save 1st) made when the light is consistently flickering or solid red failed every time without exception. Note I am using an AGB-001 with a backlit screen as the only mod, but if I'm saving on green there are no issues and the Omega runs flawlessly. Has anyone else seen this? I know the Junior has a different setup but the Junior doesn't seem to mind low batteries coupled with a backlit screen. The Junior has been issue free from day 1 which is why I trusted my purchase of the Omega. If it is listed on a forum somewhere, I swear I looked for hours to no avail. Hope this helps anyone with a similar finding that is ready to dismiss the Omega and spend more elsewhere.

 

[JeffWinger]

Got a corrupted save even with fully charged batteries so this whole post was a waste.

Switching to the SimpleLight cfw. Trying that for for now. So far so good but give it some time for a fail I guess. If it does, the Omega DE is too close in price for what an EverDrive X5 goes for. I'm told I should've started there.

 

[zeomax]

Corrupted saves is the main reason i stopped using my Omega. No matter what precautions i did to avoid this problem i always ended up with corrupted saves. The enormous battery consumption by this card was the other reason not to use it.

 

[JeffWinger]

Corrupted saves is the main reason i stopped using my Omega. No matter what precautions i did to avoid this problem i always ended up with corrupted saves. The enormous battery consumption by this card was the other reason not to use it.

I guess I was hoping user error and/or Evdr fans were throwing reviews off. That drastic price difference and my Junior being 100% trouble free for over a year made it too tempting to not try.

 

[JeffWinger]

Interesting(ish) development; switched over to a custom kernel (solely for the backup save functionality) and thought why not throw an overkill micro SD at the Omega. I only use SanDisk when it can be helped because I've never had any problems personally with one. Pervious SD card was a SanDisk Imagemate, because it's what I had laying around. I picked up a SanDisk Extreme Plus yesterday and have been "save corrupted" free since installing it. I'll give it a few days before getting excited. The Omega and new memory card still get me in under the DE and well below the EverDrive. There are too many reported issues for the DE already so if my current set-up is an eventual fail, I'm throwing my hat in with the EverDrive fanboys. Fanboys....?...yes. Have you seen the pretentious comments and reviews...lol

 

[JeffWinger]

Well I believe I have to recant some things...

The power getting low and me not rotating batteries out may be more my fault or not doing so and getting corrupted saves is to some extent my fault. I have also noticed that when my saves appeared to be corrupted even with full power, I discovered waiting in-game over the 5 second wait time (out of paranoia) had an unusual possible side-effect. In waiting too long, the game glitches or freezes and I may have saved somehow at the moment of inactivity affecting the rom. I noticed the buttons to move the character lockup for a moment but I can still save. I was able to recreate a corrupted save this way. Another thing I did was loose the cheap batteries and purchased higher-end batteries that do a better job of maintaining their voltage towards the end of being depleted. Finally, I switched to a more expensive SanDisk. The previous was also a SanDisk but the cheapest one on the rack. When all directions are strictly adhered to and no user error or over-sites, the Omega does work, save, and keeps RTC time as described reliably. Does how finicky the device is get outweighed by its price point? I'm undecided whilst leaning towards yes. I owned a more expensive competitor at one point and had the opposite feeling; the features/functions were overshadowed by its price point. I'll be holding off on returning this cart but from what I've read about the DE so far, there isn't enough improvement to justify me figuring out the quirks of the next model up.

 

[ghjfdtg]

In my opinion the Omega Definitive Edition is good value for the money specially compared to the Everdrive GBA X5 Mini. But it's less tolerant to power issues and causes about 10% less battery life (regular Omega 20% compared with X5). The rather buggy save mechanism of the regular Omega is not worth the money you are saving (again in my opinion).

I got my Omega DE for about 70€. The X5 Mini is 99€.

 

[JeffWinger]

@ghjfdtg X5 Mini goes for 179.00 and the DE is 89.99 US unless I want to chance Ebay, then new is slightly less. I don't care for purchasing any used flash cart for a GBA because whilst some are more trouble free than others...the GBA flash carts are never 100% quirk-free. I want to give the DE a try and almost bought it before the regular Omega but good experience for you aside, no one can deny the page after page throughout the internet and just here of users with issues. I chose to chalk most of the issues people have reported with previous Omega up to user error and it turned out they weren't all just haters. I may get a DE but I'm gonna wait until the firmware updates iron out more issues. The money isn't cost prohibitive for me on the EverDrive, I just think for that big a difference, it should be quirk-free and have more features. I'm glad to hear your good experience with the DE, I would like to give one a try but this whole experience has been less fun/play and more getting everything just as perfect as possible.