Hey everyone, very long time lurker, first time issue poster upper. I've spent the last few days doing some research online to make sure I haven't missed anything on this issue but I've had no success in solving my problem. Also a bonus problem that I have not seen been brought up.
So I've had the EZ-FLASH OMEGA for about 4 years now and have been on again, off again with it since. I've mostly been playing your typical Castlevania and Mega Man games and have had zero issues with the games saving (save for Mother 3 being problematic from time to time resulting in corrupted data). I know all about the 5 second rule to give everything time to write to the flash cart internally etc. I have noticed others have brought up issues they've been having with 128KB type save games such as the Pokemon titles as well as Super Mario Advance 4 and I am having the exact same issue plus a really weird one with a completely random game I loaded on a whim.
*Please note I have tried various rom dumps that were all verified to be clean
So with Pokemon; Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green the scenario goes as follows
- Boot up GBA with EZ-FLASH
- Go To the Rom
- Make sure Save type is Auto and do a Clean Boot
- Go through all the Pokemon intro stuff
- Go to save
- Greeted with Message "The backup memory is damaged or the internal battery has run dry. The game can be played. However, progress cannot be saved."
- Get force booted to the title screen. Fire Red and Leaf Green have the added grief of just getting locked into a loop where they continue to complain that they cannot save.
- Turn off GBA
(Side note, if I try to boot the game again with the previous created save file that the flash cart writes on the initial boot the game freaks out saying that data is corrupt so...)
- Delete any Pokemon R/S/E/FR/LG save data in the SAVER folder
- Try again but this time 128KB save type and do a Clean Boot
- Exact same problem occurs
I did try Super Mario Advance 4 out of curiousity and much like some other people, it doesn't save. It does find a way of being passive aggresive as instead of kicking me to the title screen, it lets me carry on but disables the sound.
Now, my loaded on a whim game is Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak (I remembered playing the GBC one back in the day) which is true to its name as when I load the game, after the opening credits I'm immediately slapped with , "Saved story data is corrupt. Deleting data." It goes into an infinite loop of this and you may have guessed but, I haven't even gotten the chance to start my story so there shouldn't be anything to corrupt! The interesting thing is this is a game with a 32KB save, Aria of Sorrow is the same save type and doesn't experience any issue like that.
I've tried booting into EZ-FLASH SAFE MODE and ran Test card to which I get these results:
(NOTE: Running FW:9 K1.09 from the official website)
read S71 ID OK GL64
read S98 ID OK
END
I'm not sure what the GL64 is but there doesn't seem to be any issue with my S71 chip, which makes sense because every other game that I have tried has not given me issue with saving.
This is a big head scratcher for me. I thought maybe my internal battery was actually dead and that's why it was being funny but the clock in the OMEGA menu is keeping track of time just fine.
So the second issue I'm having is a very weird one. I haven't really come across any actual issues with launching games, even though the 128KB ones are fussy about saving they still boot. My EZ-FLASH seems to HATE Advance Wars, it shows utter contempt for the series, yes the series. I get the same issue with both 1 and 2, I go to boot the game and I am presented with nothing but a white screen for both games; Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2. I have tried multiple roms from various sources (verified clean) including the japanese double pack Gameboy Wars 1+2 , which is an odd one because the game select menu loads fine but when I boot the game it whites out on me. I left them running for a bit, and tapped some buttons but they never got past the white screen and I am forced to shut down the system.
Upon writing this and reflecting on how the games are acting, the only thing that's raising a red flag to me is that this is the kind of behaviour that you may associate with anti-piracy protection in games. It just seems really strange how Hamtaro and Advance Wars either refuse to get past the title screen or won't boot at all. I would chalk the 128KB issue as being an anti-piracy measure as well but then it seems like this isn't an issue that the majority of people come by so I have absolutely no clue. Again, I am well aware that there will be a majority of those out there who do not experience any of the issues I do. If anyone has any suggestions or insight into the matter it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
(on the fence if pun intended)
So I've had the EZ-FLASH OMEGA for about 4 years now and have been on again, off again with it since. I've mostly been playing your typical Castlevania and Mega Man games and have had zero issues with the games saving (save for Mother 3 being problematic from time to time resulting in corrupted data). I know all about the 5 second rule to give everything time to write to the flash cart internally etc. I have noticed others have brought up issues they've been having with 128KB type save games such as the Pokemon titles as well as Super Mario Advance 4 and I am having the exact same issue plus a really weird one with a completely random game I loaded on a whim.
*Please note I have tried various rom dumps that were all verified to be clean
So with Pokemon; Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green the scenario goes as follows
- Boot up GBA with EZ-FLASH
- Go To the Rom
- Make sure Save type is Auto and do a Clean Boot
- Go through all the Pokemon intro stuff
- Go to save
- Greeted with Message "The backup memory is damaged or the internal battery has run dry. The game can be played. However, progress cannot be saved."
- Get force booted to the title screen. Fire Red and Leaf Green have the added grief of just getting locked into a loop where they continue to complain that they cannot save.
- Turn off GBA
(Side note, if I try to boot the game again with the previous created save file that the flash cart writes on the initial boot the game freaks out saying that data is corrupt so...)
- Delete any Pokemon R/S/E/FR/LG save data in the SAVER folder
- Try again but this time 128KB save type and do a Clean Boot
- Exact same problem occurs
I did try Super Mario Advance 4 out of curiousity and much like some other people, it doesn't save. It does find a way of being passive aggresive as instead of kicking me to the title screen, it lets me carry on but disables the sound.
Now, my loaded on a whim game is Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak (I remembered playing the GBC one back in the day) which is true to its name as when I load the game, after the opening credits I'm immediately slapped with , "Saved story data is corrupt. Deleting data." It goes into an infinite loop of this and you may have guessed but, I haven't even gotten the chance to start my story so there shouldn't be anything to corrupt! The interesting thing is this is a game with a 32KB save, Aria of Sorrow is the same save type and doesn't experience any issue like that.
I've tried booting into EZ-FLASH SAFE MODE and ran Test card to which I get these results:
(NOTE: Running FW:9 K1.09 from the official website)
read S71 ID OK GL64
read S98 ID OK
END
I'm not sure what the GL64 is but there doesn't seem to be any issue with my S71 chip, which makes sense because every other game that I have tried has not given me issue with saving.
This is a big head scratcher for me. I thought maybe my internal battery was actually dead and that's why it was being funny but the clock in the OMEGA menu is keeping track of time just fine.
So the second issue I'm having is a very weird one. I haven't really come across any actual issues with launching games, even though the 128KB ones are fussy about saving they still boot. My EZ-FLASH seems to HATE Advance Wars, it shows utter contempt for the series, yes the series. I get the same issue with both 1 and 2, I go to boot the game and I am presented with nothing but a white screen for both games; Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2. I have tried multiple roms from various sources (verified clean) including the japanese double pack Gameboy Wars 1+2 , which is an odd one because the game select menu loads fine but when I boot the game it whites out on me. I left them running for a bit, and tapped some buttons but they never got past the white screen and I am forced to shut down the system.
Upon writing this and reflecting on how the games are acting, the only thing that's raising a red flag to me is that this is the kind of behaviour that you may associate with anti-piracy protection in games. It just seems really strange how Hamtaro and Advance Wars either refuse to get past the title screen or won't boot at all. I would chalk the 128KB issue as being an anti-piracy measure as well but then it seems like this isn't an issue that the majority of people come by so I have absolutely no clue. Again, I am well aware that there will be a majority of those out there who do not experience any of the issues I do. If anyone has any suggestions or insight into the matter it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
(on the fence if pun intended)
