Hacking M3 MiniSD v3 problem

[HoTsHoT89]

I was given this SLOT-2 cart a few days ago, and it works great as a memory expansion pak and GBA games with GBAExploader. These functions work fine but I can't seem to boot the cart. Without the MiniSD inside, it tells me to insert the card in, and if I decide to continue without it, it hangs right after the non-Nintendo authorised item screen. When I plug my memory card in it instead shows me two blank screens.

A bit of searching says that the M3 is picky with memory cards, and Sandisk ones tend to work best. I'm using a MicroSD to MiniSD converter here as MiniSDs are getting quite rare, and I have tested all of my Sandisk MicroSDs (three of them, in fact) and none of them seems to work at all. Same case when I place the firmware update inside the cards, and formatting them to FAT32, changing cluster sizes, that sort.

Anyone with a solution for this?

 

[WigWrm]

Are you using your slot 1 as a pass me device when using your M3? If you are not using your slot 1 device make sure the ds boots straight to the gba card. Worst comes to worst plug the M3 into an old GBA and if it works then the card is trying to boot in the ds portion of its fw when being used with your ds. Your ds needs to be flashed in order to use the M3 as a standalone card for both DS and GBA games. However using your slot 1 as a pass me remedies this quite nicely. Give it a shot and see if it works.

 

[Raki]

I was given this SLOT-2 cart a few days ago, and it works great as a memory expansion pak and GBA games with GBAExploader. These functions work fine but I can't seem to boot the cart. Without the MiniSD inside, it tells me to insert the card in, and if I decide to continue without it, it hangs right after the non-Nintendo authorised item screen. When I plug my memory card in it instead shows me two blank screens.

A bit of searching says that the M3 is picky with memory cards, and Sandisk ones tend to work best. I'm using a MicroSD to MiniSD converter here as MiniSDs are getting quite rare, and I have tested all of my Sandisk MicroSDs (three of them, in fact) and none of them seems to work at all. Same case when I place the firmware update inside the cards, and formatting them to FAT32, changing cluster sizes, that sort.

Anyone with a solution for this?

if you just get black screens try to clean a bit the contacts of your SD card..I get this from time to time with my M3 MiniSD

 

[HoTsHoT89]

Are you using your slot 1 as a pass me device when using your M3? If you are not using your slot 1 device make sure the ds boots straight to the gba card. Worst comes to worst plug the M3 into an old GBA and if it works then the card is trying to boot in the ds portion of its fw when being used with your ds. Your ds needs to be flashed in order to use the M3 as a standalone card for both DS and GBA games. However using your slot 1 as a pass me remedies this quite nicely. Give it a shot and see if it works.
I have FlashMe with no autoboot on my DS, just tried booting it by holding SELECT and using my R4 as a PassMe, doesn't work either. I have an old GBA lying around too, tried plugging it in and it still doesn't work.

A few questions here:

1. What mode is it supposed to be in when I hold SELECT for FlashMe or PassMe on my SLOT-1? It should be in DS mode if I'm not mistaken, but I just want to be sure.
2. What mode does it have to be for the M3? And does the M3 have two portions of firmware; one for GBA mode, and one for DS mode?
3. Should the M3 be able to boot even without the MiniSD card inside?
Pardon my questions here, I got the M3 MiniSD without any manuals or feedback from the previous owner so I'm completely lost.

QUOTE(HoTsHoT89 @ Sep 17 2008, 11:48 AM) I was given this SLOT-2 cart a few days ago, and it works great as a memory expansion pak and GBA games with GBAExploader. These functions work fine but I can't seem to boot the cart. Without the MiniSD inside, it tells me to insert the card in, and if I decide to continue without it, it hangs right after the non-Nintendo authorised item screen. When I plug my memory card in it instead shows me two blank screens.

A bit of searching says that the M3 is picky with memory cards, and Sandisk ones tend to work best. I'm using a MicroSD to MiniSD converter here as MiniSDs are getting quite rare, and I have tested all of my Sandisk MicroSDs (three of them, in fact) and none of them seems to work at all. Same case when I place the firmware update inside the cards, and formatting them to FAT32, changing cluster sizes, that sort.

Anyone with a solution for this?

if you just get black screens try to clean a bit the contacts of your SD card..I get this from time to time with my M3 MiniSD

I'll give that a try, will report back later.

 

[HoTsHoT89]

Cleaned the contacts, no go. Anymore ideas?

 

[WigWrm]

Answer
1.The m3 will boot to the ds screen when you use a pass-me flash me solution.
2.The mode isnt a user selectable option when using a pass-me flash me device, it will always boot to the ds menu.
3.The m3 will not boot without a media card inserted.

Question
1. What mode is it supposed to be in when I hold SELECT for FlashMe or PassMe on my SLOT-1? It should be in DS mode if I'm not mistaken, but I just want to be sure.
2. What mode does it have to be for the M3? And does the M3 have two portions of firmware; one for GBA mode, and one for DS mode?
3. Should the M3 be able to boot even without the MiniSD card inside?
Pardon my questions here, I got the M3 MiniSD without any manuals or feedback from the previous owner so I'm completely lost.

I think your only real option at this moment is to try a regular minisd card.
But if you can play games on it using gbaexploader I wouldnt worry about it a whole lot. I do realize the annoyance though, sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[HoTsHoT89]

Answer
1.The m3 will boot to the ds screen when you use a pass-me flash me solution.
2.The mode isnt a user selectable option when using a pass-me flash me device, it will always boot to the ds menu.
3.The m3 will not boot without a media card inserted.

Question
1. What mode is it supposed to be in when I hold SELECT for FlashMe or PassMe on my SLOT-1? It should be in DS mode if I'm not mistaken, but I just want to be sure.
2. What mode does it have to be for the M3? And does the M3 have two portions of firmware; one for GBA mode, and one for DS mode?
3. Should the M3 be able to boot even without the MiniSD card inside?
Pardon my questions here, I got the M3 MiniSD without any manuals or feedback from the previous owner so I'm completely lost.

I think your only real option at this moment is to try a regular minisd card.
But if you can play games on it using gbaexploader I wouldnt worry about it a whole lot. I do realize the annoyance though, sorry I can't be of more help.

Nonsense, every bit of your input is appreciated. GBA Exploader works just well but I'd just like the problem fixed so I can use it as an alternative.

 

[Ramzee]

2. What mode does it have to be for the M3? And does the M3 have two portions of firmware; one for GBA mode, and one for DS mode?
3. Should the M3 be able to boot even without the MiniSD card inside?

Unfortunatly I don't have a solution to your problem, but I do have an M3 Lite, so can tell you how it should boot.

Without a SD card inserted you should get the message "Warning! Can not find Card. Please shut down and insert a Secure Digital card. Or press START to continue anyway." in either mode.

With a SD card inserted you should see the message "This product is NOT sponsored, licensed or endorsed by Nintendo." before it boots into the relevent GUI.

If you first boot without an SD card, it may take several attempts to get a successful boot (ie. recognised as a GBA cart.).

The M3 Perfect has 2 modes:

DS mode
When booted using a NoPass (slot 1) device (or with flashme_noauto and 'select' pressed at boot) it boots in DS mode with a DS GUI and is able to run patched NDS games and homebrew. If 'start' is pressed it will reboot into GBA mode.

and GBA mode.
If there is no slot 1 device and flashme is not used the DS will detect the M3 Perfect as a GBA cartridge and it can be booted normally from the DS menu into GBA mode. The GBA GUI allows GBA games and homebrew to be run.

There are no special files needed on the miniSD for the default GUIs but special directories and file names are created by the M3 Game Manager for saved games (blank saves can also be copied and renamed by hand).

Normal FAT 32 Formating should be fine, though you may wish to try the Panasonic SD Format Utility sdfv2002.exe or even FAT16.

SDHC cards are probably not compatible.

For the M3 Perfect SD, miniSD or Lite the firmware update 'updagcsd.e35' can be put on the miniSD to update the M3 firmware but is not needed in normal use. The M3 Wiki says this should be done using GBA mode (but I'm not sure that it matters).

Hoping something above is of help?

 

[HoTsHoT89]

Just to make things a little more clearer to what I'm experiencing now.

Boot via firmware with memory card inserted: GBA logo shows, hangs with blank screens
Boot via firmware without memory card inserted: GBA logo shows, asks to insert memory card, hangs with blank screens after pressing START

Boot via Passme/Flashme with memory card inserted: Immediate hang with blank screens
Boot via Passme/Flashme without memory card inserted: Asks to insert memory card, pressing START shows the endorsement message, a white bar flashes at the bottom border of the screen and hangs after that

I tried the Panasonic SD Format Utility, and after formatting the card with the application, the card is unreadable and asks me to format it, which will defeat the purpose. Also, do I have to run the M3 Game Manager (save folders, etc) on the memory card first before inserting it into the M3? And is the M3 supposed to work in GBA mode even without the memory card inserted, but not in DS mode?

 

[WigWrm]

The m3 will not work without a SD card. Even in gba mode the games are loaded off of the
the sd card and transfered to temporary memory. I don't really have much advice to give you
but are you actually using a MiniSD card? Did you use the card the first time with the normal m3 loader
or gbaexploader? My only real hunch here is that the m3 has an older firmware, is picky
about your card, and that somehow gba exploader is able to bypass this. An extreme and unlikely
case is that somehow gbaexploader has corrupted your card. I do not use gbaexploader or
know its means of operation so take the last statement with a grain of salt.

Im going to sound like a broken record here but
-Have you tried other brands of media? ("MiniSD cards" not Micro to Mini adapters/and or other brands of Microsd cards)

Also the M3 game manager is only needed really for DS games.
The software will make a save file for games that you write to your card through the client but they are pretty easily
made by making copies of the GBA.DAT file in the m3 program directory and renaming GBA to your rom name.
You would then put the saves in your gba save folder on your card.

The patching option in the client are only needed for gba games that use FLASH saves.
You would use HW1 patching option for games using Flash saves, all other saves are supported natively by the M3.

I can't really give ya any more input other than how to use the M3 manager.

Hopefully something in all that mess above was useful.

 

[HoTsHoT89]

I can't boot the M3 at all, so I'm using GBA Exploader as an alternative to play GBA games for now. If I'm not mistaken, GBA Exploader will not modify the firmware of the M3 in any way, so I'm considering the source of the problem is incompatibility with the media card. I'll report back when I have a MiniSD card to test on.