Hacking Nintendo DS freezes with cartridges - what's going on?

[geminis076]

My little cousin asked if I could check out his DS to try and figure out what's wrong with it. It's a DS Lite with an R4 & Wood v.1.10.

The DS was purchased brand new, he's had both the DS and cart for about a year and things have been running smoothly - he's also 7 so who knows what he's done to it. When I first turned it on, I could scroll through the list of games without any issues, during game play of two different games the screens froze after a bit. Turned it on and off, while in the Acekard Menu screen after a few test runs I noticed that the screens would freeze if I pressed down on the directional pad while in the game list section - if I scrolled with the stylus things were fine, but later the selected game would freeze. Then switching on and off would not respond well, screens would remain black, had to turn on and off several times to access the card, and again pressing down would freeze the DS.

When the R4 was removed, the normal DS screen would load, for the most part pressing down worked but it did freeze once while no cartridge was loaded.

I placed an actual game cartridge in the DS but so far I haven't been able to get it to work, the DS turns on but the screens remain black and I never see the game or a loading message. I removed the game cartridge, DS turned on and loaded the DS screen fine, but when I try to insert the real game the DS will freeze and a static noise can be heard.

I have tested my cousin's R4 on my DS and it runs fine, no issues at all. His DS experiences the same problems when my R4 is loaded, so this doesn't really seem like an issue with the R4, the issues seem to happen when there is a cartridge loaded, and there's also the Down button issue.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions? Could the R4 have caused damage to the DS? Anything I can do to try and fix this, or will he need to ask Santa for a new DS?

Thanks!

 

[Frogman]

what brand r4 is this real or clone? Is it still covered by warrenty? do normal games freeze as well?

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

what brand r4 is this real or clone? Is it still covered by warrenty? do normal games freeze as well?

QUOTE(geminis076 @ Jul 31 2010, 08:09 AM) My little cousin asked if I could check out his DS to try and figure out what's wrong with it. It's a DS Lite with an R4 & Wood v.1.10.

The DS was purchased brand new, he's had both the DS and cart for about a year and things have been running smoothly - he's also 7 so who knows what he's done to it. When I first turned it on, I could scroll through the list of games without any issues, during game play of two different games the screens froze after a bit. Turned it on and off, while in the Acekard Menu screen after a few test runs I noticed that the screens would freeze if I pressed down on the directional pad while in the game list section - if I scrolled with the stylus things were fine, but later the selected game would freeze. Then switching on and off would not respond well, screens would remain black, had to turn on and off several times to access the card, and again pressing down would freeze the DS.

When the R4 was removed, the normal DS screen would load, for the most part pressing down worked but it did freeze once while no cartridge was loaded.

I placed an actual game cartridge in the DS but so far I haven't been able to get it to work, the DS turns on but the screens remain black and I never see the game or a loading message. I removed the game cartridge, DS turned on and loaded the DS screen fine, but when I try to insert the real game the DS will freeze and a static noise can be heard.

Please read before posting.

 

[BlueStar]

Sounds like a contacts issue. Have a look inside the cart slot and see if any of the pins look bent. If so, you can try and tease them out a little bit with some kind of pokey device. You can also try cleaning the contacts with a bit of alcohol and a cotton bud thing, what do you guys call them over there, q-tips? If you still have no joy, there are tricks you can try involving sliding paper between the cart and the cartridge slot to make it a snugger fit and force the cart's pins against those in the DS.

 

[geminis076]

what brand r4 is this real or clone? Is it still covered by warrenty? do normal games freeze as well?

No problem, thanks for trying to help

:

Pretty sure it's real, and if it's not a real R4 from the R4DS team then it's a generic brand, but it's not one of those N5 or R4 gold, ultra, etc. carts, definitely R4DS from DealWoot.com/GamebyGame.com back when they were still selling them. Here's the info from both the box and the cart:

R4 - Revolution for the DS - (NDSL/NDS) . box has the http://www.r4ds.com website along with MicroSD usb 2.0, print is pretty clear, but does say Made in China and not Japan. GameByGame.com formerly DealWoot.com was a pretty trusted and recommended site back then, but then I guess they ran into issues and stopped selling all DS carts many months ago.

No, no warranty, and it's about a year old.

Regarding normal games, so far I have not been able to get a normal game to load. I turn the DS on and the screens remain black even with a normal game. Took the normal game out, turned the DS on without any cartridge, inserted real game in, DS immediately froze and static noise came out the speakers.

 

[Another World]

*snip

that was so helpful. really. why don't you post more often? we could all use more of your kind of help around here. yep. sure could.

back on topic:
the odd buzzing sound has me worried that something might be damanged on the main board. does anything from slot2 run? can you flash something to a 3in1 nor and run it as a gba cart, for example? check to make sure slot1 doesn't have a bent pin. you can purchase a replacement slot1 off DX for a few bucks if you feel brave enough to swap it out.

goodluck!
-another world

 

[Bluelaserman]

Why not get a different flashcard like a acekard cause r4 is suckish.

The problem isn't the card. It's the actually DS device. READING TENDS TO HELP

 

[Shinigami357]

My little cousin asked if I could check out his DS to try and figure out what's wrong with it. It's a DS Lite with an R4 & Wood v.1.10.

The DS was purchased brand new, he's had both the DS and cart for about a year and things have been running smoothly - he's also 7 so who knows what he's done to it. When I first turned it on, I could scroll through the list of games without any issues, during game play of two different games the screens froze after a bit. Turned it on and off, while in the Acekard Menu screen after a few test runs I noticed that the screens would freeze if I pressed down on the directional pad while in the game list section - if I scrolled with the stylus things were fine, but later the selected game would freeze. Then switching on and off would not respond well, screens would remain black, had to turn on and off several times to access the card, and again pressing down would freeze the DS.

When the R4 was removed, the normal DS screen would load, for the most part pressing down worked but it did freeze once while no cartridge was loaded.

I placed an actual game cartridge in the DS but so far I haven't been able to get it to work, the DS turns on but the screens remain black and I never see the game or a loading message. I removed the game cartridge, DS turned on and loaded the DS screen fine, but when I try to insert the real game the DS will freeze and a static noise can be heard.

I have tested my cousin's R4 on my DS and it runs fine, no issues at all. His DS experiences the same problems when my R4 is loaded, so this doesn't really seem like an issue with the R4, the issues seem to happen when there is a cartridge loaded, and there's also the Down button issue.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions? Could the R4 have caused damage to the DS? Anything I can do to try and fix this, or will he need to ask Santa for a new DS?

Thanks!

uh... regarding the sections in bold letters... first it was an R4, the suddenly it's an acekard, then it's an R4 again. do you mean you use 2 different flashcards or you have confused it for something?

 

[Frogman]

-snip


uh... regarding the sections in bold letters... first it was an R4, the suddenly it's an acekard, then it's an R4 again. do you mean you use 2 different flashcards or you have confused it for something?
The Wood firmware feautres an akaio theme which as he says it returns to the acekard menu he means it goes to the default opening menu


Posts Merged_____________________

QUOTE(Coreyfrog7 @ Jul 31 2010, 01:16 AM) what brand r4 is this real or clone? Is it still covered by warrenty? do normal games freeze as well?

No problem, thanks for trying to help

:

Pretty sure it's real, and if it's not a real R4 from the R4DS team then it's a generic brand, but it's not one of those N5 or R4 gold, ultra, etc. carts, definitely R4DS from DealWoot.com/GamebyGame.com back when they were still selling them. Here's the info from both the box and the cart:

R4 - Revolution for the DS - (NDSL/NDS) . box has the http://www.r4ds.com website along with MicroSD usb 2.0, print is pretty clear, but does say Made in China and not Japan. GameByGame.com formerly DealWoot.com was a pretty trusted and recommended site back then, but then I guess they ran into issues and stopped selling all DS carts many months ago.

No, no warranty, and it's about a year old.

Regarding normal games, so far I have not been able to get a normal game to load. I turn the DS on and the screens remain black even with a normal game. Took the normal game out, turned the DS on without any cartridge, inserted real game in, DS immediately froze and static noise came out the speakers.

that static noise dosnt seem right unless your removing the fame whilst the ds lite is playing the start up tune
also you are using the official wood right? then it should be working fine
could this issue possible be a software fault as the ds may be recognising the down button as the power button?
you should probably give big N a call...
oh one more thing if it is a clone then it could be crappy made some crappy clones can brick your ds though i dont think thats whats happening here

 

[geminis076]

that static noise dosnt seem right unless your removing the fame whilst the ds lite is playing the start up tune
also you are using the official wood right? then it should be working fine
could this issue possible be a software fault as the ds may be recognising the down button as the power button?
you should probably give big N a call...

Thanks for everyone's feedback, even you Oraki51

. The static noise happens when there is no cartridge inserted, and the DS is on its original Nintendo DS screen where you can access Pictochat and the DS settings. When I interest any cartridge, R4 or real game it freezes and then the static sound happens. I just wanted to see what would happen if I tried to insert a game cart while it was on.

Thanks Coreyfrog7 for the explanation. Yes it's an R4 but the Wood firmware has an akaio theme.


Posts Merged_____________________

Sounds like a contacts issue. Have a look inside the cart slot and see if any of the pins look bent. If so, you can try and tease them out a little bit with some kind of pokey device. You can also try cleaning the contacts with a bit of alcohol and a cotton bud thing, what do you guys call them over there, q-tips? If you still have no joy, there are tricks you can try involving sliding paper between the cart and the cartridge slot to make it a snugger fit and force the cart's pins against those in the DS.

Thanks, I did try cleaning with alcohol, which did work for about a minute but then the problems started again

.


Posts Merged_____________________


QUOTE(Another World @ Jul 31 2010, 11:26 PM)

the odd buzzing sound has me worried that something might be damanged on the main board. does anything from slot2 run? can you flash something to a 3in1 nor and run it as a gba cart, for example? check to make sure slot1 doesn't have a bent pin. you can purchase a replacement slot1 off DX for a few bucks if you feel brave enough to swap it out.

Thanks. I'm actually thinking about replacing game slot 1, pretty cheap from DX and I watched a YouTube video on how to do it. The soldering part kind of sucks but I have steady hands and the process doesn't seem too terrible - I understand if I mess up I won't be able to send it to Nintendo

.

Game slot 2 works fine, I tested with a real GBA cartridge, I never learned how to use downloaded GBA games.

However I do have a question for anyone reading, I noticed that if I lightly shake the DS that too sometimes causes it to freeze. I shook it heavily while the GBA game was in and playing - and it did not freeze. But when I shook it with nothing inserted in any slot and while on the main Nintendo screen, a light shake would freeze it. And powering is still an issue, it will power on but the screens often stay black meaning I never see any start up screen at all, just two black screens which seems like it may be more than just a damaged game cart?

Like I said, my cousin is only 7 so who knows what this DS has been through. He admitted to dropping it recently. Nintendo will charge $75 plus shipping to repair it, or for $10.00 more ($85.00) they will send a refurbished one. I actually have an extra DS that work just fine - dog chewed it up and has a broken hinge so it needs new housing which I plan to replace. Think I'll try to replace the game 1 slot and just give him my extra one if that doesn't work.