Gaming Fire Red on EZ Flash IV deletes save after using a link cable. What's the issue?

[scottg1234]

Well, I felt really bad for my little brother.

he wanted to play fire red, so I got it for him on the ez flash iv. He tried to trade with his cousin, then it gave him a link cable problem, and he started fire red, and his save was completely gone.

Is there a way to fix this, like a patch or something?

I did some research, and it turns out the fake pokemon games have simliar glitches. bootleg fire red loses it's save when you use the link cable.

so i think that maybe the issue with putting a fire red rom on the ez flash iv.

is there a patch for this? or a certain rom release which fixes this issue?

 

[kmno]

I can't even trade how did you manage to do it? Also downloading a normal rom (us version) should be enough, just patch it with the ezflashiv client and done.

 

[Searinox]

You've got a double-SRAM-patched ROM. You probably patched the ROM save for the EZflash's SRAM and then patched it again with something else, such as GBATA. One of the patches you used patches the normal save but not the link save which is a different kind of on-the-fly save for what was just transferred. Your first poketransfer will corrupt the current save and will result in a "save file is corrupt, previous file will be loaded" and your 2nd transfer will result in complete save corruption, "the save file has been deleted".

If your save file is deleted after just one transfer, you most likely have a bad dump. If the ROM usually says "save file is corrupt, previous save file will be loaded" even when it works normally, then you've got a bad dump, likely from a bootleg that only kept 1 save file to save the costs on smaller SRAM chips. Make sure your game says nothing about save corruption when it normally runs.

These ROMs also constantly report hall of fame data as being corrupt after the game is turned off for the first time since you first enter hall of fame. Note that these ROMs are already SRAM-patched since the bootlegs use SRAM instead of EEPROM save chip, and applying an EZflash patch on top of that will again likely cause an issue similar to double-patching.

The hardware used on the bootlegs may also have differences in how it works and thus the patch result in partially-working save functionality on the EZflash even under normal conditions.

Conclusion: Get a clean ROM. One that doesn't report save corruption on startup and keeps hall of fame data after poweroff. Note that some idiots edit the ROMs and make "save file is corrupt" messages say "the save file is ok". It should say NOTHING at all and just show the continue data. The file should be exactly 16MB, or 16384KB. Look for a website containing ROM file hashes to make sure your ROM matches the official hash. Once you have it, patch it ONLY with whatever EZflash IV uses for patching, only once, and nothing else such as GBATA, and don't patch realtime clock because FR/LG don't have one. Preferrably the ROM should also be version 1.1 which fixes a bug with two-word pokedex species entries being cut-off at the first whitespace.

 

[scottg1234]

You've got a double-SRAM-patched ROM. You probably patched the ROM save for the EZflash's SRAM and then patched it again with something else, such as GBATA. One of the patches you used patches the normal save but not the link save which is a different kind of on-the-fly save for what was just transferred. Your first poketransfer will corrupt the current save and will result in a "save file is corrupt, previous file will be loaded" and your 2nd transfer will result in complete save corruption, "the save file has been deleted".

If your save file is deleted after just one transfer, you most likely have a bad dump. If the ROM usually says "save file is corrupt, previous save file will be loaded" even when it works normally, then you've got a bad dump, likely from a bootleg that only kept 1 save file to save the costs on smaller SRAM chips. Make sure your game says nothing about save corruption when it normally runs.

These ROMs also constantly report hall of fame data as being corrupt after the game is turned off for the first time since you first enter hall of fame. Note that these ROMs are already SRAM-patched since the bootlegs use SRAM instead of EEPROM save chip, and applying an EZflash patch on top of that will again likely cause an issue similar to double-patching.

The hardware used on the bootlegs may also have differences in how it works and thus the patch result in partially-working save functionality on the EZflash even under normal conditions.

Conclusion: Get a clean ROM. One that doesn't report save corruption on startup and keeps hall of fame data after poweroff. Note that some idiots edit the ROMs and make "save file is corrupt" messages say "the save file is ok". It should say NOTHING at all and just show the continue data. The file should be exactly 16MB, or 16384KB. Look for a website containing ROM file hashes to make sure your ROM matches the official hash. Once you have it, patch it ONLY with whatever EZflash IV uses for patching, only once, and nothing else such as GBATA, and don't patch realtime clock because FR/LG don't have one. Preferrably the ROM should also be version 1.1 which fixes a bug with two-word pokedex species entries being cut-off at the first whitespace.

Thanks for the info bro!!! It was a little confusing for me though.

It let me do the first transfer through the link cable. Then in the second transfer it said "connection error".

I got the "the save file has been deleted" error after that transfer.

I started a new game. saved it. rebooted, and it gave me the "save file is corrupt, previous save file will be loaded".

I saved it again. rebooted. no messages.

Nonetheless, that rom seems garbage.



I found a good 16MB version 1.1, so maybe this will work.

I never patched my games with GBATA. I just let EZ Flash do that. So I will let EZ Flash do it for this one.

so if i find a good clean rip of fire red, and let EZ Flash do the patching, I should be good?

also, since my brother traded two pokemon with his friend, who owns a real copy of leaf green, will my brother's bootleg pokemon mess up his friend's leaf green at all?

EDIT: when i am tranfering the game to the sd card, and patching it via ez flash, it says the save type is "FLASH_TYPE". Is that ok?

EDIT 2: Once I added the 16MB pokemon to my ez flash, it went down from 16mb to 14.7 mb. is that ok?

 

[scottg1234]

I can't even trade how did you manage to do it? Also downloading a normal rom (us version) should be enough, just patch it with the ezflashiv client and done.

I just used a link cable and it worked. I switched the linked cable from one gba with the other and it got it working.

mine are kind of old, so i have to wiggle them a certain way.

 

[Searinox]

It appears that EZflash IV trims ROMs, something I wasn't aware of. Trimmed ROMs will be absolutely fine.

Your brother's leafgreen will not mess up in any way because it has no way to mess up: it's an original cartridge, so it saves properly after transfers are done. The absolute worst that can happen is that when the transfers are interrupted during the saving the current save file gets corrupt. You will ALWAYS have a previous save file to load and never entirely lose your game from interruptions during saving. This is true for original carts and EZflash with a proper ROM.

With a little caution, you can use even link-problematic ROMs to transfer pokemon safely: simply save manually once you exit the transfer room. That way it will write down the save data from memory properly.

But this won't matter now that you have everything sorted out. How many hours of gameplay were lost?

 

[kmno]

Mmm I see, I can't seem to get mine working, but it is not a problem with the link cable because I can trade normally with my RBY cartdriges, it seems to be a problem with the rom, it just stays in the "please wait" and nevers goes beyond that and I've tried using both Emerald and FireRed roms with the same results.

 

[scottg1234]

It appears that EZflash IV trims ROMs, something I wasn't aware of. Trimmed ROMs will be absolutely fine.

Your brother's leafgreen will not mess up in any way because it has no way to mess up: it's an original cartridge, so it saves properly after transfers are done. The absolute worst that can happen is that when the transfers are interrupted during the saving the current save file gets corrupt. You will ALWAYS have a previous save file to load and never entirely lose your game from interruptions during saving. This is true for original carts and EZflash with a proper ROM.

With a little caution, you can use even link-problematic ROMs to transfer pokemon safely: simply save manually once you exit the transfer room. That way it will write down the save data from memory properly.

But this won't matter now that you have everything sorted out. How many hours of gameplay were lost?

luckily not much was lost. He was just starting out. But he wanted to transfer some Pokemon over from a different game.

Is ez flash suppose to patch the memory to FLASH_TYPE?

 

[Searinox]

luckily not much was lost. He was just starting out. But he wanted to transfer some Pokemon over from a different game.

Is ez flash suppose to patch the memory to FLASH_TYPE?

I don't know because I don't have an EZflash IV, I have a V. Flash is supposed to be the save type for original games. I don't know if it's supposed to change after patching. I mean yes the patcher DOES set it to SRAM but it may do so in a manner undetected by ROM info tools. As long as the game can save and trade I wouldn't worry at all.

 

[Nusdogg]

My Pokemon Fire Red OMEGA deletes my save games all the time, and I properly save it too w/o hitting the L button on start up to skip. Almost everytime.. It's annoying! I don't know what's wrong either, and I have an EZ Flash IV cart.

 

[scottg1234]

My Pokemon Fire Red OMEGA deletes my save games all the time, and I properly save it too w/o hitting the L button on start up to skip. Almost everytime.. It's annoying! I don't know what's wrong either, and I have an EZ Flash IV cart.

hey man.

I found a clean rom that seems to work for my brother. He trades and he went really far into the game.

Let me know if you need to know where to get it, and ill pm you.

 

[Nusdogg]

hey man.

I found a clean rom that seems to work for my brother. He trades and he went really far into the game.

Let me know if you need to know where to get it, and ill pm you.

Yes. PM please! Seems like this rom doesn't want to save at all. Everytime I go back to play it, the save file is not there and I automatically have to restart the whole game. It's very annoying.

Is this a hacked Fire Red we're talking about?

 

[EdGe7x]

Searinox, your answer was so definite to the problem I encountered and you explained it so well. I hope you don't mind a little back story and I hope I'm not resurrecting too old of a thread.

I was surprised and in utter shock when I traded two pokemon with my daughter from LeafGreen (EZ flash IV) to FireRed (Genuine Nintendo Cart) to find out that my game on the EZ Flash was deleted(yes I shut off my GBASP right after the trade). I had over 100 hours of gameplay on it. After attempting feverishly to save my game, I realized it was lost to me. I happen to be lucky enough to have started my game and completed the Elite Four battles on my Wii (vbagx) then transferred the SAV file to my EZ Flash. I had about 40+ hours on it, at least I didn't have to start over. Most of the 60+ hours lost was catching and breeding pokemon. While searching for a way to recover my lost games, I ran into a third generation save editor called A-Save v1.21. To my delight, the editor was able to read my corrupt file because it showed all of my stats and pokemon. My party was intact and my boxes contained all of my pokemon and my items. I meticulously exported all of my pokemon and even changed my stats to properly show my time spent. It's almost as if I was able to restore my game. If I had to start over, my daughters would be disappointed (ok I'll admit it, I would have also been very upset). Now, being a technical kind of person... I had to understand the "why". I had to know why this occurred.

That's when I found this thread. I proceeded to do what you suggested Searinox. Since I have Genuine LeafGreen and FireRed cartridges (bought them when they were released back in the day) I used GBA Backup Tool to extract the ROM and save it to my SD card. I couldn't find the hash values for either game so I can't compare them to see if they are being extracted properly but I assume they are clean. The game is playable and I don't get any errors that there is a problem with my save, it goes straight to the continue game screen at startup. I used EZ4_Client 1.03 to transfer my ROM to my EZ flash cart applying the Save Patch. I proceeded to test your conclusions mentioned above but I still get a corrupt save when trading. I could just accept the fact that trading will inherently have problems with saves and could easily get around this issue by saving normally but I am the type of person that would like to get it working properly if possible.

So after the long winded explanation, I ask if you may have any idea as to why this isn't working as it's intended. I'd like to get Trade Saving to work properly. So a brief recap:

1. I believe to have a clean original rom since I extracted it from a genuine cartridge (v1.1)
2. I have Save Patched it using EZ4_client only (no double patching using GBATA)
3. Game works perfectly when saving normally (no corrupt messages when booting the game)
4. Hall of Fame data seems to show up fine

If you happen to have access to the hashes for both FireRed and LeafGreen v1.1 (USA) that may help narrow down my troubleshooting.

Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.