Hacking Sky3DS crashing issue

[WulfyStylez]

found this in some sky3ds problem solving page

There are two ways mostly can solve the problems:
1. If you use the latest template and diskwriter, if those don’t work, use the first diskwriter + template from the official site, cuz there are known issues with recent templates.
2. Just judging from past similar problems about this but with Gateway 3DS carts, the memory card issue has been an issue multiple times with Gateway, and it has been proved that memory SD card is the only problems in the end, then work greatly .
The Sandisk cards seem to give people less trouble, and according to many players experience, Sandisk microSD have pretty good compatibility when works for Sky3DS card.

they actually reccomend sandisk, weird

The biggest thing is even if you think your card is fast, it might not be fast enough. It's worth running ATTO Disk Benchmark and comparing your results to my known non-working and working ones. (Make sure your SD reader is fast enough first, of course.)

 

[zergslayer69]

Sandisk ultra is garbage? First I've heard. And I've owned maybe 5 different ultra chips, none has died on me.

 

[MidLevelCrisis]

sooo.. how fast is fast enough? what minimum read/write speed card shoud we be looking for. And at what speed can the 3DS actually read/write? i doubt its just card speed

 

[WulfyStylez]

Sandisk ultra is garbage? First I've heard. And I've owned maybe 5 different ultra chips, none has died on me.

They're reliable, but the write speeds are dismal compared to read speeds. Something like 7mb/s.

sooo.. how fast is fast enough? what minimum read/write speed card shoud we be looking for

Write isn't really critical compared to read (since your SD card is emulating a read-only device anyways). That being said, look for something that has confirmed benchmarks faster than about 60MB/s, I guess? Packaging and product pages usually won't help you determine if a card's any good or not.

 

[zergslayer69]

Based on what you're saying, the sky can make use of such high speeds? That's good to know.

Side question, what is powering the blue light on the chip? Do you need to replace an internal battery?

 

[WulfyStylez]

Based on what you're saying, the sky can make use of such high speeds? That's good to know.

Side question, what is powering the blue light on the chip? Do you need to replace an internal battery?

It needs such high speeds, otherwise it won't work. 3DS carts are fast. Also they're powered by the 3.3v line that powers the rest of the cart.

 

[zergslayer69]

Thanks for the heads up! Strange that the gateway had no problems playing games on the ultra but I guess sky is more picky. Would rom switching speed up with the Samsung extreme chips? Or do they all take forever to switch?

 

[MidLevelCrisis]

Well, i just got the exact same SanDisk 32Gb EXTREME, they weren't available in some electronic stores.

I will post my results later. Package says it reads up to 60 MB/s and Writes up to 40MB/s

 

[tony_2018]

Thanks for the heads up! Strange that the gateway had no problems playing games on the ultra but I guess sky is more picky. Would rom switching speed up with the Samsung extreme chips? Or do they all take forever to switch?

Its probably in the diskswriter copies roms and saves to the mSD card, with GW method we only have to copy it over.

 

[Tony8690]

I should be expecting my sky3ds in the post tomorrow, I have a 64GB Sandisk Ultra (class 10 1U)...

do you think I will have any issues playing my games from it?

Thanks,

 

[MidLevelCrisis]

Everythings works fine untill now, the game that used to crash without fail during or after the intro cinematic was yoshi's new island, pokemon art academy also loads without crashing, tried senran kagura burst, and sonic lost world, now i'm gonna try Tomodachi life. Changing games takes 4-5 seconds. Sometimes the Sky is not immediatly recognized as a 3ds game after reinserting the sd card, but i've had this happen with DS carts before. Weirdly enough re inserting the sky faster rather than gently usually works.

All EU clean untouched roms btw on a PAL system ofc. got 60 more to try

The only thing left is trimming the roms, does anyone know if this causes known problems? it saves 1 third of the space of untrimmed roms usually. I believe saves arent transferrable with discwriter between trimmed and untrimmed.

I really do wonder what class and brand sd cards the sky ships with if you buy it included, and how that preforms.

 

[rudyzhou2]

Everythings works fine untill now, the game that used to crash without fail during or after the intro cinematic was yoshi's new island, pokemon art academy also loads without crashing, tried senran kagura burst, and sonic lost world, now i'm gonna try Tomodachi life. Changing games takes 4-5 seconds. Sometimes the Sky is not immediatly recognized as a 3ds game after reinserting the sd card, but i've had this happen with DS carts before. Weirdly enough re inserting the sky faster rather than gently usually works.

All EU clean untouched roms btw on a PAL system ofc. got 60 more to try

The only thing left is trimming the roms, does anyone know if this causes known problems? it saves 1 third of the space of untrimmed roms usually. I believe saves arent transferrable with discwriter between trimmed and untrimmed.

I really do wonder what class and brand sd cards the sky ships with if you buy it included, and how that preforms.

my backed up saves work with trimmed roms (tested on MH3G and Bravely Default, EEPROM YES). I had some problems with sky3ds not loading but I resolved it by changing diskwriter /template versions and also by playing around with the microsd placement sky3ds... damn the microsd card slot can deepthroat with room... i wish they had a snugger fit so u can get it right every time

 

[MidLevelCrisis]

my backed up saves work with trimmed roms (tested on MH3G and Bravely Default, EEPROM YES). I had some problems with sky3ds not loading but I resolved it by changing diskwriter /template versions and also by playing around with the microsd placement sky3ds... damn the microsd card slot can deepthroat with room... i wish they had a snugger fit so u can get it right every time

Lol, Ok thats good to know, I tried it before with Tomodachi Life and it didn't work, but that must be because its a NAND save. What discwriter version and template do you use?

I was a bit afraid yesterday I wasted my money, but now that it works I'm very happy with it. The setting up could use a bit more clarification in the provided guide. But I love the fact I'm not messing with my 3DS system itself, just like my DS flashcards.

Still buying Monster hunter and majora, but now I can try all those games I never planned on owning.
And the good E-shop stuff is affordable.

 

[rudyzhou2]

Lol, Ok thats good to know, I tried it before with Tomodachi Life and it didn't work, but that must be because its a NAND save. What discwriter version and template do you use?

I was a bit afraid yesterday I wasted my money, but now that it works I'm very happy with it. The setting up could use a bit more clarification in the provided guide. But I love the fact I'm not messing with my 3DS system itself, just like my DS flashcards.

Still buying Monster hunter and majora, but now I can try all those games I never planned on owning.
And the good E-shop stuff is affordable.

i find that some games work with restore some dont, for ex Rune factory 4 didnt work... but I had NAND games that I converted myself and the saves were working! One thing to watch out for though, if u delete the game and reinstall afterwards and try to restore the save, it might not work, its better to backup the whole game and then restore it back if u want it again!

 

[sparrowreal]

Well, I have been playing a little with the sky today and There is what I can say so far about micro sds: everybody should try to avoid kingston micro sds I have 2 16gb class 10 and you cant change games with them (blue light blinking nonstop), on the other hand I have a 32 gb sandisk ultra and it works flawlessly without crashing or slowdowns.

 

[davhuit]

And here is the card that I fixed this with, for anyone having similar issues in the future.

Don't have a Sky3DS but I have the same Micro-SD card in my gateway.

 

[zergslayer69]

Well, I have been playing a little with the sky today and There is what I can say so far about micro sds: everybody should try to avoid kingston micro sds I have 2 16gb class 10 and you cant change games with them (blue light blinking nonstop), on the other hand I have a 32 gb sandisk ultra and it works flawlessly without crashing or slowdowns.

How long was the game switching with your sandisk ultra?

 

[sparrowreal]

How long was the game switching with your sandisk ultra?

Game switching takes about 7 to 8 seconds

 

[WulfyStylez]

Game switching takes about 7 to 8 seconds

I also get around 7 seconds. I imagine this is probably as fast as the ASIC on Sky3DS can handle, it stops being up to the sd card after a certain point.

 

[sparrowreal]

I also get around 7 seconds. I imagine this is probably as fast as the ASIC on Sky3DS can handle, it stops being up to the sd card after a certain point.

What seems to be apparently true is that most of the problems with this card are due to a poor performance of the micro sd card, like the blinking of the blue light or even not being able to switch games, and I imagine that the crashing also happens for the same reason, as you said before not every micro sd works with sky, even if it is a class 10. People that have in mind to buy a sky should only buy microsds that are reported to be fully compatible with it.