Hacking Acekard 2i on 3DS

[jack980517]

Hi, I bought an Acekard 2i from someone secondhand, and both my old and new 3ds cannot recognize it. The metal "connector" part is quite dirty, so I suspected that this flashcart has simply died of old age, but the seller claimed that the problem lies with the flashcart's "ROM". I assume he meant that the cart's old firmware is in the blacklist of the 3DS, but both of my 3DSes has CFW and should be immune to the flashcart blacklist problem. Can anyone shed some light on what is really going on? Is the seller lying?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

AceKard 2i is blacklisted since VERY long. But I can confirm it works with custom firmware.

Even without CFW it should show up on the Home Menu when inserted. Trying to start the game results in "An error has occurred… bla bla bla"

If there is dirt on the connector you should carefully clean it (special electronics cleaner or isopropyl alcohol). Inserting dirty cartridges into a DS might damage the game-cart reader.

To be absolutely sure try booting the AceKard 2i on a DS-(Lite|Phat) which do not have any blacklisting functionality.

 

[jack980517]

AceKard 2i is blacklisted since VERY long. But I can confirm it works with custom firmware.

Even without CFW it should show up on the Home Menu when inserted. Trying to start the game results in "An error has occurred… bla bla bla"

If there is dirt on the connector you should carefully clean it (special electronics cleaner or isopropyl alcohol). Inserting dirty cartridges into a DS might damage the game-cart reader.

To be absolutely sure try booting the AceKard 2i on a DS-(Lite|Phat) which do not have any blacklisting functionality.

Thank you for your info. I did know that AK2i is blacklisted since very long, but I didn't know what a blacklisted cart would look like on the Home Menu. The cartridge icon stays blank for me, so it's definitely not a blacklist problem. I also do not have a DS so I couldn't test.
What do you suggest I do now? Buy some cleaning agent and try to clean it, or try to negotiate for a refund?

 

[zxr750j]

Try a Q-tip dipped in some aftershave and try to clean the contacts. Insert and reinsert it a couple of times and see if the cartridge pops up in the 3ds. Otherwise: try to contact the seller.

 

[Ryccardo]

but the seller claimed that the problem lies with the flashcart's "ROM"

Corrupted firmware (reflash with ntrboot-flasher, possibly an older version of said program) or outright broken flash?

Definitely try the other usual things first, though! (cleaning and putting a piece of paper inside between label and rear of PCB to push the contacts closer to the console)

 

[linuxares]

Isopropyl Alcohol and Q-tip. Even a toothbrush with the same alcohol and scrub the metal.
then flash a new software on it.

 

[Urbanshadow]

I had to raise up the contacts on my a2i because not all contacts were reaching the internal 3ds pins. With a thin cardboard piece or a folded plain paper (to thicken it up) you can slide it under the contacts to improve the detection rates, but in general with a perfectly fine a2i the successful boot rate is poor, to say the least.