GCN Found my old MadCatz 32mb memory-card but it's not detected anymore, anything I can try?

[SkyDX]

While dumping some of my Gamecube games I forgot before I stumbled upon my old 32mb MadCatz memory-card. By now it has a broken shell and even when it worked it was very finicky making me push the card in certain ways to load and save.



Eventually I bought a new one and declared all saves on the MadCatz one as lost as at some point it was almost impossible for it to be detected anymore. Now that I have a hacked Wii and found it again I thought I would give it a final try seeing if I can get it detected even once to see if I can quickly backup my saves.



However no matter how I push and touch the card won't get detected at all anymore, the Wii acts as if no card is inserted. I even put the card itself in a new shell but nothing so far helped. I know the slot is fine since it works with other cards.



Is there any trick I can try to revive it atleast for a very short moment? I thought of cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol atleast.

Should I post close-ups of the board?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Heat maybe? Heating up the bare PCB in an oven or using a hot air station (does not need to be hot enough to melt solder) is a "fix" sometimes used to revive faulty GPUs or Xbox 360s. Doesn't last long though as no amount of heat can undo the internal failure in the chip.
Even if you can get it working again there's no guarantee any of the save data will still be intact.

 

[SkyDX]

Heat maybe? Heating up the bare PCB in an oven or using a hot air station (does not need to be hot enough to melt solder) is a "fix" sometimes used to revive faulty GPUs or Xbox 360s. Doesn't last long though as no amount of heat can undo the internal failure in the chip.
Even if you can get it working again there's no guarantee any of the save data will still be intact.

Thanks for the reply! Well in my mind the data was already lost long ago so I'm willing to try anything. Could an oven work? If so on what degree should I put it and for how long? I already saved a PSP like this long ago

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Thanks for the reply! Well in my mind the data was already lost long ago so I'm willing to try anything. Could an oven work? If so on what degree should I put it and for how long? I already saved a PSP like this long ago

180C-200C? Just a wild guess, what's important is that it's lower than the temperature needed to melt solder and also that you don't leave it too long so it starts melting components.

 

[SkyDX]

180C-200C? Just a wild guess, what's important is that it's lower than the temperature needed to melt solder and also that you don't leave it too long so it starts melting components.

Alright I'll try that tomorrow, I've got nothing to lose!

 

[MrCokeacola]

Baking the card should be a last resort. I remember back in the day I'd have to try 5 to 10 times plugging in my mad cats card to get it to work. Sometimes applying pressure to the memory card while it was in the slot helped too.

 

[SkyDX]

Baking the card should be a last resort. I remember back in the day I'd have to try 5 to 10 times plugging in my mad cats card to get it to work. Sometimes applying pressure to the memory card while it was in the slot helped too.

Well the biggest problem is the plastic-shell being broken and I'm not sure the other shell I have aligns the contacts right. Is there a video or pic that shows how to correctly insert a memory-card board without a shell?

 

[linkinworm]

have you tried cleaning the contacts? i used to use cif to clean old snes games becasue it came up really clean, using a qtip. pretty sure you cant insert a memory card just a bare pcb, you need the back shell to give the pressure

 

[SkyDX]

Here's a pic of the PCB if it helps anyone help me:

have you tried cleaning the contacts? i used to use cif to clean old snes games becasue it came up really clean, using a qtip. pretty sure you cant insert a memory card just a bare pcb, you need the back shell to give the pressure

Yeah cleaning didn't help :/

 

[linkinworm]

madcatz were never known for quality, its possible its just done, one of the reasons you should always buy nintendo original

 

[SkyDX]

madcatz were never known for quality, its possible its just done, one of the reasons you should always buy nintendo original

I know, I'm not losing any sleep over it, I just thought why not try after 15 years

 

[Ryccardo]

The Wii in particular is not a good match for extra large memory cards (1019 blocks and above)

 

[SkyDX]

The Wii in particular is not a good match for extra large memory cards (1019 blocks and above)

Hmm so you say I should try it with my Gamecube?