Hacking EFA-Linker II is not detected

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

EFA-Linker 2 1GB card
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I know that it won't work in Windows 7 64 but I'm trying to get my computer to detect it in a VirtualBox VM of Windows XP. I have the USB support enabled but it gives me this error when I try to enable the device:

Code:

Result Code: 
E_INVALIDARG (0x80070057)
Component: 
HostUSBDevice
Interface: 
IHostUSBDevice {173b4b44-d268-4334-a00d-b6521c9a740a}
Callee: 
IConsole {515e8e8d-f932-4d8e-9f32-79a52aead882}

I tried reinstalling VirtualBox and the Windows XP install but neither changed the result. I have two PCs at the moment, both use Windows 7 Home Premium (but one is 32 bit)

Any chance I can get this card to work? It'd be a shame to just shelve it.

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

If it is the fake one, not the real usb drive one you can use the red link in my sig and substitute the drivers and app for the efa linker ones. same process. The real one doesn't need drivers and is drag and drop from windows.

Drivers and app are here: http://filetrip.net/f9001-EFA-Linker-%28Lo...rt%29-1-02.html

Otherwise your using the wrong driver bin loader sets.

GreatCrippler · Jan 23, 2011

Sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Sell it to me. :-D

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

Your most likely doing something wrong.

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

the client crashes when i tell it to format the cart. then i plugged it back into my GBA (sorry this topic is accidentally in the wrong forum, my mistake) and my old roms i had loaded from a year ago were still there.

when i went to install the drivers from the EFA-linker ii files you have up it asked what kind of device and I had it show me all devices then pointed windows to the specific folder with the .inf file.

highlighted EFA Linker (and not EFA Linker Initialization)

However, still no green light on the cart.

EDIT: Well I followed your Elink tutorial and nothing ended up happening so I just said to heck with it. This thing is a piece. And yeah it's the fake one. Thanks a lot DealXTreme.

Any suggestions as to a *good* flash cart for the GBA (not DS slot 2) that works in Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit?

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

Make sure the usb device is checked (status: captured) in the devices->usb menu like this:

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

yeah it's checked. I point it at C:\EFA_driver (which is where I unpacked the LongCart compressed file set) but Windows has the "OK" button grayed out.

What file am I supposed to be having it look for in that long cart folder?

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

If your ok icon is greyed out you have to hit search again, if not you have you unplug the flashcart and plug it back in.

Your folder should be like the first picture I posted. The app folder not the driver folder.

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

Here's a screenshot. This is after the button being grayed out and me reinserting it. (I changed the location to the desktop for easier access. shouldn't matter.)

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

That is the app folder, not the drivers. Those are 2 different things to download. Thought you said you had it working previously. nm then, get the drivers from the link below.

drivers: here

The drivers are the same as the efa simple. The only difference is that the fake efa linker II uses a different bin loader that you put on the flashcart and requires the app I gave the link to previously.

I guess the drivers where not in that previous file, no bothering with it now.

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

I had it working by using those drivers but since I thought they were only for the real EFA-Linker II I thought they might be the reason it was crashing so I uninstalled it completely and started over.

EDIT: Alright! The green light is on in the XP VM. When I open the client it detects nothing though, even after using the search button. I suspect this might be from me not charging this cart for a very very long time so I'm going to leave it plugged in a for a few hours then unplug it, plug it back in and see if the client recognizes it.

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

The real efa II didn't need any drivers, it showed up in the comp as a thumb drive.

The real efa II had EFA502 printed on the back of the PCB, the fake one has LC512/1G printed on the back.

Real:

Fake:

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

Yeah I definitely have the fake one. Shoot.

At least now it makes sense why it wasn't drag and drop at all because there was a thread about this cart that made me want it because of the drag and drop interface and the RTC. And now finding a good GBA cart is nigh impossible.

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

At least you can use it, even if it is fake. All the real ones where made by the china division while the fake one was made by the UK division of EFA, they labeled them as Long Card (No RTC, no RTS; aka EFA Linker Simple). They had supply issues making the real one and the company folded shortly after. The UK was still kicking and they kept producing them until Nintendo shut them down back in 2008 or 2009, don't remember the exact date.

Ninjamohawk · Jan 23, 2011

So do you think the battery is the reason why it isn't being recognized by the client?

I tried using both the Long Card Client, and the EFA Simple (simple as possible) clients.

Or does it have to be plugged into the GBA while the GBA is turned on?

By the way thanks a lot for all your help. Super cool of you.

EDIT: Okay so the Long Card client (1.02) recognizes it as long as it's in the GBA and the GBA is turned on. I formatted it when it was in this state, and it worked (restarting the GBA showed that even the boot loader wasn't there; it just stayed on the "GameBoy" screen).

I turned off the GBA, took the card out, plugged it back in to the USB cable and restarted the client program. "No card found."

EDIT2: Oh man.. yeah when I plugged it back in I forgot to ensure that the VM had captured the card. It hadn't. But now it has and I was able to load everything onto the card, works a treat.

Thanks again for all your help.

how_do_i_do_that · Jan 23, 2011

probably, depending on how old the thing is, it might be time to replace the battery. I've already had to replace batteries on all my real gba flashcarts at least 2 times already. So the fake ones are probably about due for me.

I switched to a non rechagable battery so I didn't have to charge the thing every couple of months. They last just as long. 3 or 4 years.

As for the client software. The EFA simple client can read/write and detect the thing but you will have problems accessing games that are put onto the second 512Mb NOR module. That is why you want to use the Longcart interface and bin files.

I also updated the efa long card download with the drivers, so if you ever lose them you don't have to go hunting for drivers when you download the app.

Ninjamohawk · Feb 2, 2011

Excellent. Once again thanks for all your help. Has worked like a charm since I last posted. I've flashed it 3 or 4 times since, no problems.

I'm still not confident enough to try Mother 3 on it again (shortly after I got the cart I loaded nothing but a version 1.0 translation patched, non-SRAM fixed version on the rom onto the cart, was able to save for a good 20 hours into the game...maybe... a dozen or two times saved total, when it crapped out on me and my file was deemed "corrupted"), but everything else is okay.

The Mother 3 thing is a shame. I'm thinking that maybe if I patch a clean rom with the new 1.1 translation, and SRAM fix the rom with GBATA it might not have the same "corruption" effect after hours of work? It's a big time risk though.

Hacking EFA-Linker II is not detected

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