Hacking EZ-FLASH OMEGA kernel 1.06 and firmware 7 released

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
You get that if the contacts are dirty/not making good contacts. I'd try cleaning the contacts on the EZ Omega, game cart, and gba. If you're still having problems, perhaps the EZ Omega being a tight fit (mine definitely is) has caused the GBA contacts to bend a little?
 

Blasingame

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
139
Trophies
1
XP
1,290
Country
United States
You get that if the contacts are dirty/not making good contacts. I'd try cleaning the contacts on the EZ Omega, game cart, and gba. If you're still having problems, perhaps the EZ Omega being a tight fit (mine definitely is) has caused the GBA contacts to bend a little?

thanks for this suggestion, I'm going to try this out.

You don't suppose that having a botched kernel/firmware update did anything to the bios?

I guess to say if the EZflash is a tighter fit in the card slot then perhaps it has pushed the pins back a bit. Has there been any other reports on this? looking to know how peple have troubleshooted this.
 

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
The GBA Bios is in ROM. The Nintendo logo is stored in the header of every GBA ROM and then verified by the BIOS. That's why it being garbled is a good sign of bad contacts (or for homebrew, they never bothered to insert the logo for fear of running afoul of Nintendo's trademark*). I've not specifically heard of any reports of pins being pushed back. I'm just throwing that out there because I know I've had issue with my own EZ Omega being such a tight fit.

* This was settled a long time ago in a lawsuit against Sega. Basically, a company can't use a trademark presence (and inherently display) as a check in game hardware and then turn around and sue people for trademark violation for not getting permission to display said trademark. Still, the threat of a suit is always there, so I can see why people would be reluctant to include it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Blasingame

Blasingame

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
139
Trophies
1
XP
1,290
Country
United States
That's a very interesting tidbit of information on the bios boot.

I did come to realize that I need to be more tender with the ezflash. I was reading that post about waiting 5 seconds after saving, and making sure not to cycle the power of the console too many times.

All part of the learning process ‍

@kuwanger thanks for the enlightment, hope to spread the source of knowledge to other users as well!
 
Last edited by Blasingame,

Sterophonick

Stupid Retro Tech Cat
Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
Messages
560
Trophies
0
Location
Spamton's Keygen Dungeon
Website
sterophonick.github.io
XP
2,202
Country
United States
51a55e026c.jpg

Okay, I got ezflash to boot up with the kernel and FW

the only problem i have is that only ezflash boots and not my normal game carts.

instead i get this for my bios...
(game is FF4 USA cart)
941ec722f9.jpg

Can't seem to get past this in the bios, but ezflash boots no problem.

Any advice?

(sorry if this is unrelated to the thread topic)

Clean your cartridges
 

Archangel22

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
130
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
799
Country
Australia
Anyone able to confirm with the new update what the verdict is? Better battery life? As someone said GBC are buggy has that improved? Freeze issue better or still buggy? Didnt get a chance to get the bennvenn elcheappo as the site says its out of stock now :(
 

Archangel22

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
130
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
799
Country
Australia
Ok that is good news, how about the battery life has it improved with the update or still the same pace? Also any reliable sources to purchase the carts to australia with shipping rates also? Wanted to get from ebay where they seem to be really cheap and most offer free shipping but the problem is I heard alot are fakes as IV or reform carts advertised as Omegas so its hard to tell if they legit or not. Even I wouldnt know how to distinguish the difference between these carts or what to look out for
 

t5b6de

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Apr 17, 2018
Messages
26
Trophies
0
Age
35
XP
328
Country
Germany
Thank you very much!. i'll complete the definitions file of my Universal Skinning tool.

Is there an offset for the checkbox colors and the

i'll post that in the original thread.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

...
Okay, I got ezflash to boot up with the kernel and FW

the only problem i have is that only ezflash boots and not my normal game carts.
...

i got a very similar problem with the first release of the ez flash omega.

the case was made pretty bad and the bga soldering of the fpga did the rest. a very few weeks after usage is starts with errors like
Firmware Update V00 found, etc.

after i disaassambled the case is saw that the pcb was bent a little bit and the FPGA is going to lift off.

i was not able to repair it, so i bought new one about 2 weeks ago.
ezflash made a better case, it is not that much strong in the gameboy.
but that doensn't matter in my case. I made an own housing for the pcb from an original nintendo game. because the original case is not perfect at all.
I cut out holes for the chips in the back from the case so there is no further mechanical force on the chips itself:
IMG_20190509_145642.jpg IMG_20190509_145651.jpg IMG_20190509_145745.jpg

the second one i hat i soldered it directly into my gba where the cart slot was defect. i used then another old game housing for holding an standard SD Card and used a Adapter with SD Slot and Micro SD Connector, so it can take default SD cards, too.

IMG_20190415_181529.jpg IMG_20190415_181435.jpg IMG_20190415_181516.jpg

kind regards
 
Last edited by t5b6de,

lincruste

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Messages
375
Trophies
1
Location
france
XP
1,185
Country
Antarctica
I had an EZ Flash 3 in 1 a few years ago. Little plastic shit gave me nothing but trouble and finally died after an SMD capacitor solder broke. Shitty sdcard slot often let the card fall into the cartridge too. Dunno about the Omega revision, but those chinese crooks can shove it deep in their arse before they see my money ever again.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Thank you very much!. i'll complete the definitions file of my Universal Skinning tool.

Is there an offset for the checkbox colors and the

i'll post that in the original thread.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



i got a very similar problem with the first release of the ez flash omega.

the case was made pretty bad and the bga soldering of the fpga did the rest. a very few weeks after usage is starts with errors like
Firmware Update V00 found, etc.

after i disaassambled the case is saw that the pcb was bent a little bit and the FPGA is going to lift off.

i was not able to repair it, so i bought new one about 2 weeks ago.
ezflash made a better case, it is not that much strong in the gameboy.
but that doensn't matter in my case. I made an own housing for the pcb from an original nintendo game. because the original case is not perfect at all.
I cut out holes for the chips in the back from the case so there is no further mechanical force on the chips itself:
View attachment 166483 View attachment 166484 View attachment 166485

the second one i hat i soldered it directly into my gba where the cart slot was defect. i used then another old game housing for holding an standard SD Card and used a Adapter with SD Slot and Micro SD Connector, so it can take default SD cards, too.

View attachment 166488 View attachment 166486 View attachment 166487

kind regards
Brillant.
 
D

Deleted User

Guest
I had an EZ Flash 3 in 1 a few years ago. Little plastic shit gave me nothing but trouble and finally died after an SMD capacitor solder broke. Shitty sdcard slot often let the card fall into the cartridge too. Dunno about the Omega revision, but those chinese crooks can shove it deep in their arse before they see my money ever again.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Brillant.
The omega is just as bad if not worse. Have no fear

I lost all of my saves more times than I can count. No matter how long I waited before shutting off my system. It would always eventually wipe my whole saves folder
 
  • Like
Reactions: lincruste

diversionmary

Member
Newcomer
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
12
Trophies
0
Age
44
XP
82
Country
United States
The omega is just as bad if not worse. Have no fear

I lost all of my saves more times than I can count. No matter how long I waited before shutting off my system. It would always eventually wipe my whole saves folder
It really is the worst cart. Deeply regret buying the Omega. At least my EZF4 works great.
 

t5b6de

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Apr 17, 2018
Messages
26
Trophies
0
Age
35
XP
328
Country
Germany
i cannot confirm that problems. Only with some gameboy and gameboy color, which are using the goomba color emulator do some problems. It seems that if the software is saving some data to the sram while the cart itself is transfering the data to the sd card, is crashing. then the save file is corrupted or has size zero. the RTC stopps working, too.

there is still a bug, but i cannot confirm that with standard titles like super mario advance or zelda, etc.
 

Archangel22

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
130
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
799
Country
Australia
Can anyone play racing gears advance on the ez flash omega with latest firmware with addons? I can run the rom via a clean boot just fine, but every time I pick with addon's either with cheats enabled or not enabled it does not load for me just a blank white screen is shown. Again the rom works if I do a clean boot and can play it but I want to use the cheats and gamesave feature as this game is not very forgiving and kinda tough till you have the money to level up. So just wondering if others have this fault if they can test it out if it boots with cheats and addons and if so can you please link me or share the rom with me so I can test it on mine?
 

Alex-D

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Messages
1
Trophies
0
Age
40
XP
89
Country
Russia
Hi EZ-Flash2. Is kernel-FW development for Omega ongoing? Can we hope for improved energy consumption in the future?
 
D

Deleted User

Guest
Crash Nitro Kart freezes with garbled sound when returning to the game from the in-game menu. The sleep, reset, and alternate savestate mode work fine though.

Edit: Upon inspection of gba_rts_patch.s and some rts files, it is apparent the some of the assembly code from gba_rts_patch.s is written into the rts file a large number of times. This stuff seriously needs to be looked into.
 
Last edited by ,

whoa154

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
6
Trophies
0
Age
33
XP
49
Country
United States
Thank you very much!. i'll complete the definitions file of my Universal Skinning tool.

Is there an offset for the checkbox colors and the

i'll post that in the original thread.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



i got a very similar problem with the first release of the ez flash omega.

the case was made pretty bad and the bga soldering of the fpga did the rest. a very few weeks after usage is starts with errors like
Firmware Update V00 found, etc.

after i disaassambled the case is saw that the pcb was bent a little bit and the FPGA is going to lift off.

i was not able to repair it, so i bought new one about 2 weeks ago.
ezflash made a better case, it is not that much strong in the gameboy.
but that doensn't matter in my case. I made an own housing for the pcb from an original nintendo game. because the original case is not perfect at all.
I cut out holes for the chips in the back from the case so there is no further mechanical force on the chips itself:
View attachment 166483 View attachment 166484 View attachment 166485

the second one i hat i soldered it directly into my gba where the cart slot was defect. i used then another old game housing for holding an standard SD Card and used a Adapter with SD Slot and Micro SD Connector, so it can take default SD cards, too.

View attachment 166488 View attachment 166486 View attachment 166487

kind regards

Thank you so much for posting this.

It gave me great insight into fixing my own ezflash omega. I created my own case for the ez flash omega from an old gameboy boy. I did everything like you but that didn't solve my issues. Then I came back to this post and read "the case was made pretty bad and the bga soldering of the fpga did the rest", I went and checked the bga soldering on the main chip and indeed, it was a mess. What I ended up doing is very carefully reflowing the 3 chips on the board to make sure all the solder joints were making contact. Low and behold, that seemed to have solved all my issues with the ezflash.

I noticed that the freezing issues for me were not caused by firmware but by the bad soldering job from the factory. Now you may ask, how do I figure out if I have the same issue? Try playing your gaming without putting any kind of pressure on the cartridge slot. For me, if I didn't touch the back of my gameboy sp while playing, there would be no freezing issues. I think that also explains why the paper trick works for some people.

Also I do not recommend reflowing if you have no experience, you can easily ruin the cartridge. If you are brave enough to try it out, please remove the battery from the cartridge before reflowing.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I'm surprised any PS3 servers are still up, tbh
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Alot of manufactures do care about older consoles they just want to whine about piracy
    +2
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa I had 4.89 hfw on super slim that was great, but when I got a new hard disk I forgot where the guide was and could only find a guide for 4.90 and its resources
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa I think another reason to want to update is if the hfw is at the level of the fw
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    you can sync trophies
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yea that's what I'm sitting on now- 4.9, and it seems fine, have had no issues at all
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    I don't know if people play online or such
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    My ps3 short circuited during a deep clean still salty about it after downloading 2tbs worth but SteamDeck okay with emulation still just can't run mgs4 worth shit
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yea forgot bout trophies. They just silly to me. Just like the xbox achievements. Hey, to each they own tho.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It keeps players in touch with the game like a check list of things to do after they beat it
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa they ruined the gaming experience for me to be honest
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa Im not crazy about getting all of them, i feel like I have something to show for for the time put in
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa If you want to do rgh or 360 mod
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    does it matter if you update your 360 or not before trying is it advisable or not
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yea I don't pay attention to them really. Or do I try to 100% a game. I just play till story ends/ or I get the girl!
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Bigonya uses his wiener to mod 360s
    +1
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Going to the water park, see ya
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    You should update the 360 to newest dash before RGHing it yes. But not a big deal if you don't, you can install new dash/avatar updates after. It's just easier to do it auto online before, instead manual offline after.
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Have fun @Xdqwerty. If you see a chocolate candy bar floating in the water, don't eat it!
  • AncientBoi @ AncientBoi:
    :O:ohnoes: Y didn't U Tell ME that ALSO? @BigOnYa :ohnoes: 🤢🤮
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Does it taste like... chicken?
    +1
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @BigOnYa I wanted to ask you about your experience with seeing south park. Most of the people a bit younger like my younger brother and cousins that are a few younger than me that saw kids found south park funny because of the curse words, kids at school, that seemed like liking the show on a very basic level.

    I could not quite have a in depth discussion of the show.

    How was it for you? As an adult. What did you find the most interesting part about it. Did you relate to the parents of the kids and their situations. Was it satires, the commentary on society. The references on celebrities' and pop culture.
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I remember seeing the very first episode back in the day, and have watched every episode since. I used to set my VCR to record them even, shows how long ago.
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I just like any comedies really, and cartoons have always been a favorite of mine. Family guy, American Dad, Futurama, Cleveland Show, Simpsons - I like them all.
    BigOnYa @ BigOnYa: I just like any comedies really, and cartoons have always been a favorite of mine. Family guy...