Hacking Diagnosing freezing issue with R4i Gold 3DS Plus

Terrum · Jan 20, 2020

I got an R4i Gold 3DS RTS Plus with NTRboot and I'm experiencing issues with freezing during a game.

Lots of research has told me that it is likely an issue with the MicroSD card. Despite having tried at least 5 MicroSD cards which all have the same issue (An 8GB Sandisk, 16GB Samsung, 32GB Unbranded, 2GB Transcend and a 4GB Kingston) I have tried many methods to try resolve this.

I ran chkdsk to repair/delete some corrupt .nds and .sav files but ever since changing the cluster size to 32kb I haven't had any issues with data getting corrupted. The closest I got to fixing it was by doing a full/clean format (not quick) with 32kb cluster size with a completely clean ROM and a new save file. The important thing to note is that I set the save file to 512KB instead of the default 2MB.

This seemed to fix the issue for a few hours before disppointingly discovering yet another freeze, and as the next day came the freezes once again became more frequent. It's really confusing because it seems the more I use it, the less it freezes, and when it's not been used for a long while (the next day) it starts freezing again. Is the EEPROM or a capacitor faulty or something?

I'd love to figure out if the R4i itself is faulty or if it's something I'm doing with the MicroSD cards, despite having tried many methods to figure out the issue.

Any responses are greatly appreciated and I look forward to any discussions!

boyfriendcoma · Feb 19, 2020

After a frustrating amount of freezing on my r4 card (same as yours) on a DSi xl, i began to notice that the issue tended to occur alongside physical movement or adjustment of my holding the console. I took a look at the main screen and found when even lightly pressing the cartridge while inserted, it would disappear, then reappear when i let go. I thought my DSi must have a loose connection in the cartridge slot, but then found that I couldn't reproduce the issue with any other normal game cartridges!

So I've basically landed in a spot where I'm ultra conscious of moving the console or touching the cartridge area, because even after making sure the board was sitting properly within it's cartridge shell, it still happened, although a bit less. I tried to place the board in a different shell, but it's designed a bit thicker than the games are, and wouldn't fit.

This might not be your issue at all, but I'd not seen it written about elsewhere. Hope you find a fix regardless!

Terrum · Feb 19, 2020

boyfriendcoma said:
After a frustrating amount of freezing on my r4 card (same as yours) on a DSi xl, i began to notice that the issue tended to occur alongside physical movement or adjustment of my holding the console. I took a look at the main screen and found when even lightly pressing the cartridge while inserted, it would disappear, then reappear when i let go. I thought my DSi must have a loose connection in the cartridge slot, but then found that I couldn't reproduce the issue with any other normal game cartridges!

So I've basically landed in a spot where I'm ultra conscious of moving the console or touching the cartridge area, because even after making sure the board was sitting properly within it's cartridge shell, it still happened, although a bit less. I tried to place the board in a different shell, but it's designed a bit thicker than the games are, and wouldn't fit.

This might not be your issue at all, but I'd not seen it written about elsewhere. Hope you find a fix regardless!

I returned mine to the seller and got a replacement which fixed the issue. Though I'm sure your response will help someone who wants to experiment further.

Here's an idea though, have you tried putting a piece of paper between the cartridgeand the slot to try squeeze the contacts together? I did this and, whilst it didn't fix the issue for me, it did make the issue occur less, so maybe this'll help you if you aren't interested in returning the cartridge to the seller for a replacement.

boyfriendcoma · Feb 26, 2020

Terrum said:
I returned mine to the seller and got a replacement which fixed the issue. Though I'm sure your response will help someone who wants to experiment further.

Here's an idea though, have you tried putting a piece of paper between the cartridgeand the slot to try squeeze the contacts together? I did this and, whilst it didn't fix the issue for me, it did make the issue occur less, so maybe this'll help you if you aren't interested in returning the cartridge to the seller for a replacement.

Hey, mate.
Had to stop by and tell you how grateful I am for your suggestion, i haven't had an issue since! Really, thanks a ton!

Tac 21 · Jul 16, 2021

I'm having issues while and I think it's due to the contacts in the chip and how it counteracts with the 3ds

I had to r4i car that one time and sold one as it had those issues...a newer one was working perfectly fine...but recently got pretty bad.

I don't think its the sd card either

Hacking Diagnosing freezing issue with R4i Gold 3DS Plus

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