Hacking 4GB Kingston Slowdown

[Skyline969]

My 4 gig Kingston SD Micro finally arrived in the mail today. I formatted it FAT32, 32 KB allocation size, and loaded it up with all my stuff from my old 2 gigger. However, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow now fails to work (intro video, if played, crashes the game and I can't exit the save room I'm in)... not to mention my videos and movies skip. So I thought it was a Vista formatting failure... you know how Vista is. I got the Panasonic SD formatter, wiped the card clean, and then reloaded it with everything and started over. Same issues... any suggestions?

EDIT: Games also seem to load a little slower... by a fraction of a second, but still.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

So you have a MicroSDHC 4GB Kingston? Because I have that same exact card and I get none of these errors.

If you haven't already I suggest:
Switching to M3 Sakura
Downloading the SD Card Formatter here: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=1530
Check to see if your M3 is fake
If all else fails you could send it back to the supplier and get another one.

 

[Skyline969]

Well...

I have been using Sakura since 1.12.
I got the formatter from the official website, so no worries.
My M3 is real... if it wasn't, Sakura wouldn't work on it in the first place.

I got the card from DealExtreme... this one.

So what do you all think? Counterfeit Kingston?

EDIT: I have a theory... so far, all the files on my M3 Real were from my old 2 gigger. I just converted Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (using the same method as all my videos) and I put it on my card. Oddly enough... it doesn't skip. Could it be that some files are partially corrupted? Disk check on Sakura shows no errors. If this theory is true, then Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow should work if I redownload it and recopy it. I'll get back to you all after I test things.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Yah it could be that the files had gotten corrupted to an extent.

There's tons of possibilities. If you still have all the games I would suggest just putting the games straight from your computer back on then copying all your saves from the card.

 

[Skyline969]

Yup, copying Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow from my computer did nothing. The music and videos (except Trailer Park Boys: The Movie) still skip as well. I believe the card could be counterfeit. I have tried a few measures in an attempt to fix things, such as re-downloading Sakura and replacing it on my card, and re-converting all videos and putting them on my card fresh. This solved nothing. Anyone have any more suggestions?

 

[-LMA-]

I'm having the exact same problem you are. I have an M3 DS Real as well but I have an 8GB Micro SDhc card. Ever since I had it, all games and videos seem to play fine in games except one game. Castlevania DoS. It skips the movie and just loads to the main menu. And all videos I put in DPG format seem to skip when i play them with moonshell. I never had a problem with any games (even DoS) or any videos skipping with my old M3 Lite Perfect and my 2GB card. I'm wondering if it's my M3 DS Real and not the card itself, because i wiped all the data from my 2GB card and put just DoS on the latest system files on there and booted up the M3 DS real and the same thing happened, no intro, and movies still skip. If you do happen to get another M3 DS Real let us know if it now works with no skipping probs so I can know to purchase another one instead of another card.


Btw, both cards are SanDisk micro cards.

 

[-LMA-]

Sry for the double post but just wanted to let you all know that I fixed the vid skipping problem. I used the SD Card Formatter that delta suggested and installed iSakuReal. When using Sakura, vids now play perfectly, but when booting up with the official M3 system files and it's own moonshell, the vids play with skips. So it's Sakura all the way for me (except with homebrew files).

Anyway, still can't get around the Dawn of Sorrow glitch but i'm happy with at least being able to play my vids now.

 

[Skyline969]

It's weird how an hour-and-a-half movie will play flawlessly while a 2-5 minute video will skip every 30 seconds or so.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

I would have to say at this point it must be counterfeit or a damaged/corrupted card.

Where did you buy it from?

 

[Kitomaru]

It's weird how an hour-and-a-half movie will play flawlessly while a 2-5 minute video will skip every 30 seconds or so.

Uh oh, it might seem that it was a counterfit. I bought the same one (don't have it yet), but if you look at the DealExtreme user reviews below the order information, some users say the MicroSD might be a false one. So basically:
Made in Japan - Genuine
Made in China - Fake

Try checking your MicroSD and see where it was made in.

 

[Skyline969]

I'll take a look right now.

Well, it says on the box Printed in China... and the website is www.kingston.com/china/. I guess it's fake, but I have one argument about that. How could it be fake if it's from a legit Kingston site? Kingston.com is the US site... however, I guess if it was a legit Japanese one it would be www.kingston.jp. So perhaps it's a real Kingston, just not a real Japanese Kingston...?

EDIT: Took a look on the card. From top-to-bottom, this is what it says.

MicroSDHC
4 GB
C04G JAPAN

Kingston
SDC4/4GB 18

 

[Kitomaru]

I'll take a look right now.

Well, it says on the box Printed in China... and the website is www.kingston.com/china/. I guess it's fake, but I have one argument about that. How could it be fake if it's from a legit Kingston site? Kingston.com is the US site... however, I guess if it was a legit Japanese one it would be www.kingston.jp. So perhaps it's a real Kingston, just not a real Japanese Kingston...?

EDIT: Took a look on the card. From top-to-bottom, this is what it says.

MicroSDHC
4 GB
C04G JAPAN

Kingston
SDC4/4GB 18

Well, that's odd...
From the looks of the edit, it seems that you did receive a genuine MicroSDHC
I've got nothing, really. I'm not sure what you can do. It also seems that you're not the only one with the problem.
I'm no help as of now, but I'll check mine when it arrives.
Um, can you wait 2 weeks?

 

[Skyline969]

I can wait, yes.

I'll try re-formatting it using a 64 kb allocation. Currently it's formatted using a 32 kb allocation.

 

[Kitomaru]

I can wait, yes.

I'll try re-formatting it using a 64 kb allocation. Currently it's formatted using a 32 kb allocation.

Did reformatting it help at all? If it didn't, have you tried FAT16 instead of FAT32? Although, I'm not sure what that would do, but it's worth a shot

 

[Skyline969]

Haven't had time to test yet. I'll get to it tomorrow.

EDIT: Had some time. Oddly enough, I think Panasonic SD Formatter made me unable to go back to Windows formatting. I tried formatting FAT32 with a 64 kb allocation unit size... and it told me at the end Windows can't complete the format. Same with FAT and 32 kb allocation unit size. At that point, the card was useless. I used the Panasonic SD Formatter again and I'm copying the files back. Hope all is still well....

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Maybe it's the Japanese and Chinese one's that are messed up.

Because I checked my 4 GB MicroSDHC and it said Taiwan at the bottom. And mine works perfectly.

 

[Kitomaru]

Well, I hope DoS works sooner or later...

 

[Skyline969]

It might. Who knows - perhaps you need to just use it a while and let it break in...? I've noticed videos don't skip as much now... so maybe the games will go normal in a while. Besides, I do own the original copy of DoS. It was like the second or third game I ever got.

 

[Kitomaru]

Oh, so you have an original copy? Well that's good to know! If all else fails, switch to your copy

Wait, was your old 2GB like this when you first chipped it in? When you used the 2GB for the first time, did DoS skip too?
If not, then it's probably the MicroSD. Hm, this is tough

 

[Skyline969]

No, the 2 gigger worked fine with DoS. I'm sure it's just some issue with the 4 gigger that makes DoS not work. I wanna fix it though, not just live with it failing.