Hacking Acekard 2i - clone, connection issues, or defective?

[bakageta]

I recently ordered a second Acekard 2i, and now I'm curious if I ended up getting a clone, or just a defective card. Neither my DSL or my DSi were reading the card, so I tried the various paper tricks with no luck. I noticed that the sticker on the front doesn't match my first Acekard 2i, as you can see here:

The new, nonworking Acekard is on the left, with my original on the right. I saw on the Acekard site that missing the little black arc on the right side of the sticker was a sign of a clone, so I thought I'd go ahead and open it up and check the pcb. Here's what I found:

http://baka.draecas.com/images/acekardpcb.png
(link, because it's a huge image)

This looks like the new legit pcb to me, so now I'm confused. It's using the new smaller SST chip, as seen on the Acekard site. However, the packaging I was sent was the old style packaging, which was *supposed* to be updated at the same time as the pcb. The site I ordered from supposedly pre-updates to 1.4.1 compatible, so I thought maybe it was a bad flash, but trying to update using my DSL and working card just gave me an error reading the card. Is this just a connection issue, or is my card defective / a clone?

 

[zhuzhuchina]

clone or not, if ds or dsi don't find it seems more a defective piece . just send it back
the pcb should be a real aki

cya!

 

[twiztidsinz]

I'm pretty sure the one on the left is fake.
The corner circles are too big, it's missing the curve on the bottom right of the sticker and it's a different or non-bold font they used.
Also, the chip is unbranded. AceKard has always used SST for the 2i if I'm not mistaken. And this looks like a clone of the new hardware layout too.

 

[bakageta]

I'm pretty sure the one on the left is fake.
The corner circles are too big, it's missing the curve on the bottom right of the sticker and it's a different or non-bold font they used.
Also, the chip is unbranded. AceKard has always used SST for the 2i if I'm not mistaken. And this looks like a clone of the new hardware layout too.

It's actually an SST chip on it, the flash on my camera just makes it impossible to read. As far as I can tell, it looks like an official pcb, which is what has me really confused. The sticker certainly looks like a clone, which is why I opened it up in the first place, but if that PCB is a clone, I can't find a single difference between it and the new-style posted up on acekard.com. The card on the right is an official Acekard 2i, I've had no problems updating it for 1.4.1 and running the latest AKAIO on it.

I won't likely be sending it back, it's not easy to put these back together and I don't know if I'll get a refund or not for it. No matter what it is, I can't get it to work in my systems with any amount of paper, so I've just ordered another one from another shop, hopefully more reliable this time.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Hmm... then I dunno.
Cuz that does look like the current version of the hardware, but the sticker is wrong. Where'd you buy it from?

 

[bakageta]

It was purchased from RealHotStuff.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Just because it has a fake sticker, it does not mean the card is fake.
Suppliers mix things up all the time:

Real card with fake sticker?

 

[bakageta]

I realize the sticker doesn't mean the entire thing is fake, that's actually why I made this post...

It does appear to be a legit PCB, or an incredible clone if not, but the sticker was certainly off in more ways than one. I've had to use the paper trick for a friend's card, but I had no luck with this one at all, I don't think it's just a connection problem. I'm writing it off as bad and ordering another one, I'll try again.

 

[Tokyo Jihen]

Same exact thing happened to me. I bought an Acekard 2.1 from Realhotstuff and neither my DS Lite nor my DS Phat could read the card. Send a report to customer service, follow their instructions, and they'll replace it for you. I got mines a week after I shipped the defective one back, and of course it worked.

 

[Deleted User]

Just open a support ticket and let them know what's going on. I'm sure they'll ask for you to ship it to them and they will test it and send you another card. That's what they did with my Acekard 2i, I'm expecting my replacement soon. My old Acekard I think just had the wrong sticker but it worked fine. To a point

 

[Rydian]

I've gotta' agree with zhuzhuchina, that PCB looks legit, down to the markings on various parts, and it seems to be defective sadly.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Just because it has a fake sticker, it does not mean the card is fake.
Suppliers mix things up all the time:

Real card with fake sticker?

I agree that 'just because the sticker is fake doesn't mean the card is fake' since the stickers are put on by the reseller... But that begs the question:
Why would they have FAKE stickers if they were selling REAL cards?

It stands to reason that the FAKE stickers came with FAKE cards since REAL cards come with REAL stickers.
And I don't even need to get into how RealHotStuff has knowingly sold FAKE cards in the past.
Maybe it's just left over fake stickers, but that doesn't really make much sense either since it would have probably come up sooner.

 

[zhuzhuchina]

i think is very possible for every shop to got some fake stuff, chinese suppliers sometimes cheat or mix stock, probably the vendor put the fake sticker on real ak2i for mistake.
usually people talk about fake for the software or pcb but less for stickers, even for me i just saw it recently on internet the different sticker.
however the best for now is to use the akaio software, if clone it will tell you direcly on startup .
defective aki are common especially for early batch

 

[bakageta]

Same exact thing happened to me. I bought an Acekard 2.1 from Realhotstuff and neither my DS Lite nor my DS Phat could read the card. Send a report to customer service, follow their instructions, and they'll replace it for you. I got mines a week after I shipped the defective one back, and of course it worked.

I'll send a report to their customer service, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll be EXTREMELY impressed if they accept this cart as a return, as I wasn't incredibly gentle opening it up and I don't think I'll get it back together very well. I've already ordered another card, actually from zhuzhuchina this time, so I'll be covered either way. If I do get this one replaced, I'll just have a spare to give to a friend or something. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[kieran-123]

I would say the one on the left is a clone,also the PBC chip thing isn't marked like the official one.
Send it back.

 

[samurayjp]

I'm Acekard official reseller in Brazil.
And I've had the same problems.
Quetion the Acekard Team about this and this, was the answer:

"
AceKard

Yes. Our official sticker does has a little arc at the right blow. But i do know some fake cards resellers will buy both fake and genuine ones. I do see some genuine cards with fake sticker. So it's not enough to distinguish them with sticker only. The best way is to open the shell and see the PCB. You can refer to http://www.acekard.com/images/realak2/fakeak33.JPG.
Thanks"


After that, added the information on the site: "only the label is not sufficient to distinguish a real or fake."

 

[twiztidsinz]

I would say the one on the left is a clone,also the PBC chip thing isn't marked like the official one.
Send it back.

The chip on the PCB is marked, it's just the flash on the camera 'glared' it out.
If you look closely and know what you're looking for you'll see a slight discoloration on the image that spells out "SST". The rest of the printed text is too small to distinguish.

 

[kieran-123]

I would say the one on the left is a clone,also the PBC chip thing isn't marked like the official one.
Send it back.

The chip on the PCB is marked, it's just the flash on the camera 'glared' it out.
If you look closely and know what you're looking for you'll see a slight discoloration on the image that spells out "SST". The rest of the printed text is too small to distinguish.

Can you? Oh right I just viewed it on my ipad and couldn't see it,other than that yeah the card does look official,it's probably a fake sticker then.
I did think it was a bit weird that it was a defect with a fake sticker mind.

 

[bakageta]

I would say the one on the left is a clone,also the PBC chip thing isn't marked like the official one.
Send it back.

The chip on the PCB is marked, it's just the flash on the camera 'glared' it out.
If you look closely and know what you're looking for you'll see a slight discoloration on the image that spells out "SST". The rest of the printed text is too small to distinguish.

Can you? Oh right I just viewed it on my ipad and couldn't see it,other than that yeah the card does look official,it's probably a fake sticker then.
I did think it was a bit weird that it was a defect with a fake sticker mind.

You can't see it in the picture at all, my camera is cheap and didn't capture it, but the chip is definitely labeled the same as the legit. I think it's definitely just a defective legit pcb. My new card from ZhuZhuChina came in today, and actually just had the sticker on a backing paper, for me to apply myself, so it was interesting to find out the resellers actually place those stickers on. ZhuZhuChina card I got was legit, as I expected, and works great. I'll hassle with the defective card and the other seller, but if it doesn't get replaced it's not a big issue.

 

[huangyu]

can it works great on your DS/DSi ? Fake item just contact their customer service and return the item to ask your money back. ..