Hacking Acekard 2i, ezflash 3in1

[SekiTimewalker]

I can get some games to save, however some won't save. I've started Dawn of Souls several times, both flashing it to the 3in1 and running it straight from the acekard, and neither seem to allow Dawn of Souls to save. Pokemon Emerald will save, but it tells me the internal battery has run dry and clock-based events will no longer occur. I don't think it is a dead battery, as some games will save. Is there anything I can do aside from getting a new 3in1?

 

[Another World]

the 3in1 does not have a real time clock, just fyi. try gba exploader to double check by using that homebrew to launch/save your gba roms. if it works then the issue is with akaio and not the 3in1.

if you have an older 3in1 use v.56 of gba exploader
if you have the 3in1+ then use v.58b0

check filetrip for downloads.

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

Well, I did do some more research. I erased my NOR and now Dawn of Souls saves fine. It seems that anything I flash to the expansion will not save. Yet, if I run it from the Acekard, it saves and loads just fine.

 

[Another World]

your saying if you flash something to nor you can not use that save as backed-up by the 3in1 battery sram? but you can write the save to your micro sd card using akaio and then write it back to the 3in1, run the game from nor again, and the save works? because if that is what you are saying it makes no sense. nor and sarm are seperate and if your nor is corrupted it should not affect the save. what i would expect to see would be corrupt roms in nor that do not load.

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

When I flash something to the 3in1 cartridge, it won't save a game. However, when I run something not flashed to the cartridge, it saves just fine.

 

[Another World]

your saying that if you run something in nor it won't save, but if you run something in psram it does?

do you have the 3in1+?

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

All it says is ezflash (V symbol) gba game/ram expansion/rumble pack

 

[Another World]

the ez iv is not the 3in1, its the ez iv. this card is not supported by akaio. the ez iv is what the 3in1 was based on, so some aspects like flashing to psarm may still function.

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

When I bought it roughly six months ago, the website said ez flash 3in1 expansion.

 

[Another World]

read what you said wrong.

run gba exploader which will say at the top of the homebrew which 3in1 you have. and report back.

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

DOwnloading it now. While I do so, this is what my cartridge looks like, if that helps

http://img.files-ds-scene.net/news/gbaexploader.jpg

Yes, it is definitely the 3in1 according to GBA ExpLoader.

 

[Another World]

but WHICH 3in1. this is important because akaio doesn't work well with the 3in1+ (plus, pls).

can't keep my eyes open. i'll check this thread tomorrow.

-another world

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

You probably didn't turn on automatic save for gba games in the AKAIO setting. FFoS saves fine in any mode.

Do your settings look like this:

 

[SekiTimewalker]

All it says is GBA ExpLoader [ 3in1] so I'm guessing it's just the regular 3in1. Also, I know it's not the battery, as it doesn't keep saying "may I set this slot2 expansion pack for GBAExploader” every time I load up GBAExlLoader.

how_did_i_do_that: My screen looks exactly like yours does.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Most pokemon games require a hardware RTC, Real Time Clock, the 3in1 doesn't have a RTC. There are patches that can bypass the RTC requirement for most pokemon games except for Emerald. Most patchers will support RTC patching for some games except emerald.


To play emerald, people use the M3 GEP which as a hardware RTC. This requires the use of GBA Exploader if your slot1 is not a M3.

You got version 1 of the 3in1.

 

[SekiTimewalker]

Yea, I didn't realize that 3in1 didn't. But that's not really important, I just used that to test if it could save or not. Which it could. I did just download GBA ExpLoader for this, so if it's better than just using AKAIO's 3in1 ability, I'll keep using it.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

That is mostly preference. Most people find AKAIO's loader fine for what games they play. People with multiple flashcarts tend to go with GBA Exploader instead, that way they can just move there saves from flashcart to flashcart when they want.

 

[SekiTimewalker]

Yea. I think I'll stick the AKAIO's loader. Still not sure why it refuses to save when I flash, but that's not too important. It's not like I don't have my acekard in there 24/7 anyways.

 

[Another World]

want to try an experiment?

grab 1 gba game, any game will probably do.
make sure akaio is set up to automatically back-up saves on reboot, via the settings.
flash to psram, play for a bit, and save.
reboot the nds, dump the save to the micro sd, flash the same game again and see if the save loads
if its working then your battery is fine and psram has no issues.

take the msd out and delete the gba save file (or delete it via the akaio delete option). put the micro sd back in and boot back into akaio
blank the NOR via the akaio options or use hyperlisks NOR eraser
flash that same game (confirmed working at this point) to NOR
play for a bit, make a save, and then reboot the nds
dump the save to the micro sd card
load the same game and see if the save is present (as it should be)
if everything is working then nor is fine.
if the save appears to not be working, manually take the save off of the msd card and put it on your computer. use the akaio gba save converter (to strip out the first 16 bytes), and then test that save on a PC based GBA emulator.

if the same is working, that means its being correctly written by the game and dumped by akaio. which would point to an issue with the NOR.

some things to consider:
some games may not be properly save patched via the akaio native flashing software. some eeprom games might not be correctly patched for sram, some sram games may not be properly patched, etc. if the game you are testing with doesn't work, try another game. DO NOT use the same game(s) you have already confirmed as not working.

some versions of the older 3in1 (v2) used 2 nor chips instead of 1. i've talked to one person who was unable to get saves working with akaio, they were always corrupted. it is possible you have this 3in1.

if games are working with gba exploader (saves working with both psram and nor) then the issue is with akaio and not your 3in1.

-another world

 

[SekiTimewalker]

I'll test that now, Another World.

Edit: So, doing my tests, I found out that these games will successfully save while flashed.

Sword of Mana
Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku I and II
Pokemom Emerald
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
Golden Sun

And these games will not save while flashed:

Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls
Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance

Those that do load, the same save does work when it is non flashed as well as when I flash something else and then reflash the game. So it just seems to be some do work and some don't.