Hacking acekard 2i help

mrsb81

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Hi, i have an old acekard 2i i have found many years ago i managed to put firmware on and games. Now its not working it was hitty missy when i first switched it on where some games would crash some just would not work. My son updated his dsi xl now it just does not do anything. i have tried the web what says on card but cant find nothing. Is someone able to point me in the right direction(step by step..please) or able to sent me the files as i can not for the life of me remember what i did, i have games saved in files so i think its just the firmware mine i have is from 2012 i think. thanks in advance
 

Pk11

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mrsb81

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thank you i have reset dsi to factory setting not too sure if that will help i will look at links again thanks
 
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KleinesSinchen

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If you have a look at this page: https://dsibrew.org/wiki/System_Menu you will see that pretty much all DSi updates did was trying to block flashcarts.
The only reasons to ever update a DSi I can think of are: Redownloading purchased games from the defunct shop and maybe enabling the data management options that appear after accessing the shop at least once.

Factory reset ("Format System Memory") does nothing productive; it just throws away the user profile and installed DSiWare (if any).

It is worth noting that TWiLight Menu++ is a more than worthy alternative to the very good Acekard 2i (don't ditch it; a very good flashcart usable for ntrboot on 2|3DS as well). By following the guide linked above, you will get TWL++ on your DSi so this gives all possibilities.

If you have any further problems or questions, just ask again.

Good luck and have fun!
 
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mrsb81

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thank you for your replies i will certainly have a look and a go fingers crossed. i have downloaded from the link the lady above mentioned exported it from winrar onto sd card popped into ds and getting same message... power off etc.
i just feel like i am missing something that i used to before.
i also forgot to mention i have deleted everything from the sd card as i thought it would be best to start from scratch do i have to format it again?
 
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Pk11

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thank you for your replies i will certainly have a look and a go fingers crossed. i have downloaded from the link the lady above mentioned exported it from winrar onto sd card popped into ds and getting same message... power off etc.
i just feel like i am missing something that i used to before.
i also forgot to mention i have deleted everything from the sd card as i thought it would be best to start from scratch do i have to format it again?
The problem you're having is (most likely) not a problem with anything on the flashcard, but rather the DSi Menu blocking it. If you want to be sure, open System Settings and check the number in the bottom right of the top screen, if it's 1.4.5 then the Acekard 2i can't be used without modding the DSi, if it's 1.4.1 - 1.4.3/1.4.4 (some AK2i's can't be updated for 1.4.4) then you might be able to update it if you have another console that can load it, and if it's lower then this isn't the problem. You can unblock it though by simply following the guide I linked above. (https://dsi.cfw.guide)

And as KleinsSinchen said above, formatting isn't really helpful for anything unless you want to remove your info and such from it so no need to do that for this.

(hopefully this isn't a double post... cloudflare seems to have eaten my initial attempt to reply lol)
 
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mrsb81

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thanks i checked its 1.4.5 i am trying to work my way through the link you sent.
i have dsi-xl and a normal ds.
i have also found another 2 cards i am trying to get the firmware on if you can point me in the right direction.
i have the r4i gold (yellow card) and the standard r4 card. which version firmware will i need also am i doing this correctly. i download the firmware open it up and export it to sd. copy games over? thanks
 

Pk11

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thanks i checked its 1.4.5 i am trying to work my way through the link you sent.
i have dsi-xl and a normal ds.
i have also found another 2 cards i am trying to get the firmware on if you can point me in the right direction.
i have the r4i gold (yellow card) and the standard r4 card. which version firmware will i need also am i doing this correctly. i download the firmware open it up and export it to sd. copy games over? thanks
There are a lot of different cards called "R4i Gold", if the website on the label is https://r4isdhc.com and it has a year then you'll want RetroGameFan's YSMenu. If it's some other R4i Gold it might also be YSMenu or you can try find its URL in here: https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/flashcard-archive. If you can send a picture of the card then I can probably give a more definitive answer.

If the other R4 is a real original R4 then you'll want this: https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/flashcard-archive/raw/main/R4_original_M3_Simply/R4DS_Wood_R4_1.62.7z

Again though there are so many different cards called some variant on R4 that I can't be sure without a picture of it.

And yeah, for any from the DS-Homebrew/flashcard-archive GitHub you should be able to just copy all the contents of the zips and be good. For YSMenu you'll need to copy the content out of one of the folders in the zip, there's a list of which websites correspond to which folders in the first post of that thread.
 

mrsb81

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here is my cards they have all worked in the past.
 

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Pk11

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here is my cards they have all worked in the past.
I'm pretty sure these should be the correct kernels then:

For all of them you should be able to just extract everything from the 7z/zip files to their microSD cards and be good.
 

mrsb81

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I'm pretty sure these should be the correct kernels then:

For all of them you should be able to just extract everything from the 7z/zip files to their microSD cards and be good.
thank you so much, i will try that hopefully tonight as for some strange reason my laptop isnt picking up my usb sticks
 

duwen

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To update the Acekard firmware you'll need to use a system that the card works on, as it's flashed via on-screen prompts. It's recommended to use either an original 'phat' DS or DS Lite as they're not blocked by system updates.
There's a guide here that might help; https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Updating_the_AK2i_Bootloader

Personally, I always went with the firmwares associated with either;
  • Atama de Do! Koten Kotenko DORASU (3DS v1.0.0-0)
  • Deep Labyrinth - Digital Bros (DSi v1.4.4 & 3DS 4.0.0-7/4.1.0-8)
...just because I prefer those icons to the Rafa Nadal and Pippa Funnel ones ^_^
 
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mrsb81

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To update the Acekard firmware you'll need to use a system that the card works on, as it's flashed via on-screen prompts. It's recommended to use either an original 'phat' DS or DS Lite as they're not blocked by system updates.
There's a guide here that might help; https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Updating_the_AK2i_Bootloader

Personally, I always went with the firmwares associated with either;
  • Atama de Do! Koten Kotenko DORASU (3DS v1.0.0-0)
  • Deep Labyrinth - Digital Bros (DSi v1.4.4 & 3DS 4.0.0-7/4.1.0-8)
...just because I prefer those icons to the Rafa Nadal and Pippa Funnel ones ^_^
thanks i will read through it... am sure it wasn't this difficult years ago when i managed it... i have downloaded the gold card firmware zipped it all i get on original ds is a red !...
 

decentralize

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What's up guys. I am VERY new to this stuff, but I am nerd, so i can figure it out. But I have a working acekard 2i on DS, currently able to play several games. I am looking to add Pokemon Firered, Emerald, etc to it...how can I do that? If someone could let me know that would be great!!!!!
 

duwen

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What's up guys. I am VERY new to this stuff, but I am nerd, so i can figure it out. But I have a working acekard 2i on DS, currently able to play several games. I am looking to add Pokemon Firered, Emerald, etc to it...how can I do that? If someone could let me know that would be great!!!!!
Just put the roms on the SD for the flashcard. Simple as that.

EDIT

Sorry... just re-read your post... you're asking about playing GBA games on a DS via an Acekard flashcart, correct?
You'll need a GBA emulator on your flashcart... something like https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbaemu4ds-gba-emulator-for-ds-i-dsi-entry.281715/
 
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Pk11

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