Hacking Acekard 2i magically quit working

[Apk07]

I bought an AceKard 2i from dealextreme forever ago, and finally got it... its been running AKAIO 1.5 great, and playing every rom I've needed for about a week now... Well it recently just stopped working. When I put it in my phat DS, the opening "touch to continue" DS screen only shows the first "Ni" in the word nintendo, and everything white and really faded. I can't even get to the normal DS system menu. I tried someone elses AK2i and it works fine with my SD card and works fine in my DS, but my Acekard wont work. Is it broken for good? Why did it break? And is there any known way to fix this?

I doubt dealextreme will give a damn about me or believe my product broke, as I threw out the packaging forever ago... And their support is horrendous

 

[YayMii]

Try the paper fix (tape a small piece of paper to the back of the AK for better connection).

 

[CannonFoddr]

I've had same problem with AK2i from day one (with a DSLite) - I did the 'paper trick' & (so far) it seems to be working 'better' (It still does 'lock-up' but not as often)

I've had no trouble at all when using on a DSi

 

[Apk07]

paper trick doesnt do anything to help.

this isnt me/my video, but this shows exactly what mines doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFUFCEzQIJA

 

[Leonidas]

Your DS is not detecting the cart properly. Clean up the contacts with a soft cloth & also stick it into the slot more gently.

 

[Apk07]

Thats a terribly positive outlook and all, but that doesnt seem to fix anything at all. I can rub it and caress it all I want, it still won't work.

 

[Falkentyne]

I've seen *several* dirty carts do this before; health and warning screen to be frozen and very faded.
I saw this exact same thing on an old passcard 3 I tried to use a few weeks ago, just to see if it still worked.
D5 spray fixed it.

Deoxit D5 Power Booster is what you want. That also fixes even old classic stuff like the original NES and the "blow in the cartridge" issues.
However, such an issue should be intermittent and not "sudden" and should at least have workarounds when it first starts. Yours has no workaround, so...if blowing your own air from your mouth on the card doesn't help, then I guess it's dead; sounds like a broken contact though.

 

[Apk07]

I tried rubbing off the contacts with various cleaners and q-tips, blew my lungs out on it and the DS... Other flash carts work fine, even with my SD card, and ordinary DS games work fine. No paper/etc seems to have helped. I contemplate opening it up to see if anythings broken... but I have no experience repairing wires or chips or anything...

 

[XWolf]

Blowing into anything like this is a REALLY bad idea! Moisture in your breath will cause issues. I have seen many a dead SNES from it.

 

[Apk07]

I suppose I'm stuck buying a new Acekard now, as DX is skillfully ignoring me, as I expected

I'm a bit afraid to buy another in case the build quality is equally bad...

 

[EmperorOfCanada]

Can you prove that it was actually magic that made it stop working?

 

[Apk07]

It never really left my DS for the few days I've had it. Turned it on and it just didnt work? I don't know what else to blame

 

[Apk07]

I peeled back the sticker today, and while there is no giant square bump on the cart, there is a noticable small round hill that rises up in the middle of the cart... idk anything about fakes and whatnot

 

[unknownsoul]

It's real, mine's the same. Must be a defective AK2i.

 

[Leonidas]

My magic says your cart is faulty.

 

[Apk07]

One last question, I heard when doing the DSi 1.4 update on an acekard 2i, you can swap out a working cart to a defective cart, then continue the firmware update. Might that help anything?

Btw DX agreed to send me a new AK2i thankfully. At this point I'm just interested in trying to salvage the old one for the next 3 weeks while DX slowly ships...

 

[Leonidas]

As long as you have the means to run a nds file, the DS Lite updater will work, but you cannot upgrade undetectable Acekards. It will just say there is nothing inserted.