Hacking Acekard 2ki, Akaio, EZ Flash 3-in-1 save help

[tagmay]

So I bought an Acekard 2ki and EZ Flash 3-in-1 from DX and set up the latest Akaio on the 2ki. Everything works great except for the EZ Flash 3-in-1 where GBA games load fine but saves do not last beyond power cycles.

In other words, the GBA game will save fine until I turn the power off, and the game saves are lost. I have tried this on FF V, multiple Castlevania games and the Minish Cap, all without success so I am pretty sure it is not the dump. So the first thing I think is that the Akaio isn't picking up the game saves / overwriting. So I turn on the option to force backups on start, no help. Then I try flashing to NOR and booting straight to the GBA game, same results... game saves fine until the power is turned off so we can rule out the 2ki / akaio as the culprit.

Obviously its the battery right? Followed the guide to replace the battery (even though the original battery was reading +3v on the old volt meter), still getting the same exact thing.

Any ideas? I just don't understand, the fact that it saves properly until the power transition tells me that the carts internals should be working fine and its not the battery.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Another World]

battery or just a faulty 3in1. if you have the 3in1+ that could be your problem. the code was added to allow them to work but neither smiths or norm have a working 3in1+ to test with. it would be nice if someone donated one to smiths. a few people i know said the 3in1+ saves aren't working correctly with akaio.

volt meters don't lie, so i don't think it was your battery. did you try gba exploader?

all you can do at this point is format your msd, put on the akaio repack, and try something that is confirmed to work. use both the native 3in1 support and gba exploader. try a game in both psram and nor.

-another world

 

[tagmay]

yah, its definitely a 3-in-1+ (has 2 chips beneath the battery instead of just 1). I had heard from people that akaio was working for them with the plus version. I had previously tried reformatting the sd card and I am currently using AKAIO 1.4.1 proper repack (http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=5802) which I assume is the absolute latest I can use.

I haven't tried gba exploader, but I will definitely try that. Can I run that from within AKAIO or is that something that would take the place of the AKAIO firmware? If it is run from with AKAIO is that something that needs to be placed in a specific directory or requires a specific directory structure for games / saves?

P.S. Thanks for the blazing fast response!

 

[dewback]

it is a program to run in the akaio software to load GBA games into the RAM on the cart.
The version that work with the 3in1+ is 0.58b
with it you have to load the game into the NOR and boot the card off the official DS menu not out of AKAIO loader or you can corrupt the save for the games.

Also it does have to have folders for the game saves setup on the slot 1 card

 

[tagmay]

Hmm, couldn't get the gbaexploader to work, but could be that I don't have it setup properly.

I may just set it aside for a while. I still have an old m3 lite that I can use for gba games. It was gifted to me in combo with an old simply m3 (which is crap, ds games froze all the time)... but intended to upgrade with the acekard / 3-in-1 combo.

So, if I wanted to go back to the m3 lite slot-2... Does it require the simply m3 slot-1 device? Does it require a slot-1 device at all (just interested in the gba games here, the acekard has got me covered for everything else)?

I had read that the acekard / 3-in-1 "auto-patches" gba games as it loads them. Is that something I would need to worry about with the m3 lite? Especially if I am running them directly from slot-2? Or would I need to boot from the acekard and load the games from there? Is that even possible?

Kinda bummed that I blew 20+ bucks on the 3-in-1 but if I can get the m3 lite to work I will be happy enough.

 

[Another World]

gba exploader works perfectly fine on all versions of the 3in1. all you do is run the homebrew and use it. not sure how you can mess that up. i've been told that nor games require being launched from the nds firmware but psram will work fine. i can't confirm the above statement about corrupt saves. i have heard no such problems with the 3in1+, gba exploader, and an acekard running akaio.

the m3 lite is a stand alone slot2 linker with its own media. you need their flashing software, which will patch the gba games for save type (etc). the official hosting for the software/firmware is found here: http://www.linfoxdomain.com/nintendo/ds/. to upgrade the firmware you place it on the msd with no other files then boot the kit and follow the on screen prompts.

important!!

if you upgrade the firmware be sure you run the correct one. running the CF firmware on the SD will brick the m3 lite.

here is a second site that hosts the software and firmware: http://www.handheldsources.com/Download_M3.html.

-another world

 

[tagmay]

@Another World

Thanks, those links are VERY helpful, been looking for sites with firmware for it!

One question on the m3 lite, I thought I read somewhere else on this forum where the real time save requires an m3 slot-1 device... Is this so? or it will work automatically as part of the firmware for the slot-2 m3 lite?

As for gba exploader, i downloaded the file from the downloads section .58b (the one which stated that it worked for the 3-in-1 plus). I followed the comments for that download and placed the GBA_Exploader.nds/.ini file in a folder called /apps/ and then created a folder called /GBA_Backup/ and placed rom dumps in there. When I boot into AKAIO, I navigate to the apps folder and open the GBA Exploader. The top screen goes full white and the bottom full black which leads me to believe that I don't have something set up correctly.

 

[tagmay]

Awesome.

I updated the firmware on the m3 lite and got some games transferred over with the game manager. Everything works swimmingly there, even the real time saving. So never mind about that.

If you have any suggestions on how to get gbaexploader set up and working so I can try it with my 3-in-1 that would be great though!

At least I will be able to definitively say whether it is a faulty 3-in-1.

But I also know that I have a solution that works if that one does not!

 

[Another World]

i have gba exploader in ./hombrew/apps and the ini in root. your roms go anywhere. that folder that gba exploader needs is for the saves not the roms.

-another world

 

[windragon122]

I have this same problem. Any fix?

 

[spark1223]

If you cant get saves to last at all its the battery in the 3 in 1