Hacking Attempted to update R4, Now no-longer works

[Jayemz]

Hey!

I haven't used my DS/R4 in a few months, but after seeing Pokemon Black being released i thought i'd try it out.
I realised i'd probably have to update my r4 card for it to work (i did try without that but it never worked). My card has been working successfully for the past 2-3 years now.
I use the very original Nintendo DS, i'm unsure if my card is a 'clone' but i imagine it's one of the very first original ones. Anyway! my card worked for months but yesterday i read about this Wood r4 kernel. I decided this would probably be the best to use so i went for it.

I stored all my games/saves and formatted my R4 to FAT32, quick format.
Once i put the Wood R4 kernel onto my card, it wouldn't boot past the "Loading" screen. I have retryed, reformatted and reinstalled a few times but neither worked.

I decided to give in and tried to install the old R4 1.18 kernel, but now i'm having the same issue where it gets stuck on the Loading Screen.


I'm unsure what to do, as it was working perfectly before i formatted it, i've blown into the covers etc and nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions on what to do?

Many thanks!

Jamie.

 

[AlanJohn]

Whats the website printed on your cart? If its only "R4 revolution" That means its real or a 1:1 clone. If it has "upgrade", "gold" "sdhc" "Wi-Fi" or anything else its a clone and wood won't work

 

[indask8]

Your card is certainly an original R4 (or a 1:1 clone).

It's limited to 2GB cards right?

So why do you format that card in FAT32?

Format it FAT16 (use panasonic sd formatter) put wood back in and enjoy.

 

[Jayemz]

Hi again!

Here is a picture of my card (sorry no image tags as the picture is pretty big): http://i52.tinypic.com/11rvsde.jpg

@ Boudincaca
It originally had a 2gb card yes, but i upgraded it a year or so back to a 4gb card and again it was working perfectly. I shall attempt to format it to FAT16 and give a heads up in a moment.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks again!

Edit: I tried formatting to a variety of other options and no success. This is pretty strange haha.

 

[AlanJohn]

Hi again!

Here is a picture of my card (sorry no image tags as the picture is pretty big): http://i52.tinypic.com/11rvsde.jpg

@ Boudincaca
It originally had a 2gb card yes, but i upgraded it a year or so back to a 4gb card and again it was working perfectly. I shall attempt to format it to FAT16 and give a heads up in a moment.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks again!

Edit: I tried formatting to a variety of other options and no success. This is pretty strange haha.

It IS a real R4. I congratulate you... This might sound stupid... But try to blow into slot of your DS and into the Micro SD slot... Worked for me all the time...

 

[Jayemz]

I've given it enough gas as one could possibily give

haha!

I would just assume it's gone faulty some how, but i really don't understand how when it worked before i did anything to it.

 

[AlanJohn]

I've given it enough gas as one could possibily give

haha!

I would just assume it's gone faulty some how, but i really don't understand how when it worked before i did anything to it.

Hmm... Did you ever drop/smash your R4? Maybe there's something wrong in the circuting

 

[Jayemz]

Not recently, but again it was working fine previously.

Btw, Thanks again for any help, very much appreciated!

 

[Alex658]

Hi again!

Here is a picture of my card (sorry no image tags as the picture is pretty big): http://i52.tinypic.com/11rvsde.jpg

@ Boudincaca
It originally had a 2gb card yes, but i upgraded it a year or so back to a 4gb card and again it was working perfectly. I shall attempt to format it to FAT16 and give a heads up in a moment.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks again!

Edit: I tried formatting to a variety of other options and no success. This is pretty strange haha.

THAT is a bad sign, Original R4's or 1:1 Clones CAN NOT read +2GB mSD cards.. it won't boot.
So your R4 must be an SD-HC enabled one...

The picture looks a bit dark. so I can't see it very well. (might be that my monitor is screwing up once again though)

EDIT: It does look like an original R4.. :/ Hmm...
Might it be that you got messed up the 4GB reading capability? I'm fairly sure that normal R4's are not SDHC Capable.

There is a page were there is ALL the R4's (and clones) firmwares stored. but I can't remember how it was called.

 

[AlanJohn]

Hi again!

Here is a picture of my card (sorry no image tags as the picture is pretty big): http://i52.tinypic.com/11rvsde.jpg

@ Boudincaca
It originally had a 2gb card yes, but i upgraded it a year or so back to a 4gb card and again it was working perfectly. I shall attempt to format it to FAT16 and give a heads up in a moment.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks again!

Edit: I tried formatting to a variety of other options and no success. This is pretty strange haha.

THAT is a bad sign, Original R4's or 1:1 Clones CAN NOT read +2GB mSD cards.. it won't boot.
So your R4 must be an SD-HC enabled one...

The picture looks a bit dark. so I can't see it very well. (might be that my monitor is screwing up once again though)

EDIT: It does look like an original R4.. :/ Hmm...
Might it be that you got messed up the 4GB reading capability? I'm fairly sure that normal R4's are not SDHC Capable.

There is a page were there is ALL the R4's (and clones) firmwares stored. but I can't remember how it was called.

Wrong the Original R4 does support 2gb cards... It Doesn't support SDHC cards And 4gb+

 

[WiiThoko]

Wrong the Original R4 does support 2gb cards... It Doesn't support SDHC cards And 4gb+

I think by +2GB he meant cards larger than 2GB...

 

[Jayemz]

Hi again, i think i have found what might have happened.

I've just downloaded one of the SDHC Firmwares and it worked.

I think i may have had such an old version of this firmware which was dated 1.18, and i must have got that confused with the official 1.18 R4 Firmware.

I'll assume you'll need to use the SDHC firmware on an original card if i am using a SD card that's above 2gb? Or would this just mean i have a cloned R4 card?

Anyways, my next question would be this - Would it be possible to get Wood R4 firmware on my card or would i need to downgrade to a 2GB SD Card?


Edit: Also, i'm unsure if this is the place to ask, but if i need to stick with this firmware, could someone direct me to a thread where i can read up on how to get a working Pokemon Black/White patch/rom for this firmware.

Thanks again! Sorry for the confusion on my half.

 

[AlanJohn]

Hi again, i think i have found what might have happened.

I've just downloaded one of the SDHC Firmwares and it worked.

I think i may have had such an old version of this firmware which was dated 1.18, and i must have got that confused with the official 1.18 R4 Firmware.

I'll assume you'll need to use the SDHC firmware on an original card if i am using a SD card that's above 2gb? Or would this just mean i have a cloned R4 card?

Anyways, my next question would be this - Would it be possible to get Wood R4 firmware on my card or would i need to downgrade to a 2GB SD Card?


Edit: Also, i'm unsure if this is the place to ask, but if i need to stick with this firmware, could someone direct me to a thread where i can read up on how to get a working Pokemon Black/White patch/rom for this firmware.

Thanks again! Sorry for the confusion on my half.

You don't get it... You see the R4 itself can't use SDHC cards... No firmware can help you... What card do you currently have? And your asking for roms...

 

[zygie]

Alright, if your R4 is what we all think it is by looking at the picture, here are some key things you have to know:

• The last official firmware for it is 1.18.
• No, it shouldn't be able to support SDHC cards. This means cards more than 2GB.
• Putting in an SDHC firmware shouldn't let you use SDHC cards at more than 2GB capacity. That ability is in the cart's hardware, not firmware.

So, your best shot at making it work is using a 2GB SD card and putting in the latest Wood R4. I haven't been running into any problems so far playing Pokemon Black on my R4 with a 2GB card.

That is, if what we're seeing is really the original/good 1:1 clone. If it's anything else then we'd need more information as what cart you really have.

 

[Stropdasje]

That is, if what we're seeing is really the original/good 1:1 clone. If it's anything else then we'd need more information as what cart you really have.

There is one other hypothesis that could explain what happens. Don't know if it makes sense because it would have been the first time but here it goes.

There are rare 4GB cards that use the SD card access method, not SDHC, They are rare because they are not compliant with the SD card specifications and because of that no SD device is really certified to use such a card. The standard is SDHC for 4 GB and up.

My hypotheses is, maybe you have one of those out-of-spec 4 GB cards that worked in SD mode and therefore was accepted by the original R4. Now you formatted it the card may have detected an SDHC compatible slot and changed mode.

Maybe its far fetched but it is something that would explain why it worked before. Maybe you could look if the 4 GB card has something on the label suggesting this, is there SDHC written on the 4 GB card or does it say SD.

Anyway, if it is an original R4 then a 2 GB SD card should work. An 4 GB card will almost for sure never work unless maybe its one of those rare cards. If you Google for "4 GB non SDHC" you may find some references to those rare cards.

If the 4 GB card can indeed operate in two modi, maybe try to format it using the USB device that came with the R4. That one is for sure not compliant with SDHC and maybe the 4 GB card detects this and switches back to SD mode. It is a long shot but there is no harm in trying... Good luck!

 

[Alex658]

Hi again!

Here is a picture of my card (sorry no image tags as the picture is pretty big): http://i52.tinypic.com/11rvsde.jpg

@ Boudincaca
It originally had a 2gb card yes, but i upgraded it a year or so back to a 4gb card and again it was working perfectly. I shall attempt to format it to FAT16 and give a heads up in a moment.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks again!

Edit: I tried formatting to a variety of other options and no success. This is pretty strange haha.

THAT is a bad sign, Original R4's or 1:1 Clones CAN NOT read +2GB mSD cards.. it won't boot.
So your R4 must be an SD-HC enabled one...

The picture looks a bit dark. so I can't see it very well. (might be that my monitor is screwing up once again though)

EDIT: It does look like an original R4.. :/ Hmm...
Might it be that you got messed up the 4GB reading capability? I'm fairly sure that normal R4's are not SDHC Capable.

There is a page were there is ALL the R4's (and clones) firmwares stored. but I can't remember how it was called.

Wrong the Original R4 does support 2gb cards... It Doesn't support SDHC cards And 4gb+


/Facedesk
I know that. my R4 (v2) uses a 2GB mSD card and 1GB mSD card and both work perfectly. however using an SD-HC or 4GB normal mSD doesn't work... >>


QUOTE(WiiThoko @ Mar 6 2011, 03:24 PM) QUOTE(AlanJohn @ Mar 6 2011, 10:16 AM)

Wrong the Original R4 does support 2gb cards... It Doesn't support SDHC cards And 4gb+

I think by +2GB he meant cards larger than 2GB...

Yes, that's what I meant. thank you.
I should have posted it like this ''>2GB cards''

@Jayemz:
Like Stropdasje said. you're better off by trying to see if you have a very rare non SDHC card. which is highly unlikely giving the rarity of these...

Or try putting the woodr4 firmware in ANOTHER MicroSD which is

 

[Attila13]

There is a page were there is ALL the R4's (and clones) firmwares stored. but I can't remember how it was called.

Does this answer your question?

 

[Alex658]

There is a page were there is ALL the R4's (and clones) firmwares stored. but I can't remember how it was called.

Does this answer your question?

+1
YES. this is the one, thank you.

@Op: if none of our methods/suggestions work then try out every single ''R4'' firmware in that page. one should make it boot. but like I said use this as your last resource ^^

 

[Jayemz]

Sorry for a late response.

To sum it all up, I am now using the SDHC firmware version 1.32 and using YSMenu ontop of that.

I'm not sure whats up with my card or what-not, but all seems to be working well.

Thank you all for the help in this topic, it's been useful, I never knew how much different cards affected things.

Thanks again!

 

[Attila13]

Sorry for a late response.

To sum it all up, I am now using the SDHC firmware version 1.32 and using YSMenu ontop of that.

I'm not sure whats up with my card or what-not, but all seems to be working well.

Thank you all for the help in this topic, it's been useful, I never knew how much different cards affected things.

Thanks again!

Hey, we're here to help you and other ones who need the help, so you're welcome!