Bad GBA Expansion Cart?

I ordered my M3DS Real (perfect bundle) a few months ago. Since then I haven't really used either of the GBA expansion cards at all. I've tried loading a patched Opera browser with it and I always get an error, but I figured it was a problem with how I patched it.

Anyway, I'm running the hacked 1.11 version of Sakura, and I'm trying to load a few GBA games with the thing, but most of the time it doesn't even get recognized. If I load to the main DS menu it says "There is a DS option pack installed", but in the actual M3 Real I get nothing. If I keep restarting it will say it is recognized about 5% of the time, but during that 5% if I try to load a ROM all I get is a blank white screen after it says Gameboy. It does load a little bit though because it will say Nintendo underneath which is more than will happen without the pack inserted. Opera still wont do anything.

I took it apart, which isn't that hard because the screw doesn't even fit into its hole so it just popped right open. I couldn't really see any problems with it (not that I'd really know what to look for). So is there something I could do about this or is it just a bad cart? I'll be pretty annoyed if there is nothing since I paid twice as much just to get the perfect bundle and the rumble pack is basically useless to me. I have a 3-in-1, but I'd like to have the ability to load right from the main GUI with cheats and RTS. And now that I've mentioned that, I know its off topic, but how do I change the save directory on GBA ExpLoader? I change it in the .ini file and put it in the root of the SD card, but it never makes a difference.

It's been too long for the store to return it, so that isn't really an option. I'm kinda annoyed at M3 right now. With this, the fact that the spring on my M3 Real never worked (I always have to eject the M3 to swap SD cards), and the fact that there has still been no mention of DS-Wii connectivity even being looked at. Sorry if this is turning into a rant. Anyway, if anyone can give some advice it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for the reply. I've had the card in for a couple weeks (and charged it a lot during that time), so I don't think that's it. Still, I'll give it a try just to be sure. Is there something specific it should be doing during that time (game, ds menu, m3 menu)?

 

Hmm. Yeah, I'm sure its the right card. The dumps all run fine on the 3-in-1, so they aren't corrupt (but it's a hassle). And I just upgraded to Sakura today because it wasn't working on the regular M3 firmware, so that isn't it either.

About the battery in the card. Do you know what it looks like and where it's located? If the symptoms fit and charging it doesn't work, maybe it's just a dead battery?


EDIT: I'm almost positive it's something loose on the card. After letting it sit for three hours I tested it multiple times to see if it made a difference, but it didn't. I took the card apart, put it back together, banged it on the table afew times, put it back in and it worked...kinda. I got it to load a couple ROMs for a couple minutes, but from what I could tell, shaking the DS even a little will cause it to freeze and turn the sound to a wierd static. One time I loaded Sakura and it said "0MB GBA Expansion cart detected". If it doesn't detect it, I can take it out, bang it on the table and it will at least detect it then (and play ROMs if held perfectly still).

Any idea what could be loose or whow I could find out?

 

Thanks again to everyone who replied. And yeah, Toni, your, explanation was fine.

Well I opened it up and saw that there were two wires pretty close to each other and I pulled them apart. I restarted and was able to load a ROM that didn't crash even by shaking it. Tried it with another ROM, seemed to work okay.

Then I tried it with the patched Opera browser. I got the no memory expansion installed error and it reset. Now it only seems to detect the cart half the time and when I try to load a ROM it doesn't work again. Whenever I got a ROM to load it was using slow load, but that's not really an issue because I'd mostly use that anyway.

It seems to be a problem with the small cylinder connected by two wires (battery?). Pulling those wires apart is what got it to work temporarily Under it is a metal pad. Should it be touching that or should it be below/pulled away from it? Currently I have it so it isn't touching. Do I need to do something special to get it to work with Opera (other than patching the ROM), or should it be fine switching between being used for GBA and being used for Opera?

It's getting pretty late here, so I'll probably just look into it more some time tomorrow.

EDIT (again): Toni Plutonij posted while I was typing this.

 

Well I'm pretty sure whatever the problem is isn't related to the wires (at least anymore). After seperating them I used electrical tape to tape the piece so I was sure it was touching the board and then I wrapped it in electrical tape to be sure it wasn't. Both time it was able to detect the cart a couple times but still not very often.

 

Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to try. Still, I ordered this back in January. Even though I didn't even take the card out of the original packaging until a couple weeks ago (when I couldn't get Opera to work), I'm pretty sure they wouldn't accept it.

I ordered the card from Real Hot Stuff. Does anyone know how they are on this type of thing?

 

Well I contacted them and they said they would replace it, so I guess I'll just do that. Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions to try to get this working.