Hacking Best microSD card for M3 Real

[freezerburn26]

I was trying to figure out what's the best kind of microSD card for M3 Real. I've tried a few different ones and they all have lag in games. I tried an A-Data 8 gig card and it wouldn't load Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow at all, it would just white screen. I had an old m3 card and a-Data was the best then for it. So I tried a patriot class 6 card and now Dawn of Sorrow loads and so does Castlevania order of ecclesia, but there is major noticeable lagging compared to my real carts of those games. I know they do not lag like that in game. So I wondered what kind of microsd card do I need to get for my m3 to work okay will all games and at full speeds?

 

[aphirst]

Assuming you don't have fake MicroSD cards, you should probably try formatting them with the Panasonic SD Formatter (google it // assuming you're on Windows). That fixes an awful lot of MicroSD lag issues, especially Castlevania. If you're a Linux user, the command is:

mkdosfs -I -s 1024 -S 64 /dev/sdx

...as root, where /dev/sdx is the location of your MicroSD. This is for an 8GB card: a 4GB card should use:

mkdosfs -I -s 512 -S 64 /dev/sdx

...instead.

 

[themuddaload]

yeah, i had the same problems with my a-data 4gb's. i bought a 1gb kingston japan from newegg for like $3.00+$2.50 shipping, it runs the 3 problem games flawlessly for me.

 

[RebelX]

I have had a Transcend 2 GB I got from newegg in July, I have had no problems with it whatsoever.

 

[freezerburn26]

I'm pretty sure my cards weren't fake. I bought them from Newegg. What does the panasonic application do exactly? What settings should I set on it?

 

[TodayiSawMyHeroF]

IMO microSD's dont really matter? well im not a super gamer whos played a ton of games so dont take my word for it.

 

[freezerburn26]

Well, they must matter to some extent, because the A-Data cards I tried didn't work at all with certain games and this patriot card does. If this patriot card ran at full speed in Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, that'd be great, but it lags badly in some areas. The intro to Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow also lags out with it. I don't own The world ends with you, so I'm not sure how well it plays on that one, I've heard that's another problem cart. If anyone knows of a memory card that works full speed with all of these games, that'd be wonderful, but as is, it seems like the new m3 is not even as good as the original m3 sd.

 

[AMPonzi]

I've had lots of luck with my 8GB Kingston Class 4 out of Japan. I formatted using FAT32 and 32K clusters. In DOS the command is:

format X: /FS:FAT32 /A:32K

Then copy your files and try a defrag operation, that should at least make things run a little more smoothly.

 

[aphirst]

I use Linux, so I don't know what settings to use on it, however on Windows the Panasonic Formatter is THE BEST way to format the MicroSD. It is better than simply using the FORMAT command (the Windows format doesn't conform to SD standards, and NEVER NEVER NEVER Defrag an SD card). The settings are most likely well-explained, and the Panasonic/SD Association's websites should have more info.

 

[saloalea]

I just formatted my 1GB, 2GB and 4GB cards with this:

mkdosfs -v -c -I -F 16 -R 1 -s 128 -S 512 H:

and my 8GB card with this:

mkdosfs -v -c -I -F 32 -R 32 -s 128 -S 512 H:

so far, so good

 

[aphirst]

Good work.

H: ? What is this madness? How come you have drive letters rather than a /dev/* ? I can't say I've ever seen a Linux distribution behave like *that*.

Fantastic skills.

 

[saloalea]

he he, I'm using the Windows port. I found it thanks to your post!

 

[AMPonzi]

I haven't had any problems with the Windows method yet that I described above (no crashes on even PoR), but if I ever run into any issues I'll give it a go, thanks for the info!

 

[aphirst]

Yes, you're generally better off with either a Linux FAT formatting tool, or the Panasonic SD one; but certainly formatting just with a higher cluster size will do the world of good.

I didn't know that they'd ported mkdosfs to Windows: I suppose it's a good thing to have various FAT formatting tools available for Windows, anyway.

You still can't beat Linux though.

 

[saloalea]

yeah, I'll try the Panasonic formatter..

Cluster alignment sounds more important than cluster size.

 

[Lily]

I use a Kingston 1GB microSD, the Japan made version. Works a treat, no slowdown/lag.