Hacking Does the R4 wear out?

[wuher69]

I have an original R4, have had it for years. Played it for awhile on my old DS phat, and then eventually upgraded to the DSLite Super Mario Special edition. Over the past year I have had a lot of issues with freezing. It happens mid game play, and also seems very likely to occur when the taking the DS out of sleep mode. It happens in all games, and in emulators as well. I had not been playing the DS a ton so it wasn't a major issue, but now I seem to be playing it more often and it is incredibly annoying and frustrating. I don't ever remember this happening on the original DS. Could it be a sign of wearing out, or is it possible it is related to the DSL itself? Unfortunately I do not have another DS to test the cart on, or another cart to test on the DS. I have heard/read about the cardboard trick, but that seems to be mentioned almost exclusively with other carts like the Acecard.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[sergster1]

Mine most definitively did "wear out" within 5 months of purchase my r4 SDHC (the one that cannot powersave) refused to be recognized by all my DS systems. I tried the paper trick and cleaning the contacts with alcohol. Nothing worked.

Ohh and i had a similar problem with my acekard freezing up when coming out sleep mode. Its because it fits loosely in the slot 1 holder and it would jiggle in the slot while in my pockets causing the contacts to separate but it can be fixed by doing the paper trick or getting a bulky flashcard like the supercard dstwo

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I don't know if the R4 wears out, but mine is because of repeated removing of the thing from the system. It's got scratches on all the contacts and isn't always recognized any longer. It doesn't freeze that much, though.

 

[drewmerc]

my original r4 did wear out, it ended up with the contacts wearing thru, you could see the pcb under them
i retinned the contacts with solder and it worked till i gave it away (i doubt retinning is recommended)

 

[NES SNES V.B. N64 G.C. Wii WiiU]

If you've had it for years consider yourself lucky!
Like sergster1, I had an R4i-SDHC that wore out in about 6 months.
Buy a new card like the Acekard 2i, or the SuperCard DSTWO.

 

[NDS-Gear]

Some of the older cards do naturally wear out. I had an original R4v2 that lasted a good two years but even that gave way eventually. I've noticed the newer cards (notably the Acekard 2i and EZFlash Vi for some reason, from my personal experience) seem to last a lot longer. I've used one particular EZFlash Vi for example for aaaaaaaaaaages now (since the R4v2 stopped working) and it hasn't showed any signs of quitting.

 

[Lights]

No it doesn't wear out but if you know the part of the R4 card that the DS reads is getting scratched or dirty then it won't work and freezing can occur. Also since the R4 isn't a really high quality type card and is pretty flimsy it might have broken at the part where you put the R4 into the DS and that's why it freezes.

Another reason why could be because over time have you changed MicroSD cards? If you have that can lead to freezing. I've had problems with the Sandisk MicroSD cards as they made my Pokemon Black game lag and freeze whenever I ran around and etc. Then I changed back to my PNY MicroSD 2GB card and this never happens. So try a PNY MicroSD card and your problems may just be solved.