Hacking DSTT Problem - Menu Freezing?

Claire DC

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Hiya, my dad has a DSTT (well a CNDSTT but I'm not sure that makes a difference from what I have seen) - it's been working fine until today. Whenever you try to load a game, it seems to freeze and just says 'loading' on the top screen whilst the bottom bit where you see it loading also freezes... obviously the game doesn't load.

I redid the firmware that was on it by copying it back over to the Micro SD and that did the job and a game loaded, but then I tried a different game and it was doing the freezing thing, it's definitely not the DS ROMs though as I went back to the original game that had loaded and that had also stopped loading.

Anybody got any clues on this please? Thanks. x
 

Sao Mortel

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This problem has happened to me too for an obcure reason. I fixed it by deleting a movie(.dpg) an it never happened since. so try just copying the firmware only on your card with one game only and it should work.
then add more file until you find the one thats is making the kernel do this.
 

Claire DC

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I don't know if it makes any difference but there are only NDS roms and their SAV files on the card?

Weird how it started all of a sudden after working fine for the length of time they've had the card!
 

Bri

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If you're using the official firmware (from ndstt.com and other sites) then you may have "killed" your DSTT with the fake-killer firmware. The good news is that you can restore it.

But before we jump to that conclusion, did you use the Panasonic formatter to format your microSD card? Did you put your games in a "games" folder instead of on the root of your microSD card? Did you leave plenty of free space on your microSD card for save files and other system files? Do you ALWAYS use "safely remove hardware" before you remove your microSD card from your PC to avoid corrupting the microSD card?

-Bri
 

SpAmBaM

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This happens to a friend's DSTT.

as Bri wrote this could fixed by:

1.) Copy everything from SD to your PC
2.) Download firmware from http://www.ndstt.com/
3.) Format SD with Windows or "Panasonic formatter"
4.) Copy FW over SD
5.) Create folder named "Games" on SD
6.) Copy ever Game back to SD in the "Games" Folder. (Be sure you left free space on the SD)
7.) Use "Savely remove hardware" to be sure every data is written to SD
8.) Put SD back in the NDSTT
9.) Start NDS

Should work again.

Maybe the Rom isn't supported from the FW. So be sure your got the newest FW.
 

BoGG

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That last reply is the good solution to your problem.. The problem you're experiencing is caused by a wrong formatting of your microSD. It's no fun to do but you should reformat with Panasonic SD Formatter and put back your games on the card, once it's done you should never see that problem again.
yaynds.gif
 

Bri

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The above solution will probably kill your DSTT. You do NOT want to install the official firmware from ndstt.com onto your fake DSTT. Instead, you want to replace the official TTMENU.DAT with a version that has the fake-killer code disabled.

Try these steps:[*]Use the Panasonic formatter to reformat your microSD card: http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/d..._formatter.html[*]Grab the official 1.17 menu from here (but do NOT install TTMENU.DAT from it as it contains the fake-killer code!!!): http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=4476[*]Copy the TTMENU folder (but not TTMENU.DAT) from the official firmware to your microSD card.[*]Grab this archive: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=4086[*]Copy all four files from the archive to your microSD card.[*]Make a folder named "games" on your microSD card. Copy 2 or 3 games (.nds files) to the new "games" folder.[*]Run "safely remove hardware", select your microSD reader in the list, and press STOP before removing your microSD card from your PC.[*]Insert your DSTT into the NDS. Insert your microSD card into the DSTT. Turn on the NDS.[*]Run the DsttFlashChecker program to see if you have a real or a fake DSTT. If you have a fake DSTT and suspect that it may have been destroyed by the official fake-killer firmware, run the DsttFlashWriter program to re-flash your DSTT.[*]You should be able to run your games now. You can delete DsttFlashChecker.nds, DsttFlashWriter.nds, and DSTTDUMP.BIN from your microSD card if you want.[*]Always keep the following in mind:
  • Always leave some free space on your microSD card for save files and system files.
  • Always put games into your "games" folder. Also, put homebrew into a folder. Leave as few files as possible on the root of your microSD card.
  • Always use "safely remove hardware" to remove your microSD card from your PC.
  • Use the Panasonic formatter if you ever have to reformat.
  • Make sure you don't use the official TTMENU.DAT (particularly if you have a fake) because it contains fake-killer code.
If that doesn't work, you probably have a hardware problem. You should return your flash cart where you got it from. There is no good way to fix a contact or other hardware problem.

-Bri
 

united72

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Hello all, I am having similar problems with my card.

The DS Lite is loading with the Menu icon in Red on the top screen - cannot do anything - when I load the SD card on my laptop the files are not visible on the card but I know they are there because the disk space is still occupied.

Was also getting the message below when trying to load a game.

[Rom loading failed]

savefiled not founded!

Please reset system


I'm new to this so please excuse my ignorance but any help anyone might be able to provide would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

J.
 

Bri

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Does the ROM in question by any chance have a short filename with a space in it (for example "Contra 4.nds")? There is a bug in the firmware which causes it to not be able to find the save file in this case. Simply rename the ROM so that it either has more than 8 characters in the filename, or doesn't have spaces in the filename.

If that's not the problem, did your DSTT ever work? If it worked, but then stopped working, follow the directions in my previous post above.

-Bri
 

united72

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Hi Bri,

Yes the DSTT worked but stopped suddenly, it just shows the menu icon in Red at the moment. Problem is can't check the filenames on the SD card now because the card looks empty when I load it!

Should I just follow the instructions you gave above?

What is fake-killer ?

thanks again,

Jay.
 

Bri

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Yes, follow the directions above.

The official DSTT firmware from ndstt.com has "fake-killer" code that will "kill" fake DSTT's. The CN-DSTT is a fake, so if you ran the official firmware on it, you may have "killed" it. The DsttFlashWriter program lets you restore a fake DSTT that was "killed" by the fake-killer firmware.

Follow the directions above, but don't run the DsttFlashWriter program in step 9 unless you continue to have problems (and don't remove the files in step 10). The problem you describe may not be caused by the fake-killer firmware.

-Bri
 

united72

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This is where I got the firmware from;

http://www.cndstt.com/english/download_en.aspx

I would have thought the firmware on here wouldn't have the fake-killer on it???

I'll follow your instructions tomorrow and post the results tomorrow evening, in the meantime if you guys can think of anything else please let me know.

Thanks for all your help Bri.
bow.gif
 

Bri

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Correct, the firmware from cndstt.com won't have fake-killer code. However, it's also not based on the latest firmware. So I'd still recommend that you follow the above directions so that you have the latest firmware, except that you can skip step 9 because you've never run the official firmware that contains the fake-killer code.

Pay particular attention to the stuff in step 11, because that will avoid corruption of your microSD card in the future (I suspect that you didn't follow one or more of those rules, and that your microSD card became corrupt as a result).

-Bri
 

Bri

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Can you see the files from another PC?

Is it possible that you hid the files and have your Windows "view" settings set to not show the hidden files?

-Bri
 

united72

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No checked that - its set to show hidden files....havent checked in another pc but if same thing happens when I go home from work this evening I will check the card in my girlfriends laptop.

Have you come across the problem I mentioned with the menu icon showing in red with a ? mark in the DSL screen?
 

Bri

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Are you talking about one of these:

nocard.jpg
nomenu.jpg


The one on the left shows up if you turn on your NDS without a microSD card in the DSTT. The one on the right shows up if the firmware isn't installed properly on your microSD card (for example, if you insert an empty microSD card into a DSTT, that icon will show up).

Are you sure that your microSD card isn't empty?

-Bri
 

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