Hacking DSTT stuck on 'Loading...' screen

[blizeH]

Hi,

My friend's just purchased a DSTT and put a few games onto the SD card. The games show up just fine in the menu, with the correct game icons, but whenever you try to load one it simply doesn't work, the exception (oddly) being Electroplankton?

Any ideas as to why this is happening please? I'm really confused about the whole thing, and couldn't see any info in the sticky'd FAQ

Cheers

 

[redact]

are the games .nds or .rar or .zip?

also what version firmware are you using?

 

[blizeH]

.nds and the latest firmware I believe, downloaded it from this site - how do I check though? Do I have to do anything to update it other than transfer the files onto the card?

Posts merged

Oh, v1.16 by the way, that's what it says in the bottom corner ;o

 

[Evilmaster1985]

This is because....
You dont read any faq.

Faq on dstt said:

If you put to many games (*.nds files) in 1 folder.
The games might get stuck on loading.
(I know this happens it happned to my sisters original DSTT)

Sollution for this is:
Make folders for each game in game folder

Example: Bomberman.nds

Would be stored like this:

x:\games\bomberman\bomberman.nds

(x stands for the SD drive letter.)

Good luck and dont forget to also put the *.sav file in to the folder you just put the *.nds file into.
(DSTT only loads sav files if they are in the same folder as the game)

Greetz, Vistabuser

 

[blizeH]

D'oh... I didn't realise that, thanks dude.

What is the actual limit? One game per folder or...?

 

[Count Duckula]

So long as you are putting the files inside a folder not on the root of the microSD then you should be able to have as many as you want in 1 folder. Over 170 has worked fine for me on an old legit DSTT, a gold dot fake, one of the new fakes and a new legit card.

Putting all files on the root of the card definitely causes issues, putting them all in 1 folder should not.

 

[Evilmaster1985]

It will and it shall.

My sister was using: x:\games\
In here LOADS of nds games.

After booting up some games (so some safe files were written to the games folder)

Games started getting stuck on loading.

This has nothing to do with root or folder.

As I said make a game folder for each game.

Before you blame me wrong read FAQ Count Duckula.

The root hasnt have to do with this.
Its just that its only a sertain ammount of files the FAT system allows in root only.

Greetz, Vistabuser.

Posts merged

D'oh... I didn't realise that, thanks dude.

What is the actual limit? One game per folder or...?

Yeh this is what I do

As I shown before if I had for example: Bomberman.nds

It should be stored like:

x:\games\bomberman\bomberman.nds

(x stands for the SD drive letter)

So in other words make a folder for each game INSIDE the games folder

This will help you have a neat SD card without stuck on loading.

Greetz, Vistabuser.

 

[retiredjerk]

you do not want to put 170 .nds files in one folder when using a dstt. you are only asking for trouble and the fact that you havent had corruption or freezing problems is pure luck. i would put abut 15-20 per folder max to insure perfect loading.

 

[Evilmaster1985]

Finaly someone who knows what hes doing ^^

Greetz, Vistabuser

 

[Bri]

Sorry, but I think Count Duckula is correct. It doesn't matter how many games are in the folder as long as the games aren't on the root. I put all of my games in a "games" folder and never had any problem at all. If you're experiencing corruption of your microSD card, it's most likely caused by something else like not using "safely remove hardware" before removing your microSD card from your computer, not using the Panasonic formatter to format your microSD card, or maybe you have a bad microSD reader (the ones that come with flash carts are notoriously crappy).

-Bri

 

[encinodog]

I've done all that is said to load my sdcard and it still freezes. I have a folder for my games and I have 5 games on there. I get the menu with all the games listed but when I click on it, it freezes and will not load but if I go into the options (+ sign) and either switch reset to on or off and then save, it will load properly. The next time I play it I have to go through the same ritual in order for it to load. Any suggestions besides putting 1 game per folder?

 

[blizeH]

Many thanks guys, I think as a compromise I'll group them into different categories, maybe 8 games per folder at the very most?

 

[retiredjerk]

good idea blizeh.
on a side not i just loaded a dstt with about 211 games. smallest i could find. i went and loaded every game down the list and guess what? at about 25th or so game i got the dreaded "menu? red icon. i think you forget that your files will double when you load a game and create a save file. do you really think having over 400 files in one directory on a dstt is okay? i dont think so.

microsd is kingston class 4 8GB. formated with panasonic sd formatter using fat32 and format adjustment size turned on. using remove hardware before taking the microsd out.

 

[Bri]

I've done all that is said to load my sdcard and it still freezes. I have a folder for my games and I have 5 games on there. I get the menu with all the games listed but when I click on it, it freezes and will not load but if I go into the options (+ sign) and either switch reset to on or off and then save, it will load properly. The next time I play it I have to go through the same ritual in order for it to load. Any suggestions besides putting 1 game per folder?

It should remember your per-game soft reset options, but there is also a global soft reset option if I recall correctly.

QUOTE(retiredjerk @ Dec 16 2008, 10:36 AM) good idea blizeh.
on a side not i just loaded a dstt with about 211 games. smallest i could find. i went and loaded every game down the list and guess what? at about 25th or so game i got the dreaded "menu? red icon. i think you forget that your files will double when you load a game and create a save file. do you really think having over 400 files in one directory on a dstt is okay? i dont think so.

microsd is kingston class 4 8GB. formated with panasonic sd formatter using fat32 and format adjustment size turned on. using remove hardware before taking the microsd out.

If it crashed after the 25th game, then you only have 236 files, not 400. It's possible that there is a limit of 256 files in a folder imposed by the DSTT, which means that if you have fewer than 100 games in a folder you should be fine (it can create 100 save files and 50 or so cheat files and you should still be OK).

That said, did you leave plenty of room on your microSD for save files or did you just fill it all up with games? You'll definitely get errors if it runs out of space on your microSD card for save files.

Try only putting 150 or 200 games in a folder but leave plenty of room for save files and see if it crashes. Also, note the exact number of games you ran before it crashed and see if the total number of files in the folders is close to 256.

-Bri

 

[blizeH]

Many thanks for the replies and info guys, still no luck though unfortunately. I've broken everything down into separate folders (it still just lists every game together on the main menu though? should it?) with a few games in each, and every time one I've tried (around 8 games) gets stuck on the loading screen.

In a way I'm happy this isn't mine, but in other ways I almost wish it was (and I could just go buy a new card) because this guy's bought it as part of a Christmas present for his wife and I feel almost responsible for it not working

Posts merged

Oh, there's around 40mb left for saves by the way.

 

[Bri]

Yes, the DSTT displays all the files in one list regardless of where they are on your microSD card.

I don't think the number of files in your "games" folder was ever the problem.

If you can run Electroplankton, you should be able to run other games as well. If you're seeing the games in the menu, you've probably installed the firmware correctly, so that probably isn't it. Your hardware is also working properly. So you've eliminated the two most common problems right there.

First make sure you're running version 1.15 of the firmware. There have been problems reported with 1.16, so I highly recommend running 1.15 instead (there's only one obscure Japanese game fixed with 1.16 anyway).

Do you always use "safely remove hardware" before you remove your microSD card from your PC? If not, your microSD card is probably getting corrupt.

Are you leaving some free space on your microSD card for save files? If not, delete a few of the games.

Have you tried reformatting the microSD card with the Panasonic formatter? It's possible that your microSD card is improperly formatted.

Have you tried with a different microSD card and/or microSD reader? It's possible that your card is bad or your reader is bad.

Have you tried disabling some of the patching options? Some of them can interfere with certain games (DMA, cheats, and soft reset are the most common culprits).

-Bri

 

[blizeH]

Many thanks for the info Bri.

I do always use the 'safely remove hardware' thing

Free space? Only around 40mb unfortuantely, I'll try deleting a game and see how I get on.

Haven't reformatted yet, will try that in a bit and see how I get on

Not sure about the reader, I'm using the one that came with my Cyclo and haven't had any problems at all with it yet. The SD card is a Kingston one too so should be okay I think.

Not tried the ROM patching either, will turn them all off as I imagine they won't be used anyway.

Will also downgrade to 1.15

One final thing to mention - I'm using a different theme, but I guess that wouldn't break it?

Posts merged

One other thing (sorry!) - do I just copy the files to the root? Or do I need to copy the /eng/ folder too?

For example, I have it at

x:/ttmenu.dat

Should it be...

x:/eng/ttmenu.dat

?

Posts merged

Okay.

Running 1.15 now, deleted some files, same problem.

Will format, if that doesn't work I give up to be honest

 

[blizeH]

Wooo! Cheers, the Panasonic formatter worked a treat

Tried about 12 games, everything worked fine apart from Zelda which white screened... probably a problem with the ROM, but anyhow, pretty happy with that and so will he be, I think

Thanks again guys

 

[Bri]

Glad you got it working! You problably already answered your own question, but you don't need the "eng" folder (only TTMENU.DAT and the TTMENU folder on the root of the microSD card).

-Bri

 

[blizeH]

Yup, working a treat now, thanks