Hacking EZ Flash 3 in 1 Save Questions

[DeepFriedAsian]

Ok, I've searched, but all the answers that I saw confused me, so...
1. PSRAM and NOR, what's the difference?
2. Can someone explain saving in a simple way? I've patched all my games and stuff.
3. What does "Current SRAM save" mean?

Some needs to make a "3 in 1 idiot's guide" or something...

 

[xcalibur]

Ill get in before Destructobot or FAST get here, as they seem to be the local gurus when it come to this kinda stuff

1.PSram is a fast, volatile memory. The Ram expansion for the ds browser uses this to allow for a cache.
Games are usually run from PSram because its a lot faster. The game is deleted as soon as you turn off the power or softreset.
Loading games into PSram is done in second, thats why its preferred to run games from that.

NOR storage is a bit more permanent(not in that sense). The game stays in even after you turn off the ds. This is the type of storage that is similair to what real GBA carts use and that leads to the conclusion that GBA to DS linkage is possible when you load a game to NOR storage.

2.Saving is done by saving your current data to a seperate storage on the card, the third area, 512 kb SRAM (the first and second being PSram and NOR respectively). I believe that saving is done here when saving from PSram, as the limit is 512kb, but NOR can play/save games with 1mbit saves.
If your using the 3in1 expansion tool, everytime you switch games, it will copy what is in your Sram(current Sram save) into the Saver folder, updating your savefile for the game you last played. Then it will delete it and put in the next save.
Because the Sram is battery backed, you wont have to worry about it being lost when you turn off the ds. Also, the battery is charged while playing ds so you wont have to worry about it running out either.

3.see second paragraph of 2

I think this is how it works, im not sure but this is what ive learned from the short time ive been here.

I hope this is clear enough for you.

If this is wrong, please correct me.

P.S.:TROGDOR!!!!!

 

[DeepFriedAsian]

Thanks for the answer.
So, I just save in-game and that's it? I don't need to do any complicated stuff?

Also, the way you explained NOR, does that mean I could get, say, an Advance Wars 2 rom, put it in NOR, then put in my legit Advance Wars DS and get the extras?

 

[xcalibur]

Yes i would assume it so, its been tested before and because pokemon diamond uses a special save, you need a modified save to allow gba/nds connectivity

for other games it works regularly

the 3 in1 loader has been designed specifically for ease of use.
Nothing really complicated is required

 

[newfire01]

If your using the 3in1 expansion tool, everytime you switch games, it will copy what is in your Sram(current Sram save) into the Saver folder, updating your savefile for the game you last played. Then it will delete it and put in the next save.
Because the Sram is battery backed, you wont have to worry about it being lost when you turn off the ds. Also, the battery is charged while playing ds so you wont have to worry about it running out either.

How long will the sram hold the save while the DS is turned off? I was playing off and on all day yesterday (just got the expansion pack

) and was able to save successfully in ALL my games... except one. Before I went to bed I played Sword of Mana (patched w/ GBATA because it is Flash 512kb). After an hour I turned it off and went to bed. This morning I loaded up Sword of Mana wit Rudolph's tool as usual, but I got a message in a red box saying something about not finding save/ deleting sram. I thought i had read something previously that this was OK so I continued, but my save was no longer present. SO I guess what I am asking is... should I ALWAYS turn my ds back on and manually backup the SRAM save before I am going to leave my DS off for a while? Or is this just some kind of game specific problem to Sword of Mana? Thanks in advance!

 

[Destructobot]

How long will the sram hold the save while the DS is turned off?
Three years or so, assuming the battery is good.

This morning I loaded up Sword of Mana wit Rudolph's tool as usual, but I got a message in a red box saying something about not finding save/ deleting sram. I thought i had read something previously that this was OK so I continued, but my save was no longer present.

There are two different error messages like that.

One says "SAV file not found! deletes the SAV file?", meaning that the save file on the SD card is missing. For some reason the 3in1 ExpPack Tool can create a save file when it loads a game onto the 3-in-1, but not when it's backing up a save. If you delete or rename the save file on the card, If the memory card gets corrupted, or if you use a different memory card that does not have a matching save file on it, you will get this error when you try to load a different game onto the 3-in-1.

To fix this error, power off the system when the error is displayed (if you press A the save will be lost) and create a file on the memory card that matches the filename in the "Current SRAM save" box.


The other error says "SRAM save data not found Can't backup to SAV file" (also, the "Current SRAM save" box says "Blank or Empty State"). This means that there is no usable information in the part of the SRAM where the 3in1 ExpPack Tool keeps the filesname of the current save. Either that part of the SRAM has been overwritten by a different program (such as GBALdr), or the SRAM just isn't retaining the data.

If the SRAM isn't retaining data there is probably no save to recover. If you think that bit of SRAM just got overwritten, you can dump the entire SRAM to a file called SRAM.BIN by pressing X in PSRAM mode (again, power off the system when you get the error; pressing A will result in the data being lost). You can try to recover the save from this file with a hex editor, but there's a good chance that it was overwritten as well.

 

[newfire01]

Thanx for the response. I haven't had the problem again today, but now I know what to do if it does happen again!

 

[mlsgiant]

I was getting this same error "SAV file not found! deletes the SAV file?"

To fix this error, power off the system when the error is displayed (if you press A the save will be lost) and create a file on the memory card that matches the filename in the "Current SRAM save" box.

I did what you said to do. When you say "Create a file on the memory card" you meant a sav file right? I just took another game sav and renamed it. The error went away. But when I try to launch another game in PSRAM mode it goes throught the process but when the game loads the Gameboy logo appears but NOT the nintendo logo below it and the screen just freezes here and does nothing. I have to power down.

If I go to the NOR mode and try to (A) Copy the selected game the "Erasing NOR..." appears and completes to 100% but when the "Copying to NOR " appears the screen just sits here and displays 0%. I have to power down again. What is wrong with my 3in1 Flash V card? Any help is appreciated.

 

[JacobReaper]

so, this will not happen if we use NDStation?

 

[newfire01]

Ok I am getting this problem again... I'm getting the "SAV file not found! deletes the SAV file?" message for every game. The problem is, I do have the sav files in the SAVE folder. AND they are named correctly to correspond with their .gba files. So I really do not know what is wrong here. I do not wish to replace my save files with a new save file, instead I'd rather keep using my old ones. How can I make the 3in1 recognize my save files again? BTW this problem come up right after I added new games and used Fatsort to rearrange the files (not directories) in alphabetical order.

EDIT

Nevermind... I fixed it. I guess I didn't really completely understand Destructobot's explanation and how the 3in1 works.

 

[Cantello]

Okay, one more explanation for the noob:

1_ When I load a game in the 3-in-1 NOR memory, does it do automatic backup of the savegames to the slot-1 memory?
2_ The same for a game that is loaded in SRAM memory?

3_ So in effect, do I have to boot up Rudolph's loader every time after saving and back up the save games for fear of losing them?

In theory the save games should stay there for a rather long time (three years were mentioned).

4_ What happens if I had a game written to NOR memory, then decided to load a different game into that memory (or into SRAM), what happens to the save game that was residing in SRAM at that time? Automatic backup? Manual backup before loading the new game?

Still confused (but enjoying my new 'GBA'... :-)