Hacking EZ-Flash IV Firmware Update Question

[thebib62]

I received my EZ-Flash IV 2 days ago, and it had firmware already loaded onto it. (Not sure if that's normal or not)
But I noticed that all of the messages that popup when you first turn it on are in Chinese, and all of the videos I've watched about it are all in English.
In the top right hand corner it says "[SD]V1.720",(I'm guessing that's the firmware I'm on) I'm not sure how old that is. I ask this question because I want to know if its safe to flash a newer firmware to the EZ-Flash IV with an older firmware already on it?
I planned on downloading the latest firmware update from here: http://filetrip.net/f4753-EZ4-Client-2009-04-03.html and placing the .bin from that zip file on the root of my mini-SD card, and hold down the R button while the GBA is booting up. I want to make absolute sure I'm not going to brick the EZ-Flash IV.
Also, anyone here know of compatibility issues with the firmware I'm currently on and the two GBA games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - Battle Nexus? Those are the only two GBA games that won't run on my EZ-Flash IV. Every other GBA game I have loaded on there works fine, except those two. Will updating the firmware of my EZ-Flash IV help fix that problem?

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Both games use EEPROM for the save type, your going to need to SRAM patch it with the EZ4 Client.

 

[thebib62]

I tried what you suggested, but no luck. When I choose the ROM to play it on the EZ-Flash IV, it just goes to a white screen, and hangs there, until I turn off the GBA.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Did you change the save type when you ran it through the client program like this.

Note: Be aware this is the 3in1 tool but the drop down menu item is the same as the EZ4 client.


You can use the patched rom to make a premade save file via VBA for use with it on the EZ4.

 

[thebib62]

Yeah, I did exactly that. One thing I'd like to note is that after "patching" the game with the EZ4 client, if I open the patched ROM in it for a second time, it still says the save type is EEPROM.
I tried patching the game on two computers, a WIN7 64bit and a WINXP 32bit. Both PCs did the same thing, and both produced none working ROMS for my EZ-Flash IV.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

You can try another SRAM patcher.

 

[FAST6191]

You should not have to fiddle with the save type most of the time, I tried out TMNT 1 and 2 US and EU dupes.

Had some trouble with the US version of the first game but the other three worked for me. A quick test says this might be a minor variation on the classic overtrim issue- I changed the last couple of bytes to DDDD (something other than 0000 or FFFF), ran it back through and and it plays fine from the 5 minutes I played it (not the worst cash in series but certainly no streets of rage, revenge of shinobi or ninja 5.0 not to mention I was a ghostbusters kid). Been a while since I saw that on the GBA but it is not unknown (it has an ASCII string at the end of the rom which was odd too).

 

[thebib62]

Glad it isn't just me. Could you explain what you did more specifically, so I can try and attempt to fix the roms like you have?
Like, what program did you use, and how do you use it in order to make these roms playable.

 

[FAST6191]

EZ4client was the patcher I used. I disabled soft reset on both occasions (it might have actually saved it for reasons that will hopefully become apparent by the end of the post).

A hex editor- they are a standard tool just like a word processor but for data (actually that analogy is fully of holes but I am sticking with it). There are loads of these, I do not suggest you spring for a fancy one like mine for this sort of thing as any of the free ones will do wonders for this.
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ (if I end up installing a hex editor on a machine that is not my own it is usually this).
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/free...xvi32/xvi32.htm (not as pretty as the one above but the usual go to freeware hex editor)
http://www.winhex.com/winhex/ should have a free version.
There are loads and loads of these- a search for freeware hex editor will drum up a bunch and http://www.romhacking.net/?category=&P...e=&desc=hex has a bunch more.

All I did was open the file in the editor. Scroll to the end of the file and change the bytes there to anything but 00 or FF (the rom trimmers which EZ4client has one built in you can not turn off on the GBA will remove everything until it gets to something else so you are just tricking it)

You probably will never have to do it again- I am struggling to recall the last GBA rom I had to do this for and coming up blank (I think it was a rom hack or one with an intro if it was any).

Quite in fact the only other times you will need to use a hex editor with GBA roms are for the odd rom hack that seems to change part of the header that the EZ4 does not agree with
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16229
and for some 256MBit titles that have junk at the end of the file (riveria and bleach being the two that spring to mind right now).

 

[thebib62]

Do I hex edit the rom before or after patching it with the EZIV client?
Also, I went all the way to the end of the file, and I'm not sure which values to edit.
The last two numbers, the last 4 numbers, the whole last string of numbers or what.
Here's a screen shot of where I think is the correct location.

 

[FAST6191]

Before you patch the rom with EZ4 client- after it will already have trimmed it. You might be able to add some things back but I would rather not send you down that path right now.

7FFFFF - it looks like you left the reset patch on (they will traditionally) or it has an intro

Also that looks to be the second game- I did not have a problem with that (or any of the European versions).

Also I should have checked last night- apparently the Euro rom might have had an intro or something. I do not know where you sourced your rom (scene releases are not always clean releases and not everybody spreads clean releases) so http://arcvoreppin.free.fr/ips/#_1290 has a patch which you can apply with http://www.no-intro.org/tools.htm (IPS patch tab).

 

[thebib62]

EDIT: Nevermind, I bit the bullet and updated my EZ-Flash IV. Thankfully I didn't brick it. It seems that's all I had to do to get those to games working properly. Another game that didn't boot up was Crazy Taxi, but after the update, it works like a charm now.
On a side note, has Madden NFL '07 given people problems? I tried running it on my EZ-Flash IV and it freezes at the main menu. I tried the same ROM on VBA and it got past the main menu, but once in game the textures are all messed up. I'm not looking for a fix to this problem, just asking if this game is known to be problematic.