Hacking EZ Flash IV NOR problem

[BobWoggle]

I have had my EZ-flash IV for a couple of weeks now, and I have run into a problem: when attempting to write Mother 3 to NOR memory, the 'writing' stage always stops at 254Mb. Every other game I have tried writes no problem, and Mother 3 worked the first time I tried, but after deleting it and writing something else, it stopped working. I have tried using a different Mother 3 rom, even the original japanese, and I have tried switching firmware several times. None of that worked. Any help would be most appreciated

 

[TecXero]

This seems like a problem that's been popping up with the latest firmware. You can grab a copy of the previous firmware from the EZ forums from the Clear skin thread, which fixes the problem but you'll also have to deal with the long save times.

It only happens to ROMs that take up the entire NOR.

 

[BobWoggle]

I've tried firmwares 1.71, 1.72, and 1.74. 1.72 has the problem of writing to NOR in 12 seconds and the rom not actually showing up in the root folder. 1.71 and 1.74 have the same 254Mb problem, but only with Mother 3. Mystery Dungeon and Yggdra Union write just fine, and they're the same size

Edit: never mind, only Yggdra Union writes properly (of the 32MB games) PMD also gets stuck at 254

 

[TecXero]

I decided to try a few different kernels and now my large games won't copy over to the NOR properly, even after I switching back to my previous kernel. I wonder if it's the micro SD I'm using that's causing problems. I was using a 2GB, but that was overkill, so I switched over to a 1GB MSD. I haven't installed anything to the NOR since then. I'll do some trial and error.

EDIT: Switched back to my 2GB mSD, messed with the formatting and allocation sizes, even tried all the different kernels I could get my hands on. It still gets stuck at 254Mb. I'd hate if this is a hardware issue as I just bought this flashcart a couple of months ago. I did have an old one somewhere from years ago, but it's not worth finding.

 

[BobWoggle]

I wound up solving this problem in a roundabout way:
1. rename a different game to the same name as whatever 32 MB ROM you want on NOR
2. flash the renamed ROM
3. delete from NOR, change name back to normal
4. put desired game back on card, write it to NOR, when it stops writing at 254 Mb, restart the system.
The ROM in NOR has the correct name and saves properly, but it's a little annoying to do more than once.

 

[TecXero]

I wound up solving this problem in a roundabout way:
1. rename a different game to the same name as whatever 32 MB ROM you want on NOR
2. flash the renamed ROM
3. delete from NOR, change name back to normal
4. put desired game back on card, write it to NOR, when it stops writing at 254 Mb, restart the system.
The ROM in NOR has the correct name and saves properly, but it's a little annoying to do more than once.

Yeah that works, but that's a temporary fix. It's more of the cause that's a concern to me. If some sectors are going bad, that would be very annoying as I just bought this months ago.

 

[migles]

it was me who noticed this and created that thread you talked...

i had tried several times over and over and didn't worked, check on a hex editor if the rom is the full 256mb it will not write, however, roms like spyro wich is 256mb but the real size is about 255 (if you check on hex editor it has some empty space at the end) this kind of roms work...


btw there is a new firmware 1.75, give it a check. i didn't tried because you will lose regular sd cards support. i mean, SDHC cards will work, but sd cards with less than 2gb will stop working...

 

[TecXero]

The new kernel doesn't fix the issue.

 

[Rhino Juggler]

I too have this issue, also a recent EZ Flash IV (I bought it in 2014). Chain of Memories stops at 254MB. So no one knows what even causes it? Like is it just the newer models then? Nothing we can do really? I read that trick up on the top, but that shouldn't work, because only part of the game is loaded, so that means the game would be missing data and not function.

 

[TecXero]

I too have this issue, also a recent EZ Flash IV (I bought it in 2014). Chain of Memories stops at 254MB. So no one knows what even causes it? Like is it just the newer models then? Nothing we can do really? I read that trick up on the top, but that shouldn't work, because only part of the game is loaded, so that means the game would be missing data and not function.

I haven't had any problems with doing it that way, yet. Maybe it does load entirely, it's just something else causing the problem. There are a couple of ways I can think of to find out, but it would involve more work than I or anyone else is willing to put into it, it seems.

 

[migles]

today i just wanted to try pokemon mistery dungeon, and its just another 32 mb rom with this problem

i really hate this thing now... i hope krittz is working on the gba card and launches it soon...

so far:
riviera
pokemon mistery dungeon
mother 3
spyro is a 32 mb rom but with free space (if you check with hex editor there is free space), this one works fine...

more roms to ad to the list?

 

[student]

the rom has been patched with EZ4_Client?

 

[BobWoggle]

I think, And I'm not entirely sure, so don't quote me on this, but I think It may be due to having EXACTLY 32MB of NOR storage, combined with something taking up that last Mb not getting properly erased/formatted.
I'm probably wrong here, and I don't know how I would go about testing or fixing it, but every for combination of ROMs of various sizes adding up to 32 MB that I've tried, the game that tries to use that last Mb of storage is always the one that gets stuck. Any ideas?

 

[TecXero]

It could also be caused by a bad sector somewhere. In the end, it's a minor inconvenience, so chances are we won't see anyone willing to put in the time and effort to determine what's causing it, much less fix it. The renaming trick should prevent save issues. As long as it's not important data getting left out (if any is really being left out), there shouldn't be major issues. Even if it's images or audio getting left out, the worst that might happen is a corrupted sprite might show up or an audio pop, but should still run fine otherwise.