GBA EZ Flash Omega: Not Saving and Firmware Does Not Update Alongside Kernel

[CasualCheetah]

Hello,
I've come across a few issues during my first day with the EZ Flash Omega and was wondering if anyone could lend me a hand.

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First off, games play just fine, but saving does not seem to work. A '.sav' file is created for each ROM I open, but no progress is retained after turning the console off and then booting the ROM again. (I've only been using clean boot).

I've found two other forum posts that were faced a similar issue but neither solution worked for me:

I've verified the integrity of the ROMs I've tested using a hasher and a repository of trusted ROM hashes as suggested in this post:
gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-omega-doesnt-save.605272/post-9729820
(Sry for the inconvenience, new forum users can't add links to posts)

I also tried updating the firmware again with nothing else but the 'ezkernel.bin' file on the SD card, but this changed nothing:
gbatemp.net/threads/help-needed-ez-flash-omega-definitive-edition-save-problems.601076/post-9625972

(On the subject of firmware...)
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Secondly, I am able to update the flash cart's kernel, but I have to do it in a slightly altered way that also ignores updating the firmware for some reason.

While in Update Mode, the flash cart is looking for 'ezkernelnew.bin' instead of 'ezkernel.bin' as it normally should.

If I rename the existing 'ezkernel.bin' file to 'ezkernelnew.bin', then it will start and complete the kernel update. However, it does not prompt for a firmware update afterward, which leaves me using firmware v4 alongside kernel v1.09 from the most recent release.

It's my hope that fixing this firmware issue will resolve the first problem regarding the ability to save games.

Any thoughts on what I can do to fix this?

 

[Takokeshi]

What if you kept two copies of the kernel, one at ezkernel.bin and one at ezkernelnew.bin?

I don't know the ezflash omega at all, so I'm shooting in the dark here, but it's possible it's looking for ezkernel.bin for the firmware update, and because it's not there anymore (because it was renamed), it just skips.

Otherwise: are you sure you're using an ezflash omega, *not* definitive edition? DE expects ezkernelnew.bin, and it is *not* the same download as for ezflash omega non-DE. That may be the problem here.

 

[CasualCheetah]

What if you kept two copies of the kernel, one at ezkernel.bin and one at ezkernelnew.bin?

I don't know the ezflash omega at all, so I'm shooting in the dark here, but it's possible it's looking for ezkernel.bin for the firmware update, and because it's not there anymore (because it was renamed), it just skips.

Otherwise: are you sure you're using an ezflash omega, *not* definitive edition? DE expects ezkernelnew.bin, and it is *not* the same download as for ezflash omega non-DE. That may be the problem here.

Based on the box the flash cart arrive in and the page I ordered it from, I'm was fairly certain that the version I had received was just the default EZ Flash Omega. Upon inspecting the actual cartridge, turns out that it was actually the definitive edition.

Can't believe I missed something like this. (It's honestly pretty embarrassing.) Guess I hadn't given any thought to that possibility. I updated the cart using the correct 'exkernalnew.bin' and saving seems to be working as intended now. Thanks a ton for pointing this out!

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Based on the box the flash cart arrive in and the page I ordered it from, I'm was fairly certain that the version I had received was just the default EZ Flash Omega. Upon inspecting the actual cartridge, turns out that it was actually the definitive edition.

Can't believe I missed something like this. (It's honestly pretty embarrassing.) Guess I hadn't given any thought to that possibility. I updated the cart using the correct 'exkernalnew.bin' and saving seems to be working as intended now. Thanks a ton for pointing this out!

Looks like you made a windfall. The dealer will have to pay a little price for his lack of careful checking before shipping.