Hacking ezflash omega is terrible - freezing, lost saves, corrupted cards

diversionmary

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Received ezflash omega last weekend, upgraded to k1.02/fw4 out of the box.

Experienced significant freezing in Pokemon emerald while using clean boot, with a freshly formatted 32GB/fat32/32kb sector microsd. Used it anyway, saving after every encounter. One night I powered off too quickly, and it's all been downhill from there. I lost the whole microsd card. It created a 2.9GB file in the saver folder with a moon symbol, dollar sign symbol, moon symbol as the file name. It would no longer read that card even after a quick format. It only read it after a low level.

I didn't trust that microsd so I moved to an 8GB class4, same fat32/32kb.

I've been able to play, but my save files keep complaining about corruption, and now I can't save at all on a ds lite. I low-leveled my original 32GB with sdformatter.exe and not only will it not save, it froze in the ezflash OS before even loading a game!

Things I've tried:
  1. Low level format via OS
  2. Low level format via sdformatter.exe
  3. Multiple microsd, all fat32/32kb
  4. Kernel 1.02/fw4
  5. Kernel 1.01/fw3 downgrade
  6. Clean ROMs w/ clean boot
  7. ROMs from other locations
I HIGHLY suggest you look at a different flash card if you haven't purchased the omega already. I don't know what else to do. I'm extremely disappointed. My ezflash4 has been rock solid, except no RTC
 

diversionmary

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The first one was a Kingston 32GB HC/UHS1, second is some no-name. I have many cards and am happy to try any of them. Have you seen this forum? Multiple people reporting issues with the omega, do they all have crappy mem cards too?
 

kuwanger

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My suggestion is to clean the contacts between the GBA and the EZ Omega. I too had Kingston cards and issues. Since going to a 4GB Sandisk I haven't had issues (except freezes I think due to dirty contacts). My guess is the contacts are tighter in the EZ-Omega, so any dirt/grease will be smeared across the surface and hence more likely to result in intermittent contact. Also, I had the most issues with a 64GB exFAT card. My guess is that either there's more stability issues with the larger cards or it's having an effect on the write speed--maybe due to more clusters resulting in more time to recalculate free space?

Whatever the cause, I'd recommend trying cleaning it. It might not help, as other people still seem to be having issues, but I'd suggest it to rule out the possibility.
 

migles

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The first one was a Kingston 32GB HC/UHS1, second is some no-name. I have many cards and am happy to try any of them. Have you seen this forum? Multiple people reporting issues with the omega, do they all have crappy mem cards too?
you are frustrated...
it's clear that the ez omega is having problems and the team has been trying to figure them out and i would like to see them fixed as fast as possible..
your point in this thread seems just to complain that the "card is terrible"
we all know the card is having issues and there is several threads about it, this one seems to be created out of frustration and i understand that, but yeah..

the card creating a 2.9GB save file with weird name, and having problems to format it. i would really say the micro sd card is a fake card or faulty one, that are usually the symptoms
do what i do with every storage thing nowadays: check it with h2testw
just takes some minutes and you will know for sure the card is ok

about trying diferent roms, pokemon emerald md5 checksum is: 605B89B67018ABCEA91E693A4DD25BE3
just make sure it's that one and its the good\clean one, doesnt matter where it comes
 
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diversionmary

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the card creating a 2.9GB save file with weird name, and having problems to format it. i would really say the micro sd card is a fake card or faulty one, that are usually the symptoms
do what i do with every storage thing nowadays: check it with h2testw

Will do, thanks! I'll clean the contacts, too. Yes, ezflash has no official support and I'm not sure where else to turn. /r/gameboy is the same as here, many dissatisfied people. I've also ordered a samsung evo 32GB.
 

kuwanger

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the card creating a 2.9GB save file with weird name, and having problems to format it. i would really say the micro sd card is a fake card or faulty one, that are usually the symptoms

While I wouldn't rule that out, directory structure corruption can cause totally nonsensical information, and a quick format may see the extant corrupt directory information and so the formater may complain and fail. I know I experienced similar problems with a 64GB Kingston I've had for a while which I'm certain isn't fake.

The frustrating part is, of course, we don't know where the problem is. Is it software or hardware? For example, the AG101 stuff with EU systems sounds like hardware, and it's easy for me to believe that the EZ-Omega being so tight and slight variation in construction of the different region models could mean contact issues. I really do hope they do the sound/text on successful write to microSD thing soon. That would at least narrow down the potential issue and give us an ability to record if there really is a major timing issue between different microSD cards.
 

EZ-Flash2

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I think this is to amplify a small problem, which may also have reasons for losing confidence in the product.
A terrible product refers which you can not see a single technical reply when you express your problem.

In the reports of our Chinese tester group, exfat format has higher tolerance to card corruption, please give it a try.

We are now actively interacting with users in the community, collecting each question and responding to each post
A new firmware is be refactored for release ASAP, do not lose the faith.
 

diversionmary

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My 32GB passed h2testw

Alright, I'll see what happens with the new 32GB coming in w/ exfat
 

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diversionmary

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Grabbed a 4GB Toshiba card from my 3DS while I wait for 32GB to arrive. Still using k1.01 fw3
 

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diversionmary

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I think this is to amplify a small problem, which may also have reasons for losing confidence in the product.
A terrible product refers which you can not see a single technical reply when you express your problem.

In the reports of our Chinese tester group, exfat format has higher tolerance to card corruption, please give it a try.

We are now actively interacting with users in the community, collecting each question and responding to each post
A new firmware is be refactored for release ASAP, do not lose the faith.

Alright, my 32GB Samsung EVO came in. I formatted exfat, I put on a clean rom that had the correct MD5 sum. I used a save file saved as soon as possible. Booted clean rom, loaded save file and let it sit. It froze within a half hour. This is with k 1.01, fw 3 on a DS Lite.

Edit: rebooted again, played for 30 minutes without a freeze. No corruption yet.
 

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Last edited by diversionmary,

diversionmary

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Switched from my DS Lite to a Micro then to an AGS-101. Have 5 hrs into this save and the AGS-101 just froze. Freshly charged battery, US region 101.
 

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