Hacking faulty m3i

[GhostToast]

damnit. waited for over 2 weeks to receive my m3i and the stupid LED won't light when i try to update it. and now i tried to just put it in the DSi (non-updated DSi) and it says no game card inserted.

this pisses me off greatly.

 

[rooker]

Make sure your inserting the usb power cord properly. Also it needs to be updated to be recognized by the DSi.

 

[GhostToast]

i tried it all sorts of ways. and why wouldnt it work out of the box? the new firmware is just for combating the DSi firmware's upgrade, which i'll say again i didn't do yet (thank god, so i can still use my itouch2 while i wait for this to blow over)

 

[GhostToast]

so anyway, since i'm one of the most impatient people i know...
i'm dealing with dealextreme here. am i going to have to wait 4 weeks now? 2 to send this back to them and 2 for them to send me one back? or will they give me a refund so i can give up the crazy notion that i should order from them ever again and go ahead and satiate my insane gaming desires through another, closer (though more expensive) company?

 

[Archimdae]

I've always purchased my m3 reals from www.realhotstuff.com and usually they show up in a few days. 28 bucks for the card then 7.75 for shipping and tax (usps shipping). I live in Northwest Washington. I'd assume their M3 zeros would be just as quick.

I've purchased about 8 total at different times from them and never had a single problem. Then again that means I have no idea how their customer service is

.

 

[GhostToast]

its been 3 days and still no word from DX customer support on my support ticket. is it normal for them to take much longer than their claimed "24-48 hour support" ?

cause right now i feel like i've been hosed. and what is standard - will they have me ship one back, wait for it to arrive, and then ship me a new one? will they just give me a refund?

 

[Escape]

did you try writing it on their forum?

 

[Leonidas]

i tried it all sorts of ways. and why wouldnt it work out of the box? the new firmware is just for combating the DSi firmware's upgrade, which i'll say again i didn't do yet (thank god, so i can still use my itouch2 while i wait for this to blow over)

New m3i zeros are blank cartridges, aka they are not recognized until you flash them. You have most likely received a faulty cable which needs to be replaced, otherwise you have an useless piece of plastic.

 

[dsrules]

make sure that the usb power cable arrow of pointing at the bottom of the M3Real, not the top

 

[rockstar99]

do you have a micro sd in it with fcore

 

[GhostToast]

yep. i followed the directions in the pdf. i have the microSD in, it has F_CORE.DAT and nothing else. tried it with the system folder too. and yes the gold side is right-side up. theory is that the cable might not be making contact with the internal bit on the M3i unit. i'm contemplating disecting my cable like this guy:

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?s=&showto...t&p=2143048.

 

[meteora91]

"The M3i Zero comes without any firmware. So to make it work, you should download these files:
http://down.gbalpha.com/GBalpha/Softwares/F_CORE.zip
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=4808
Extract both these files with WinRar.
Now connect your MicroSD to your PC, via a MicroSD reader or a SD adapter.
Now place the file “F_CORE.dat” , that’s the file that was in the first link, to the root (so not in a folder) of your MicroSD.
In the second link, there was a folder called “SYSTEM” and a Readme.txt file. The .txt file can be deleted.
Copy the “SYSTEM” folder to the root of your MicroSD.
So if you done this correct, there should be 2 things on the root of your MicroSD now: F_CORE.dat and the SYSTEM folder."

From the M3i Zero Review, you're missing the system folder i think.

 

[GhostToast]

system folder is irrelevant. that's the software firmware. not to mention i tried it with AND without that folder. the only thing you should need is the f_core.dat to make the m3i zero become an active card.

so DX finally wrote me back and said "action required", suggesting i try using just the f_core.dat... and that i post on forums and stuff to get more info. which of course i've done. this was this morning. only 6 days after i contacted them initially. i hope to god it doesn't take this long to get my next response back.

edit: also, if it were a matter of having the wrong files on the card, the LED would be solid, not off.

 

[pdocquier]

faulty cable, faulty sd slot, faulty card, faulty faulty faulty ! Dammed !
I really curoius to know the percentage of poeple having a faulty card against M3izero sells !

 

[loading]

i don't know how experienced you are with electronics but i'd check the voltage between the two pins at the end of the cable. it thats the problem you might be able to fix it yourself and speedup the process.

 

[GhostToast]

update: FINALLY got DX to RMA the order. had to send it back to their place in florida, and once they got it, they started sending me the new one. which is currently sitting in hong kong. i ordered this thing a month ago. still waiting. will update when i get the new one. hopefully it works

 

[jackryan]

Sounds like I'm having the same problems as you.

 

[GhostToast]

ok so i finally got package numero dos from deal extreme. it was slightly more crushed than the first, but i noticed inside the actual box that the plastic shell which holds the bits has been altered since the last failed unit i received. the cord you use to do the flashing of the kernel was actually in a more form-fitting hole in the plastic. the previous package, the thing was jammed into a rectangular hole. in this one, the USB-head was sitting in a USB-head sized opening, with a canal for the cord, leading in a U shape to an impression the same size/shape as the other end of the cord. which is good, as it seemed that the cord was not able to move at all during shipping, meaning the frail little bit that goes into the actual m3i device was secured.

so since i dont normally bring my DS to work everday, i thought i'd just plug it into the USB power to see if it lights up (cause it should do that at least). and it did. so that's good. i'll try and install the firmware/kernel stuff this evening and hopefully will be reporting back saying that everything is good.

 

[GhostToast]

it works.
+1 point to DX