Hacking Flashme with EZ Flash 3-In-1

[_V1qY]

I have a DS Lite that wont read games, well, if you put a game in, it wont read it, but if you hold a game really hard, in, it will. I also have an EZ Flash 3-In-1.

Once flashme has booted, and says press XBXB to continue, is the whole thing loaded into the RAM? So, I could take out the M3 and it would still work?

Assuming yes, if I do this, will I be able to convert a .nds ROM into a .nds.gba ROM and store it onto my EZ Flash 3-In-1 using Rudolph's GBA Exploder?

So, basically, can I remove the flashcard, after Flashme has booted? And can I store an NDS ROM on an EZ-Flash-3-In-1?

 

[FAST6191]

Eh..
Theoretically yes on both counts but some times the thing will crash if you remove the cart and also theoretically there could be some more to load.

Personally I would consider fixing it instead. Step one would be to remove the battery and squirt some contact cleaner (go for the consumer electrical stuff rather than automotive) in there as it might be a simple issue like that. After that you probably do get to solder a new one in, fortunately they are readily available (amazon has them for £2.50). It should be a simple enough fix if someone can solder though I do suggest snipping the pins rather than trying to desolder them (the traces are not held on the best on the DS/DS lite).

NDS ROM. You might be able to do something with loadme, ]{ain's patcher (both of which will not work on games much past games released after mid 2006 if you are lucky) or maybe even EZ4Client (would get you into mid 2009). You would be better off with DS homebrew though, or indeed getting an EZ4 or something like it (the supercards are not bad for DS stuff).

 

[_V1qY]

Thanks for your answer. I fixed the cartridge slot though, all it needed was some blowing and love... That sounded naughty.

 

[_V1qY]

OK, so the cartridge slot broke again.

I did something really clever.

- I used DSBUILD from DevkitArm to convert my .nds ROM into a .ds.gba ROM.
- I used a clamp to ensure that the cartridge was in place firmly, then installed FlashMe v8a on the broken DS Lite.
- I then used my good DS Lite to flash the .ds.gba ROM to the EZ-Flash-3-In-1 in NOR mode.
- Then I booted the 3-In-1 from Slot 2 on the broken, flashme'd DS Lite.

So I can play DS games from the GBA slot using my 3-In-1!

I have so far it has only worked for homebrew, but maybe if I try trimming and stuff I can get commercial ROMs to work.

FAST6191

 

[FAST6191]

Not bad.
Trimming will do nothing. The only way to have them work is to patch them to read from the GBA slot instead, the only standalone patchers are ndspatcher ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/nds-rom-patcher-released.27468/ ) and loadme ( http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/index.php?title=LoadMe ) and neither are that useful these days, there are a handful of standalone patches too (here is one for new super mario brothers -- http://www.4shared.com/zip/eFI4seSe/nsmbpatch.html ).

 

[_V1qY]

Thanks! Mario 64 is working, just about to try saving. Shame Mario Kart DS wont work.

EDIT: Saving is not working.

EDIT: Got saving working.

Still can't get Mario Kart DS working though; I wish there were a patch for it.

 

[FAST6191]

There was a fixed version I think, all the flash carts I had at the time all released fixes of various forms but "Mario_Kart_DS_Patched_Thanksgiving_Day_Present_USA_NDS-WRG" should have been it.

 

[_V1qY]

Thanks, I am now no longer getting white screens; now I get the error "Unable to load data.\nTurn the power off and\nreinsert the Game Card.".

Any other patched Mario Kart ROMs I can try? FAST6191

 

[FAST6191]

That sounds like save issues rather than ROM running issues.
By this point the flash cart teams had stepped up, there were not exactly many hackers doing this sort of thing and that combined to mean there was not a lot going on.

If you have a commercial DS game with the save save size as Mario Kart then you can try forcing that into your DS slot and seeing if it works properly (it will overwrite your commercial game's save by the way). If that is the case you might be able to try using the EZ2 or EZ4 patches (it is a bit late now so I will have to make an EZ2 one in the morning, the EZ4 one you should be able to run as it is just software).

 

[_V1qY]

Having the real game in slot 1, makes it work. So the ROM must be loading data from slot 1 instead of slot 2.

How can I SRAM patch this?

 

[FAST6191]

By data I assume you mean save data because that is what it usually is.

Patching
You can try EZ4client
http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flashcart-files/download-ez4-client-2009-04-03-f31119.html

I could try making an patch from the EZ2 loader but I am on VNC right now and it is sitting on top of the computer which will make that difficult.

Realistically though it is time to buy a new slot or a GBA slot flash cart with some actual DS capabilities.

 

[_V1qY]

Did you mean patching the already patched ROM, or patching the clean ROM?

 

[_V1qY]

Just tried patching, same error as before.

 

[FAST6191]

just come here to find how to fix the broken slot but find something unclear.

There is not much to fixing a DS slot. First thing to do is look down it and see if any pins are bent, if they are you can try bending them back but be warned they can snap/fatigue.
Step 2 if they not bent is to squirt them with electrical (not automotive) contact cleaner, force dry it with canned air if you can but no worries if not.

After that you are looking at replacing the slot in question. They go for next to nothing on all sorts of sites. They are fairly small pitch surface mount devices so you will want someone that can solder to do it. I also suggest snipping the pins rather than desoldering the whole thing as the traces are not the best on the DS/DS lite.

The DS and DS lite have the same socket.

The DSi and DSi XL/LL have the same socket but different to the DS and DS lite.

The 3ds has a different one again though I have never replaced one of those.


What _V1qY was trying to do was force the DS to boot DS games from the GBA slot. They have to be patched to do this though and nobody really bothered to do it past mid 2006 as far as generic patches went. Some flash cart teams lasted until 2009 though.