Hacking Freezing problem with the DSTT

[Chrissstopher]

Well, a while ago I got a DSTT and I could barely play games because they would always freeze. I could only get Tetris DS to work. Now I got a new MicroSD card and I can play more games for a longer amount of time, but it still freezes enough times to annoy me. For example, I can't get past the "New Character" stage on Pokemon Pearl. It always freezes some time before I can get a chance to save.

Any ways to reduce the freezing?

 

[Chrissstopher]

Aight, I've been playing with it for a few hours and no luck. I can now play games, but for only 5 minutes. Then they freeze. Honestly, this is pissing me off. I've reformatted, made sure my games are in a "games" folder, and I have enough space. I only have 4 games on my 2gb MicroSD card and it continues to freeze. So far, the only game that has worked without a hitch is Tetris DS. N+ works, but I have to restart the game when I choose a new level because it freezes when I do. Prof. Layton worked for a while. So did FFIV, Rune Factory 2, and a few others for 5 minutes, but then they freeze on me.

I got this MicroSD card today to replace the one I got with my DSTT. I don't want to keep buying a MicroSD card every time I get this freezing problem. It's proving to be a huge inconvenience.

 

[ball2012003]

what version do you have for the dstt and what box did it come in. it may be a fake or something

 

[kobykaan]

quite possible you could have a fake and used faker killer 1.16 kernel on there and it messed up your card

there is a solution to this though .. read this thread here any questions ask in that thread

good luck

 

[Bri]

Did you reformat using the Panasonic formatter? Do you use "safely remove hardware" before you remove the microSD card from your PC?

Have you checked your DSTT to see if it's a fake? If so, you'll want to recover it and put the patched firmware on it that disables the fake-killer code. All you need to test your DSTT, recover it, and prevent further problems are here: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=4086

-Bri

 

[Chrissstopher]

what version do you have for the dstt and what box did it come in. it may be a fake or something

Not a fake. I checked when I got it.

Bri: Yeah, I used the Panasonic formatter and the "safely remove hardware" option.
It is not a fake either. I haven't even gotten the latest firmware update, so it wasn't killed.
Currently putting a single game on to see if it'll play properly.

 

[Chrissstopher]

I reformatted the MicroSD once again and put only Rune Factory on it. So far so good. I'll play for a few more minutes then add another game. I'll continue this trend until I start freezing again. If not freezing, then great. If there is, then I'll be sad.

EDIT. Literally 30 seconds after I post this, Rune Factory freezes on me. Just fabulous.

 

[ball2012003]

where did you buy your sd card from maybe thats the problem

 

[Chrissstopher]

where did you buy your sd card from maybe thats the problem

SD card? I got it from Walmart. The first one I had was with a deal from Dealextreme. That one was crap. Bought this one. Slightly better, but annoys me even more.

It's like I play a demo of the game, then it stops and I'm tempted to play again to see if it'll go farther.

 

[kobykaan]

what version do you have for the dstt and what box did it come in. it may be a fake or something

Not a fake. I checked when I got it.

Bri: Yeah, I used the Panasonic formatter and the "safely remove hardware" option.
It is not a fake either. I haven't even gotten the latest firmware update, so it wasn't killed.
Currently putting a single game on to see if it'll play properly.

have you actually tested with the fake detector that's in the threads linked to above!?

just on the off chance and to make 100% sure

what are the symptoms of it freezing does it white screen and fade !? do you have trouble loading a rom!? do they load first time everytime and does it just freeze during a game?


does it freeze at the same spot every time during a game? or does it vary??

has it done this all the time or only recently since you last updated the firmware?

which firmware are you using!?

is the card formatted FAT or FAT32 if its FAT 32 then backup and try formatting as FAT and test again ..

lots of questions I know but it will help diagnose your situation

 

[Patmaster]

k, save all of your data on your desktop somewhere.

Go to My Computer and right click on your removable disk. Click format

Format it as FAT32 and Default allocation size. When it finishes, stick everything back on and it should be fine

I have DSTT too and it worked for me.

 

[Chrissstopher]

what version do you have for the dstt and what box did it come in. it may be a fake or something

Not a fake. I checked when I got it.

Bri: Yeah, I used the Panasonic formatter and the "safely remove hardware" option.
It is not a fake either. I haven't even gotten the latest firmware update, so it wasn't killed.
Currently putting a single game on to see if it'll play properly.

have you actually tested with the fake detector that's in the threads linked to above!?

just on the off chance and to make 100% sure

what are the symptoms of it freezing does it white screen and fade !? do you have trouble loading a rom!? do they load first time everytime and does it just freeze during a game?


does it freeze at the same spot every time during a game? or does it vary??

has it done this all the time or only recently since you last updated the firmware?

which firmware are you using!?

is the card formatted FAT or FAT32 if its FAT 32 then backup and try formatting as FAT and test again ..

lots of questions I know but it will help diagnose your situation

I checked it with the program. It's good. I have no trouble loading the rom, just in-game freezing.

When it freezes, it does just that. Sound stops, the screen freezes and keeps whatever was on it there until I turn the power off. At that point, soft reset does not work. And it varies as to when it freezes. Not always is it at the same parts. When I tried to play Pokemon Pearl, it would always freeze right after I had made my character and stuff. Now it's just randomly. It's done this ever since I got it.
Firmware is v1.15.
It is formatted FAT.

The only thing I can think of is when I enter a new area or something has to be loaded, it freezes. For example, if a cutscene is needed to be loaded, it'll freeze. If I try again and the cutscene works, it may freeze right in the middle of it. Other than that, I've done everything else.

 

[Bri]

I hate to say it Chrissstopher, but it sounds like you may have the dreaded contact problem. One other thing to try would be to use a different microSD reader. If you've tried with more than one, you can attempt to "fix" the contact problem with a piece of folded paper or cardboard or tape on the opposite side of the flash cart to help the contacts make contact. But your best bet is to return it for another one.

-Bri

 

[Chrissstopher]

I hate to say it Chrissstopher, but it sounds like you may have the dreaded contact problem. One other thing to try would be to use a different microSD reader. If you've tried with more than one, you can attempt to "fix" the contact problem with a piece of folded paper or cardboard or tape on the opposite side of the flash cart to help the contacts make contact. But your best bet is to return it for another one.

-Bri

But I don't get it. How can all other games except for Tetris DS fail me?
And what's the contact problem?

 

[Chrissstopher]

I hate to say it Chrissstopher, but it sounds like you may have the dreaded contact problem. One other thing to try would be to use a different microSD reader. If you've tried with more than one, you can attempt to "fix" the contact problem with a piece of folded paper or cardboard or tape on the opposite side of the flash cart to help the contacts make contact. But your best bet is to return it for another one.

-Bri

But I don't get it. How can all other games except for Tetris DS fail me?
And what's the contact problem?

After posting this, I took a piece of paper and did what you said to "fix" it. I'm going to probably look into a CycloDS, but for now this is a great temporary relief. It's been an hour or so and I'm still playing Rune Factory 2. No freezing at all.

 

[Bri]

That pretty much confirms that it's a problem with the contacts. That's a known problem that has plagued some DSTT's. There's no good solution for it, but any reputable store should know about the problem and should allow you to exchange it for a new flash cart.

If you're interested in features like real-time game state dumps and feel that they're worth the extra money, the CycloDS is a good flash cart to get. If you don't care so much about game state dumps (most people don't use them), consider the Acekard 2.1 which is only a few dollars more than the DSTT but has one of the best menus of any flash cart.

-Bri

 

[Chrissstopher]

Yeah, I was looking at the Acekard 2.1 and I really liked the menu and everything. Though for now this will be fine for me. I'm not going to need moonshell or anything like that because of my iPod, but the menu would be nice. Maybe a little down the road I'll get one. At the moment, I'm just happy that it works finally. Thanks a lot for your help Bri.

 

[kobykaan]

did you test formatting to fat32 see if it makes any difference as a last ditch attempt?

 

[Sarvesh50]

A whole time no problem and now again I think its has something to make with moonshell2

 

[Thantelius]

I have found that "Ultimate Mortal Kombat" doesn't works when it's executed from a 8GB SDHC card formated with a FAT32 filesystem, even if the card is reformatted, but using a 2GB SD card with a FAT16 filesystem run without any problem.

I've readed in different articles about an issue with the FAT32 filesystem, but SDHC cards are bigger than 4GB so it's not possible to format an 8GB card using FAT16 because the standard is limited to 4GB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT).

¿How the DSTT could support SDHC cards (up to 4TB) if the card has issues with the FAT32 filesystem even with the 1.17 version?

Also, i noticed that when i used the card recently unpacked, the operations of reading and writing were very quick, but later, when the card was formatted from Windows, read and write operations became extremely slow, now that i have used the Panasonic utility, the operations have become impressively fast.

But the behavior persists with the ROMS, I believe that the cause is associated to the file system instead of the type or speed of the card.