Hacking GBA Games Not Loading

[araman]

So I've done a fair amount of searching on this forum trying to look for my answer and it won't come up anywhere, so I hope someone can help and sorry if any of this comes off as newbish, but that's what some of this is to me, new

I recently upgraded from an M3 DS Simply to an M3 DS Real and most everything has been working just fine, but I cannot, for the life of me, get things to work with GBA games with the Expansion Pack I also purchased (M3/G6 Real Expansion Pack) along with the Real. Loading a game using the M3 system menu gets it as far as the Game Boy boot screen and then it just freezes up. I did also search around and find information on GBA ExpLoader and got the 0.58 patched version of this to allow the M3 to work, but when I load this, I get a message stating "The hardware is not available", so a dead end there as well.

Can anyone assist with this and help get me up and running? I'm at a complete loss and this community seems the best place to get answers, so thanks in advance if you can help.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Sometimes you have to leave it in the DS and charge the DS overnight to get the battery on the M3 GEP working.

If that doesn't work, you might have gotten a defective one.

If your gonna use gba exploader you have to use a patched version, Roudolph banned M3 slot1 carts from using the loader.

Find the patch in the download section.

 

[araman]

As I stated in my OP, I did find information about the gba exploader patched version to work around Roudolph's ban (0.58X) and have this on my cart, but the problem is the same "The hardware is not available".

I will try charging overnight and hopefully that will get the juices flowing...

Thanks for your help. Let me know if there's anything else you know of that I can try.

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

has this been resolved?
if not you may want to try using compressed air on slot 2 maybe there is some dust interfering with the connection.

you could also unscrew the gba expansion and make sure it is sitting in the case correctly and make sure that it is indeed the gba expansion and they didn't rip you off and throw a rumble pack inside the gba expansion case.
The main difference you will notice is a backup battery inside the gba expansion, mine has a yellow rubberized jacket covering it, yours might be different but it should be a coin cell battery inside the gba expansion pack...if there is none then either it's a rumble pack or they sent you a broken one.

 

[evandixon]

I get a message stating "The hardware is not available",

If it wasn't detected, then it would say "Expanjsion Pack not found" or something similer.
Use GBAExpLoader 0.57.

 

[araman]

No, this has not been resolved. I have blown out the contacts (compressed air) on both the DS and the exp pack. No go.

Uncle, I checked the guts and it sure looks like a GBA Exp unit, and not a rumble pack. I have both and they most definitely look different, with the GBA Exp unit having the backup battery in the yellow jacket. One thing I did notice about said battery is that it looks like it has 2 contact points soldered on to the board, but only one has an arm coming up over the top of the battery. Should there be 2 arms? I wanted to take a pic to show, but my old digicam isn't focusing in macro mode, doh

Unique - I read and was told here that 0.58x/b was the patched loader version for me considering M3 units were disabled by the author. Can someone please confirm the right version for me? ExpLoader is still giving me "The hardware is not available" error.

thanks guys

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

have you tried using it in another ds? if it doesn't work in another ds get the company you bought it from to send you a new gba pack.

you don't need to use exploader or any other program to run gba games with the m3real and the m3 gba expansion.

 

[DCG]

odd, when I started using the gba exp I hadent got any problem.
you might need to check the following things: 1: is the GBA game in the GBA folder in the root of the card?
2: have you got the most recent version of touchpod/sakura

 

[lilman4]

If you're using an M3 Real then you shouldn't need to use GBA ExpLoader as M3 Real comes with native support for the gba expansion pack. I have an M3 Real and the gba expansion pack in my DS Lite. I just copy .gba games into a "GBA" folder in the root directory, select the game in sakura, and it loads in a few seconds.

If you can get your hands on another DS you should try your setup on there and see if maybe the problem is with your DS and not with the flashcarts.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

If it is still not detectable after charging overnight in a DS, it was most likely a defective one. I ended up with 2 like that in the M3 bundle, had to buy replacement expansion pack seperate to replace them.


Some people prefer the use an external loader over the internal M3 loader because compatibility issues of some games, aka needing to either patch a game for save type or whatever.

 

[araman]

Upon further thought and review based on the information given here, I am going to chalk this up to a defective cart and get a replacement. I will circle back with my results once I have this in hand.

Thanks for all your help - great community you guys have here!