Hacking GBA Saving with Cyclo Firmware

[the_rhino_uk]

After getting the CycloDS firmware working to reconise the GBA ROM's on my SD card I gave one a go and it worked fine (mario advance 2). So I saved the game and tried again to see if it had kept the save game and it hadn't

Is this normal? I am using a EZ 3 in 1 cart in slot 2 and assumed that it would create a .sav for the GBA game?

Am I doing something wrong? The cyclo site claims the new firmware's GBA support it much improved so I hoped I wouldn't need to have to use a loader.

Does anyone have any ideas / advise / suggestions?

 

[the_rhino_uk]

I thought I had worked it out as I had not created a GBA_SAVE folder on the SD cards root but I have now and its still not saving / keeping the save files

Help!

 

[DeMoN]

Try using the GBA Exploader and see if the saves work. If not, then there's likely a problem with your EZ-Flash's battery.

 

[the_rhino_uk]

Bugger, looks like you are right

(

I chucked on the GBA loader and tried SMA2 again and saved the game and then turned the DS off. Started up again and loaded up the game and there wasn't a sav file to pick and nothing appeared in the game. Out of interest why doesn't it create the sav game on the slot 1 SD card? Is it 'cos the sav file should be stored on the slot 2 (using the battery) and then its copied over when you turn off the console? Is that right?

I guess the battery is knackered (which is crap considering I just bought it). Can you change the batteries in these things (is so what type do I need) or do I just need to get another 3 in 1??

 

[the_rhino_uk]

Right, done a bit more reading today and I am assuming my battery was knackered (which is crap but I guess they don't come with very powerful / long lasting batteries or something).

Anyway I got annoyed and decided to attack it with a screw driver / soldering iron / knife to get the old battery out! Got the old one out and I tried to just in a 3v battery from my car alarm fob but it was too big. I am sure I have a spare, and slimmer, 3v battery at home so I am going to chuck that in and see if things get better. I had to shave away a bit of the casing as they are wider version batteries but I think that's the way forward so I can increase the lifespan. Getting the old battery out is a bit of a mission as it is soldered onto wafer thin aluminium contacts and I did one ok but one came free (had to solder it back on).

Either way I guess I will get some sort of answer when I fit a new battery!

 

[JabbaFlap]

Nicely done I looked at my EZ 3-1 and see a fat yellow battery in it. I don't get why they soldered it in though why not use a spring contact like on a PC CMOS lithium cell ?
GBA Saves go in the GBA ROM's directory and are named after the title, so its working ok for me so far

 

[DeMoN]

Where did you buy your EZ-Flash from? Check if there's a return policy, don't mess around with it by trying to change the battery yourself.

 

[the_rhino_uk]

Well its all sorted!

Got home last night and managed to find a slimmer battery (a CR2016) and fitted it in with some insulation tape. At first the battery would touch the cartridge contact points so I covered the front half of the battery with tape and also fixed it in place underneath and above the battery contact points.

Annoyingly the case was now bulging a bit and I could fit it into the DS (not without it bowing under pressure) so I took the case off and just plugged it into the DS with cover on just to see if it would work. AND I am happy to say it did!! GBA games fire up fine using Cyclo (in SRAM and NOR) and the saved. The big moment was would it back them up when I turned it off and low and behold it did. Turned on the DS and fired up Cylco and it showed a message saying it was backing up SRAM. Went back to the GBA game and the save game was there!!

Excellent!

I just needed to sort the EZ case out. It was late last night so I had another look at it today and took the battery / tape out and used some normal selotape instead as it thinner. I started off by sticking some tape over the bottom side of the battery (the half would face down towards the RAM memory). It covered half the battery so the bottom contact would touch the battery but the rest would not come into contact with the cartridge points. I then cut the tape around the edge of the battery (in a circle) and folded up the excess to cover the edge of the battery.

I then sat the battery down into position and secured it using a small square of insulation tape on the top contact to hold it into place. Then I, gently, lifted up the battery and cut a couple of small squares of insulation tape and stuck one on the top of the RAM memory and one to hold the battery contact to the battery. I actually put another sqaure peice of tape on top of the RAM memory as I found it pushed the battery to the roof of the cartridge (which keeps it more away from contact points).

And that was it! I had already shaved away the casing to allow the battery to fit when it was closed. I glued one side down and screwed in the other and it works fine and goes into the DS without any problems!

With any luck not only is this now sorted but this battery will give me a longer life span.

 

[the_rhino_uk]

Oh to answer DeMoN I bought my EZ flash frome consoleplus.co.uk and did send them an email saying my cartridge was buggered and to be fair to them they said they would be happy for me to send it back and they would replace / repair.

Thing is after doing a lot of reading about this problem I was fairly sure that the battery was the problem and that the ones that they come with don't seem to last anyway. With the thought of having to pay of postage to send it back and also the chance they would just repair mine and return it to me I though sod it and would have a go at trying to replace the battery.

Glad I did now 'cos (fingers crossed) it seems to be working fine and the rumble still works!