Hacking How did the FAT corruption thing present itself in 2.0s?

[LordLandon]

I received five ak's from DX today. One was the old shell, dark-green (forest green?) pcb while the other four were the new shell (non-spring loaded, not clipped), light green pcb. I'm suspecting that those four may be old AK 2.0s that have been referred to on these forums as "fixed". The oldshelldarkgreen cart seems to work perfectly, but those the lightgreen ones seem to be having issues... both the official firmware, and AKIO boot - once. After starting them once, and running a game (successfully), powering off the DS, and powering it back on, the cart boots but shows no images. Restarting again, it hangs on Loading. Looking at the contents of the microsd on my computer, the __folders seem inaccessable.

Is this the FAT corruption problem that plagued the original ak2's? Are my AK2's FUBAR or am I doing something wrong? Should I be complaining to DX about this or is this something I can fix?

EDIT: Okay, so it may not be as bad as I thought... and might be even just one of the carts! But now I've got an exciting NEW error! A red screen of death "Guru Meditation Error!" "data abort!" wonderful!

 

[kobykaan]

afaik it says FAT ERROR and goes no further .... the issue was with 2.0 unless they have re stickered them they will say 2.0 on the sticker the fixed ones have 2.1 on the stickers

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

If they are 2.0, it will not have any mention about versions on stickers. It will be only AceKard 2. The 2.1 will have it written on sticker.

And all pcb versions will be green around the contacts, but above them it can be dark green (2.0 versions and first 2.1), black (second version of 2.1) or blue (third version of 2.1).

My first acekard 2, it was 2.0, when died sometimes showed a lot of 0d0d0d strings after booting games when it entered at menu. But sometimes it showed "FAT Error" message straight from the boot.

 

[Taza]

Sounds like it's not a microsd but a microsdhc and you're doing something wrong if you don't use the Panasonic formatter for SDHC cards.

An Unwelcome Visitor from the East is perfectly normal with AKAIO these days nowadays.

 

[LordLandon]

I'm not getting the text "FAT ERROR", I'm not using an sdhc microsd (2gb kingston, jap) and I am formatting with the panasonic formatter. It seems that one cart is corrupting the __* folder... It's pcb is light green...

 

[Briankealing]

If you're seeing the Guru meditation error a lot, use the AK2 firmware as there is a less chance of getting it when compared to AKAIO.

 

[Taza]

If you're seeing the Guru meditation error a lot, use the AK2 firmware as there is a less chance of getting it when compared to AKAIO.

This is pretty much the most ignorant thing relating to Acekards I've ever heard on this forum.

The Guru Meditation is usually a write error - the AK2 firmware just hides it and freezes.

It's like saying you see BSOD a lot less when XP is set to reboot on error. Sure, you see the error screen a lot less but the problem is just as bad there.

 

[Another World]

does your ak2 have a chip on the back under the sticker? you will be able to see it in the light, and feel it if your run your fingers around it. if it does then it is a *fixed* ak2. if it doesn't its one of the forest green 2.1s, which were the later run after the black pcbs.

as for your edit.. the guru meditation error is a debugging tool norm added to help track memory out-of-bounds issues and stack dumps. you can report your findings to norm if you like by joining the irc chan #acekard on the gbatemp network. it appears that more people are having issue with the guru meditation errors than expected. it seems adding the debugging tool may be the cause of it. as a result it is being removed for the next release of akaio.

@taza: i could not agree more. people should spend more time asking the devs and less time reading topics and posting the first nonsense that comes from their keyboard.

-another world

 

[LordLandon]

Nope, there's no chip sticking out or anything. But they aren't the forest green ones, as I got one of those for comparison. These PCB's are *light* green...

But, the problem seems to be with just that one cart, it seems to be writing to the microsd improperly... I've written to DX about it already (= Thanks for your help, guys.

 

[Jdbye]

Kinda offtopic - but Guru Meditation Error is something they took from Amiga. I got it on my PC sometimes, and it freaked me out

Then after googling I found out it was just winamp. I didn't know AK2 had it too, they must have thought it was funny and added it.

Did it look anything like this?
If not, they did a bad job in copying it

 

[Another World]

Nope, there's no chip sticking out or anything. But they aren't the forest green ones, as I got one of those for comparison. These PCB's are *light* green...

But, the problem seems to be with just that one cart, it seems to be writing to the microsd improperly... I've written to DX about it already (= Thanks for your help, guys.

hi, i'm not trying to sound rude here but please make sure you don't have a chip. i found that the chip in my *fixed* ak 2.1 is very hard to see in any light. if you look at it in the right light you can just see it sticking out under the sticker. it is the lighter green pcb as well, thats why i'm curious if you have over looked the chip. also i would like to be sure the lighter green pcbs aren't being produced as the new 2.1s (for something i'm writing).

good luck on getting a replacement!

cheers,
-another world

 

[LordLandon]

Just lifted the sticker to be sure: no chip, light green pcb, new spring-less; clip-less shell.

 

[Another World]

that is very interesting. thanks for the info.

-another world

 

[skc]

Anyone know the HW version of 2.0, 2.0 fixed and 2.1 AK card?