Hacking I'm losing my mind

[cogitech]

I've used the search function and can't find anything that helps.

I've got 3 new Acekard 2 carts (2.1) here and they are all behaving the same way. AKAIO loads fine and I can see the roms. Some of the roms even load and run fine, but only until the game attempts to do a write to the card, then it freezes.

Some games run fine for a while if they don't need to do any writes. Some games lock up on loading because they are attempting to write. Some games load fine, then lock up as soon as I choose a language or enter my name.

It is like every time a game needs to do a write, blammo, I'm fucked.

Any ideas?

 

[Deleted-119707]

asdasdasd

 

[cogitech]

Formatted with the Panasonic utility...

 

[cogitech]

It's odd. Some games seem to be working perfectly now (after making no changes). Others still don't work right.

Maybe some of the roms are screwed up...

 

[penthaler]

Latest loaders?
btw. Today is rls day of AKAIO 1.5.1 and loaders 1.1.2010, so try this... btw. some games should work in another DMA mode (after starting the game with A - press and hold X --- loading sign will change color)

 

[TrolleyDave]

Is your card full?

 

[Jasper07]

Is your sd-card compatible?
I'm not sure if there are any non-compatible sd-cards for the AK...

 

[cogitech]

Latest loaders?
btw. Today is rls day of AKAIO 1.5.1 and loaders 1.1.2010, so try this... btw. some games should work in another DMA mode (after starting the game with A - press and hold X --- loading sign will change color)

Thanks for this tip. I'll grab the latest AKAIO and loaders and see if it makes a difference. I read about the different DMA modes in the FAQ and tried it. It gets some troublesome roms to load to their initial plash screens, but then they lock up.

For example, 1343 - (Brain Age 2) loads to the splash screen and then freezes with the touch screen displaying a message to please wait while it writes to the card. It just sits there.

Posts merged

Is your card full?

No. It's a 2G Kingston and there is only about 300 megs used.

Posts merged

QUOTE(Jasper07 @ Jan 1 2010, 03:30 PM)

Is your sd-card compatible?
I'm not sure if there are any non-compatible sd-cards for the AK...

I'm pretty sure it is. The guy who sold me the AceKards sold me the SD cards as well.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Can you copy stuff to it from the PC without any problems? Try running a chkdsk on it.

 

[cogitech]

Can you copy stuff to it from the PC without any problems? Try running a chkdsk on it.

Yeah, copying from the PC (Linux) works fine.

I've just been doing some more testing and most games load fine now and play, but they can't save anything. New Super Mario starts at the beginning every time and Brain Challenge freezes as soon as it tries to save a player profile. Wierd thing is, the save files are there, on the card.

I should mention that 1 out of three of these AceKards is totally useless and needs to be exchanged. I cracked one open (found a confusing thread on clone AceKards) and mine looks like the type with a big, black, glob for a chip (and it has the click-type card slot).

 

[cogitech]

Interesting development!

I just reformatted and tried the latest version of AKAIO. Same problem all over again. Saves aren't working.

So, just for shits n' giggles, I removed AKAIO and tried the official AK firmware (4.21). Brain Challenge creates a profile no problem (ie. saves work!).

So, I wonder what the issue with AKAIO is?

EDIT: False alarm. I was able to create a user profile in Brain Challenge, but it somehow forgot it once I rebooted.

Is there a FAQ or howto around here on how to get games to save their data properly?

 

[cogitech]

Might this have something to do with savelist.bin?

I have no idea how I'm supposed to get that file.

This is really driving my kids nuts that all their games do not save anything.

I read a thread about Cyclo having "RTS" (Real Time Saves) and now I am totally confused about all this game saves shit.

Is there something I have to do while playing the game to make sure it gets saved? If it isn't RTS, then how do I save?

 

[TrolleyDave]

I don't know how AKAIO works well enough to know if it could be caused by the savelist.bin. You can update it through the Start menu though. Open the start menu, go to More options and there should be an option for WiFi updating. Open that up and you'll see an option top update the savelist.bin file as well was loaders and stuff. Make sure to update to 1.5.1 first though. And just for future reference you shouldn't really be triple posting, it's better to just go back and edit your last post.

 

[cogitech]

I don't know how AKAIO works well enough to know if it could be caused by the savelist.bin. You can update it through the Start menu though. Open the start menu, go to More options and there should be an option for WiFi updating. Open that up and you'll see an option top update the savelist.bin file as well was loaders and stuff. Make sure to update to 1.5.1 first though. And just for future reference you shouldn't really be triple posting, it's better to just go back and edit your last post.

OK, thanks.

I think it has something to do with the way we are using the games. One of the games asked my daughter if she wanted to save (after conquering a castle in New SMB) and it saved it.

I'm sticking with the official firmware for now because it is working far batter than AKAIO 1.5.1 (which was freezing every time any game tried to do a write to the card.)

Maybe we just have to figure out how to force each game to save before exiting the game. Is there a standard button on the DS that you are supposed to use to save your settings/state in a game?

Sorry for the multiple posts, BTW.

EDIT:

I've now wasted $75 and 2 full days of my time on these POS cards. I think I'll cut my losses and buy the real thing. What a joke.

Any recommendations? Would DSTT be better for me? I want something that will work without all the hassles I've had over the past 2 days.

 

[cogitech]

Update bump, for anyone who is trying to find a simple cart solution for their DS.

I exchanged the AK2.1 cards for DSTT cards and the DSTT cards work perfectly. All games loaded on the first try and are saving exactly as they should, with no effort on my part at all. The DSTT "just works".

 

[Another World]

I'm sticking with the official firmware for now because it is working far batter than AKAIO 1.5.1 (which was freezing every time any game tried to do a write to the card.)

coming from the person who basically wrote the akaio wiki and who has been an akaio beta tester since v1.2, you don't know what you are doing. akaio is far superior to the official firmware in every aspect. i can speak in great detail about why and how. if you were getting freezing issues it was user error, incorrectly formatted msd card, loader issues, rom problems, patching issues, or contact issues. all of which can be fixed with a few simple steps.

most of the problems relate to not using the panasonic formatter on your msd before setting it up. the rest relate to not keeping your install of akaio up-to-date. sadly contact issues are a problem with the cheap chinese manufacturing of the kits themselves. most flash linkers have a few duds in the group and you can find problems relating to build quality and contact issues with all linkers if you google for a bit.

acekard is the only company to offer a 1 year warranty on all of their kits. if you do have contact issues you can get a replacement from your dealer or from the acekard team themselves.

i've never had any of these problems, neither have any of the beta testers. we are the people that go crazy and TRY to break akaio.

RTS (real time save) is for saving anywhere at any time. its like save states on emulation. the cyclo does have it but it also has one of the worst msd slots on the market. i know more than 3 handfuls of people who have lost msd cards while using the cyclo. the dstt has more than a few clones and some of which can cause serious problems.

my point is that all cards have issues but the firmware can usually make the experience worth while. akaio is the best firmware on the scene (regardless of a few gimmick options the cyclo team offers). if you still have your acekards its worth trying to debug the problem and get them up and running.

you can stop by #acekard on the gbatemp irc network. i would be glad to help you, as would most of our beta group.

-another world

 

[cogitech]

I'm sticking with the official firmware for now because it is working far batter than AKAIO 1.5.1 (which was freezing every time any game tried to do a write to the card.)

coming from the person who basically wrote the akaio wiki and who has been an akaio beta tester since v1.2, you don't know what you are doing. akaio is far superior to the official firmware in every aspect. i can speak in great detail about why and how. if you were getting freezing issues it was user error, incorrectly formatted msd card, loader issues, rom problems, patching issues, or contact issues. all of which can be fixed with a few simple steps.

most of the problems relate to not using the panasonic formatter on your msd before setting it up. the rest relate to not keeping your install of akaio up-to-date. sadly contact issues are a problem with the cheap chinese manufacturing of the kits themselves. most flash linkers have a few duds in the group and you can find problems relating to build quality and contact issues with all linkers if you google for a bit.

acekard is the only company to offer a 1 year warranty on all of their kits. if you do have contact issues you can get a replacement from your dealer or from the acekard team themselves.

i've never had any of these problems, neither have any of the beta testers. we are the people that go crazy and TRY to break akaio.

RTS (real time save) is for saving anywhere at any time. its like save states on emulation. the cyclo does have it but it also has one of the worst msd slots on the market. i know more than 3 handfuls of people who have lost msd cards while using the cyclo. the dstt has more than a few clones and some of which can cause serious problems.

my point is that all cards have issues but the firmware can usually make the experience worth while. akaio is the best firmware on the scene (regardless of a few gimmick options the cyclo team offers). if you still have your acekards its worth trying to debug the problem and get them up and running.

you can stop by #acekard on the gbatemp irc network. i would be glad to help you, as would most of our beta group.

-another world

I appreciate your response and I have no doubt that you are right. The guy that sold me the AK2.1 cards was surprised I was having issues. I followed the wiki exactly as written (including running AKAIO 1.5 and 1.5.1 with the latest loaders) but many games would simply not save any data to the cards. I tried various different save types without success.

With the DSTT cards, I came home and had them up and running in less than 10 minutes and they have been working perfectly all day, on every game I've thrown at them. There's no such thing as "save types", it just works as expected.

The best part is, a noob like me can make them work. Maybe I was doing something wrong with the AK2.1 cards, but I simply don't have hours to burn trying to figure it out. I read in the forums that many people have this problem and nobody ever says what the answer is.

Anyway, thanks again for your offer of help, but I am now a very happy DSTT owner.

 

[Sharpz]

Anyway, thanks again for your offer of help, but I am now a very happy DSTT owner.

Your loss really. The AK2 is far superior to the DSTT, but whatever to each their own.

 

[macgeek417]

Weird, both mine and my brother's AK2i-s work.

 

[lolzed]

may i has your AK then