Hacking Is my M3 GBA Expansion Pack defective?

[SamusKnight2K]

Recently I purchased a M3 GEP (GBA Expansion Pack) from Kick Trading and it arrived in today's mail. I'm having problems with it and it has me wondering if the thing is defective or not... Using GBA ExpLoader v0.58b (Seeing as it's the only version that supports M3 as I've read.) the thing just locks up. Contents of my SD card won't show up at the top at all.Buttons don't work, it just loads then freezes. I've tried using it with an Acekard 2i using the latest AKAIO firmware (AKAIO 1.7.1) and with a Supercard DSONE with the eOS v1.0 firmware. In both instances it does the same thing. I've even tried using this one program meant for scanning RAM (memtestARM) for slot-2 devices but it just says no slot-2 device exists on either flashcart. My DSLite does read the card, it says a DS Option Pak has been inserted. And in GBA ExpLoader it recognizes it as an M3/G6 device automatically entering SDRAM mode. But from there nothing else happens. Here's some photos I snapped using my DSi...

Top Screen

Bottom Screen

I'm really hoping it's not defective, otherwise I'm out 27 bucks... Poor shipping job Kick Trading did (bubble envelope didn't protect the box from being smashed inside it and breaking one of the extra housings in half.) leaves me from wanting to do any business with them again.

EDIT: I forgot to mention during the first start up it did initialize the pack but just proceeded to freeze after that. I've also tried using a different version of the loader (v0.58b0_MX) but that just results in the same issue.

 

[OSW]

Mine has a contact issue IIRC that happened after a few months use.

Your issue sounds different, because GBA ExpLoader detects it, but it just doesn't work.

Since your product is brand new, they better replace it....

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

AKAIO doesn't run some homebrew programs without issues, gba exploader is one of them. The AKAIO team is not going to fix it any time soon, they want you to use the built in loader, only problem is that it can't use the M3 GEP, thats the rub. You can run gba exploader fine with the offical AK firmware.

Some M3 GEPs come with a slightly depleted battery, so it doesn't initialize all the way the first time around. To fix that, you have to charge your DS with the M3 GEP in the DS overnight. You might have to remove and insert and power on the DS with the M3 GEP a few times before gba exploader picks it up correctly.

If your DS can detect it as a DS Option Pak, it is a good sign that it isn't defective.

 

[SamusKnight2K]

Some M3 GEPs come with a slightly depleted battery, so it doesn't initialize all the way the first time around. To fix that, you have to charge your DS with the M3 GEP in the DS overnight. You might have to remove and insert and power on the DS with the M3 GEP a few times before gba exploader picks it up correctly.

Thanks for that insight, I wasn't aware of that part. The M3 GEP is being recognized now even with memtestARM, I just had to plug the DS back in and it worked. Guess the battery was completely depleted. Anyway I'm trying that moonshell version of ExpLoader to see if that will change anything. But if worse comes to worse I'll just use the Supercard instead. Seeing as I have a DS and a DSi the Supercard is used for that and my Acekard 2i for the DSi.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

The M3 GEPs that have the slightly depleted battery are usually those that came with the M3 Real bundle. If you got the GEP by itself, it must have been sitting on the shelf for a while before they sold it to you.


Otherwise, it should be working and the directories should be detectable like below:

Spoiler