Hacking Is there any way to disable R4's autostart?

[Shbek]

This has been driving me crazy. I have an R4 and a M3 Lite. The R4 is for DS games, the M3 is for GBA games. But in order to play GBA games, I have to pop the R4 out of the DS, power on, then stick it back in. Is there any way to disable the R4's autostart so that the DS just goes to the "maunal mode" menu and allows you to pick between slot 1, slot 2, and pictochat?

 

[HipN]

You can boot slot-2 from the R4.

Main menu for the R4 is:

R4 Games - Moonshell - Slot-2 (GBA)

 

[Shelleeson]

i wasn't quite sure how a slot 2 solution worked but it certainly worked for a GBA game when i tried it this morning.

 

[Shbek]

I would, but that drains the battery faster because the DS is using both slot 1 and slot 2. I'm at school from 8am to 10pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, with several long breaks in between classes (2-3 hours each. Meh.), and I ususally play my DS during those breaks. If I use the R4 to boot slot 2, it dies half way through my second break

 

[xcalibur]

Try hlding select, i have no experience with an R4 as im still waiting for min e to arrive but holding select works when you have a rgular game in the ds
it should take you to the bootscreen

 

[Destructobot]

The only way to keep the R4 from booting automatically is to remove it from the DS.

 

[mcp2]

You could always flash your DS.

I think I sound stupid saying this because I'm not sure if the M3 Lite needs a passcard.

 

[Shelleeson]

Try hlding select, i have no experience with an R4 as im still waiting for min e to arrive but holding select works when you have a rgular game in the ds
it should take you to the bootscreen

nah this would have you just changing the theme if you had the 12 themes in a folder like i do.

 

[Lukeage]

Try hlding select, i have no experience with an R4 as im still waiting for min e to arrive but holding select works when you have a rgular game in the ds
it should take you to the bootscreen

nah this would have you just changing the theme if you had the 12 themes in a folder like i do.

No, with flashme, that boots slot 2 directly if held when powering on the DS.

 

[jwcgator]

Set the DS to automatic startup mode, and hold B when starting up the DS.

Should work.

EDIT: Just tried it and it works (I tried it with MKS in slot 1 because I have Flashme v8a noauto, and you can only boot GBA Flashcarts with the "hold select" thing)

 

[superrob]

Nope doesnt work.

 

[jwcgator]

Nope doesnt work.

It definitly should, I just did it lmao. I looked it up in a Nintendo DS FAQ.

 

[4saken]

You tried it with a game, not an R4. I don't think they designed for DS to work with that function on anything except a game.

 

[Shbek]

Man. Thats pretty stupid. I mean, its not a big deal to pop the R4 and start the M3, then pop it back in, but I hate auto mode as it is, and the R4 version of it is 10x worse

 

[bobrules]

Umm i have a solution, decide whether you are going to play gba for that day or Ds for that day.

 

[Rayder]

Generally, it's not a problem. Just select "boot slot2" and away you go. Especially with a retail GBA game. But occasionally, a GBA game on a slot2 flashcart (SCminiSD, in my case) won't boot when you select "boot slot2" on the R4 and the slot2 flashcart comes up in NDS mode instead of GBA mode.

I have two solutions for such occasions:

1. Yank the R4 prior to booting the problem game. Once you are in your GBA game or slot2 flashcart menu in GBA mode, plug the R4 back in.

2. Boot a GBA soft-resettable game, reset, which takes you back to the slot2 menu in GBA mode and then boot the game you originally wanted.



It really would be nice if the R4 had an option to auto-boot or just go to the DS menu. But to me, it's not that big of a deal. I can deal with it as is.

 

[jwcgator]

You tried it with a game, not an R4. I don't think they designed for DS to work with that function on anything except a game.

You idiot, read what I said. I said I tried it with a game because I HAD FLASHME NOAUTOBOOT, and if you had any knowledge about the subject at all you would know that it automatically boots the flashcart in slot 1 on boot (faster than on Auto). If I still had the regular DS Firmware it would have done the same thing (booted to GBA before it booted the slot 1 while holding B).

 

[Destructobot]

That has nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

The R4 has the autoboot bit set in it's hardware. It will always boot up immediately when you start the DS with the R4 inserted. It does NOT behave like a standard DS game.

There is no button you can hold, and no setting you can change that will alter that behavior.

 

[jwcgator]

Actually I think I have the best solution yet:

Install Flashme v8a Noautoboot, and hold select while booting the DS!

 

[Destructobot]

If the goal is to get the most playtime per battery charge, there are only two real solutions.

The first is to only have one cart plugged in at a time. If the M3 is plugged in while you play games on the R4, it will drain the battery faster. If the R4 is plugged in while you play games on the M3, that will also drain the battery faster.

The other option is to turn the screen brightness down. Turning the brightness down one level could get you as much as 2 hours more life from the battery.


Edit: Actually, there's a third option: don't use flashcarts. Retail DS and GBA games draw less power than flashcarts, so you get more life out of the battery.