Hacking Issues with EZ Flash Omega

[daddu3]

Just bought this flashcart for the refurbished AGS-101 Model I bought due Everdrive GBA X5 feeling too costly. Games save all across the board proprly so far, but I've been noticing recurring compability issues right from the beginning as I'm testing it.

- Super Mario Land 2: Coin + 1up Sound won't play at all if I'm jumping at the same time. Can confirm this also happening on AGS-001 I'm still owning. In DS Lite, it plays properly though.

- Wario Land 3: Can't advance to first level at all, the game goes into white screen before booting me back to the title screen. Have to yet test on DS Lite.

EDIT: Can confirm it happens on DS Lite as well.

- LOZ: Link To The Past GBA (USA) won't advance past the beginning cutscene unless I boot to NOR-mode. In fact, most games exhibit similar gamebreaking or graphical issues like Pokemon Sapphire + Emerald, unless I boot them to NOR-mode.

As of late Pokemon Sapphire now boots to white screen upon Clean Boot, when before it used to boot in normally - in fact it does still so, only from NOR-Mode though. Trying out Multiboot boots it to having GBA Bios with no game cartridge inserted (as evidenced by lack of Nintendo-logo).

Kernel's up-to-date to 1.04 and Firmware 6, no ID errors when checking Safe Mode.

 

[kuwanger]

Clean the contacts on the EZ Omega. If you're still having problems with games not working with Clean Boot, I'd try to get a replacement.

 

[daddu3]

Clean the contacts on the EZ Omega. If you're still having problems with games not working with Clean Boot, I'd try to get a replacement.

Bought the rubbing alcohol today and cleaned as you told, yet these issues persist. Shame. I'm now sending a message to the seller on Ebay to request replacement. Probably got to get the mail packets for that ready.

My only woe is that since I have no way of knowing are these tested professionally that they all work properly before being sent, the seller might be sending another defective flash cartridge out of habit...

EDIT: Something to note: The issue with my Sapphire was mainly due getting corrupted after I got the error 4. Replaced the rom and it's working again (though in Clean Boot, it has a glitch where after looking the clock the game will freeze upon exiting.)

 

[kuwanger]

Well, I've had varying issues with some memory cards (slow ones) seemingly being randomly corrupt even if I wait 10 seconds before reboot/power off after doing a save; so, that's also something to check. I did have an issue with a game crashing with Clean Boot which was resolved with cleaning the contacts, but I've never actually used NOR for anything and wouldn't think the memory card would make a difference. Surprised that the game freezes when checking the clock since RTC is a hardware thing. That's one thing I actually like about the EZ Omega: although "Clean Boot" does do some patching for Anti-Piracy (and for a Fire Emblem game that saves every step you take) it's pretty close to "just works" without patching. I'm actually curious if the Everdrive GBA X5 does any patching or not. *shrug*

 

[daddu3]

Well, I've had varying issues with some memory cards (slow ones) seemingly being randomly corrupt even if I wait 10 seconds before reboot/power off after doing a save; so, that's also something to check. I did have an issue with a game crashing with Clean Boot which was resolved with cleaning the contacts, but I've never actually used NOR for anything and wouldn't think the memory card would make a difference. Surprised that the game freezes when checking the clock since RTC is a hardware thing. That's one thing I actually like about the EZ Omega: although "Clean Boot" does do some patching for Anti-Piracy (and for a Fire Emblem game that saves every step you take) it's pretty close to "just works" without patching. I'm actually curious if the Everdrive GBA X5 does any patching or not. *shrug*

Dunno what's going on my end exactly. As of late I've discovered more game-breaking graphical glitches with Clean Boot on Yoshi's Island, especially around title screen and not being able to select any level... still feeling it's the flash cart being defective than anything.

I already tried with 3 different SD-Cards (2 were old Kingston UHS-I ones, 4 GB and 16 GB, while the new one I bought now for it is 16 GB UHS-I from Sandisk). Dunno though if using UHS-I SD Cards would be the pattern though, unless other people report these cards have had issues with them too.

EDIT: Since we're talking about the NOR-mode atm, is it basically saving the games to some kind of flash memory in a way that thus avoids the flash carts itself within? Maybe that'd explain how games start to work properly -due not using faulty/defective components within my flash cart, instead of the flash memory.

 

[kuwanger]

EDIT: Since we're talking about the NOR-mode atm, is it basically saving the games to some kind of flash memory in a way that thus avoids the flash carts itself within? Maybe that'd explain how games start to work properly -due not using faulty/defective components within my flash cart, instead of the flash memory.

Yea, that was my gut feeling. The thing is the NOR and PSRAM are on the same chip, so that's rather bizarre. And obviously the ROM itself comes from the same microSD so that shouldn't be it. I just suggested cleaning contacts because that can cause intermittent problems that can make a false pattern appear. The same with if there was something intermittent about the microSD. But, yea, you've eliminated those as likely reasons. The only other idea I can think of is reflashing the kernel again, although it's unlikely that it wrote faulty the first time. That'll also verify the firmware (it checks the crc). Overall, I doubt any of this will fix anything, but it's something to trying.

 

[daddu3]

Yea, that was my gut feeling. The thing is the NOR and PSRAM are on the same chip, so that's rather bizarre. And obviously the ROM itself comes from the same microSD so that shouldn't be it. I just suggested cleaning contacts because that can cause intermittent problems that can make a false pattern appear. The same with if there was something intermittent about the microSD. But, yea, you've eliminated those as likely reasons. The only other idea I can think of is reflashing the kernel again, although it's unlikely that it wrote faulty the first time. That'll also verify the firmware (it checks the crc). Overall, I doubt any of this will fix anything, but it's something to trying.

Done that already few times, yet not difference at all.

On that end, something I wanted to observe:

This is supposedly the regular backside of the EZ Flash Omega-PCB.

Mine however looks like this:

Can this be an indicator probable poor quality of the flash card? Dunno which of these is these chips that uses PSRAM..

 

[kuwanger]

According to the docs it's the chip on the right. I don't think a little bit of smudging on the chips necessarily indicates it's bad. *shrug* I'm really not any sort of hardware expert, though.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

I think the rom files may be corrupted.clould you verify the rom hashes with the release list?

 

[daddu3]

I think the rom files may be corrupted.clould you verify the rom hashes with the release list?

Went all the way to verify and test the properly hashed roms prior making a topic, since I had seen other people have similar problems due having a corrupted rom.

I verified the hashes through Dat-O-Matic site, mainly with Wario Land 3, and Sonic Advance 2, and SMA3: Yoshi's Island - which have most glaring glitches and in case of WL3, saving issues.

As it appears, the sites I download roms from tend to have proper hashes:

https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?page=show_record&s=47&n=1292

https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?page=show_record&s=23&n=0890

https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?page=show_record&s=23&n=0578


I wanted to also ensure this isn't due my GBA model being defective or old somehow to use the flash cart, so I plugged this on DS Lite as well. I tried Sonic Advance 2 first, which has the character sprites glitch slightly whenever they're running, but it's hard to catch with a camera snapshot due occurring once a second. So here's what I got from Yoshi's Island GBA, with it's glitched-up title-screen and world map that renders the game ultimately unplayable.

Here's the Clean Booted, title screen for SMA3: Yoshi's Island on my refurbished Pearl Mint GBA SP AGS-101. Keep in mind this is when booting the game first time, so all saves should be new:

Spoiler

And here it is all same on my black DS Lite:

Spoiler

Pressing any of the save files opens the world map, but all the level icons have disappeared, which renders me unable to choose any of the levels:

Spoiler

To test even further, I pulled out 14-year old silver GBA SP AGS-001 and tested it there. Not surprisingly, it produces the same exact results:

Spoiler

So yeah, still thinking this is a faulty flash cart I'm having to deal here due all of this. As expected, all these issues are gone when booted through NOR-mode, including Wario Land 3 that I converted to GBA-rom through Goomba and put inside the flashcart. Sadly GBA-converted rom of Super Mario Land 2 won't still play coin or 1UP SFX properly, even when booted through NOR-mode on GBA.

 

[Silvia-spyro]

Salve anche io
Quando la accendo mi spunta la scritta ez flash ma poi diventa tutto bianco

L'aggiornamento del kernel non funziona si blocca al 1%


Qualcuno mi può aiutare a risolvere il problema ?

Grazie