Hacking Micro SD Class 6 = over kill for Edge card ?

[saiken122]

hi guys im planning to get a new Micro SD card for my edge card, and right now only Class 4 kingston micro SD cards are available, and im planning to wait for the class 6 to arrive. but my question is, would EDGE card can utilize the class 6 micro SD meaning maintaining atleast 6 MB transfer rate or getting a class 4 is enough ?

has anyone tried using a class 6 micro SD cards with edge card and played castlevania Portrait of ruins? have you encountered any freeze events? i've heard that N-card is freeze free with castlevania PoR but you are stuck with 1 GB coz its memory is built-in unlike Edge card it uses external memory

 

[krave]

Let me share my experience with you...

I just bought a PQI 4GB MicroSDHC Class 6 (according to the print on the microsd itself).

I immediately tried Castlevania Dos & PoR on it and I experienced game freezes on both games.
I tried running the games without cheats and with cheats and it still freezes.

I don't know if this can happen to you. I'm just saying it happened to me.
I am not an expert on this, I just drag and drop files on my micro sdhc and plug it into my edge.
no mods, no patch, no fixes. i just use the latest firmware from edge (v.1.42)

 

[Maikel Steneker]

In my limited experience, class isn't that important. Classes determine write speeds, which is really important for cameras but not important at all for DS games.

If I were you, I'd look for an SD card that a lot of people use. I have a Kingston 8 GB MicroSDHC Class 4, and it works fine for me. Castlevania has some problems with it though, so if you think that's important you should get another cart.

 

[Ahua_Keren]

Try to play with original cart (If you can), to see if those games freeze or not?
maybe these dump aren't good? who knows... or try another dump?

Me on class 2 with v1.42
DOS = a little random freeze.
POR = a lot of random freeze.

Both are clean dump.
(no trimming, renaming, or cheating.)

 

[saiken122]

In my limited experience, class isn't that important. Classes determine write speeds, which is really important for cameras but not important at all for DS games.

If I were you, I'd look for an SD card that a lot of people use. I have a Kingston 8 GB MicroSDHC Class 4, and it works fine for me. Castlevania has some problems with it though, so if you think that's important you should get another cart.

you got a point there i didnt think it through with regards with the Class thing for the micro SDs i was thinking that this is its total direct memory access i was thinking that the card was able to read data at a rate of 6mb. well i guess my next choice is get an N-card though its quite risky as well since i cannot return the item if i bought it on a retail store. but a friend of mine said that the castlevania PoR works well with N-card he did not encountered any freeze. i was thinking taht its possible that the Castlevania PoR has lesser chances of freezing since Ncard uses an internal memory. dunno if that is the reason for why my friend did not encounter any problems with castlevania PoR with his Ncard.

right now im using a PQI 1GB and i think i have a rate of 50% chance of freezing my game whenever i press the start button or use the warp portal. and i think i will get a 100% chance of freezing when i pressed start on a map where its big and its filled with monsters.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

In my limited experience, class isn't that important. Classes determine write speeds, which is really important for cameras but not important at all for DS games.

If I were you, I'd look for an SD card that a lot of people use. I have a Kingston 8 GB MicroSDHC Class 4, and it works fine for me. Castlevania has some problems with it though, so if you think that's important you should get another cart.

you got a point there i didnt think it through with regards with the Class thing for the micro SDs i was thinking that this is its total direct memory access i was thinking that the card was able to read data at a rate of 6mb. well i guess my next choice is get an N-card though its quite risky as well since i cannot return the item if i bought it on a retail store. but a friend of mine said that the castlevania PoR works well with N-card he did not encountered any freeze. i was thinking taht its possible that the Castlevania PoR has lesser chances of freezing since Ncard uses an internal memory. dunno if that is the reason for why my friend did not encounter any problems with castlevania PoR with his Ncard.

right now im using a PQI 1GB and i think i have a rate of 50% chance of freezing my game whenever i press the start button or use the warp portal. and i think i will get a 100% chance of freezing when i pressed start on a map where its big and its filled with monsters.

Internal memory can certainly help! If you just want to play the game, you could always buy a cheap Japanese Kingston cart of 1 GB.

 

[saiken122]

Let me share my experience with you...

I just bought a PQI 4GB MicroSDHC Class 6 (according to the print on the microsd itself).

I immediately tried Castlevania Dos & PoR on it and I experienced game freezes on both games.
I tried running the games without cheats and with cheats and it still freezes.

I don't know if this can happen to you. I'm just saying it happened to me.
I am not an expert on this, I just drag and drop files on my micro sdhc and plug it into my edge.
no mods, no patch, no fixes. i just use the latest firmware from edge (v.1.42)

thats a bummer, have you tried reformating the card and setting its partition to FAT with 64k Cluster? then use the 1.41 firmware. before i just formated my PQI to normal fat32 then i played the castlevania PoR after i finished the first wind quest the game will immediately hang up.

 

[Rayder]

When it comes to microSD's and flashcarts, seek times are more important than transfer speed.

What we have to find out are what microSD's have the fastest response time. THOSE are the ones that will play PoR correctly.

 

[krave]

thats a bummer, have you tried reformating the card and setting its partition to FAT with 64k Cluster? then use the 1.41 firmware. before i just formated my PQI to normal fat32 then i played the castlevania PoR after i finished the first wind quest the game will immediately hang up.

hi saiken122!
i haven't tried reformatting the card. i really gave up on castlevania series. thanks for the suggestion though. i will just finish the phoenix wright series then try to play castlevania again. the same thing happened to me, the one about the first wind quest. it hangs up on me too.

but thanks again! you gave me hope.

 

[Jdbye]

Sounds like SDHC just isn't good enough for castlevania.
You could get a kingston 1GB or 2GB and keep games that require high speed MicroSDs on that. At least that would work for certain.

I'm sure many class 6 cards aren't as fast as some class 4's - Kingston Class 4 is apparently fast enough to be a class 6 according to some benchmarks.

Go for the Kingston.
The speeds are comparable to the jap 1GB MicroSD.

 

[c2ironfist]

the only microSD that runs Tony Hawk Downhill Jam is my Class 6 A-Data MicroSD

also I use to use an M3 Real and playing Jump! Ultimate Stars when deck making if you scroll down its quit slow and lags with anything below a class 6 card. Class 6 card is the only card that can handle the scrolling without any lag.

I've done numerous tests with certain games, this is just coming from my personal experience.
I recommend getting a class 6 card its worth it.

 

[saiken122]

does the capacity also affects the speed of your micro SD? right now im using 1 GB PQI Micro SD im not quite sure if the performance would be the same if i bought a kingston 2GB right now we currently have stock with kingston 2gb but the problem is its packaging. lolz its sealed DAM it.

i wanna ask if you can consider a item made in japan if its stated at the back is assembled in japan? we are currently selling Micro SD kingston before most of the kingstons coming in here in the philippines i think most of them either made in china or taiwan, but right now i think more and more companies are able to import kingston products and we where able to get a kingston micro SD stating its assembled in japan

 

[Ein-kun]

does the capacity also affects the speed of your micro SD? right now im using 1 GB PQI Micro SD im not quite sure if the performance would be the same if i bought a kingston 2GB right now we currently have stock with kingston 2gb but the problem is its packaging. lolz its sealed DAM it.

i wanna ask if you can consider a item made in japan if its stated at the back is assembled in japan? we are currently selling Micro SD kingston before most of the kingstons coming in here in the philippines i think most of them either made in china or taiwan, but right now i think more and more companies are able to import kingston products and we where able to get a kingston micro SD stating its assembled in japan

Lemme guess where you're buying. CD-R King? Yes?

I bought my Kingston 4GB SDHC MicroSD (Class 4) Card there (after hours of arguing with the store manager, "my DS / flash cart can handle even 8GB MicroSD Cards! 4GB is not a problem!"

). I haven't had any problems with games and stuff EXCEPT Castlevania: PoR.

BUT with the 4GB card, it freezes less frequently (about 1 in 10 times, while using the Warp Room or after battling a Boss) than my other 2GB card (about 1 in 3 times, same cases). Both are Kingston and "made in Japan".

So, in my opinion, capacity can somehow affect the speed. I haven't tried clearing up my microSD card and try to play it again without all those games and movies saved on my card, but it might work.

But if you really want to play PoR without those annoyances, buy the original.

 

[krave]

Lemme guess where you're buying. CD-R King? Yes?

I bought my Kingston 4GB SDHC MicroSD (Class 4) Card there (after hours of arguing with the store manager, "my DS / flash cart can handle even 8GB MicroSD Cards! 4GB is not a problem!"

). I haven't had any problems with games and stuff EXCEPT Castlevania: PoR.

hmm.. i can relate to this.

I bought my pqi microsdhc 4gb class 6 at cdrking, and encountered the same prob. the sales staff didn't want to sell their product to me because they wanted me to test the microsdhc card on my edge first before i buy it! talk about crazy! in the end, i was able to persuade them into selling me the card and even forgoing the "1 week replacement guarantee" if my card would not work with my edge. well, it's over a week now and my 4gb microsdhc is perfectly fine.

btw, i formatted both cards to fat 64k cluster and castlevania series still does not work on my edge. good thing i still have the orig carts with me.

 

[saiken122]

@ Ein-kun

uh no haha my family has a shop here in san fernando la union we currently selling Micro SD here though the bad thing its totally sealed, you need to rip the packaging in order to get the item, its like buying energizer batteries carded ones.

 

[saiken122]

btw, i formatted both cards to fat 64k cluster and castlevania series still does not work on my edge. good thing i still have the orig carts with me.

thats a bummer, well so far my PQI 1 GB which i bought here in san fernando la union, so far so good with castlevania PoR. every time i play the game its always a gamble when ever im about to press the start button.

 

[Ein-kun]

I see. I thought you were trying to buy yours at CD-R King (good thing, because you'll need LOTS of patience dealing with the store personnel, right krave?

).

Hmm, try downloading the (E) version. You can't enjoy the extra features that the (U) version has (Sound Test - Japanese, that's all, I think) but it freezes less frequently.

If that still doesn't work, then save money for an original one. Play-Asia seems to have it on stock (and cheaper than the local stores too!).

 

[Mr.Seiko]

I've used a Sandisk Class 2 and a Kingston Class 4 MicroSDHC (Both were 8Gb) with M3 Real, and I haven't run into any freezing with those games.

Like was said in a Previous post, it's the read speed, not the Write speed that matters. The class rating refers to the Minimum Write speed so you know of any delays when using with High speed recording devices like Digital Cameras.

 

[saiken122]

@ ein-kun

yeah cdr king's workflow with regards to selling really sucks coz their sales personnel will first write down the item on your official reciept then he will write down the same item again in their inventory, talk about total delay. and i really hate for customers who cant make up their mind as fast enough.

@Mr. Seiko

how can you determine the read speed of a micro SD is there an existing program that will benchmark the read speed of the micro SDs? and what goes up when you purchase higher class of micro SDs besides from the write speed?

 

[saiken122]

we right now i've been testing portrait of ruins in another micro SD this time i placed the game in a 512 mb (with FAT format and 64k Cluster) micro SD. somehow the game is much more stable compared to my PQI 1GB, if in my PQI 1GB i have 50% chance of freezing somwhow here is either from 80% to 90% or probably no chance at all. my 512 mb Micro SD is the NCP brand i think this is either a china or a taiwan brand, i think most probably its china coz the item is being placed on a plastic case (similiar to the diskettes) with a foam inside.