Hacking my DS-lite can not detect my M3!

[macismonchen]

Hi,

pls help me, i did exacly the following:

- bought new DS-Lite, new M3-Lite, new passcard and new sd-card (micro-SanDisk Ultra2 1GB)
- inserted m3 only ... started, choosed gba-option ... nice, worked, couldnt detect sd-card (none was inserted

)
- loaded new firmware e29 and put it on the sd-card-root
- put sd in m3, the m3 in ds-lite and started (without passcard)
- started fw-update with "start" ... waited some time, got a "successfull" update, pushed "a" (like told) and was in the m3-Menu (upper display) which worked fine
!!!!!Everything seems to be fine till NOW:
- turned of power, inserted passcard, started ... got short passcard-screens and black screens than
- thought i should copy a game on my sd-card with gamemaster, did so, nothing changed
- unplugged passcard, restarted ... no GBA-Module found, but m3 was still in

And now, i tried everything i could (changed m3-case, tried with/without sd-card, formated sd-card), my M3 was never detected again.
So, what did i do wrong? I dont know if it is the GBA-Slot, got no GBA-Game.
With Passcard inserted, my ds-lite boots, shows me the passcard-logo on the 2 screens for a short time and 2 black screens later (so the Slot1 seems to work).

What is the problem? Did i killed my NDS-lite or the GBA-Slot? Did i killed the M3? Or was it my passcard? What can/should i do?

I would be VERY VERY happy for ANY suggestions or ideas. Thx to you all!

 

[tama_mog]

The passcard sounds defective, I would play with the casing on that instead to make sure it's ok. The m3 lite sounds fine.

 

[yee]

Try loading the M3 Lite from the main DS menu and choosing start GBA game.

If that loads up the M3, then your Passcard is defective.

 

[macismonchen]

Thx for your help,

i can not load the M3 from my DS-Menu (without Passcard) because it is not detected ("there is no Game Pak inserted"). With Passcard inside, i dont even get into the DS-Menu!

 

[tama_mog]

That is normal without a passme device, like I suggested, look into replacing your passme device.

 

[cory1492]

That is normal without a passme device, like I suggested, look into replacing your passme device.

So why does my e29 updated M3 run in GBA mode on an unflashed DS if this is normal...

Sounds more like the M3's menu flash went tits up when he did the update - but what is probably actually happening is that the PCB of the M3 got misaligned when it was taken out and put back in (at least, I'd hope so since its cheaper to fix than getting an exchange).

Try putting it into a different case (assuming they supplied them), possibly put a bit of thin cardboard behind the PCB where the contacts are, make sure the contacts (aka "gold fingers") are nice and clean and when assembled the PCB is all the way to the front of the case - that sort of thing.

 

[tama_mog]

What's so abnormal about updating m3 to e29 in gba mode without passme device or flashme? It boots like a gba cart in gba mode and you can update from there.

 

[tama_mog]

OK I see what you're saying, didn't read his posts carefully enough, I though he was saying he cannot boot up the M3 in DS mode to see the menus and I said that is normal without passme. It should however be bootable through the DS bios Menu booting GBA cart into GBA mode.

 

[macismonchen]

Hi,

thank you all for your help.

@ cory1492: i dont think it is because the M3 has no connection to my DS, i tried nearly everything (different cases too) and it would be a only a little chance that this could be the problem since i didnt touch the M3 when he worked first till he didnt. Its crazy that i could press "a" after update, got into the M3-Menu, everything seems to be fine but after restart with passcard inserted, my m3 was never seen again ...

However, i am still happy for any suggestions or ideas. Whoever is interested, i will post the solution tomorrow (i hope), when i try to exchange my m3 and (maybe) my DS-Lite later at my local store. However, i am really afraid of doing firmware-updates with my m3 now since i absolutly dont know what i should have done wrong.

Possible user-errors:
1. i really took care that i used the right file (SD) for my SD-Card, so nearly no possible error
2. maybe i choosed the wrong language (engl) update file ... because i use ger-language for my DS-Lite-Menu or maybe my M3 is not engl. (but the package is english and i bought it in germany, how can i find out?)
3. i still dont know how to update because i am too stupid and did anything else wrong ... remember, i didnt ever inserted the passcard BEFORE/DURING the update, was that WRONG?

 

[tama_mog]

you didn't do anything wrong....but the m3 lite should boot in gba mode even without a passme device, if not something it can only be that :

1) The m3 lite is now bricked and is defective. (Keep in mind this could of been your doing if you updated with the wrong firmware let's say and it upgraded to the CF firmware, then it probably will not work anymore).

2) Like cory1492 suggested, you need to readjust the pcboard inside the casing or tighten/loosen accordingly to make sure it makes good contact.

 

[macismonchen]

OK, HERE COMES THE SOLUTION:

Somehow, i managed to kill the M3. Went to store, tried new one (without updates), worked, could exchange the damaged M3, went home, tried update 26 (which comes with the M3) in GBA-Mode (with passcard inside), worked, updated to 29 (was very excited) same method and it WORKED! SO, possible suggestions for you:

- be careful updating a M3-lite from "first" firmware to 29, maybe use 26 as a step
- update in GBA-Mode with passcard inside, dont update with only m3-inside from NDS-Menu

Finally, i would to thank everyone who posted / read this thread and tried to help me!

 

[tama_mog]

I've never updated a m3 lite successfully in nds mode, but it just hangs and doesn't finish updating, never kills the unit. Updating in GBA mode is the safer method and it's guaranteed to work 100%. As for the intermediate step, that is unnecessary since I've recently updated someone's m3 lite to e29 off the bat.....don't remember what firmware it was on originally from the shop. And there is no need for passcard to be in the slot while you update in GBA mode. Glad you solved your problem though.

 

[sandreezy]

tama, you cant update in nds mode? how weird, all my updates i do thru the nds mode and it works perfectly.

 

[guzh]

Same with sandreezy, I always update my M3 Lite in nds mode, n so far so good.. nothing bad happen during the updating progress nor playing roms.

And refering to macismonchen, yes I did, my brand new M3 Lite... updated it to v.26 first (given in the packages) then.. I d/l the v.29 from the their web and updated it again... (maybe that effect?, I dunno).

 

[tama_mog]

I have 3 units and none have been successfull in updating to e29 in NDS mode. In fact I started trying in e28 and thought maybe the issue cleared up in e29, I was wrong. However, I do think that it has something to do with my formatting (fat16 64k cluster size). Haven't really experimented enough on that yet though, not really trying to see it brick on purpose. =P

 

[Shinji]

I have 3 units and none have been successfull in updating to e29 in NDS mode. In fact I started trying in e28 and thought maybe the issue cleared up in e29, I was wrong. However, I do think that it has something to do with my formatting (fat16 64k cluster size). Haven't really experimented enough on that yet though, not really trying to see it brick on purpose. =P

That brings up an interesting point. Remember when I had the format from the Moto RAZR microSD? I upgraded to 29e then. I finally switched to fat16 AFTER that. May be related, maybe not

 

[tama_mog]

I'm almost certain it has to do with formatting, if I buy another m3 lite (it'd be the 4th, but anything is possible). Then I will give it a try in fat32. It's the only thing that makes sense, there's nothing magical going on here.

 

[magister2000]

I had the same problem in the same conditions. The only way was to return my M3 Lite to the shop. I updated from v28a to v29 in NDS mode, with FAT32 64K formatted memory.

 

[tama_mog]

I really hope you guys were using the correct updates. Could be your download source wasn't legit and you accidentally grabbed the CF update and updated with that.