Hacking NDS fine, GBA no longer works?

[maxrenderer]

So, I flashed my DS and love not having to use the PassMe. But, now my GBA roms won't load up. NDS roms are fine, but GBA roms lock up in the M3 menu after the load bar is complete. I'm using Game Manager v26CF if that helps. Please let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Thank you.

 

[WraithGR]

do you press start to load the gba interface or are you trying to run the gba roms from the nds shell?

 

[maxrenderer]

Well, I usually just let it go through the screen that says "this product not sponsored by Nintendo" and then I get my menu of games. This was working before I flashed it.

Now, if I hit start, as you recommended, I get the cooler interface and I go to the MyGame icon, but none of the games show up in the menu; even though they are on the card.

Any thoughts?
Thank you.

 

[tama_mog]

aren't you just saying you're not in gba mode? because if your ds is flashed it jumps straight to NDS mode. If this is the case, start up the ds holding select and then load slot2 manually, this will force the gba mode. I don't have my m3 with me but pushing something in NDS mode (on the DS menu of the m3 upon bootup) can make it go to gba mode as well...maybe Y or something, forgot exactly.

 

[maxrenderer]

SELECT! That's it man, you saved the day. Thanks. Since you were brilliant with that answer, do you know how to soft reset back to the M3 menu while in GBA mode with a flashed DS? Again, the old soft reset worked with the PassMe, but that's changed.

Thanks

 

[tama_mog]

hmmm, I can't imagine that changing due to passme device....should still be LRABX. But I don't use gba mode but the soft reset key should be the same.

 

[kobewan]

Well, I usually just let it go through the screen that says "this product not sponsored by Nintendo" and then I get my menu of games. This was working before I flashed it.

Now, if I hit start, as you recommended, I get the cooler interface and I go to the MyGame icon, but none of the games show up in the menu; even though they are on the card.

Any thoughts?
Thank you.

The problem is quite simple here. You are holding "Start" while the M3 is still booting, which causes it to boot into the built-in Moonshell (called Extend). This will give you the slightly better interface and the MyGame option.

If you boot up holding Select, it will boot straight into the GBA menu. If you want to go into the Nintendo BIOS, you have to hold START + SELECT now.

What WraithGR was trying to say though was this : power on your DS without pressing anything. Wait for the normal interface to show up with 8 icons and THEN press "START". That should show the standard GameBoy bootup screen (with the cool 'ding') and then go into GBA mode. GBA mode only has 6 icons instead of 8, so you can tell them apart easily. Load your ROM from GBA mode and you should be good to go.

The soft reset is L + R + A + B. This shouldn't change after flashing your DS. Just make sure that your ROMs were written with the "Enable Real-time Save" option in the M3 Game Manager.

 

[tama_mog]

Well, I usually just let it go through the screen that says "this product not sponsored by Nintendo" and then I get my menu of games. This was working before I flashed it.

Now, if I hit start, as you recommended, I get the cooler interface and I go to the MyGame icon, but none of the games show up in the menu; even though they are on the card.

Any thoughts?
Thank you.


The problem is quite simple here. You are holding "Start" while the M3 is still booting, which causes it to boot into the built-in Moonshell (called Extend). This will give you the slightly better interface and the MyGame option.

If you boot up holding Select, it will boot straight into the GBA menu. If you want to go into the Nintendo BIOS, you have to hold START + SELECT now.

What WraithGR was trying to say though was this : power on your DS without pressing anything. Wait for the normal interface to show up with 8 icons and THEN press "START". That should show the standard GameBoy bootup screen (with the cool 'ding') and then go into GBA mode. GBA mode only has 6 icons instead of 8, so you can tell them apart easily. Load your ROM from GBA mode and you should be good to go.

The soft reset is L + R + A + B. This shouldn't change after flashing your DS. Just make sure that your ROMs were written with the "Enable Real-time Save" option in the M3 Game Manager.

His DS is flashed, holding select while powering will enter the Nintendo bios.

 

[kobewan]

.......

His DS is flashed, holding select while powering will enter the Nintendo bios.

No, that used to be true but it isn't anymore. I don't know when it changed, it might be because of FlashMe 7 or from using a DSL (I know that makes no sense), but I know that now I need to hold START + SELECT. Holding SELECT boots you into GBA mode, try it yourself.

 

[tama_mog]

still true here with every card I've used, because it is inherently coded in flashme firmware. I've used only flashme v7 with the ds lite brightness adjustments. You power up holding select, you enter DS bios. This is true with supercard, m3, and g6. Because once again, it's hard coded into the bios.

 

[cory1492]

Time for a lesson on flashme

Keys held when turning on a FlashMe'd DS (ANY version of flashme)
Start+Select boots using the protected NDS bootstrap (meaning you are force jumped to DS mode on the GBA bus via a stripped down passme type loader, it is there in case of "bricking" which can occur only on the "unprotected by SL1" portion of the flash chip).

Select disables the standard flashme patched boot from GBA slot (even when "PASS" is present in the GBA header), meaning that unless you have auto run on in the bios and the appropriate card in the DS that is set to auto run, you will boot directly to the DS's normal menu

A+B+X+Y is to force the flashme passme type patch; when you have DS in the GBA slot and it doesnt have "PASS" as the GBA header flashme wont auto boot it, so you use these keys to force it to try and boot it in NDS mode.

FlashMe, in the DS's firmware (NOT BIOS, the BIOS isnt flashable on the DS!!) is not really affected by what card happens to be in the GBA slot, though it does check it to see if the "PASS" is present as the gamecode to see if it should auto boot it in DS mode. The DS's menu itself is essentially a DS app that is stored in a highly compressed form and flashed onto and loaded from a flash chip, somewhat like a PC's OS is bootstrapped from the HDD by the BIOS (HDD instead of a flash chip).

BTW: the button to press in M3's DS menu to get to GBA mode is "START", if you are not in GBA mode it will try to load the file like a DS ROM (it is not very intelligent, cant tell the difference between a "*.ds.gba" and a "*.gba"

 

[kobewan]

Thanks for that information. I've seen it a few times before, and yet I STILL manage to forget these things.

So yeah, the reason that my DS boots into GBA mode with SELECT now is because I have the setting at auto-detect and before I didn't. I wonder why I didn't think of that before... Anyways, I apologize for the confusion I might have caused.

 

[maxrenderer]

Ok, adding to the confusion--

I booted up with Select+Start and then selected GBA on the bottom of the screen. GBA mode boots fine. I loaded up a game I had on there before I installed GM v27 and then did the soft reset just fine. Then I selected another game that was on the card prior to GM v27 and that soft reset worked fine as well. Next, I loaded up a game I put on my card AFTER GM v27 and the soft reset did not work.

So, naturally, I'm still confused

I leave Mario Kart in the DS slot; could this be the cause?

Thanks again.

 

[tama_mog]

Just make sure you had soft reset enabled when you wrote the game.

 

[dreary79]

The problem is quite simple here. You are holding "Start" while the M3 is still booting, which causes it to boot into the built-in Moonshell (called Extend). This will give you the slightly better interface and the MyGame option.

What is the "MyGame option"? Does it do anything at all?

 

[maxrenderer]

Great, thanks, tama_mog

 

[czw]

unzip zip files to .gba before use M3 GM.
http://www.m3-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4372