Odd Sort of Problem With The Dingoo

[Kalisiin]

Well, I got my Dingoo, and of course, I put Dingux on it...and all was happy until I had an odd sort of problem.

I hooked the Dingoo up to my computer at work...and shortly after that...it would not boot in Dingux anymore.

It would freeze up trying. It would still boot the native firmware, but not Dingux...it would freeze on the Dingux screen if I tried (the starting Dingux screen now, not the one with the birdie on it.)

Well, I had noticed when I had hooked it up at work, it had done the thing at the bottom about China Chip again. I think it maybe re-installed the damned China Chip on me.

Anyway, somehow or another, I managed to get Dingux coming back up by playing around a whole bunch, don't even remember everything I did...but...when I DID get Dingux to boot up again...and went into MAME4ALL...some of the MAME's I had..which HAD been working fine....suddenly were not working, anymore...they were suddenly missing files again!!

I ought to mention, at this point that...prior to the Dingoo not booting Dingux, I had also changed the DIP Switch on one MAME game - but I don't think, and can't believe that would have caused any problem...just making a game give me six lives instead of three! I think the problem came from putting it on my boss's computer...and it re-installed the damned China Chip.


ANYWAY...so now it was booting in Dingux again, but some of the MAME files had gotten corrupted.

THEN...out of nowhere...BANG!! Again, it refused, all of a sudden, to boot up in Dingux...I do not remember if it was before, or after, I then hooked the Dingux back up on my HOME computer...mainly in order to re-load the extra files to make my MAME's work again.

I remember that, when I DID hook it back on my home computer, again...it went thru the same damned thing about the China Chip. It would also show both disk drives The Dingoo Internal and the Dingoo Card...as being full...with zero capacity....and nothing on the systems would show up....even though it still would boot up normal in the native firmware.

SO...I uninstalled the damned China Chip again. NOW, again, it seems to be working, it boots in both native and Dingux firmware. The corrupted MAME's have all been fixed up again now...and all seems wel.

NOW, when I hook it at home, it does what it's supposed to do...and doesn't mention anything about the China Chip...it asks me what I want to do with, in my case, Drives I: and J: and I just close the dialog windows, and no problem...everything is there now.

I know that I am NEVER AGAIN going to hook this up to any but my own home computer, so that the China Chip doesn't try and come back. But....folks...could that have been the cause of my problem, or not?

I'd like to know...and others who have the China Chip ought to know about it, too.

Meanwhile...I was wondering...as an aside...what would happen...if I were to re-download, and re-install Dingux again...and re-flash it....all from step one...except I would not format the SD card, since I already have one.

Would that cause me to lose anything I had put in the Dingoo Internal memory?? Like all my MAME's? (I backed up all the copies of the working MAME's now) I am seriously considering re-flashing my Dingoo if this problem happens again...but I'm wondering what if any, negative side effects would come from the re-flashing. And i that would likely solve the problem?

Like I said, I know that I never had ANY problem with the dual booting....until I had done those two things...

One...hooked up to a different computer, and got the dialogue again about China Chip, and
Two...changed the setting of one DIP Switch on one MAME game, to give six lives instead of three.

I just need to know what anyone who is in the know thinks might have caused this problem....if anyone else has had it...and if so...how do I avoid it in the future, and how do I fix it permanently, so it won't ever happen again?

Anyone out there, please help with this perplexing problem...could it be that, if you DID have the China Chip...that you NEVER EVER want to hook it up to any other computer, other than the one you used to originally flash it with Dingux? That's the sort of thing a Dingoo user ought to know about!!

Like I said, it was weird...like I had "half-bricked" the Dingoo. Yet, somehow, I did manage to un-brick it, too.

 

[bouvrie]

Not too sure about your problem, but SD card fat32 corruption is a common bug in Dingux which still has to be addressed.
See here for more info on the problem.

 

[Kalisiin]

Thanks. It's something to look into, I suppose, but this does not describe, really, the problem I was having.

I ended up solving my problem by backing up all my working ROMS, and then re-formatting the SD card. I re-flashed the dingoo for native firmware only, and then re-flashed again for Dingux. Since then, no problems.

The only thing I'm using my SD card for is for MAME ROMS. All my other emulation, I use the native emulators for...I can't even make SNES9x work in Dingux - all I get is a flashing red and pink screen.

And I'm not interested in ScummVM...none of the titles there blow my skirt up if you know what I mean.

As it stands now, I have 124 good, working MAME ROMS for games I like...about 45 of which I totally LOVE...and so, what I'm likely to do is to buy about 3 more Dingoo's...One will be used regularly, and contain only those MAMEs I use most frequently. One will contain all MAMES. One other, I will not even put Dingux on at all. that will be the one I also use for my home business use as a voice recorder, voice-file transfer device.

Another I'll keep solely as a backup that I never even use at all...just in case one breaks.

That's the plan, anyway.

But I haven't had any problem since I re-formatted. And now, since I have all working MAME's backed up...reformatting is a time-consuming pain in the butt, but I know how to always restore what I had...so all's well that ends well.