Hacking Old R4s now becoming faulty?

[gamepopper101]

For some reason nowadays my R4 Flashcart doesn't work as well as it use to. For some reason there is a connection fault, where despite being inserted properly, the DS doesn't recognise a cart being in the slot. Interestingly, if I try to push the cart in as far as it possibly goes, it boots and works like normal, but if I let go it freezes like the cart has been removed from the slot.

If you have this problem, I have found an easy workaround to this problem, TAPE! Just push the cart in as far as it can go and tape over the slot and it works. Sadly you would have to retape it everytime you want to change a game, which isn't a bother to me since I have a DSi to play DS games and I can play GBA games on my DS Lite or GBA SP.

Just a little note for people who are interested.

 

[jan777]

so...where's the news?

 

[iPikachu]

might be news to him, but not official enough for this section? should be in the r4 section i think.

 

[lolsjoel]

You submit a news story to mention your own personal problem with a piece of hardware?

Nice.

 

[gamepopper101]

might be news to him, but not official enough for this section? should be in the r4 section i think.
I rarely post on these forums so I have no idea where to post stuff. Sorry!

QUOTE(loesjoel @ Jul 31 2009, 12:48 PM) You submit a news story to mention your own personal problem with a piece of hardware?

Nice.

Eh heh heh ^^' I thought of letting people know since it may be a mainstream problem or something. Maybe not.

 

[OSW]

Happens with many many flashcards. It's all about build quality, and it is not really consistent.

AFAIK R4 doesn't have this problem too often.

Can be quick-fixed with a thin piece of paper or similar techniques to make the contacts fit better.

 

[Pliskron]

Sad that so many cards need paper and tape to work.

 

[James_Wulfe]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=98408

^ someone didnt use the search function

btw, i have owned my original R4 for 5 years now and have never had a problem with it, this also could be a problem with your slot 2 needing to be cleaned or adjusted especially if its used often, my DS Phat suffered from this till i opened it and cleaned it up.

there is also further support at http://www.r4ds-forums.com/ for R4, R4i, and all clones/fakes.



EDIT: I thought i felt like i was having dejavu when i started typing this post

Well first off having my R4 for over 5 years now i would just like to say, it was one of the best purchases i could have made at the time, and i would still to this day recommend it to new users.

2 of the original members of the R4 team have moved over to the R4i team and are continuing the updates of the original r4 the current firmware at this time is 1.23 and can be found here -> http://r4li.com/download/r4.html

You can use SD's over 2GB they just can NOT be SDHC this is stated on the packaging of the R4 itself that it supports up to 4GB sd's

The freezing found in some applications is from having to many files and can usually be fixed by organizing your card better, such as in the instance of DSision2, if i placed my games in to folders and categorized them instead of having 50 games on root then it loaded way faster as it only had to load 8 folders and not a million apps.

The middle button error is a known issue that comes from homebrew corrupting your _DS_MENU.DAT file and can be fixed by replacing this with a fresh one, and not using the said homebrew again. Now dscompress in itself is a good application but i feel it is unnecessary, since homebrew such as GameUP, DSOrganize, and Bunjaloo, will download, extract and install to your card without the need for such a third party.


The cart not loading is also a known issue with every cart, this is caused from the pins not connecting to your ds properly (can be fixed with a piece of notebook paper, there is more info on that and many other R4 problems here http://www.r4ds-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1354 and also here http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=98408 scroll to the bottom of the first post for the "paper trick")

Finally i cant say this enough THIS CARD IS NOT OBSOLETE, M3 maybe, but R4 will NEVER die, if it did then why is the forum still here, why does the r4ds-forums exist and still update frequently on info about the R4, why can i still buy this cart everywhere, would it have not dissipated by now if there was no production, and finally THE R4i team has re-birthed it, making it yet again a competitive cart......

Not to mention there is alternative methods to using an R4 such as the lovely Moon2/YS combo

 

[Canonbeat234]

From my experience I have been using the old R4DS with no problems due to the firmware updates. Since they don't come anymore, I can only use it to play old DS games from like 2003-2008.

 

[James_Wulfe]

From my experience I have been using the old R4DS with no problems due to the firmware updates. Since they don't come anymore, I can only use it to play old DS games from like 2003-2008.

2 of the original members of the R4 team have moved over to the R4i team and are continuing the updates of the original r4 the current firmware at this time is 1.23 and can be found here -> http://r4li.com/download/r4.html

 

[Rob_Threat]

btw, i have owned my original R4 for 5 years now

R4 has only been out since late 2006 in China and early 2007 everywhere else.

I find cleaning the contacts and re-centering the PCB every so often usually keeps my 1st gen M3DSS booting on the first try.

 

[Tekkin88]

Umm.... How do you clean the contacts?

 

[canderousa]

Some rubbing alcohol does it for me. Just take a Q-Tip, put some rubbing alcohol (not much) on the Q-Tip, and gently wipe away any dirt that's on the contacts. You should see your Q-Tip dirty up a little bit...

Dry out the contacts with the opposite/dry end of the Q-Tip and you're done.

 

[shadowkillerdrag]

lol i have been using my r4 for about 2 yrs and along with ysmenu its perfect for me.
Only problem is that sometimes the ds doesnt read it, but thats is probably cuz i havent cleaned the contacts + the damage from me dropping my ds like 10+ times

 

[Tekkin88]

Some rubbing alcohol does it for me. Just take a Q-Tip, put some rubbing alcohol (not much) on the Q-Tip, and gently wipe away any dirt that's on the contacts. You should see your Q-Tip dirty up a little bit...

Dry out the contacts with the opposite/dry end of the Q-Tip and you're done.

Um... Where are the contacts? (I'm an idiot.)

 

[PettingZoo]

Some rubbing alcohol does it for me. Just take a Q-Tip, put some rubbing alcohol (not much) on the Q-Tip, and gently wipe away any dirt that's on the contacts. You should see your Q-Tip dirty up a little bit...

Dry out the contacts with the opposite/dry end of the Q-Tip and you're done.

Um... Where are the contacts? (I'm an idiot.)

Those gold things down the bottom on the back of the cart

 

[Tekkin88]

Ah, ok thanks!

Also, do I have to clean my sd card reader? It's the one that looks like the one in this thread. http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=170621&st=0