Hacking Other DS's won't read R4

[Taellon]

I made a topic a while ago about this and nothing could be figured out at the time, maybe this time will be better.

I have an original R4 and I've tried several different firmwares from the original firmware to YSmenu and now WoodR4. None of them have solved my problem, even the latest updates.

So the problem is, my R4 only works in one of my DSlite units and no other DS's. I've tried it in 3 other DSlite units and 1 DS phat unit and none of them recognize that a cart is in the DS slot. Now my one DSlite that the R4 did work in has blown it's fuses and until my ordered parts come and I repair it, I can't use the R4 at all. I've even tried all the paper tricks in various combinations and they didn't fix the problem either.

Now I have an Acekard2i that I got a couple months ago and it works perfectly fine in all the DS's I tested the R4 in, plus retail games run fine without any problems in all of the tested DS's as well so I doubt it's bent/broken connector pins.

Any other ideas for why my R4 only seems to work in a single DSlite unit and none others?

 

[Stropdasje]

I have an original R4 and I've tried several different firmwares from the original firmware to YSmenu and now WoodR4. None of them have solved my problem, even the latest updates.

Most likely a hardware problem. There is a known issue that the contacts of some R4's are a tiny bit too low and do not make proper contact with the DS. When that happens the DS doesn't see the R4 and acts as if slot 1 is empty.

Solution is the paper trick, the contacts are lifted by the thickness of the small piece of paper solving the contact problem. This is how it looks like (in this case an Acecard, but the same problem, you get the picture) http://gbatemp.net/t231412-solving-acekard-contact-issues.

Of course the R4 will never work in a DSi.

 

[Taellon]

I already tried those paper tricks and they didn't work. I just tried them again now to make sure and it still didn't work.

 

[Stropdasje]

If you don't insert the micro SD into the R4, do you then get the "Couldn't find the SD/TF card" error or just the standard Nintendo menu with no game inserted. If the first then you can try other firmware, its not the contact problem. If the latter then it doesn't matter which firmware you use, it will not even start reading the SD card since the whole R4 is invisible, its a contact problem or the R4 (or DS...) is defective.

I guess you tried cleaning the contacts already and checked the alignment of the contacts (make sure they not shifted left or right for some unknown reason). In that case I leave it to others to supply ideas since I don't have a clue besides this. I assume real cartridges work on these other DSses, yes?

 

[Taellon]

Taking the MicroSD card out the DS just starts and goes to the menu saying there's no DS card inserted. And I cleaned the contacts. Regular cartridges work perfectly fine in th DS's I've tried. I don't think it's an alignment issue and I'll tell you why.

The DS lite I'm using now is my older one, since my new one is currently broken until the parts I ordered for it come it. Now this older DS lite is the one I had when I first got my R4 card and it ran perfectly fine on it for as long as I can remember. But the DS lite started to have problems that made many games unplayable so I bought I new DS lite and held onto the old one because, a) I couldn't only get $30 for it from any stores around here and b) I figured if it was only worth that much to the shops I might as well hold onto it for Pokemon trading. So ever since I got my new DS lite I used the R4 with it and never really used my old DS lite. It was only recently that I tried using it on the old DS again and for whatever reason it just doesn't work.

I'm guessing it still works on my new DS lite, as it did last time I checked, but it's broken right now and so I can't test it further. Though the R4 was working on my new DS lite but not my old DS lite before my new one broke.

It's not a huge deal to me, since I have an Acekard2i(bought it because I was planning on getting a DSiXL before the 3DS was announced) which works on all DS systems I try it on, but it would be nice if I could at least pass down my R4 to a friend or a relative, but none of their DS's work with it(I tried on their systems to makes sure).