Hacking Problem running iPlayer GBA emulator

[Freefalling]

Hi. I know there is another recent topic with pretty much the same title, but the problem in there was about specific games not working, whereas mine is about the emulator itself not working, so I felt it was different enough to make a separate topic. Sorry if this is not the case.

Anyway, I just got an iPlayer and I have not been able to get the GBA emulator from Darkchen to work. I am trying to run it on a DS Lite, not a DSi, but I don't know if that is the issue (it says it is DSL compatible, and there are youtube vids of people using it on a DSL).

Basically, I copied the OS onto it, and ran the update to 1.06. It did not ask for my name or go to a white screen or make any weird noises. It also did not change any of the icons to "Fish Tycoon" (or whatever), so I'm not sure if it just didn't work, or if this is only what it does for the DSi with 1.4 firmware.

Now, after this, the homebrew option works fine and will run lameboy at least. However, when I drop the GBA plugins into the plugins folder, and then try to use the homebrew option, it just loads forever (or at least several minutes, which is all I waited before turning it off). More specifically, it seems to be the gba.ini file that is creating problems. The other files can be put on the SD card without any problems, it is just when I ad the gba.ini file that it locks up when trying to access homebrew (actually, it locks up when going to the "Files" option as well). Unfortunately, without the .ini file, the iPlayer won't recognize the gba.plg emulator or any roms.

So, yeah, this is irritating. It seems like tons of people have gotten the thing to work, so I just don't know what the issue is. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I'm being a little wordy.

PS. If this turns out to be a problem with the player itself, would it be better for me to just save some money and get an EZ Flash 3-in-1 for playing GBA games, rather than shelling out for another iPlayer?

 

[dudereno]

Even if you updated the cart using the .dat file with the latest firmware/OS release you will still see the normal DSIPlayer icon on the DSLite boot menu screen. You only see the fish tycoon icon when using the cart with a DSi console.

When you click on the homebrew and files option do you see the spinning grey arrows in top right of the bottom screen?

Have a look within the /_system/plugins/ folder . Do you see a Thumbs.db file?. If so delete and try again.

To check what OS you are running, tap on the help button (top right of the bottom screen) on the DSIPlayer main menu. At the bottom of the help screen it should display Edition: 1.2

I originally had trouble getting the GBA emulator up and running when I was testing it for review. I found out that the plugin was choking due to the amount of files I had on the cart and also the fact that my MAC was adding additional indexing files every time I accessed the memory card. So if you are still having problems, try to use a clean memory card if possible.

Let me know how you get on.

 

[Freefalling]

Thank you for the quick response.

Even if you updated the cart using the .dat file with the latest firmware/OS release you will still see the normal DSIPlayer icon on the DSLite boot menu screen. You only see the fish tycoon icon when using the cart with a DSi console.

Well, at least that's a relief. Kind of glad I don't have to deal with a Fish Tycoon logo, actually.

When you click on the homebrew and files option do you see the spinning grey arrows in top right of the bottom screen?

Yes, that's exactly it. It just keeps spinning and spinning, and none of the buttons will respond at that point. I've let it run for several minutes, thinking that maybe it was loading or processing or something, but it never seems to get anywhere.

Have a look within the /_system/plugins/ folder . Do you see a Thumbs.db file?. If so delete and try again.

I took it out, but still no dice. Like I said before, in this case it seems to be the gba.ini file. I can put all of the other plugins into the system folder and it will still work fine (except that it won't recognize the emulator or roms, but at least I can still open the homebrew menu without it getting stuck). However, putting the .ini file in there even by itself will lock up the ds when trying to access homebrew.

QUOTETo check what OS you are running, tap on the help button (top right of the bottom screen) on the DSIPlayer main menu. At the bottom of the help screen it should display Edition: 1.2

Yep, it says 1.2.

QUOTE

I originally had trouble getting the GBA emulator up and running when I was testing it for review. I found out that the plugin was choking due to the amount of files I had on the cart and also the fact that my MAC was adding additional indexing files every time I accessed the memory card. So if you are still having problems, try to use a clean memory card if possible.

Hm, I'm using a Mac too. I didn't think that might create any problems. I already tried deleting and reformatting my Micro SD, and it still wouldn't work, but I was thinking of getting a new card tomorrow anyway, so I'll try it again on that. Do you think putting the plugins in on a PC would be any different? I wouldn't think it would change anything, but then I'm not real savvy on the differences between the two (other than the superficial ones).

Is it possible that the iPlayer itself is broken or defective in some way? It seems like it works fine aside from this issue.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll post again when I try the new card.

 

[Freefalling]

I finally, finally got it to work. Apparently there was indeed something wrong with the file I downloaded. I originally obtained the emulator file from here:

http://www.dsiplayer.com/download.html

This contained the file that didn't work.

Just now I visited here:

http://www.zophar.net/consoles/nds/gba.html

And noticed that the name of the download was slightly different. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I DL'd it and took a look. It included both an english and chinese version. I copied the english plugins folder to my system folder, including the .ini file (although there was no thumbs.db file included in this version), and it works fine.

So, it looks like the problem is that somewhere along the line, something got changed in one of the plugin files for the emulator itself. Maybe the link from the iPlayer site really is just for a specific DSi version or something. I dunno. I'm just happy it finally works

Now I'm gonna go get a sandwich.

 

[dudereno]

Nice one. Good to know you got it working. Time to fire up some F-Zero goodness! Btw there's a new update for the DSiPlayer.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=212799

 

[katsukii]

Hey, I'm sorry to bring up this old thread but I have the exact same problem and have done everything (to my best knowledge) exactly the same. I've been trying to fix this for hours and am wondering if anyone could help me troubleshoot this. I have tried it on both OS 1.2 and OS 1.3 to no avail, and have tried both the emulator from dsiplayer.com (the one that didn't work on the person above's card) and the one that that person recommended.

Any bit of help is appreciated. Thank you very much, again, I apologize for necroposting.