Hacking Reformatted DS Fire Link, unable to do anything!

[seankacz]

Hey guys,

I just recently purchased a DS Fire Link card with moonshell already put on it. I was just messing about on a pc and accidently completely reformatted the card (16G)... it's blank.

Now I am unable to figure out how to re-install the firmware and the moonshell os... so I pretty much can't do anything with this.

Now when I click the menu option it gives me an xmenu.dat error, unable to find (which makes sense since it is blank).

Any tutorials (in english) or suggestions to get this baby back to how she came in the mail.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Sean

 

[arctic_flame]

Go to say, the DS Linker Site. Or the Neoflash site (MK5). Or any N-card clone site.

Download the past few firmwares.

Extract them onto your card, and see which one works.

 

[paul1991]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

 

[martin88]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

Wow...that's pretty dangerous. I never knew that.

 

[seankacz]

Damn... there is nothing I can do?

 

[Porkdish]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

According to whom? When I first got my card I had no PC to run the software on. Copying to it via the finder soon fucked things up to white screens and as a total newb I formatted it with the mac os X disk utility in first fat 32 and then fat 16.

As you'd expect, this made the card totally unreadable by the DS but still, it did nothing to the firmware. Reformatting via the full-formatting key combo fixed it right up.


seankacz, the frequently asked questions thread should have helpful info. Or just download one of the later n-card, mk5 or dslinker firmwares and follow the readme.

With any luck, like me you'll just need to work out and follow the key combo/procedure to format with the slot 2 USB linker inserted along with your slot 1 card.

Don't throw it in the bin yet.

 

[biz387]

You can reformat by key combo I believe its l r up start and select.. but there may be saving issues in future according to others..

Paul why not try to help rather than acting superior everyone is new at some point.

 

[seankacz]

Thanks Guys!

I'll see what I can do and report back.

Many Thanks!

 

[Rizsparky]

All you have to do is paste the xmenu.dat file from wherever you downloaded the firmware from back on to your flashcart. When you boot the card it will create a 'DSYSTEM' folder, then turn off your ds and put into 'usb mode' again. Then you canput moonshell back on.

1. put into "usb mode"
2. turnoff the ds and put it on again, it will create a 'DSYSTEM' folder
3. Then you have to turn it off and put into 'USB mode'
4. Then place whatever you want on to the cart.

 

[paul1991]

I didn't mean to act superior.
The suppliers I have spoken to have told me that formating it with a PC bricks it. I did not know they were wrong.

 

[nizzy]

to format firecart
When you start your DS with inserted card press A,B,L,R + DOWN after switch it on.
Then a quick format should be started


firmware update
1.) Download the v 1.45 firmware
2.) put JUST the ds fire 1.45.nds file into the card
3.) turn off ds, turn it back on
4.) on the game list, select the 1.45 thing..watch it update by pressing A
5.) after update, do what it says..which should say RESTART DS or something that has to do with RESTART
6.) press L+R+A+B+DOWN and the thing would do a quick scan on the card and will do the formatting
7.) after it finishes, restart DS, plug it into PC
8.) drag the xmenu.dat file into the card (WHICH SHOULD BE BLANK)
9.) restart your DS again and your patch should work

i hope that helps too

it's wot i do on my cards and it works

 

[arctic_flame]

You should have tried my reply before listening to people who either don't have the card or are believing the hype

 

[fristi]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

not true
i formated card with pc because my ds could not access my n-card
when it was formatted i reinstalled firmware

but its still dangerous

lolz i'm a teacher

 

[Tweaked]

tell me, how did you format if if you wernt able to access it via DS?

maybe if i knew that i could fix this broken n-card next to me

 

[Apache Thunder]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

It is next to impossible to brick the N-Card. Trust me, I screwed it up once during a firmware upgrade, and the simple fix was to reformat using the button combination and then reinstall xmenu.dat file. The only way it can be bricked if there is a physical defect in the hardware. The core rom (the part that enables the button combination and shows the USB/Menu mode option screen) is probably hardcoded and can't be changed/corrupted.

I'd gladly pay $10 to the person who can actually permanently brick their N-Card by screwing up a firmware upgrade! It won't happen!

 

[Dadrewster569569]

Had you downloaded my help file, you would know the following;
NEVER format your card with your computer. Formatting with your computer bricks your card. Only use the button combos to format.

You have a useless card, mate.

It is next to impossible to brick the N-Card. Trust me, I screwed it up once during a firmware upgrade, and the simple fix was to reformat using the button combination and then reinstall xmenu.dat file. The only way it can be bricked if there is a physical defect in the hardware. The core rom (the part that enables the button combination and shows the USB/Menu mode option screen) is probably hardcoded and can't be changed/corrupted.

I'd gladly pay $10 to the person who can actually permanently brick their N-Card by screwing up a firmware upgrade! It won't happen!

OHH I DID, it says error: cannot align 16k, the reformat buttons dont work, ive it crashed when i was at my dad's (he has a macintosh computer and i removed the n-card without ejecting it causing the xmenu.dat to zero out ((it's file size dropped to zero KB))
if i didnt, what can i do to fix it?

 

[Dadrewster569569]

hey, my n-card says "Error: can not align 16k" what does it mean?

 

[jerronimo3000]

It is next to impossible to brick the N-Card. Trust me, I screwed it up once during a firmware upgrade, and the simple fix was to reformat using the button combination and then reinstall xmenu.dat file. The only way it can be bricked if there is a physical defect in the hardware. The core rom (the part that enables the button combination and shows the USB/Menu mode option screen) is probably hardcoded and can't be changed/corrupted.


You got that right! I've messed up everything I could ever mess up on mine and it's still working! When something's wrong, format! Btw, if you format your card on your pc, I don't think it will do anything. Did that with mine and it FIXED it.

 

[leinad]

It is next to impossible to brick the N-Card. Trust me, I screwed it up once during a firmware upgrade, and the simple fix was to reformat using the button combination and then reinstall xmenu.dat file. The only way it can be bricked if there is a physical defect in the hardware. The core rom (the part that enables the button combination and shows the USB/Menu mode option screen) is probably hardcoded and can't be changed/corrupted.


You got that right! I've messed up everything I could ever mess up on mine and it's still working! When something's wrong, format! Btw, if you format your card on your pc, I don't think it will do anything. Did that with mine and it FIXED it.

It IS possible ;> If youre that sure, dowload the old firmware and try to install it ;p
Also, if you cancel [or there is a problem that causes it] the upgrade process the blocks containing the firmware can get damaged/unusable

 

[sumguy09]

Ok heres my problem,

I have read all the threads above and still nothing.
I'm not a novice when it come to these things but this has me stumped.

Each of the posts above give me some degree of info that helps but stii come back to the same point where nothing works.

Method 1

Power on an press and hold A|B|L|R|U and i get USE SAFE BLOCK D14[ADDR5]

Result :- Computer found the ds but couldnt access the card, i recived an I/O error. Tried to run the NAND_ALL.bat and nothing happend.

Method 2

Power on an press and hold A|B|L|R|D and i get warning:need full check!
quick check...
blocks=0/4032
error mftl_maxblocks=0

Method 3 Select and Start + A

Result nothing.

Any help would be grateful