Hacking Small rant on GamebyGame returns

[zeroword]

I have been lurking this site for a while. I don't post often as I am still a relative noob by comparison but I always do my research. Unfortunately it seems I did not do enough in this case and wanted to make sure no one else makes this mistake. Please forgive me if you already know this.

Well I purchased a CycloDS from GameByGame earlier this month as it was a GBAtemp sponsor. I received it and noticed it froze a lot when loading roms and in one case, would corrupt save files. Now I know that it was the Flashcart and not my SD card as I have two others that work just fine. Firmware, SDcard, roms and system tested were the same - a perfect control.

So I concluded it was defective and contacted customer service (only able to be contacted by email). They advised me to update the firmware first and see if it fixed the problem before I returned it to them so they could test it - it didnt. So I sent it to them on my dime with a note explaining the problem. They contact me via email to say my card works perfectly as it booted up on a DS, DSLite and "upgraded" the firmware to 1.4 (which it already had). They told me they could not test it with roms as that was illegal and they were shipping it back to me.

Now I have a tracking number for a card that likely still does not work and I wasted my money shipping it back to them. By the time it gets here the 30 day window for the return will expire and I will have a $50 moonshell player. I'll test it again when it gets back but I am not getting my hopes up.

Is this kind of thing normal for returns? Should I just have to accept the loss on defective products if the only thing wrong with it is its ability to play roms?

 

[iwakura]

well, only freezing when loading roms is a relatively rare problem. In fact, I've never heard about it unless the roms simply weren't compatible yet (new games that require a firmware update).

I'd wait to see if that cyclods is really broken...

and of course, there's the normal tips - format the sd card with the panasonic formatter, re-copy the folders/files/firmware, and make sure your roms arent corrupt. You probably tried most of this stuff already, but it's al I can think of.

edit: also might want to try giving the beta firmware a shot. 1.55 beta 5.

 

[Todderbert]

I had isssues when I tried to run my A-data class 6 4 gig card on the cyclo. It would lock up/ freeze at random times, normally when trying to boot a game. I formatted with the panasonic formatter and still had glitches, but the SD card worked perfectly on my Acekard. I switched to a Kingston 8gig class 4 card and it runs very smooth now...I didn't have to format the Kingston either.

 

[zeroword]

Thanks for the input guys. Well I am stuck with the card either way.

Todderbert makes me think I should buy another brand of SD card and try that. I used a class 6 Transcend that works fine on the other two CycloDS cards that I own but who knows, maybe this particular one is really picky. Either way, that experience is enough to ensure I won't buy from there again and there are plenty of other options in your sticky thread.

I'll try the Kingston card. Do you think it would be too risky if I got a class 6 or is class 4 just fine in terms of speed?

edit: I have done some more reading and it seems that while class 4 may be too slow for POR, class 6 cards have also caused some weird problems on CycloDS cards for some people. I might go with the Class 4 for this one.

 

[iwakura]

you could also consider a smaller SD card - they dont usually suffer the speed issues (as much)

edit: and by smaller I meant non-SDHC

 

[zeroword]

Thanks Iwakura. I will try the class 4 first. If it still doesn't work then I will go smaller. I would really like the extra space.

Looks like I could be spending a lot more cash just to make this work. But on the bright side, if this does work I will learn something out of it. I hope it does....

 

[Fatboy12345236]

Well. I can't confirm this, but I own EDGE which is a clone of Cyclo. Maybe it doesn't freeze on the menu because if you take the card out it doesn't freeze you just can't load stuff. I would think that maybe the bits inside the DS card are not %100 and it makes it freeze while your loading roms. If you could find some homebrew, that loads itself into the RAM and then keeps on checking to see if the DS see's the card as "inserted".

 

[iwakura]

yesterday, i gave my boss an itouch2 for his daughter. same problem.

the itouch2 would be recognized but when we tried to run roms on it it'd freeze up.

the problem? the itouch2 wasnt making full contact with the receivers on the ds.

the solution? added two thin layers of scotch tape onto the side of cartridge with the sticker (top side). fixed the problem immediately.

maybe you should try giving that a shot

 

[zeroword]

Thanks guys. As SOON as I get it back, I will look at all these things.