Hacking [Tutorial]Unbricking Acekard 2 using Phat DS and Ralink Wifi

[wildex999]

I got into a nasty situation today, where my acekard 2i ended up getting bricked. I write this tutorial in the hope that it can help others who end up in the same situation.

First some back story:
I got my acekard 2i initially for my DSi, but before it i have used GBA carts for my old Phat DS.
I recently got myself a 3DS, and got the acekard 2 working there, all well and good. Today I figured I needed to update my 3Ds to get access to all the ambasador goodies, and I also saw that the acekard was updated to support this version.
I updated my 3DS, and then used my Phat DS to update the acekard 2i(Didn't have the DSi at hand, and no computer at hand when I updated the 3DS, so I couldn't update the acekard first.)
After updating the acekard it again worked in my 3DS, but I found that I got "system file missing" when starting certain games.
From looking around this forums I found that I need to re-format the card using SDFormatter. However, after doing this, my acekard suddenly didn't appear in my 3DS. I figured I just needed to run the firmware upgrade again or something. I put the card into my phat DS and... it hung up on menu.
I tried again, and same result.
I tried reformatting the SD card, same result.
My computer could still read the SD card, so I figured that wasn't the problem.
Without any SD card, the same happened.
So, somehow, my acekard had gotten bricked.

I ofcourse had no other acekard laying around to use the unbricking method. And my old GBA cart was unusable because I would need to re-install windows XP to get the drivers to work to write anything to it, and even then I don't know if it would have worked.

but then I remembered something I had used to originally flash my old phat DS, WiFiMe.
Something with the old code for running Downloaded code that was exploitable on the Phat DS. Since I still had my Ralink RT2500 wireless card, I figured it was worth a try.
And guess what, it worked =D

So here is a step by step tutorial on how to do it for those who have the tools:

You require two things for this method to work:
An old Phat DS(ie. the first Nintendo DS) and a Wireless card using the RT2500 chipset.
You must also be running Windows(tested on windows 7, but xp and vista should work.)
Please note that the Nintendo DS must be Firmware version 1 to 3, at firmware version 4 they blocked the WifiMe method this uses.
How to check firmware version:
1: Put in any NDS or GBA game cartridge into your Phat DS.(Disable autostart)
2: Go into Pictochat and enter any chat room.
3: Pull out the NDS or GBA game cartridge.
Depending on your firmware version, one of these things happen:

v1: Pictochat freezes.
v2: Greyish Blue screens
v3: Dark green screens
Any other and your DS can't be used for this method(v4 will give golden yellow screens etc.)

You can see compatible wireless cards on this list: http://ralink.rapla.net/
(Use web.archive.org or other cache if the website goes down)

Then you have to download this file containing the modified Wireless drivers and the application that will send the unbricker to your nds.
(Original file links are down, this stuff is from 2005)
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X7GZFFUO

Unpack those wherever you want(using WinRar)
You should have two folders, one named "rt2560_driver_1_0_0_8" and one named "wifime".

First we must install the drivers.
I won't go into too much detail here as there are enough tutorials around on how to install new drivers, but you will most likely have to force windows to use these drivers using "select driver manually" and then "browse to disk". Select the driver in the "winxp" folder and then depending on whether you run 32(i386) or 64(amd64) bit.

Now, download the latest Acekard 2 firmware. There should be two .nds files in there, one with DSL, and one with DSi(in my case: *_onDSL_NO44.nds)
Select the DSL one, and put that file in the "wifime/data" folder. Using the DSi file will not work(At least not for me.)
Rename the file we copied to "run.nds".
Now in the wifime folder you will find a file named run.cmd.
Open this file.
It will open a command window, and start serving the run.nds file over your wireless card.

Now you simply start up your phat DS and go into "DS Download Play".
After a while you should find the host in there. Simply select it and let it download.
You should then se a broken ninteno sign, before the good old acekard firmware updater starts up.
Now simply insert your bricked acekard and push "B" as instructed on the screen.
Once done restart your system.

Congratulations, you SHOULD now have a fully functional Acekard 2

I'm not very good at explaining what I mean sometimes, and there can be that some of these steps don't work the same on all systems, so if something in here is unclear just post a reply, and I will try to help as best I can

 

[Another World]

if you are willing to clean this up, make it look more professional, add images, links to files, etc, then i will stickie it.

it is interesting that you tried this and that it worked. i don't think that most users will even remember wifiME let alone know how to do anything with it. this guide is rather useful to those that have the right set of tools.

-another world

 

[ishdeepsingh]

Thx for the TUT, But can you reupload the files..? Megauploads down..

 

[Smiths]

Huh. Never thought of using that old tool for this. Good way of thinking!
Sometimes it's when our backs are to the wall that we call up something that gets the job done.