Twilight Menu red screen when trying to start games/how to downgrade nds bootstrap?

[Finchsplash]

I'm gonna preface this with saying I know very little about modding/homebrew myself, my dad helped me with the initial modding of the system and has much more experience with this stuff, so there could be a super obvious solution staring me in the face that I just don't know about. Neither my dad or I have been able to figure out what to do to fix this issue but I'm sure he'd be able to help me with any proposed solutions.

anyway, I'm having trouble with twilight menu and I was hoping I could get some help here. I know this is an issue others have had before because I did some googling around to try and fix it, but nothing I've tried so far has worked.
when I first got twilight menu on my 3ds, any game I tried to start would just greet me with an ominous bright red screen with some very small white x's on the top screen.
googling around I found something saying to set "Card Read DMA" to off, so I tried that, but that just went from one red error screen to another, and I now have an "Error! Data Abort" message on the top screen with a bunch of numbers under it. This continues to be the case now even if I turn Card Read DMA back to on or default.
If it helps at all, the games I've been trying to run are Pokemon Platinum Version and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, and both have yielded the exact same result. I haven't bothered even putting any other ds games on my 3ds because I couldn't get either of these to work.

One solution I saw suggested multiple times was to downgrade nds-bootstrap to an older version, but I'm not sure how to do that and haven't been able to find any tutorial, so if anyone could explain how to do that or link me to that information so I could try that that would be helpful as well !!

I have the original 3ds model running Luma3ds version 10.2.1, nds-bootstrap version 0.72.1, and twilight menu++ version 25.11.0. The first thing I tried was using universalupdater to update it a couple days ago.

thanks a bunch in advance if anyone is able to help me solve this, I would really love to be able to play gen 4 pokemon without having to emulate on my computer ^^

 

[a_username_that_isnt_cool]

Try resetting the game. This happens consistently with Petit Computer for me, but I just reset the game and it works.
To check if you have the new or old 3ds, the new ones have a second circle pad called the c-stick. the new ones also have zl/zr controls, and can run n3ds homebrew and games

 

[Finchsplash]

Try resetting the game. This happens consistently with Petit Computer for me, but I just reset the game and it works.
To check if you have the new or old 3ds, the new ones have a second circle pad called the c-stick. the new ones also have zl/zr controls, and can run n3ds homebrew and games

definitely have the old 3ds then. tried resetting both games a few times, the screen just flashes black/white for a second and then returns to the exact same red error screen.

 

[RocketRobz]

The red screen with the small x's (which are actually just pixels) come from an outdated nds-bootstrap.
Please check TWiLight Menu++ settings to see which versions you're using.

 

[Finchsplash]

The red screen with the small x's (which are actually just pixels) come from an outdated nds-bootstrap.
Please check TWiLight Menu++ settings to see which versions you're using.

Twilight Menu is v25.11.0, nds-bootstrap is 0.72.1 as previously mentioned, I wasn't sure how to check the twilight menu version before so thank you for that at least !
either way I'm no longer having the x issue, just the data abort error. I will try updating nds boostrap though.

 

[RocketRobz]

Twilight Menu is v25.11.0, nds-bootstrap is 0.72.1 as previously mentioned, I wasn't sure how to check the twilight menu version before so thank you for that at least !
either way I'm no longer having the x issue, just the data abort error

Sounds like the ROMs you have are corrupted then.
If you've installed a DS cheat database, ensure the cheats are turned off by pressing L in the cheat menu, and then saving.
If you don't have the cheat database installed, or if the cheats are already turned off, then delete the "patchOffsetCache" folder in "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/".
If the issue persists, then your ROMs are corrupted, and will need to be re-dumped.

 

[Finchsplash]

Sounds like the ROMs you have are corrupted then.
If you've installed a DS cheat database, ensure the cheats are turned off by pressing L in the cheat menu, and then saving.
If you don't have the cheat database installed, or if the cheats are already turned off, then delete the "patchOffsetCache" folder in "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/".
If the issue persists, then your ROMs are corrupted, and will need to be re-dumped.

I haven't touched cheats at all, never really been something I was interested in. I deleted that folder and it definitely did something because it shows another screen that says nds bootstrap before going to the error screen, whereas before it was just a white screen for a bit and then the error, but I am still getting the error. Thank you for the suggestion though !! I'll talk to my dad about getting new roms and see if that works.

 

[secondbest2]

Sounds like the ROMs you have are corrupted then.
If you've installed a DS cheat database, ensure the cheats are turned off by pressing L in the cheat menu, and then saving.
If you don't have the cheat database installed, or if the cheats are already turned off, then delete the "patchOffsetCache" folder in "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/".
If the issue persists, then your ROMs are corrupted, and will need to be re-dumped.

I had the same problem, all updated and my rom were perfect but the red screen appeared every time I launched pokemon heart gold, soul silver and something else. I downgraded from the latest version of TW to a Summer 2020 version and all works perfectly. I take a summer 2020 version because it was the first version of TW i used and I remembered that i never had any issue with that. The games that cause red screen on the latest version work perfectly on Summer 2020 version

 

[RocketRobz]

I had the same problem, all updated and my rom were perfect but the red screen appeared every time I launched pokemon heart gold, soul silver and something else. I downgraded from the latest version of TW to a Summer 2020 version and all works perfectly. I take a summer 2020 version because it was the first version of TW i used and I remembered that i never had any issue with that. The games that cause red screen on the latest version work perfectly on Summer 2020 version

If you installed the latest using Universal-Updater, then that might be why you got the red screen issue. Try installing the latest version using the manual method (same one used for downgrading) instead.

 

[secondbest2]

If you installed the latest using Universal-Updater, then that might be why you got the red screen issue. Try installing the latest version using the manual method (same one used for downgrading) instead.

I tried yesterday but the problem still persists. I downgraded to a Summer 2021 version instead of a Summer 2020 version and still works great

 

[RocketRobz]

I tried yesterday but the problem still persists. I downgraded to a Summer 2021 version instead of a Summer 2020 version and still works great

You tried the manual method instead of Universal-Updater?
If so, have you tried deleting the "patchOffsetCache" folder in "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/" when the error occurred again?
If so, and the issue still persists, please upload a photo of the error.

 

[secondbest2]

You tried the manual method instead of Universal-Updater?
If so, have you tried deleting the "patchOffsetCache" folder in "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/" when the error occurred again?
If so, and the issue still persists, please upload a photo of the error.

Sorry for the delay. I tried and the error is still here. I upgraded manually to the newer version (16/01/2024) and deleted the patchOffsetCache folder after the first boot. I tried to boot Pokemon soul silver with cheat disabled. This are the screenshots.

PS: on the flashcard the same rom starts as well as the older versions of TW like Summer 2020 and 2021

 

[RocketRobz]

Sorry for the delay. I tried and the error is still here. I upgraded manually to the newer version (16/01/2024) and deleted the patchOffsetCache folder after the first boot. I tried to boot Pokemon soul silver with cheat disabled. This are the screenshots.

PS: on the flashcard the same rom starts as well as the older versions of TW like Summer 2020 and 2021

I've seen that error information before. I recall this happening with one of the cheats. Please delete the "usrcheat.dat" file in "sd:/_nds/TWiLightMenu/extras/", and try again.

 

[secondbest2]

I've seen that error information before. I recall this happening with one of the cheats. Please delete the "usrcheat.dat" file in "sd:/_nds/TWiLightMenu/extras/", and try again.

Just tried and it still does not work; but even if it had worked, it wouldn't have been great to play without cheats
This is the new error

 

[RocketRobz]

Just tried and it still does not work; but even if it had worked, it wouldn't have been great to play without cheats
This is the new error

The error is almost identical to the previous one.

Your ROM is definitely corrupted. The reason why downgrading works is because some older nds-bootstrap versions basically contain a patch which forces corrupt ROMs to boot, which is a patch that shouldn't be necessary.
Try re-dumping the ROM from your cartridge, and/or ensure the same ROM works using melonDS (do not test with other DS emulators).
If the ROM works using melonDS, then that'd mean the ROM isn't corrupted. If that's the case, then I'm (likely) out of ideas.

 

[secondbest2]

The error is almost identical to the previous one.

Your ROM is definitely corrupted. The reason why downgrading works is because some older nds-bootstrap versions basically contain a patch which forces corrupt ROMs to boot, which is a patch that shouldn't be necessary.
Try re-dumping the ROM from your cartridge, and/or ensure the same ROM works using melonDS (do not test with other DS emulators).
If the ROM works using melonDS, then that'd mean the ROM isn't corrupted. If that's the case, then I'm (likely) out of ideas.

I'm not sure how it works, but the ROM passed this test as you can see in the pic. If it doesn't work with this version, no problem, I'll go back to using the 2021 version or the flashcard

 

[RocketRobz]

I'm not sure how it works, but the ROM passed this test as you can see in the pic. If it doesn't work with this version, no problem, I'll go back to using the 2021 version or the flashcard

I want to try fixing the issue, if possible. Otherwise, there may be other users who will have to downgrade, which shouldn't be necessary.
Now that you showed me the region of the ROM, I decided to try it on my DSi (though should work the same as on 3DS), and it booted just fine with the latest version.

When you calculate the hashes, are you loading the ROM straight from the SD card, or from the original location on your PC?
Also, in TWiLight Menu++, have you tried turning off card read DMA?

 

[secondbest2]

I want to try fixing the issue, if possible. Otherwise, there may be other users who will have to downgrade, which shouldn't be necessary.
Now that you showed me the region of the ROM, I decided to try it on my DSi (though should work the same as on 3DS), and it booted just fine with the latest version.

When you calculate the hashes, are you loading the ROM straight from the SD card, or from the original location on your PC?
Also, in TWiLight Menu++, have you tried turning off card read DMA?

Yes the rom was from the SD card, plus i tried turining off card read dma in the per-game settings section but there is still the error

 

[RocketRobz]

Yes the rom was from the SD card, plus i tried turining off card read dma in the per-game settings section but there is still the error

The only option left may be to just reformat your SD card then. Please follow this setup guide to do so: https://dsi.cfw.guide/sd-card-setup.html