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Minneapolis

Sounds cool kitsch! If mine was borken I'd try it out, but it works just fine.

Offline
Brooklyn NY US

Thanks again guys.

kitsch wrote:

i'm not sure if you've tried this, but put something in the second banks, and see if it helps.  switching to them, when there is nothing to load, may be part of the issue in why things are seemingly becoming stuck after having accessed the empty banks.

Unfortunately my troubleshooting options are limited with respect to reformatting etc.; being an OSX user without Parallels or Windows (yet) I had to use a loaner PC to install the file management utility, cartridge drivers, etc., and I don't have access to that machine any longer. :\  Will probably have access to other PCs in the future so as soon as I'm able I'll try to start over.

kitsch wrote:

on the back, bottom-right, of the cartridge (melted into the plastic) is a date code.  something like 1005, 1006A, 0912, whatever...

what is the date code?  the latest PCB revision (which is what the date codes partially reflect, the letter is for more than one batch in the same revision) is 1006A, which are functioning beautifully.  it must be a model EMS is comfortable with as well, because they've been using it the last 200 we got, and usually they cycle to a new one quicker than this...

the date code may reveal a lot.

Unfortunately the one I've got on-hand is marked "1006A." Both carts actually belong to my roommate and he's got the other one with him at the moment. I'll check it when he's back.

In the "Does This Mean I Fucked Something Up" category -- one anomalous thing I did notice during the formatting and flashing process (which did, at the time, involve several iterations) was that when using the formatted & ROM-flashed cartridge, the descending Nintendo logo was mangled. Worryingly, it was mangled consistently (i.e. the manner of glitching was consistent every time, not variable the way you'd expect if it were just a bad contact connection etc.). So maybe something I did during formatting punched these carts in the brain. Possible?

Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Bit Shifter wrote:

Thanks again guys.

kitsch wrote:

i'm not sure if you've tried this, but put something in the second banks, and see if it helps.  switching to them, when there is nothing to load, may be part of the issue in why things are seemingly becoming stuck after having accessed the empty banks.

Unfortunately my troubleshooting options are limited with respect to reformatting etc.; being an OSX user without Parallels or Windows (yet) I had to use a loaner PC to install the file management utility, cartridge drivers, etc., and I don't have access to that machine any longer. :\  Will probably have access to other PCs in the future so as soon as I'm able I'll try to start over.

kitsch wrote:

on the back, bottom-right, of the cartridge (melted into the plastic) is a date code.  something like 1005, 1006A, 0912, whatever...

what is the date code?  the latest PCB revision (which is what the date codes partially reflect, the letter is for more than one batch in the same revision) is 1006A, which are functioning beautifully.  it must be a model EMS is comfortable with as well, because they've been using it the last 200 we got, and usually they cycle to a new one quicker than this...

the date code may reveal a lot.

Unfortunately the one I've got on-hand is marked "1006A." Both carts actually belong to my roommate and he's got the other one with him at the moment. I'll check it when he's back.

In the "Does This Mean I Fucked Something Up" category -- one anomalous thing I did notice during the formatting and flashing process (which did, at the time, involve several iterations) was that when using the formatted & ROM-flashed cartridge, the descending Nintendo logo was mangled. Worryingly, it was mangled consistently (i.e. the manner of glitching was consistent every time, not variable the way you'd expect if it were just a bad contact connection etc.). So maybe something I did during formatting punched these carts in the brain. Possible?

In my experience that mangled logo is a result of having no software on a given page.  Mine does the same thing when unloaded.