wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

So i just got a new EMS dual page USB cart and It was working fine and dandy up until tonight.

I have a cart that wont boot into page 1 which isn't so much an issue as i only use my cart for lsdj. I started having trouble when randomly using lsdj the hexdec. started to fill blank spots with BF instead of the normal -- .
I thought this was just a glitch and reset the GB. When it boots back up i get a blank screen and it takes a while before anytext will appear. When it finally does it starts the BF shit again and by this point I am like WTF? i reset again and It glitches out more and more with every reset, now text is missing and instruments dont sound right and or not playing, and It is also freezing.

Finally i restart one last time and now suddenly the .sav wont load and i get a completely blank LSDJ screen. LSDJ is working fine again and is all cool. At this Point i went back to my computer reformat the cart and load the roms with a different version of LSDJ and the sram again. turn the guy on. works for a while then suddenly does the same thing again.

Tried loading other roms and they all fuck up for sum reason. Halp? pweees?

I think this cart might be faulty Kitsch is a nice gentlemen but if i can i would like to fix it instead of having to send it back in and replaced.

O yeah, the roms all work fine in emulators and dont have problems.

Any ideas guys? If i had a guess it might be Sram issue or sometimes i notice i will boot in page 2 and then when i look at the cart again while i am still using it and its in page 1 WTFFFFF?????


I am  shitting my pants a bit with frustration. halp halp i ask halp!!!!!!

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

wow, thats crazy.....

um, ok, let's do the list of typical issues

1) try different usb cable for flash.  some cables don't connect well and bits go missing in the flash.  i doubt thats the issue, but worth a shot
2) can you try a ROM with no memory? 
3) is your GB modded?  what type of gb?
4) water, heat, cold, drop damage to the cart you can tell?

it sounds for sure like an sram problem.  if the sav loads fine, lsdj pops right into it.  the big delay when it loads fine, just blank, is a lack of a sav.  your memory is shitting out it sounds like...

one thing i've noticed is that sometimes the internal battery pops out just a little during shipping.  rarely.  but, it would help explain some of your issues...

so, check that.  also, a ROM with no memory, just to see if it loads right and everything without the hangups.

and, of course, get in touch directly if you want to switch.  what you described is strange to me and i'd love to avoid it happening again, so exchanging carts works out for both of us in that way.  if you want to do that.  totally your call.  troubleshooting is fine too.

if its switching menus in the middle of gameplay, thats an issue.  and, your cart is possessed...

wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

lets trouble shoot. i would like to see what the issue is myself out of curiosity. This will be a fun project that would for sure help me learn some stuff. Also I am sure this is something that people can do themselves in the future if they have similar problems.

Ok so.

1) The different USB cables seems not to be the issue I have used 3 and they all seem to yield the same effects.

2) loaded shitwave successfully. I didnt have any trouble with that. just the normal page switching issues.

3) tried on 3 different GBC, one DMG, GBA, GB lite, and pocket. same issues. Stock DMG and prosounded GBCs and one stock. stock everything else too.

4) no water heat or drop damage that i am aware of. this guy has been mostly sitting in my room un touched because of time spent away from home.

I reloaded sram several times same issues. I tried different srams and the same issues. So in the end i opened the case and looked at the board. one thing of note. C3 cap is missing completely. That would probably be the reason for the Page switch errors. Battery check. looks like it is all in nicely. Here is the issue solver. pushed down on the battery, sure enough the guy slips down a little further. now safe and secure I close the cart and reload everything. starts fine. sram loads no problem. mess around for a while no issues. havent had problems since.

just as you said slipped battery durring transpiration of bumps or possibly shoty installation.

the page issue still exists tho. would you by chance know the cap that should be in the c3? i can try to solder this guy in and see if that is a fix. I know alot of people are having these issues.

wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

everything is all gravy still. i think this problem is solved thanx  Kitsch.

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

C3 was intentionally removed by EMS about ...  5 months ago i guess.  It was a deliberate move on there part, not missing.

the manu switching issue is totally random.  EMS, last time i checked, said they couldn't replicate the issue fully, because carts that show the behavior on a certain gameboy work fine on others...

i think part of the problem, personally, could just be naturally tolerances in parts, like caps.  coupled with the (probably) leaky caps in older gameboys, there are increasingly wider ranges of tolerances going on in the circuitry.  thats just my own thought though, but would explain why the issue can only be done sometimes and not replicated in full.

anyways, glad something i said helped!