pselodux
Offline
Melbourne

Hey guys, I bought a used EMS 64M USB cart (probably a mistake haha), and it doesn't seem to work properly. I can get it to appear as a USB device, and write to it/format/etc using the GB USB software (although, the Card Information section is blank when I copy LSDJ to it, and shows a whole bank of the same rom image on both pages when I copy anything else to it, which might be a warning sign?).. but when I try it on my DMG it doesn't even show the Nintendo logo, just some horizontal lines with no movement or sound. On CGB the screen is totally blank, also no sound. I've tried formatting the card, cleaning the connector with isopropyl alcohol, and trying to seat it slightly differently in my DMG and no luck. It also doesn't work in the BennVenn Joey-Squinson card reader (doesn't even come up as a drive).

Is there anything else I can try? Would removing and re-seating the battery do anything? Could it even be a flat battery issue? I'm fairly new to this gameboy stuff so I'm not sure what I can try.


edit: I also have a mac so I can give the osx software a try if that might help..

Last edited by pselodux (May 20, 2015 9:57 am)

J3wel
Offline

Try it on your mac, run the Terminal commands and see if you can write anything to it or back up a save. If you can back up a sav ot your pc/mac run it in an emulator and see if that's working or if it is also broken. That might at least give you an idea as to whether its a software or hardware problem.

If nothing else works I'd try putting in a new battery.
Just my thoughts I'm not super techy but that's what I would try.

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire

If you have an android device and an otg usb cable you can try with this excellent app:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta … &hl=en

I've been helping test it out and I'm very excited about it.  smile

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne

Tried with my girlfriend's phone and it wrote a rom and a sav to the device without a problem. Still doesn't work when I put it in my DMG or CGB though! Didn't work on GBA either.

On the DMG it's either showing 1–3 horizontal lines or a whole screen of alternating lines, neither of which are affected by the contrast control. On the other systems it's not showing any graphics at all.

I took the battery out and tested it, and it's putting out 3.3v so I'm guessing it's alright!

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire

Hmmmm that sucks.  Does the same thing happen on both banks?  As in, if you cycle the game boy power to go to bank 2 of the cart (the green led lights up) do you still get the blank/lines on the screen?

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

No enumeration on the joey squinson? Take a look around the /Rd /CS pins on the cart. A bad/floating pin here puts junk on the bus and will force a reset on the joey squinson.

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne

I don't think the LED comes on on the cart. That said, I've found that the first time I try it, it has 1-3 lines on screen, then if I reset I get the alternating lines until I swap it out for another cart.

BennVenn: yeah, still nothing! It works without a cart plugged in (and with my EMS 32M cart) but doesn't come up at all when the 64M cart is plugged in. I'll have a closer look at the pcb tonight, and maybe give the connector a bit more of a clean with IPA.

Last edited by pselodux (May 20, 2015 11:13 pm)

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

If you get stuck you can send it up , I can re-flow the board incase its just a dry joint. It'll only take a few minutes. If you send only the board it'll cost $1.40 in postage

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne

Ah man, that'd be so awesome. I don't have precise soldering tools at home so it's probably not a good idea for me to try it! I'll let you know.

Thanks!

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne

Update: I had a look inside with a magnifying glass and light; couldn't see anything glaringly obvious, apart from pins 6 & 7 on the chip with "PL8810" printed on it being soldered together (but I *think* I can see them connected together in this photo I found: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gameboyge … otostream/ so I think it's supposed to be like that).

The LED lights dimly every time I try it in either gameboy. I've tried it without the front cover, without SRAM battery, and tried taking the SRAM battery out for 10mins and re-seating it, with no luck.

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire
pselodux wrote:

Update: I had a look inside with a magnifying glass and light; couldn't see anything glaringly obvious, apart from pins 6 & 7 on the chip with "PL8810" printed on it being soldered together (but I *think* I can see them connected together in this photo I found: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gameboyge … otostream/ so I think it's supposed to be like that).

The LED lights dimly every time I try it in either gameboy. I've tried it without the front cover, without SRAM battery, and tried taking the SRAM battery out for 10mins and re-seating it, with no luck.

Does the led light up brightly when you have the cart plugged into your computer and choose Page 2 in the software?  I'm kinda fixated on the page switching since that seems to be a very weak point in these carts.  There was a thread on here about removing a certain capacitor so that your cart would always be locked into Page 1 but I cant find it.  That might be worth looking into if you can find the info.

Last edited by egr (May 21, 2015 2:47 pm)

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

You might be onto something there Egr, Maybe an IC or discrete on the board has gone bad and is shorting something. The Led is driven by a simple SR latch inside the FPGA/CPLD. Might explain why the Joey isnt starting either, dead short on the 5v line.

pselodux
Offline
Melbourne
BennVenn wrote:

You might be onto something there Egr, Maybe an IC or discrete on the board has gone bad and is shorting something. The Led is driven by a simple SR latch inside the FPGA/CPLD. Might explain why the Joey isnt starting either, dead short on the 5v line.

I'm gonna send it to you today; if it's something you can fix let me know and I'll pay for any replacement components.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

No problem, hopefully its something simple

garvalf
Offline
France

while we're talking about this, I've ordered one of those EMS 64M card. I'm using linux and I've seen the unofficial linux driver using usblib. I've tried to compile it but it didn't work. Any tips about this? Are there others, can we use wine?

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
garvalf wrote:

while we're talking about this, I've ordered one of those EMS 64M card. I'm using linux and I've seen the unofficial linux driver using usblib. I've tried to compile it but it didn't work. Any tips about this? Are there others, can we use wine?

If you have an android device, the app "Gameboy Cart Tool" is the current best method for reading/writing cartridges on modern hardware. I'm not sure if it works under emulation, however, as it requires OTG.