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Flash Equipment > newbie - trying to get his MultiBoot V2 working!!

#64916 - daxtrajero - Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:26 pm

Hi, some of you may be aware I inadvertently posted in the "beginners" forum which, in retrospect, seemed to be the wrong choice

I'd be grateful for any help you could offer, as I can't seem to get this device working at all and there appears to be no aftermarket support.

PARALLEL PORT
The device hangs off the PC's parallel port and allows the downloading of code directly into either the GBA memory or flash cart.

So far I've been into my BIOS and set the parallel port to type SPP in accordance with the FAQ

Also, in WinXP SP2, I've been into the device manager and told the port to use IRQ 7

SOFTWARE APPLICATION - NO HARDWARE FOUND!
When I've tried to use the app that cmoes with the Multiboot - which needs to be used from the command prompt, it informs me it can't any hardware.

Reading the FAQ, its told me that in order to get direct access to the parallel port, I should use a program like Direct IO or Give IO or Userport. Once installed these permit access to the port. I've tried all these to no avail. At least it doesn't say NO HARDWARE FOUND anymore, but the GBA isn't responding at all.

CONCLUSION
If anyone can offer me any advice to get the device working, then please let me know.

Perhaps I shoudl buy an alternative superior device which uses the USB ports on a PC. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks all,
-Dax

#64936 - Dwedit - Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:50 pm

I used userport, worked fine for me.
Try heavily increasing the waitstates. You can't do anything without adding waitstates. Try 10000, then try decreasing the number until it still works.
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#64937 - daxtrajero - Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:58 pm

thanks, I'll try that.

How long does it take to transfer a small program from the PC directly to the GBA's memory ? eg. how long should I wait to see if it works ?

Also, I assume I just plug the cable into the GBA then turn it on. The GBA boots up as normal. I then try and send the program to it. Is this correct ?

#64964 - Dwedit - Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:48 pm

Turn on GBA, Select+Start to make it wait for a multiboot program (Or boot it up with no cartridge).
mb -w 1500 -s file.gba
On my PC, I can use as few as 10 waitstates, but your results may vary.

The USB Flash linker cables are much faster than the MBV2 cable, but the MBV2 seems to be much more durable.
_________________
"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

#64965 - daxtrajero - Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:54 pm

Dwedit, really appreciate your comments.

Can you tell me, did you turn off your parallel port in the windows xp device manager ?

#64969 - Dwedit - Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:38 am

I set mine to EPP mode in the bios, left it on in the device manager, and made sure to properly install userport. Try re-installing userport.
I have had full success, even while running a PSX->Parallel adapter driver in the background on the same port, swap out the MBV2, plug in the joystick, no driver problems ever.
_________________
"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

#64972 - daxtrajero - Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:18 am

Well, I've tried all that - in fact I tried userport, direct IO and give IO and none of them give me a response on the GBA

Makes me think the MBV2 is faulty.

Q: Is there any diagnostic I can use to test if the MBV2 is working ok ?

Q: Does MB.EXE say anything once you've sent the file to the GBA ? When I try it, it says nothing and gives me the next command prompt >

Incidentally, its a GBA "SP" - this should make no difference ?

#64982 - tepples - Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:07 am

Have you tried using straight MS-DOS or Windows 9x?
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#65009 - daxtrajero - Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:37 pm

tepples wrote:
Have you tried using straight MS-DOS or Windows 9x?


no, not yet - need to find a computer with Win9x or DOS!

#65017 - daxtrajero - Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:19 pm

Does anyone force WinXp to use an interrupt (IRQ7) for the parallel port ?

#65029 - daxtrajero - Thu Dec 29, 2005 5:32 pm

OMG, OMG!!! I got it working, well SORT of...

I ran Win98 SE under emulation in VMWare Workstation so that prooves the MBV2 works.

Now all I need to do is get userport working in my WinXP Sp2

When installaing userport, I'm putting userport.sys (the driver) into the windows/system32/drivers folder

then I put the userport.exe into the windows folder

I set user port to the address range 378 - 37F

Do I set up any memory range or IRQ ?