#69506 - Daveychan - Tue Jan 31, 2006 4:12 am
Greetz All,
I'm new here and to the entire NDS scene. I could really use some help please. For the life of me I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. For three days I have been researching and doing trial and error to get this stuff working, but have had no luck!
I simply cannot figure out what I need to put on my supercard to get the passme2 to work properly....
I have a FW2 NDS (I found this out by using the 'Chat Room A' trick), an original AD2J "Nintendogs - Chihuahua and Friends" game, an EZFlash2 and a supercard with a 1Gb SD card.
I connect my EZFlash2 cable to my parallel port, plugged in the USB cable as a power source, and connected it to the small EZFlash2 NDS cartridge. I run the ispVM program and it finds it fine, and I followed the instructions to put the "AD2J-0 Nintendogs - Chihuahua and Friends" JED file onto the EZFlash2 card successfully. (Yes, I see the successful message when done.)
Next, I have tried a million things with absolutely no luck. I simply cannot get NDS to boot up my game now with the EZFlash2 cartridge! I put my original game into the EZFlash2 slot and then put that into my NDS. I have tried copying the SAV file from the "AD2J-0 Nintendogs - Chihuahua and Friends " onto the root of my supercard and plug that cart into the GBA slot on the bottom of my NDS, putting the entire dump of the game onto the card, putting on the supercard patched version of the nds and sav onto the card, etc. etc. etc. ARG!
Starting up the NDS in menu mode only shows the GBA cartridge. The NDS menu window for the DS game is blank ("There is no DS Card inserted.") Changing to "Auto" mode just boots to my GBA cartridge which doesn't do anything.
I cannot use the Manager program or anything because i don't have a EZFlash3 cart (I was told the supercard was great, so i bought that.)
What I really want to do is flash my firmware, but every instruction has the line "Turn on your DS and run the flash update program using PassMe..." - I just can't get past that line!
Another forum said to try using a file called "passme2buttonwait.gba", but I haven't had any luck finding that, and I would still need to get the basic boot feature of the EZFlash2 working.
Please can anyone help me?
Cheerz in advance!
Please and Thanks!
#69528 - zxr750j - Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:51 am
Can't you reprogram it to be a passme (1)?
Otherwise: in the ez-software you can choose if you use a passme2 and assign a .sav to it, the software puts the sav in the first sram-space.
#69660 - Daveychan - Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:19 am
Thanks for the replies!
Okay, so i switched my JED to the flashme1 version (since I am FW2), put in the latest (v6) of flashme.nds onto my supercard and renamed it to flashme.gba. (This is just a windows drag and drop, yeah?)
Boot up the NDS with the ezflash2 card with no game inside (a game inside gives me two white screens on boot up) and my supercard with only the flashme.gba file. By default, it boots to the gba mode, i select flashme.gba and the top screen just turns white.
I have also tried the combining of the ndsloader.bin and the flashme.nds to create a new flashme.nds.gba file and when I run that the top screen just turns black (but the power stays on.)
For both of these cases, i have tried starting without the ezflash card in, running the flashme and then quickly turning off the NDS, putting the ezflash2 card back in and turning it on again. No luck.
Also worth noting is that in both of these cases, the very top part of my supercard now has a new entry: "blahblahblah" (in card). I'm assuming it means that it did actually load the flashme?
Arg! Please help!
Thanks!
#69669 - Sektor - Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:04 am
flashme is an nds program, you can't run it in gba mode. I don't think supercard will run .nds programs that have a gba extension. You must have a game in your passme, it can't go into DS mode without it.
If you have truely converted your passme2 into a passme1 then all you need is the passme with a game and the supercard with your homebrew on it. That should be enough to boot in DS mode. You don't even need to use flashme yet, you should already be able to run nds homebrew.
You don't need ezflash.
#69671 - Daveychan - Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:46 am
Thanks for the reply Sektor.
My supercard will ONLY run files with a gba extension. It won't even see NDS files.
I have FW2, so when I start my NDS with a game in it, it just gives me two white screens! Starting the NDS without a game doesn't do anything. (Just boots as normal.) Even though i am FW2, I have tried flashing my ezpass2 cart with the exact game as i am using, but it only just starts as if nothing is there. (I cannot see the DS card on the menu.)
What I really want to do is use flashme to change my NDS firmware permanently. I just can't get it to run! So frustrating because it seems so simple, everyone is doing it so easily, but i cannot see NDS files on my supercard, and i have no idea if my ezpass2 is even working.
Thanks again for your help!
#69678 - josath - Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:57 am
for it to work you have to have:
Passme + DS GAME in DS Slot
Supercard in GBA Slot
if you see the "Gameboy Advance" logo, you will NOT be able to run flashme after that.
Possibly, you need to upgrade the firmware of your supercard? I don't know exactly the details, but probably involves:
1. put upgrade file into CF card
2. start supercard WITHOUT anything in DS slot
3. run the upgrade
4. Go back to the first thing i said (running with passme + ds game)
also, i'm pretty sure flashme.nds should not be renamed to flashme.gba
#69679 - Daveychan - Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:11 am
thanks Josath
i have passme2 (ezpass) and the original game in my cart that matches the JED file i flashed to the ezpass cart.
I have flashme.nds version6 in my supercard.
It immediately shows the gba logo screen on bootup.
yes, i am version 1.6 on my supercard.
is my ezpass not working properly?
can i have anything else on the supercard?
thanks so much!
#69725 - MoAFun - Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:14 pm
otherwise use your ezflash card:
http://www.ndshb.com/cgi-bin/cfiles/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,10
he is a link to get flashme V6 which is already patched in ds.gba
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#69801 - Daveychan - Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:08 am
Thanks MoaFun, I tried this, same problem, Game Boy logo.
Also, Pepsiman states on his homepage that these programs do NOT work with supercard.
I now only have 5 files on my SD card. The AD2J-0 SAV and GBA files, the original V6 flashme.nds, and the two DAT files.
I really think my problem is with the EZPass2. I have tried so many ways with the files on my Supercard, and it really is simple, so i don't think i'm screwing this up.
For EZPass2 troubleshooting info:
- I have a pink japanese NDS that when doing the chatroom A trick, indicates that I am firmware 2. This indicates that I SHOULD NOT actually need a game specific JED file, so, which JED do I flash to the EZPass2 for firmware 2? The only generic one I could find is the ezpass.jed file on the homepage. (I don't see any difference when I try stuff.)
- As mentioned, my AD2J-0 Nintendogs (JAP) NDS game is original, and the JED file for that is listed, so for most of the trouble shooting I have been using that flashed JED in combination with my orignal game. Again, the JED flash s/w is easy and it indicates success when I flash it.
- Is there any generic JED file I should try other than ezpass.JED ? Perhaps the AD2J-0 JED isn't really working, and that is the source of all my problems? Unfortunately it is my only original game, and I don't want to shell out 6,000 yen for another one.
Thanks again everyone!
#69880 - Lynx - Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:37 pm
Frist, check this out and see if it helps.
http://www.ndshb.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=60
Also, if you are getting the GBA Boot screen, then your DS isn't even detecting the device in the DS slot. If you were having SRAM issues, you'd at least get the DS boot screen, and then it would go to two white screens.
So, before you waste any more time on your SC, you need to get to the two white screens. You should be able to do that without even putting ANYTHING in the GBA slot.
#69914 - Daveychan - Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:40 pm
Okay, I can now get two white screens if I boot with my EZPass2 and my original DS game and NO supercard.
So now, after putting in my supercard, how do i get the supercard logo/GUI to come up?
- I have tried holding down x y a b buttons on startup
- I have tried holding down START SELECT a b buttons on startup
- I have tried holding down START SELECT L R buttons on startup
- I have tried loading my DSgame.GBA file to put it in SRAM (writing success message appears) and inserting my EZPass2 with my DS card and then rebooting fast about 50 times.
- I have tried running the flashme.nds.gba but it just gives me one white screen on top and i never see the SRAM written message.
Please any advice? I think I am close now because the EZPass2 card is now at least doing something!
Please and Thanks!
#70077 - Lynx - Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:16 am
Yup, you are close. You just need to get the sram data in there. But, just in case, are you using the latest "kernel"? Make sure by going to supercard.cn and download the latest kernel and booting into GBA Mode, run the provided file and update the kernel. Then, try a SRAM writer or using a .sav file from DarkFader's site naming it sram.dat (can't remember if super card supports this or not).
#70120 - bananaboy - Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:51 pm
See if my post here http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?p=65438&highlight=#65438 helps you. I too bought an ezpass2 and a supercard (CF version) and had a lot of trouble at first (found the whole thing very confusing).
Here are the steps (I see you've already figured out some of this stuff but I'll put it all here anyway):
1. Make sure you have a game for which there is a .sav and .jed file.
2. Write the .jed file for your game to your ezpass2 using ispVM (instructions here: http://www.ezflash.cn/pass2/step.html jed files here: http://www.ezflash.cn/pass2/list.html)
3. Put your supercard into your DS
4. Take the .ds.gba program that you want to run, rename it to .gba.nds, and copy it to your CF card. If you want to run a .nds file, you'll have to run it through the supercard patch software (I haven't been able to get this to work with my homebrew NDS files though - are they not the same as a clean dump of a commercial game?).
5. Download the .sav file for your game from the link above, where you downloaded the .jed file.
6. Download IQSRAM from here: http://scdev.org/index.php?cat=info&tutorial=flashme_passme2 and put it on your CF card. Rename the .sav file to IQSRAM.sav.
I've discovered that IQSRAM.gba doesn't actually do anything. All you need to do is have a .sav file with the same name as a .gba file, and the supercard shell will automatically write the .sav file to the SRAM when it runs the .gba file. All IQSRAM.gba does is print out "sram loaded" on the screen!
7. Stick your CF card into your supercard.
8. Turn on your DS and choose start GBA game (make sure you haven't plugged the ezpass2 in).
9. The supercard GBA shell should come up. Select iqsram.gba and run it.
10. It should display "SRAM loaded". Put your game into the ezpass2 and plug the ezpass2 into the DS. Note that the DS should remain on while doing this!
11. Quickly turn the power off and then on again. The supercard DS menu should come up and you should see your .gba.nds file!
You'll have to load the SRAM every time you want to run software in DS mode, unfortunately. The only way around this is to re-write your DS firmware or use another GBA flash cart that supports battery backed SRAM or uses SRAM that is non-volatile. If I had known that the SRAM in the supercard wasn't battery backed and was volatile, I probably wouldn't have bought the supercard (I'm not game enough to flash my DS).
Good luck!
sam
#70370 - Daveychan - Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:31 pm
Hello all,
Just wanted to give an update on my plight with all these EzPass2 problems.
This weekend I managed to get a SuperPass2 card and try my luck with that. Absolutely no luck again! In fact, the same exact problems. There are only so many ways to do this, and after a week of reading and getting advice from everyone, there is no way I'm doing this wrong anymore.
So, I hooked up with one of the great people from the forum (you are my hero Mavis!) who lives about an hour away from me. We used his SuperPass2 card (with his MarioKart DS game), and BOOM!, it booted to the Supercard menu immediately. Of course I am overjoyed at this new progress, but still a bit confused as to why mine wasn't working.
Next, as per normal, we run the latest 1.6 flashme file in order to permanently change the firmware. It starts up and immediately gives a Warning Message that reads something like, "This firmware is not recognized. Continuing will possibly render your NDS inoperable. Proceed at your own risk." We both sat there looking at it and said in stereo, "Oh shit!?!" Mavis had never seen this before (has flashed about half a dozen NDS before) and we just sat there for a minute thinking on what we should do next.
Just to recap, I did the "Chatroom A" firmware check, and it revealed a bluish-grey screen which indicates a Firmware 2. (I have to admit, I did find this odd because this is a Japanese Pink NDS and is fairly new on the market here.) Well, after a week of losing hair on this upgrade, I decided to just go for it and roll the dice. So, we followed the flashme instructions and shorted the metal bit in the back, waited till the counter reached 100%, held our breaths, and rebooted. Voila, worked fine! (Big smile and big, big sigh.) Over the next two days I tested and played and tested, everything is working just great.
So, the mystery still seems to be why the (Japanese) "Nintendo Dogs: Chiwawa & Friends" DS game and corresponding cart flash files did not work on either the EZPass2 or the SuperPass2 cards. Is it possible that this game really doesn't work with the carts? It was the only game I had, so it was the only game I could test until I met Mavis. Just a possible glitch that I wanted to pass on to all of you. Also, for anyone with the same NDS that I was working on, you might get that message when you try to use the flashme. I did not have any problems after ignoring the message and flashing anyway. THIS ISN'T TO SAY YOU SHOULD IGNORE THE MESSAGE, only that for MY case, it turned out okay.
Thanks again to all of you for reading and trying to help me out. Special appreciation to Mavis for being so generous and cool to a total stranger!
Cheerz and Best of Luck!
Daveychan
#70398 - The 9th Sage - Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:45 am
| bananaboy wrote: |
4. Take the .ds.gba program that you want to run, rename it to .gba.nds, and copy it to your CF card. If you want to run a .nds file, you'll have to run it through the supercard patch software (I haven't been able to get this to work with my homebrew NDS files though - are they not the same as a clean dump of a commercial game?). |
From what I remember hearing, you need to prepend the loader to the NDS (this is what those DS.gba files are...NDS files with the loader attatched to them) for them to work on the Supercard.
Get it from Darkfader's site (http://darkfader.net/ds/), then go into a command prompt (DOS prompt, whatever you want to call it), make sure the homebrew NDS and ndsmall.bin are in the same directory, then type 'copy /b ndsmall.bin + /b homebrew.nds homebrew.nds.gba" and you should get a flie that'll run on a Supercard. For some reason I don't think the Supercard supports running the homebrew NDS files without the loader, which is kind of annoying if you ask me. :)
| Daveychan wrote: |
Next, as per normal, we run the latest 1.6 flashme file in order to permanently change the firmware. It starts up and immediately gives a Warning Message that reads something like, "This firmware is not recognized. Continuing will possibly render your NDS inoperable. Proceed at your own risk." We both sat there looking at it and said in stereo, "Oh shit!?!" Mavis had never seen this before (has flashed about half a dozen NDS before) and we just sat there for a minute thinking on what we should do next. |
Hm...a japanese only firmware that FlashMe doesn't know about maybe? Strange.
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#70403 - tepples - Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:05 am
Yeah, it means you should probably dump the firmware and send it to olimar before you install FlashMe.
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#70538 - bananaboy - Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:56 am
| The 9th Sage wrote: |
| From what I remember hearing, you need to prepend the loader to the NDS (this is what those DS.gba files are...NDS files with the loader attatched to them) for them to work on the Supercard. |
Hmm yeah.. I thought the clean dump NDS was the same as the NDS files that devkitpro produces. I guess not though.. and the supercard is able to "convert" a clean dump NDS, but not a NDS from devkitpro (for me, at least).
#70541 - tepples - Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:52 am
SuperCard expects ds.gba files to be named as .nds, so prepend a loader: | Code: |
| copy /b ndsmall.bin+from_devkitpro.nds for_supercard.nds |
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-- Where is he?
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-- I think he moved to Tilwick.