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Hardware > Flash Advance Xtreme MAJOR PROBLEMS >_<

#2246 - KirbyPopStar - Fri Jan 31, 2003 5:00 pm

I got the 256M Cart + USB Linker. When plugged in, the linker light comes on... but the light stays on for a short and limited time. After a few minutes, it will come back on, but shut off again, repeating itself over and over. Whenever I wish to load a game ROM or demo onto the cart, in the middle of the transfer, it shuts off. Speed is at minimum, Do not patch EEPROM automaticly is set, and everything is set as it should be. Unfotunately, the linker light just comes on and off at random, shutting my linker off, and turning it back on at random times. Every so often, I can at least get a very short demo ROM loaded in if it can transfer before the connection cuts out. What is happening now?

PS. For some reason, when I do get a demo in, the cart does not always work. I have to adjust it, in and out, until the Nintendo logo actually pops up. Also, some demo ROMs freeze at certain points, yet work fine on the emulator. Why is that?


(( I realized, this is the same problem the many folks in the thread http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=46&sid=11b08f9b80461285f75fe76dc9330482 had. If this is such a wide-spread problem, why doesn't visoly DO something about it?!? This cart and linker cost too much money for me to get screwed over like this! Please, anyone with tips... I need your help. I'm using Windows ME. My USB works perfectly with everything else... Why is this happening to me?!? -_- ))

#2462 - koitsu - Tue Feb 04, 2003 12:58 pm

Holy shit. I'm _THRILLED_ to know someone else is experiencing this problem! :-) Let me tell my story, and it's a bit more dramatic than yours.

I actually own *four* Visoly Flash Advance Linker units; three are Flash Advance Linker units with USB support, and one is the "classic" Flash Advance Linker (no USB port). The carts I'm using are three 512mbit Flash Xtreme carts, and one of the non-Xtreme 256mbit carts (for the non-USB linker).

The non-USB model has exhibited problems writing to the cart numerous times. "Problems" meaning the linker software fucks up, and USUALLY errors out during write. I believe this is because of the flakey nature of direct I/O access under Windows NT/2K/XP (the fault of the application, NOT of Windows), and how flakey parallel ports are (note for readers who wish to argue otherwise: honestly I don't care what sort-of developer you are, they're flakey, and they have been for YEARS). However, whenever writing games to the cart, they always come out fine.

Now onto the USB-based units. Honestly, I love these things, especially since they're USB-powered. No AC adapter is great, but the story unfolds...

I purchased, as I said, three of these things (one for myself, two for friends). One of the three units does __EXACTLY WHAT YOU DESCRIBE__. The power LED on the Linker unit stays on, then after being plugged in and writing to a cart for a few minutes, the LED will completely disappear, and the unit will NOT power back on (even after unplugging/re-plugging the unit into the USB port). The other two units I have __DO NOT DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE__. They work fine.

I reached the conclusion that the wacky Linker unit is in fact defunctional, and have submit a RMA request with the site I bought it from (GBALinker.net, I believe). I have to send the unit back to _HONG KONG_, which upsets me.

Even more interesting, and I really would like to see feedback from fellow Xtreme users on this one: one of my carts (and the others may exhibit the same problem, I'm not sure) seems to _lose games_ randomly (!!!). I'm still trying to figure out why this is -- it didn't happen on my 256mbit non-Xtreme flashcart, but instead on the 256mbit model, it would regularly remove/erase my save games for no particular reason. I had the author of PocketNES take a look at the SRAM dump, and he said it looked to be corrupt somehow. Very interesting.

My vote is that these units are not properly providing consistent power to the on-board flash. I also believe that it may have something to do with switching batteries while the cart is plugged into it (maybe a small voltage differential or something; I'm not a hardware guru). I recently changed batteries, and now half of my NES games are missing from PocketNES. Oddly, I have a few actual GBA games on the same cart, and none of those are missing. I'm using the Visoly menu system to boot each individual game.

Finally, to answer your question about Visoly: these devices are grey-market, and by that I mean they are developed in-house, and usually ASSEMBLED in the basement of some guys' flat. I'm not kidding. Visoly is also known as Bung, a company who made SNES/SFC back-up/copier units, who suddenly "disappeared" one day when Nintendo sought an injunction upon them. This is a very common phenomenon in the Asias, shady companies that start up, make enough money to pay for some guys' new house, then shut down for about 2 years and start back up again under a different name. Such is the case with Visoly.

As it stands now, as I'm sure you've noticed, www.visoly.com brings up an HTML title of "Psychadelic Experimentation" then redirects you to Lick Wang, err, Lik-Sang. No one is sure why this is, but it's believed that the companies have direct ties. When Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all sued Lik-Sang, Visoly IMMEDIATELY shut down. Draw your own conclusions -- I have.

Either way, it's my guess that Visoly no long exists, and will soon disappear, leaving us who purchased these units to suffer until the next time Bung, err, Visoly decides to pop it's head up in Hong Kong again under a new company name.

There is no other unit available for the GBA development community which works under Windows XP and relies on USB instead of SPP/EPP/ECP. Every unit I see for development out there consists of some dinky cart (64mbit being the largest), and relies on a piece of equipment which looks like it was made by some college kid trying to complete his EE thesis in a period of 4 hours while high on NoDoz. I really wish someone would come out with a _stable_ piece of equipment that sports 512mbit flashram (CompactFlash would be even better), that uses USB, and has *RELIABLE* software.

I hope to see some more follow-ups to this thread, as these problems with the Xtreme units seem to be quite prevalent. I wish I myself had taken EE in high-school and college, as I'd have some idea how to debug the unit in question, or get an idea as to what the hell the problem is. My vote still lies on a power-related problem...

#3145 - xanasin - Wed Feb 19, 2003 1:35 am

hey, I just purchased a flash xtreme 512mb usb linker. I got the drivers working on xp finally, but as for finding the linker it doesnt. I run the software but it says no linker found. Please help me.....email me xanasin@yahoo.com if you know of how to fix.
~xanasin

#3149 - mbcook - Wed Feb 19, 2003 1:59 am

Things work just fine for me. My question would be how are you plugging it in? My guess is that it's not getting enough power through the USB port. Here are a few suggestions:

    * Try plugging it directly into the PC, instead of into a keyboard or monitor or something
    * Try plugging it into a powered hub, if you have one
    * Get an AC adapter


The problems you guys are describing seem like what would/could happen if there wasn't enough power for the thing. I haven't had any problems with mine. Get your hands on a good powered USB hub and see if you still can't write to the thing. That's most likely the problem.
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--Michael

#3182 - Lionheart - Wed Feb 19, 2003 2:32 pm

this is for xanasin: http://www.success-hk.com/images/item_links_downloads/ExtremeV125.zip or http://www.success-hk.com/ Here you can find the complete download of the software and the drivers. Probably there is something wrong with your drivers, I had the same problem. Make sure you install the drivers through "new hardware" or "System". Hope this will work by you just as well as it works by me!
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"You PLAY games? Pathetic!"

#3185 - CoolMan - Wed Feb 19, 2003 2:38 pm

I agree with mbcook...

Sometimes the devices that we would like to plug into our powered ports take slightly-more-current-then-is-exactly-standard, and the device will work on most PCs, but there are some that it won't work with.

(The power light going on and off cannot be a driver thing, unless the light means more then just power.)

Hope that helps...
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Moron! You don't herd chickens with a shotgun!

--CoolMan

#4313 - killerapp - Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:56 am

I had the same exact problem and I figured out that the problem is the power coming from your usb port. If you get a 9 volt ac->dc adaptor, you can still use your usb cable. This constant power source will stop it from shutting off randomly. I just wanted to let you know that before you returned your hardware...
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