Neo TeAm Forum
NEO Team's Projects for the GBA/NDS/NDS lite => NEO Flash and Magic Key 1/2/3 help, FAQ/guides and discussion => Topic started by: capedavenger1 on April 04, 2006, 07:24:24 PM
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I Have the Neo Max 8 gig kit:
Magic key 3 64M+32 Mzip
512 GBA Flash Card
Slimloader III
1 GB SD card and USB SD Card reader/writer
For the life of me I cannot save a game and keep it saved,
what am I doing wrong?
Ive changed the battery to another one that was shipped with the system
Im using the neomax 1.7.
Im tring to save a game in Metroid zero mission, if I shut system off after saving and load game again, no saves are there.
Is there something else I can try, is there something in the menus that I can do? the DS does recognize my 1 gig SD card, I did notice when I flashed my few roms with 1.7 is didn't show anything in the SMS windows below the roms, just for the sake of trying, I also went into the SMS/SD save manager and added each of the same roms there too...
can I get some step by step help here, I don't think I got 2 dead batteries..
While I'm waiting for a reply, I'll even try the 3rd battery....
Also, if I set the DS up with the neo max 1.7 (like I already did) what is the signifigants of the mk menu 0.4a? can that be used in conjunction with the current setup? at first I followed the main instructions that has your system boot up to only play NDS games and gives the ability to flash from the SD card to the MK3 or the GBA flash card, I had fit DIGDUG on the mk3 and got it to run, but how do you delete things from the MK3? can I with my current setup with the neomax 1.7? Please help.
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I have a Digital multi metter and even went so far as to check the amps on my battierys all I can figure out is the programs that burn the games on have shoty save abilty,also it might could be the USB port I am going to try to repalce the batt with one I know has more power in it then after I test it I am going to put the slimloader on my usb card all byitself and see if that dont help it even will run it off a powered hub to make sure its data and power flow are good...if non of this works...its probly my slim loader3 or flash cart...altho at these prices I think they qauilty test them more....least I hope so.....if I find anythign out I will post here and in my gba/gbc thread this is mind numbing ><
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I Have the Neo Max 8 gig kit:
Magic key 3 64M+32 Mzip
512 GBA Flash Card
Slimloader III
1 GB SD card and USB SD Card reader/writer
For the life of me I cannot save a game and keep it saved,
what am I doing wrong?
Ive changed the battery to another one that was shipped with the system
Im using the neomax 1.7.
Im tring to save a game in Metroid zero mission, if I shut system off after saving and load game again, no saves are there.
Is there something else I can try, is there something in the menus that I can do? the DS does recognize my 1 gig SD card, I did notice when I flashed my few roms with 1.7 is didn't show anything in the SMS windows below the roms, just for the sake of trying, I also went into the SMS/SD save manager and added each of the same roms there too...
can I get some step by step help here, I don't think I got 2 dead batteries..
While I'm waiting for a reply, I'll even try the 3rd battery....
Also, if I set the DS up with the neo max 1.7 (like I already did) what is the signifigants of the mk menu 0.4a? can that be used in conjunction with the current setup? at first I followed the main instructions that has your system boot up to only play NDS games and gives the ability to flash from the SD card to the MK3 or the GBA flash card, I had fit DIGDUG on the mk3 and got it to run, but how do you delete things from the MK3? can I with my current setup with the neomax 1.7? Please help.
It is possible that all the batteries included with the system are dead (maybe old stock sitting on the shelves for a long time -- I don't know). If you have a voltmeter to test, that would be preferable in this case.
It's odd that you mention that the roms don't show up in the SMS window in Neomax. I think the last time I tried it, they all showed up in the window, right after burning them (or at least when you re-detect the cart)...
The neomax and menu loaders are entirely separate programs. The neomax loader should run gba roms well enough, but the nds support is probably fairly limited. The menu software should run nds roms much better (get the latest version .6 beta 2 -- it will allow you to format/delete the flashcart/mk3 space as well)
BruceG
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its not the battieries trust me ><
mine only saves half the time for Wario land 4 and everything else saves once and and when I recheck the way I burnt it it donset save anymore >< I am starting to feel liek this a rip off ;_;
::sm-02::
All I want is tog et GBA and mabye GBC games to run on the DS at least GBA games with full save I can live with 1 game 1 save a cart...I would gladly swap my Neo flash 512 kit for a GBA one ><
BTW is there anything thats nice stable and mabye has multi GBA rom support?
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There are bugs remaining in the neomax software, which could be contributing to your problems.
He should get the entries to at least show up in the sms window, though -- that happened everytime I tested.
BruceG
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for me the games show up and soemtimes black/white screen crash and I have to reburn them..its odd 0-o
I am haveing more issues with saveing that anythign else...and it seems neo power kit has a high chance of gettign soemthign to work 0-o
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It seems you have tried all the viable programs out there (Neo Power kit is fine, if you don't mind the lack of SMS support). And Neomax (I assume you've also tried the XG2Pro software) is supposed to be more stable, but apparently not in your particular case.
Since Neomax is being discontinued, I hope the Neo Ultra will add support for all the older products out there, and provide a more stable, common framework (with fewer bugs).
BruceG
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its not the battieries trust me ><
Maybe batteries are not your problem-but it has solved a lot of other peoples issues.
That SMS thing.....
I'd at least try the batteries...
You can drain them handling them(I did).
You seem to know a lot,though........ ;)
BTW-I have a lot af issues saving as well,so I "test" a lot,hoping to impact the software.I've not reached a good"playing zone"myself,sorry for the hard time.
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Bruce-related side note-
I've still never gotten Neo-Max(software) to cooperate with the Neo-Key,NPK still seems to be the best option for it.
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I have even put a Cmoc bat in it and its a new one,plus I have a voltmeter to test the button batts,mabye thiers soemthign wrong with the flash card
the loader has its owen isses it hates low power USB and it can ahte being on a USB card with more than 1 thing on it,its not like you can find cheap flash cards ><
I think I am haveing more HArdware issues than software burning a game is 70-90% about a 2 or 3 in ten it wont take,or boots funny and have to reburn it,then we have the GBA "rom" itself alot of downloads could be messed up enough where its not oging to want to work in the thing,then ,it seems they need to know the main save types,nd mabye rewrite how the rom handles its saveing so it can be more compaitble and have the hardware supoort it better fickle batts aside I have gotten 2 or 3 games to save just not the ones I realy want to paly.its like emluation for the DS soem thgins work some dont *L*
Is there any flash system for the GBA that has stable multi rom saveing support?
or is this kinda how the whole GBA flash works its fickle and annoying?
I am glad I got this used and not at the 160$ price..it should be 80 or so untill its stable then i'll be happy to pay 200 *L*
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Just checked a 512 Neo-cart with SL3 and SL4,with Neo-Max 1.9,seems fine.
I think you may have identified your problem.
Neo equipment(IMO)is easy to abuse,if you are not careful,and can be broken.
Probably,you should have gotten it new.
I see a lot of people having better luck with the back USB ports,have you tried that?
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rogerpoco
I wish there was some way I could send it in and have the bad stuff repalced >< I mean new its 200$
Ok heres what I have learned with the slim loader it will not worlk on nearly ALL motherboard USB it MIGHT work off a powered HUB ,it runs BEST off a USB card with NOTHING else on the card.
I got Casilivna COTM to save once useing NPK or NMax I dont recall I can get Wario land to save in NPK but rarely with NMax,I got Zone of enders to save whitch suprised me NPK dose work well(Z.O.E is enar pefrect it only lacks aera and splash damage ^0^)
Metroid zero mission didnt save with NPK and it wont get past the opening useing N-Max mabye I just need to burn it again 0-o
I wonder about the qauilty of the chips they use in the flasher I am thinking that 10-20% of all might be bad or iffy then the rest are ok ...mmmm I have been haveing mobo troubles of late looking for a new one and good god it seems the motherboard manufators are doign the same makeing stuff that has a 30-40% fail rate you get it replced and the next one fails >< uhg if the prices were not so high it wouldnt be so bad ><
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Hey,one more thing I'll check-
The battery deal helped someone else on a couple of threads over,so that helped convince me it was my problem,originally.
HOWEVER-at the same time I changed the battery,I also got a couple of new sl3's(ordered 2 1g NEO-Carts-hehe),and I think my first was stinky.
I'll dig it out tomorrow and see if it will function.
Maybe it's just your slimloader.
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Ture it could the SL-3 its cranky of late only likeing a certain way I plug it in,a SL-3 shouldnt be much to repalce should it?
I mean if the flash cart was bad it would work right constently right?
this is so iffy it could be the loader
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Now this is driveing me nuts I have all the USB ports on the back of the mobo filled and the SL3 on a powered USB hub and its working fine 0-o
And this is on the USB 6 foot exstion cable that I had never opened till today it was not working right on it this after noon when I put it on the USB card 0-o
I mean I have seen fickle devices but whats up with this? 0-o
I have gone crazy!!
::sm-18.gif:: >:( ;D :D :o ???
:(
BTW way these icions are so cute I want to steal one and use it asa my Avatar Icon is that ok? ^^
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well, you are not the only one... shark650 has had all sorts of problems with his Slimloader, NPK, and Neomax (he mixes .dll files and does everything imaginable to try to get it to function properly on his setup).
BruceG
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I just got Metroid Zero mission to save 0-o
3 times non the less checking another game that never saved,i used this to get it to save
Useing Neo power Kit 2.0
Writer version 0412
:D
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I've also heard of a so-called"break-in"phase,when the stuff just seems to start working.
Considering that it was previously used,I don't think that's the case-
But-It sounds as if it's working fine.
As I said,Daughter #1 uses a 512 NEO-cart for GBA with no problems,so maybe it won't act up again.
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rogerpoco
*L*
I can get Castivana COTM to save,also NPK dosent seem to like golden sun trying neo max.
it also is very fussy about where I plug it in and soemtiems I have to change where I plug in it >< got any spare SL3? *L*
oh well golden sun seems to be messed up.
all I can find to fix headers and such for GBA games is GBA Tool Advance 0.7 is that the only worth while GBA tool?
Also I am goign to start makeing a list of what works on what.
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Man,as far as you are with it,I hate to pull a 360 on you-
I use NEO-MAX to set-up daughters GBA.
Seriously,try too fool with it a bit,and if you have any questions,we'll do our best to help.
Particularly with NDS,I don't think NEO-MAX is recommended over NPK,but I've had a lot of success with it,with GBA.
(All I know is that my 7 yo daughter is beating GBA games left and right-I'm so proud!!!!)
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rogerpoco
They (neoflash team)might not be to helpful but this form is great ^^
realy my SL3 is fickle as all hell I need another one could soemone link me to where I could find one cheap?
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I know this will sound odd,but the coders are so busy coding,that they pretty much seem to rely on testers and such for feedback,
Please keep in mind how quickly this technology is coming along,and I can only promise you,the coders work every day to improve the product.
It may be difficult to get an SL3 or 4 by itself(I am just now helping a lady I work with get started in the hobby,not sure what she plans to purchase herself,or I might could try to help.Depends on what she gets or does not get,and it could be a couple of weeks on that.)
Try the NEO-MAX software,the newest version addressed a lot of problems with the slim-loaders.
The only"cart"I cannot get to work with it is the NEO-Key.
Please just give the NEO software a try.
EDIT-On your side though.The SL's should probably be available seperately(they're kind of fragile)
Another thing-Boblen recommended to someone(as a LAST resort)to take the SL apart,and make sure the USB cable is properly seated inside.
Just don't hold me responsible.......
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rogerpoco
Bust they are but at the price they could come up with a simple swap system charge 10-50 plus s/h to swap it,but hell even full brand tech places dont do that *L*
still need to find a SL3
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I'm gonna look really stupid if this doesn't work,but:
PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE-
Just try the NEO-MAX 1.9.
Pretty please?????
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where do I download it the download forum shows up to 1.7
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http://www.neoflash.com/driver/Neo_Max_Setup_V1.9_EN_A4.rar
Good Luck!
EDIT-I actually figured out how to post a link just the other day,but I forgot already....... ::sm-09.gif::
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ZippyDSMlee,
You should definitely try the latest neomax, as there are bugfixes in each version.
As far as purchasing a Slimloader 3 separately, only place I've seen that carries them is ic2005 (near the bottom of the page -- price is high, though)
http://www.ic2005.com/
BruceG
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neomax will not brn right for most things 0-o
NPK is still working I am so confused >< 50 for a SL3 is high they should price them 30ish and the SL4 should be 50 >>
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Anyone know why NPK 2.0 works better for me? I cant get Neomax to burn anything right 0_o
must be touche hardware *sigh*
the 128 cart with a SL3 is 80 might be worth me getting it...mmmm
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I mgith have 150 to blow on a new neoflash kit,you guys think it be worth it or just wait till the next updated hardware comes out?
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I would wait for the next hardware announcements, detailing all the technical specifications. The overall trend has been that the newer products have been cheaper/better than the previous generation (so hopefully this will hold true for all the versions of mk4).
BruceG
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I hvae noticed soemthign on my setup,it hates sram saves but if I halve a sram save it has a higher chance to hold save info 0_o
it works fine for flash save tpye games 0_o
I take it the XG flash kit with a slim loader3 just for GBA stuff would be as iffy?
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If you are referring to the XG2 Pro software, then yes, it is very similar to Neomax, but no harm trying it out, if you haven't already...
Link is in the neomax guide
http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,1489.0.html
BruceG
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No not tried it yet *L*
But it is odd that my cart hates SRAM saves I was thinking it could be the loader but I have been saveing fine on Zone of enders and to add to the oddness Mega Man Zero saves fine in fact I have both going on the cart and both save fine 0-o I have Metroid fusion on the cart as well and its save coruprts and dies I take it thats becuse the sowftware is not running Sram and all of its revsions at 100%,so my cart might have a damaged save aera plus buggy sram supprt and you have 20% chance to save with sram?
whitch do you think is more likely the loader going bad and not fully writeing to the cart or the cart being bad enough not to run right?
I know this is a Neo product form and you might not like to talk about other products and thats fine if thats mabye I can PM you a simple question but it seems my question is easy to answer saveing is 70ish% for 80ish% of all GBA games for most GBA flash carts ,so whatever I get may or may not work better 0-o
I just gave myself a headache *L* thinking to much dose hurt *L*
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It's really hard for me to make an educated guess in your particular situation.. My only observation is that more people have reported problems with the Slimloader going bad (for what that's worth).
I'm sure you have seen the neo2 flashcart annoucement by now. Since gba saving on the older neoflash cart is not 100% reliable (even when it's working correctly), I'm waiting to see how much the neo2 is going to cost (I think the saving mechanism will be MUCH improved as well)
BruceG
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Ok,anyway it seems that I missed soemthign in all my save atemps,and that was going back to the SMS program and saveing/backign up the "save".
Its always soemthign thats easly missed 0-o ,flash games tho seem to save "normaly" and I was wondering if there are any save type converter programs I found soemthing that changes everythign to Sram but Sram is the problem *L*
least I think I understand my kit and have it working now the loader is still the most fickle USB device I have ran across but at least XGpro wont write to it if the connection is not perfect,you guys need to make a save guide for noobs mabye we wont hi jack other threads in a desprte attemp for help *L*
In order to keep a save for 90% of games you need to "soft" reset back to the loader on the cart and backup the SMS of the game you just saved,SMS hit start,then delet old SMS of the game.
Since I was not useing the SMS to backup saves I guess I was lucky to get as many games to save as I did *L*
I got to say you guys are very helpfull and understanding of newbies but I wouldnt be suprised if I got baned for all the trouble I brought *L*
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Glad to hear it's working more or less... It's still a little strange that you need to soft reset in order to remember the save.
Using the neomax loader, when I turn off the ds and turn it back on, it always ask me whether I want to backup the save.. If I say yes, then the save is stored properly in the 'default' save location. It seems to remember the save for quite some time....
BruceG
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XGpro
in order to "keep" a save I have to save it in game then soft reset to the SMS then backup the SMS as in create a new SMS.
doing it that way it keps the save,haveing it save it to the default save dosent work
Neomax
If I can get the game to run,I save it ingame then soft reset to SMS,creat a new SMS of the game and it well keep it for 5 min then it dissapers 0-o
I mean realy its the damnest thing 0-o
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Just checked a 512 Neo-cart with SL3 and SL4,with Neo-Max 1.9,seems fine.
I think you may have identified your problem.
Neo equipment(IMO)is easy to abuse,if you are not careful,and can be broken.
Probably,you should have gotten it new.
I see a lot of people having better luck with the back USB ports,have you tried that?
Okay I swtiched to the back usb port, for some reason I cannot get the "Neo Power Kit 1.9" software to "do" anything, tell me what to do as far as "starting from scratch" using this software, I've used the xgpro software and the neo max software (latest versions) and can at least burn roms to the flash cart, but I can get the power kit software to do anything.
In the ROM list in neo power kit, I have "DSBOOTER". I highlight it and click "Save Selected" and it says at the bottom of screen "reading c:\dir1\DSbooter[current date].gba " and it stays at zero percent and the little slash is spining right next to it, but it always stays at zero percent, and no read or write light on the slim loader 3, I got it to save a 256k size file on my PC called dir2.nsf, is that a SRAM saver file?
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XGpro
in order to "keep" a save I have to save it in game then soft reset to the SMS then backup the SMS as in create a new SMS.
doing it that way it keps the save,haveing it save it to the default save dosent work
Neomax
If I can get the game to run,I save it ingame then soft reset to SMS,creat a new SMS of the game and it well keep it for 5 min then it dissapers 0-o
I mean realy its the damnest thing 0-o
Okay, a dumb question, how do ya soft reset?
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In XGPro, it's 'start+select+L+R' as I recall... That same command didn't seem to work for me in neo-max (at least when I remember testing it a while back).
Have you tried the latest NPK 2.3??? You can get that in the Neo Announcements section. They reworked some of the detection routines, and that version seems to have the highest compatibility so far....
Someone else may be able to confirm, but I recall reading that the SRAM restore feature may still be buggy in NPK....
BruceG
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I am useing Neo power kit 2.2 SL3,it runs best but if I can find the right usb spot I can get XGpro and Neomax to burn without locking up,Neomax seems bugy for me some things NKP and XG run fine have troubles on NM.
As for the USB ports I try ALL of them it seems to hate Motherboard USB the most but I have a few mobos to paly with *L* but I still have to play with it on the USB port change cords try the hub to get it to work without locking up.
NM also cant keep some SMS saves prehaps my loader is fickle enough add neomaxs basic writeing abilty and you get fickleness desu *L* no bad
SOft reset is start,select,L,R and this works for both Neomax and XG ,NPK dosent have a SMS program so the games either save or overwrite eachothers save if they save.
Going to test XG pro 1.0 6 again to make sure it was keeping stuff,haveing to softreset and save the SMS is not to bad least I know it keeps it and with doing it that way I can run multi roms without the worry of it writeing over another games save,at least for games that are Sram flash seems to save regardless.