Is my action replay 4-in-1 broken?

[Cyber Akuma]

Ok, I havent used my saturn in like a year, and I felt like playing some of the games, an import. So I turned it on and it said that the Disk is unsuitable for the system. The AR had become unseated again, so I realigned it and decided to check my saved data on the AR cart. The saved data on the saturn is fine, but ALL the saved data on my AR cart was gone.........

After some cursing I decided to backup what was currently in battery memory. It said that the backup finished, but when I went to check the memory was cleared again.

Sigh, whatever, so I want to start game with no codes....... and the AR just froze.

I figured that it might have been mis-aligned, so I turned off the saturn and tried to realign it........... I have tried liek 100 times now, but I cannot get the AR screen to show up anymore. Can my cart be damaged or am I just not aligning it right? And any tips on correcntly aligning it?

 

[antime]

Have you looked at the pins of the cartridge port? The flashrom might also be damaged - if it's not permanent ExCyber's reflash disc could help. (I take it the machine works without the cartridge inserted.)

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Looked at the pins?

What am I looking for exactly?

 

[Alexvrb]

Probably to see if they're bent/damaged/dirty. Anything that could be preventing proper contact. The same goes for the cart itself, might want to clean that as well. Hopefully your cart port isn't damaged.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

The pins seen to be fine, but ill clean them when I get home anywya

And what about the problem with no data showing up on the cart? Is my data really gone?

Any tips on aligning these stupid thigns properly? There has been many times where I struggled with them for liek half an hour till they were aligned enough to work right.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

By the way, does the AR 4-in-1 need to be plugged into a runnign saturn in order for you to connect to it with the PC Comms card? Because if not then maybe I can at least see whats wrong with it if I get one of those cards.

And possibly even recover my data.

If not....... whats a good place to get them? I know that lik-sang has them but I heard that many people suffer incompability problems with their's.

 

[antime]

Originally posted by Cyber Akuma@Apr 9, 2004 @ 06:59 AM

By the way, does the AR 4-in-1 need to be plugged into a runnign saturn in order for you to connect to it with the PC Comms card?

Yes, because the Saturn-side communications are handled by a program running on the Saturn, stored on the cartridge.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Damn, so if I cant get the cartridge to work all my saves are gone and I cant attempt to fix it by reflashing it huh? I am not talking about using it to hack, but just to be able to reflash it or to upload/download the saved game data on it.

BTW, are there even any guides on how to backup/restore my data? All the guides I have found just tell me how to reflash it.

 

[antime]

If you have access to an EPROMmer you could try desoldering the flashrom and read (and rewrite) it that way. If ExCyber's "rescue disc" waits for a keypress before actually reflashing the cart you could try booting the program without the cart inserted and inserting it before starting the write process, but there's always the risk of damaging the console that way.

The software that comes with the AR (and the upgrades) lets you up- and download saves. It's menu-driven and even comes with some documentation so you shouldn't have any problems there.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Software that comes with the AR? All I got was my AR cart in a box, it never came with any link software. I am talking about using the comms card to upload/downlaod saves into my pc and back, not from the saturn to the cart.

Sigh......... and are there any guides on properly aligning the cart in case im jsut doing it wrong? Because I know form past expirence that these thigns can be a %$#^&%$# to align right since their pins are kinda off, im REALLY hoping im just mis-aligning it.

If I get a PC comms card.... at least my saved games will be safe, even if the cart dies.

 

[antime]

Yeah, I meant the software that comes with the Commlink, sorry about that. It's included with the Action Replay upgrade package though, you can download it from EMS' site.

 

[ExCyber]

If ExCyber's "rescue disc" waits for a keypress before actually reflashing the cart

It does, mostly to allow the user to check that the flash vendor and device ID are correct before flashing (to check for an unknown chip or bad insert). If you run it with no cart the IDs should come up as "FFFF" and it should complain that there's probably no cart inserted, but you should still be able to try it.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Woah

Their website STILL supports the saturn 4-in-1?

Where is it?

 

[mal]

You know how to use a search engine, don't you?

EMS Production Ltd.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Ok, so where can I find this cd so I can reflash my 4-in-1? I will loose the saved data on the card if I reflash it wont I? Oh well, its better then it not working at all I guess. I just hope its the data in the flashrom thats damaged, not the actual circuitry of the card.

 

[antime]

Search the board.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

I already searched and couldent find it, but I searched again....

Well, it took a ton of searching......... but I found the reflash image, AND IT WORKED! mg:

The card booted and ran my imports! Of course........ all my saved data and manually entered codes were gone, but thats ok, all my main important saves were in the internal memory. :bow

So anyway, I backed up the data from the internal memory into the card, checked, it got backed up ok.

I had bought (finally) a model 2 sega saturn yesterday in hopes of modding it one day, and wished to transfer my saves just in case the battery on the model 1 dies and I have the same cartridge trouble.

So I plugin the cart into the model 2, it boots, YAY! The card slot isnt damaged on this used system!

I goto memory manager...

*shock*

It is blank.

Oh **** :rant

I plug it back into the model 1...... it still boots.... and my data is still there???

I plug it back into the model 2, my data is now there......

I quickly backup my data to the model 2

Now......... could this be a sign that my card is dying? Or was it just a misconnction? Could it be that my data was never gone in the first place and when I attempted to re-back it up it corrupted the card's programming?

Either way......... I gotta get a comms link card fast to ensure my data is safe no matter what fails. :banana

Do these things work under windows 2000? I found a great site that will sell me both a PSX Game Hunter and a PC Comms Link card for $20 together (they come as a pack).

 

[antime]

To use the old software under NT and derivatives you need to install a port access driver of some sort. Running the software as full screen is recommended, but if all else fails, DOS bootdiscs are your friends.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Thanks :thumbs-up:

 

[ExCyber]

Keep in mind that the comms cards require ISA. I used to think that nobody made PCI ones because it would be too expensive, but since then I've learned a bit about the PCI spec and it could be done pretty cheap, so it's probably just lack of interest.

Now......... could this be a sign that my card is dying? Or was it just a misconnction?

It sounds like a misconnection, but the misconnection could be inside the cartridge, between the cartridge and the slot, or inside the Saturn, and the symptoms would be identical. Given the known problems with the cart slot, though, you probably just have to be careful seating it.