EZ-Flash USA Forum

So my MiniSD came in the mail today.
Hooked the eziv fat up to the gbm, and no nintendo logo.

Paper trick, acetone, also tried in multiple devices (another gbm, gba sp, and ds phat).
Haven't used it in a couple of years, since I had such problems with micro>mini adapters.

Any suggestions? Being years old, and not even remembering where I bought it, it will be a little hard to do an RMA. Ive seen a few other users having this problem in the past, but resolved it by returning for a new cart. I know my way around a soldering iron, and a multimeter, so if I get some time, I might at least start testing for continuity.

edit: bought from dealextreme. also should note that Im using this for gameboy only.

edit2: since its been years since Ive used this, and I have used gbaexploader in the past. It might be a NOR problem. I have an x-rom, a supercard sd, supercard minisd, and eziv. Since the eziv was my favorite and I was having problems in the past with broken micro>mini adapters, I very well could have been using it gbaexploader. I guess I will read some more, dig out my acekard, and see how to possibly fix this. Would this cause the nintendo logo to not show up?

Ok. Instead of a million updates. Ive found the problem.

Mini sd adapters were crap. Stopped using them, used my DS with Acekard. Used the Acekard function to write games to NOR. Overwriting the loader.

So where do I go from here? Ive renamed the ez4.bin included with the os tools and wrote it to nor using akaio software. Im able to hold R and boot, and it says "Find_ezfla_up.bin, updating" And does nothing past that. Im only able to boot into this by using the acekard.

I have a feeling that the acekard put its own info in there.

Yeah using DS slot cards to launch things on the NOR is less than ideal and frequently causes this issue (I probably should put that as a big warning) and yeah miniSD adapters are by and large terrible.

Best chance of sorting it (you already seemed to have this).
http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flash ... 27302.html
If you need a working version (the bundled one is mainly for the lite deluxe and probably a bit different)
http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flash ... 27581.html

So I have tried a few things.

Using the os tools. Only the dump program works. Erasing and full restore freeze at
"setting OS mode
OpenWrite
Erasing OS NOR (or Erasing 4M OS chip)"
and then just sits there.

Ive also tried renaming ez4.bin/DUMP.BIN to something.gba and using the acekard build in software to flash directly to NOR. Also tried this with gbaexploader. Im able to only load the program from NOR using the acekard software, and not directly from the gba slot. It will boot in this fashion and when I hold down the R button, I get: "Find_ezfla.bin, updating". And it as well will just sits there.

Its under my assumption that the dldi auto patching is working correctly on the acekard, or else I would get an error message, or it wouldnt run at all right? Is it possible that the acekard dldi doesnt support flashing/erasing? The ez4.bin on slot1, ezfla.bin on slot2. Is there anything Im missing?

Also can I use another flash linker to write directly to the NOR? Is it possible for me to use my X-rom usb flash linker to flash the dump.bin file? Should I try to rename the 4MB ez4.bin rom to ezfla.bin and flash once Ive booted into the eziv recovery via Acekard?

The EZ4 NOR/loader section should have nothing to do with DLDI (in general with the EZ4 you send a command saying please set this memory section to ? and then another saying please enable writing of the memory section none of which have anything to do with DLDI as it is all about writing to the GBA card memory location).

? can be the NOR section, the 4 megabyte loader section or the PSRAM and it is how the EZ4 works- it loads initially from the loader, flashes a file to the NOR/PSRAM and sets that to the start memory location and resets the GBA mode thus launching the GBA rom.

To this end possible is one thing but actually having the software support for it is another. The source to the program is available but I do not rate my coding skills in this sort of thing not do I have a chip listing for the SRAM/loader chip (I recall the chip was a combined small section for the loader combined with a section of SRAM that gets used for saves until they are written back).

Going back in time I once wrote ezf3me (available from http://www.darkfader.net/ds/ ) in place of the loader by changing parts of the header (it is what the EZ4 seems to use to check you have a valid loader and not just any file named accordingly) but I doubt it will do much good here as it looks like the dumping software lacks write support for the older EZ4 models.

Edit- just read the readme and see where you might have lost track. About this time DLDI was first starting to appear as an autopatch option where before it tended to be a manual affair. As the restore and dump programs read and write to the SD card respectively the needed access to it.

Edit2- I had a look at the source. A mixture of assembly and C by the looks of things and I have some ideas but I doubt I can do anything with it (the card apparently also needs to send an acknowledge command for the program to work which is where I suspect things are hanging up). Of course this might also mean it did not get set up properly in the first place.

Yeah, the dump program says its already been dldi patched, and its able to access the microsd on the acekard, and the NOR on the ezflash. I don't think it waits for a response from the NOR. It probably just does a raw dump.

Ill look through the source of the dump program and see if I can see where its asking for a response from NOR before dumping. If so, it means that the restore/erase programs just need to be prepatched, and not autopatched using the akaio software.

edit to be clear: dump program works, erase and restore does not. dump program is already dldi patched, the others are not. Will look into some sort of pre-patching for acekards. (its been a long time, not sure if dldi is device specific or not)

edit2: patched the restore program. still freezing. have you ever used this program on a certain card? an old cheap slot1 card might be cheaper for a fix than buying another eziv, and turning this one into a permanent slot2 device.

edit3: the restore programs are already dldi patched for r4. ive found an old r4 for only $6. cheaper than the minisd card I bought to get back to using the ez4 again. any reasons to not buy this?

ez-flash ived a Slot1 device that worked with these programs? I think buying that card would still be cheaper than buying another ez4.

I tried looking through the old threads where these programs are used, and obviously, the people who it works for don't mention anything. Still looking through the old threads for a "thank you, it worked awesome" and then see what kind of slot 1 device they have.

Edit: seems it might be useless. Running the restore from the slot2 devices have the same effect. Might just leave this in the ds phat and buy a new ez iv. Unless I can find one case of the restore tool actually working from having a gba exploader type flash done to the NOR.

So after reading every thread on here and gbatemp about this issue, I have come to a few conclusions.

cory1492's restore program ONLY works for lite deluxe. It apparently it the only card that gives this listening response that the program checks for. This is why most people who use it have it freeze. The others don't have this response, but are obviously flashable.

Flashing a dump using gba exploader, or any similar program (build in acekard/cyclods function) will launch the card as it should be, but you will not be able to update using the R button.

Ordering a new card tonight. Will have to color the case of the bricked card so theres never any confusion.

tl;dr - unless you have a lite deluxe, and you have used gba exploader or used a similar program thats built into some slot 1 devices firmware, your card has now become an ez-flash 2-in-1. Download the 2 in 1 toolso you can play games on the psram. Use either gba exploader or your slot 1 built in function to flash NOR games and never remove the card from your DS, because it wont be useful for much other than that.