I got a brand new ds lite 2 weeks ago, and I just bought my M3 DS Real from kicktrading.ca. I went to the link to dl the latest firmware, 4.31 I believe, and saved it to the root of my sd card. I'm using an 8 gig from kingston that I got with my bundle. The back is in japanese I don't know if that makes a difference. It was already formatted to FAT32 so I didn't need to bother doing that. This is where my problem comes in. When I put the sd card into the adapter thing that I stick into my ds it doesnt do anything. The ds lite I just got acts like it's not even there and just takes me to the main screen. Did I get a fake one? Is there anything I can do?
You need the paper shim trick, the contacts of the M3 and the contacts of the DS are not making good contact, use a piece of folded paper or thin card between the back of the M3 and the back of the DS to push them together. The long term fix is to lay 3 layers of electrical tape on top of each other, open the M3 (beware 1 corner does not seperate - do not force it) cut the electrical tape to fit to the back of the board (you may want to cut it lengthways as well - you can see the contacts from the back of the board as the board is quite thin - just aim to cover the area of the contacts) when you reassemble the M3 and put it into the DS it should still go in and out but be a little stiffer. This is all it needs and I have now done it to all my M3's. This has also stopped the intermittant freezing as well.
Neat thanks a lot! I did the paper shim trick you were talking about. At least I got to see the M3 DS logo on the bottom right corner. However all I get is a black screen after that. I think the paper trick might not be doing as much as it should. Before I hack and slash my m3 do you know which corner won't pop up?
Black M3 Well 1st problem sorted you can now see the M3 card on the DS. On the M3 package that it came in - on the back is the region that the card is for, you said everything was in japanese?? The software and card are region locked Japanese card - japanese software Chinese, EUR/USA each has its own software. Unfortunately you seem to have a chinese or japanese version, you will need to put that firmware on. Try that and see if you can get the firmware to load. If you can I believe that GBATemp.net had a thread on adding the european character set to the firmware (I could be mistaken but I saw it a few months ago)
Ok with a little bit of tinkering I can actually get into the main menu of the M3 now. I just had to stick a fatter piece of paper in it lol. As far as the Japanese thing I was referring to my micro SD. The package that the M3 came in is all in English. Now I have one more problem with my M3. When I go to my card and select NDS it won't let me pick a game. It will let me highlight and scroll down through the list of games I down loaded but that's about it. Any idea what I can do to remedy this? Sorry for posting so much questions.
How many games have you on the card, if you have more than about 30 - the first time you ask it to start the game it can take 30 secs, the next time it is a lot quicker. Download Sakura 1.35 3rd edition, this is also official firmware but so much better than the original 4.3!
Yeah I was using the sakura one because I hear good stuff from it. I only have about 3 games. Ninjatown, platinum, and GTA: Chinatown.
Then all I can suggest is format and reload, I have never had the problem with the games failing to start (they are .nds files, not compressed .zip or .rar?) If you can open the folder and see the games (are the icons for the games there next to the name - if not then the files are no good?) It all suggests the roms are corrupt in some way.
Well I got platinum to work. But every once in a while I'll just get a black screen when I turn it on prior to seeing the M3 logo. I'll just mess around with it, and let you know how it turns out. Oh and before I forget where do I about to start opening the M3? I don't wanna mess it up because it feels pretty fragile.
2 Types of M3 top sd loader - this just has 6 small clips all the way round three sides of the card, I use a pin to gently unclip them, then the whole top will come off. side sd loader, the same as above - however the top left of the card will not seperate (hidden internal pin and hole), you can however open it enough to put the three layers of electrical tape on to the back of the contacts. 2 layers still seems to freeze 4 layers card is too tight in the ds slot
Well Kitty I just started using an older version of the VBA and it saves in .sav but I still have the problem of it loading the old save after I've deleted it as I said I even emptied out my entire GBA folder and just had the rom and even tried with the new save but it still loaded/re created it and ignored the new .sav. Do you have any suggestions because I have a feeling if it stops loading the old save like that my problem will be solved.
To get the save to work - it must be named correctly megaman.gba - megaman.sav Also the sav must be the right format, just checking my card they are 128KB saves. Is the save you have named correctly and 128KB in size
Thanks, I have one more question, if I download this Super, can I just put it into my card? Or do I have to replace it with something?
Super is a program you put on your PC (sorry will not work for MAC) you can convert any format (MP4, AVi. VOB) to .dpg You then put the .dpg file on your DS and start it as you would a game, the media player will then play the film
Ive checked, double checked, triple check and quadruple checked it and I keep checking they are both named the same name and it still wont load it just keeps re creating that old save when I've deleted it so many times. Do you have any idea why I cant seem to get rid of the old save?
If they are named correctly and the old file has been removed from the card, if it still wants to make a sav file rather than load yours the sav must be incompatable (just because they are the same file ending does not guarentee compatability) The software generates a 128kb save file (on nds it is 512mb) the only other place I can point you is to the GBAtemp.net forum (they have a dedicated emulator forum for NDS)
I haven't played any GBA games on the NDS, but doesn't the save file get copied to the slot 2 cartridge when you load the game? If I'm thinking correctly, this is where the game is pulling your save file. In order to remove it, I believe you need to load a different GBA game which will copy a new save file. Then you should be able to load the original game again.
Thanks for your help kitty and silk, sorry for the very late reply I've been pretty busy but I figured it out thanks to you guys. It turns out removing the slot 2 GBA cart and putting it back in solved my problem. Thanks again guys you helped a lot.
if your looking for 3 real check out http://www.i'manidiot.com edited by ddp thats where i got mine and was wicked fast free delivery so worth a look defo
