Hardware Problems getting a M3 perfect Mini SD to run

[Dauerbrenner]

Hi Folks ,

back in the days when a M3 with a Passkey was the way of playing NDS roms, I had a M3 (perfect) SD which I used for many years. Well, that one died about two years ago without any apparent reason and I lost interest in playing GBA.

Now that I collect GBA consoles and flashcards, I recently bought a second hand M3 perfect mini SD for cheap. The only other Flashcard I have is the EZ Flash IV 2017 which - frankly - sucks, which is why I want to go back to the M3 since I never had any issues whatsoever with any type of rom back then.

Long story short, it won't work. There was a micro SD to mini SD adaptor included which the previous owner used without any flaws. I bought a 2GB micro SD card since the M3 can't handle SDHC, plugged it in, and - well, nothing. Black screen after the GBA Boot. I formated the micro SD to FAT, FAT32 and tried NTFS, none of them work. I am currently waiting for another micro SD to arrive to find out if the card is just bad, but at this time I can't get anything to run so far. The good thing is, if I boot the system without any SD card inserted, I see the error message that no memory card is inserted and I can press start to continue anyway, which also leads to a black screen.

I downloaded the V36 firmware and tried installing it, but it seems that the micro SD is not recognized at all.

Do you have any suggestions? The previous owner stated, that the device works fine, which I do believe (I know him for a while).

Thanks in advance!

 

[migles]

Well, that one died about two years ago without any apparent reason and I lost interest in playing GBA.

ho no....
are you sure its really dead?
i love thoose cards and they are really rare, its sad that there is one less in the world :c

Now that I collect GBA consoles and flashcards, I recently bought a second hand M3 perfect mini SD for cheap.

you lucky bastard :C
i had a really hard time to get one myself.. well i now own 2 versions, the full size sd one, that i have it in storage abandoned :c, and the "lite" variant also known as the micro sd version
i got really surprised and interested when i learned that are so many versions of theese m3 gba cards, there is also the "pro" versions which suck, but weirdly i never found one of theese "pro"

there was a guy selling his mini version in gbatemp, not sure if he still has it, but i remember he had it for ages, IIRC he even had 2 or 3...

The only other Flashcard I have is the EZ Flash IV 2017 which - frankly - sucks, which is why I want to go back to the M3 since I never had any issues whatsoever with any type of rom back then.

if its the white version you might want to update the firmware on that card, 2.01 with a reset patch in my case is the sweet spot, everything just works, sdhc compatibility, there is no fancy things like reset to menu but it is a really solid card, i use it as my main gba card, with the m3 for the pokemon and boktai games because the clock feature
the sdhc compatibily is the huge pro VS the m3, otherwise i would use the m3 as the main card
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-iv-v2-01-with-bluenight-skin-release.475911/ << this is the thing i have installed in mine, if you got the ez iv black version you might search and ask, because i believe there was issues when people tried to install older versions in them, i forgot the deal... but if you got the white version, go for this

Long story short, it won't work. There was a micro SD to mini SD adaptor included which the previous owner used without any flaws. I bought a 2GB micro SD card since the M3 can't handle SDHC, plugged it in, and - well, nothing. Black screen after the GBA Boot. I formated the micro SD to FAT, FAT32 and tried NTFS, none of them work. I am currently waiting for another micro SD to arrive to find out if the card is just bad, but at this time I can't get anything to run so far. The good thing is, if I boot the system without any SD card inserted, I see the error message that no memory card is inserted and I can press start to continue anyway, which also leads to a black screen.

I downloaded the V36 firmware and tried installing it, but it seems that the micro SD is not recognized at all.

Do you have any suggestions? The previous owner stated, that the device works fine, which I do believe (I know him for a while).

migh try to check the gba part.. like if it has some issues with some carts.. maybe for some reason its your system?
try the adapter and a micro sd route. the difference between something inserted and nothing inserted is very likely a problem with the sd card compatibility..

do the usual stuff like "h2testw" it will tell you if the card is corrupting stuff (i had this problem where i knew something was wrong with a micro sd card but i didnt knew what exactly.. )
format the card with sda formatter https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

since you got a micro to mini sd adapter, try to plug the card+adapter fully into the m3 card, then just pull it a tiny bit, so the contacts get in a different way, i have a shitty mini to full sd adapter that if i fully insert a card all the way in he doesnt read it lol, if you can, try the micro sd + mini adapter in the pc, to make sure its working

i should make a M3 perfect fan club, i only know (in the internet) like 3 guys who own a m3 perfect and its always cool when someone appears and says he has one

 

[Dauerbrenner]

ho no....
are you sure its really dead?
i love thoose cards and they are really rare, its sad that there is one less in the world :c

Yes, it sadly is I tried to revive it for like two weeks, probing almost any point on the PCB. I even Frankensteined a different finger connector from a cheap GBA game and soldered every pin by hand... It's just dead and I don't know why.

you lucky bastard :C

I got mine for 10 bucks

if its the white version you might want to update the firmware on that card, 2.01 with a reset patch in my case is the sweet spot, everything just works, sdhc compatibility, there is no fancy things like reset to menu but it is a really solid card, i use it as my main gba card, with the m3 for the pokemon and boktai games because the clock feature

I got the black semi translucent one, does that count/work? The reason I dislike the EZflash so much is, that almost no games work out of the box without patching. And especially the Pokemon games don't work that great. Even if I apply a RTC patch, the game works for like two days without problems, and at some point (not ingame days/time) the game won't start anymore and I don't know why.

It's not the GBA which does not recognize the M3. I tried:

1. My original, vanilla GBA
2. My AGS 101 screen modded GBA
3. My SP 001
4. My SP 101
5. My GBA Micro
6. 3 of my GBA Macros (chopped NDS fat and lite)
7. My chinese Gamebox AGS101 clone

All of them have this problem, on the Gamebox it won't work at all.

I think it's the compatibility too. Probably the micro SD I use is just incompatible. I also will try to wiggle it around and see if there's a physical connection issue.

i should make a M3 perfect fan club, i only know (in the internet) like 3 guys who own a m3 perfect and its always cool when someone appears and says he has one

Now you know one more

 

[migles]

Yes, it sadly is I tried to revive it for like two weeks, probing almost any point on the PCB. I even Frankensteined a different finger connector from a cheap GBA game and soldered every pin by hand... It's just dead and I don't know why.

hu i think i remember about you! you made a thread in the past and i believe i even answered it and well got disapointed that i couldn't help...

I got the black semi translucent one, does that count/work? The reason I dislike the EZflash so much is, that almost no games work out of the box without patching. And especially the Pokemon games don't work that great. Even if I apply a RTC patch, the game works for like two days without problems, and at some point (not ingame days/time) the game won't start anymore and I don't know why.

starting at 1.75 IIRC they made a huge change in the firmware. you no longer need to patch stuff in pc, that firmware i recommended requires clean roms, it patches them itself, i didnt tried the RTC games like pokemon in the ez iv, but i dumped the entire gba library into an sd card and every now and then i try random games to see if i find "gems" (little known games that are really good) (i only found weird or\and bad games so far lol)
but the rtc games still should work, with just an error about the clock battery being dead and the clock stopped, this only affects the berries

I think it's the compatibility too. Probably the micro SD I use is just incompatible. I also will try to wiggle it around and see if there's a physical connection issue.

well sadly i wish i could help more
heres what i can do, i only own 2 non HC micro sd cards, they are a kingston 1GB and a transcend 2GB, i got the transcend one in a china shop next door lol, it was originally for my ez iv back then, well if you get new cards, try theese?
when i see them in flea markets and thrift stores i always try grab the MINI sd cards and non hc cards for theese flashcarts lol but damn, people want 5+ bucks for them <.< more than 3 bucks is a rip off
are ya using a windows pc to format them right? i have something in my memory that mac default to GPT.. but i am not sure..
if ya lived somewhere in europe i could even borrow you one of my cards that you know, work in both of my m3 cards

sometimes my m3 also shows signs of old age.. that black screen happens sometimes but its a contacts issue between my gba and m3 or sometimes i need to re insert the sd card but nothing major..

i really wish someone could reverse engineer the m3 and either make a new card based of it or make an upgraded firmware that supported sdhc and improved what makes it a damn great card.
the m3 perfect has so good features like the save states and in game menu.. and you know, load a full 32MB game into the psram..
i have the lite version, that means its a NDS LITE slot 2 size!! it took so many years until the ez team made a good card of this size

 

[machinoman]

Hi Folks ,

back in the days when a M3 with a Passkey was the way of playing NDS roms, I had a M3 (perfect) SD which I used for many years. Well, that one died about two years ago without any apparent reason and I lost interest in playing GBA.

Now that I collect GBA consoles and flashcards, I recently bought a second hand M3 perfect mini SD for cheap. The only other Flashcard I have is the EZ Flash IV 2017 which - frankly - sucks, which is why I want to go back to the M3 since I never had any issues whatsoever with any type of rom back then.

Long story short, it won't work. There was a micro SD to mini SD adaptor included which the previous owner used without any flaws. I bought a 2GB micro SD card since the M3 can't handle SDHC, plugged it in, and - well, nothing. Black screen after the GBA Boot. I formated the micro SD to FAT, FAT32 and tried NTFS, none of them work. I am currently waiting for another micro SD to arrive to find out if the card is just bad, but at this time I can't get anything to run so far. The good thing is, if I boot the system without any SD card inserted, I see the error message that no memory card is inserted and I can press start to continue anyway, which also leads to a black screen.

I downloaded the V36 firmware and tried installing it, but it seems that the micro SD is not recognized at all.

Do you have any suggestions? The previous owner stated, that the device works fine, which I do believe (I know him for a while).

Thanks in advance!

10 bucks wuuuuut. I got mine for $33 bucks earlier this year and I thought that was good. Mine works good, it came with an actual 1gb mini SD card, so I bought a mini SD card adapter for it in order to plug it into my laptop. You might try using an actual mini SD rather than micro via adaptor if you can find one. The other possibility is that, like your original one, the battery inside the cart is dead. It can be changed if you know how to do that sort of thing, with soldering although I am not looking forward to it, I will probably do that eventually. The m3 perfect is still the best flashcart on the market in terms of functionality, and if I manage to swap in an easily replaceable battery it will be as good or better than EverDrive GB in every way I can think of.

what flash cards do you have, by the way? i've gathered a bit of a collection myself.

 

[Localhorst86]

The M3 perfect is allegedly a good card and a lot of people swear by it. I have, however, never been able to find one. But then again, with the EZ-Flash IV, Reform and Omega I have a few cards that I really enjoy using.

So since I can't really help you with your M3 issues, I can try helping with your EZ-Flash ones:
If you're using an EZ-Flash IV 2017, i recommend updating to a kernel version 2.01 or above, you can use fully clean ROMs with those kernels. If you're going with a 2.01 kernel, make sure it has been "soft-reset" patched or apply a soft-reset patch yourself. That will cause the GBA to reboot the BIOS when launching a game which solves a lot of compatibility issues with some games like Yoshis Island or Boktai.

If you're going for a 2.02-2.05 kernel, make sure to enable "auto-hardreset" in the Keyset.cfg

EDIT: here are some kernels/skins to choose from:

2.01:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-iv-v2-01-with-bluenight-skin-release.475911/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-iv-v2-01-with-firewatch-skin-release.475700/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-skin-ez-flash-iv-2-01-2-03-2-05.481919/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flat-iv-2-01-an-ez-flash-iv-2-01-skin.389868/

2.02-2.05:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/simplex-ez-flash-iv-skin-kernel-2-02.477270/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ezflash-iv-carbon-fire-theme-series-2-03.477937/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-skin-ez-flash-iv-2-01-2-03-2-05.481919/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-iv-skin-material-ez.497654/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flat-iv-2-05-a-skin-for-your-ez-flash-iv-card-kernel-2-05.477216/

 

[Dauerbrenner]

Hey Folks, thanks for all your replies!

First of - It works now! It was really just a crappy micro SD card. The other ones I mentioned in my first post arrived today, and they work fine. All roms work so far flawlessly.

@machinoman I only have the M3 and EZ flash for GBA, but I got more for other systems (GB classic, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, NDS and soon N64).

@Horst Thanks, I may give the EZflash another chance. And btw - Ist das Loss?

 

[Localhorst86]

Hey Folks, thanks for all your replies!

First of - It works now! It was really just a crappy micro SD card. The other ones I mentioned in my first post arrived today, and they work fine. All roms work so far flawlessly.

@machinoman I only have the M3 and EZ flash for GBA, but I got more for other systems (GB classic, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, NDS and soon N64).

@Horst Thanks, I may give the EZflash another chance. And btw - Ist das Loss?

I never knew people in Gambia spoke german.

Rule number 84: You never ask if this is loss. But I do believe this post might tell you, without stating it.

 

[Dauerbrenner]

I never knew people in Gambia spoke german.

Rule number 84: You never ask if this is loss. But I do believe this post might tell you, without stating it.

First: I have no clue why my region was set to Gambia, I was pretty sure that I indeed did select Germany.
Second: I am aware that this is loss I just did not find a way to tell that I recognized it. I could have said nice loss or something, but this sounds just weird imo.