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Neo Geo Pocket Power Issue?
#1
So, I've been trying out the games I got for the Neo Geo Pocket Color ON the actual system since I like the feel of using it. Unfortunately, my Neo Geo Pocket Color seems to be malfunctioning from what I can see. After using it for under three minutes, it turns off.

As I've received warnings about the CR 2032 battery, I don't think it's that. Also, the batteries I've been using are fairly new (set to expire in 2017) and I used one pair of them for roughly 30 hours before the system turned off. I just assumed they were lower quality batteries... but, now I think the system may be struggling.

Since I've only used it briefly, I've never noticed if there was an indicator of low battery life. I know that the red light flashes if the CR 2032 battery is not in the unit, but is it supposed to do that if the AA batteries are low on the handheld? If so, this is definitely another problem since I've yet to see that happen. Pretty frustrating since this was a very clean system.

Oh, and for the record, I've been using the Flashmasta to play Faselei (I'm not paying $80+ for it when I've bought nearly every other NTSC/EU game). This didn't happen until I switched from playing normal games to using the Flashmasta, but I doubt it would cause a problem, right?

Just wanted to get an opinion from you guys. If you know of particular hardware components in the Neo Geo Pocket that might need replacing, let me know and I'll give that a shot. If you think I need to try more batteries, I guess I can order more. I need to find my battery tester.
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#2
This is definitely not proper behavior. 3 minutes is insanely low.

I do not think the CR2032 would have anything to do with this.

Does this always happen when using the Flash Masta cartridge? What I mean is that you said you used one pair for 30 hours. Was that with the Flash Masta or not?

I would switch back to a normal game and see what sort of battery life you get with that. Yes, the Flash Masta (or any cartridge) could cause low battery life if there was some sort of short or bad component inside the cartridge.

I don't know a good way for you to test this without trying another couple sets of batteries. If it were me, I'd put new batteries in and play a different cartridge for a while. If that went well, then I'd pop in the Flash Masta and play that. See if the problem goes with the cartridge or not.

I've never heard of this happening before, but that would be my approach. I've also never heard of anyone having this sort of battery life problem, so I've also never heard of anyone fixing their NGPC. Of course, that doesn't mean you're the only one. It may just mean that I never heard about it.

If you test this and suspect that the problem goes with the Flash Masta cartride, DEFINITELY email me. Not only would I want to get the cartridge back to figure out the exact problem to make sure it doesn't happen again for anyone else, but I'd want to get you a replacement unit.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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#3
So, I haven't had a chance to buy a different brand of batteries, but I did test one non-Flashmasta cartridge: Sonic Pocket Adventure. I know that this game in particular really pushes the hardware and, in some cases, you can see the hardware not be able to keep up when the game starts to lag. I played the game for 22 minutes (timed it) without it ever turning off. I want to emphasize that the batteries I'm using were new; so, either I got screwed on a large pack of new batteries or something else is wrong (I've tried multiple sets of batteries from the pack).

I then tried the Flashmasta again and, surprisingly, I was able to get through two tasks before the game turned off at around 8 minutes, which is a fair deal longer. So, I honestly can't tell (right now) if it's the system or the cartridge.

I did notice that every time the system shuts off with the Flashmasta and I put in any cartridge and turn it on, I have to re-enter information like the language, time, etc.
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#4
When the system shuts off (with the Flash Masta), can you boot it back up? So, what I mean is like, could you then put Sonic in and play that for a while.

What I'm wondering if it is actually a power issue or something that just seems like a dead battery.

Having to re-enter the system info isn't necessarily a dead battery problem. In fact, the only time it would be a dead battery is if the CR2032 was dead. I have seen the system lose its data when the cartridge does something weird. I've seen it happen if you remove the cart mid-game. I've seen it happen with a dirty connector. It could happen if one of the flash chips was bad, etc.

So, if you could do a bit more testing, we can pinpoint the problem a bit better. I do agree that it sounds like a problem with the Flash Masta cart, but it might not be the problem that we originally thought.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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#5
So, I played Biomotor Unitron (an official cartridge) for around three and a half hours after the system shut off last time without changing any of the batteries. Like before, I had to re-enter the time, date, and other system settings. So, it looks like it's something wrong with the Flashmasta.

My steps for programming the Flashmasta were literally grab a copy of the game (tested with an emulator) and use the Windows GUI tool to program the flash memory to contain Faselei. Aside from testing performance of Neo Geo Pocket games I develop, I really want to try out the three UK-only releases (that are expensive or hard to find) along with games like the translated Card Fighters' Clash 2. So, hoping to get this sorted out.
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#6
Well, it's possible that there's a problem with the ROM you are using. That could cause the behavior you describe. There was another guy that had a similar problem with a game before. We were able to fix it just using a different file. I don't know what happened, but I think part of the ROM was bad. It could have been a glitch while writing to the cart. It could have been a glitch that caused some sector to get erased. I don't know. We fixed it pretty easily once we tracked it down.

Could you please try these things.

1) Take the AA batteries from when Faselei failed, and use them to play Sonic again. This should tell you if the batteries are truly dead or if it's some other glitch.
NOTE: I think you're saying you already did this step with Biomotor.

2) Use the Linkmasta's "verify" button to compare the Flash Masta cartridge with the game ROM you wrote to it.

3) Use the Linkmasta to make a full backup dump of your entire Flash Masta cartridge and email it to me. I will try to inspect it and see if there's anything odd in the data.

4) Use the Linkmasta to make a backup of your Sonic cartridge. Then put that on the Flash Masta cart and play it.

5) Use the Flash Masta cartridge to write and play a different game (and/or another copy of the same game you had problems with).

The more I think about this, the more I believe that it's probably not a battery issue. It's probably some other glitch that just acts like a dead battery. If we can determine that it's a hardware problem with the cartridge, I can get you a replacement. However, I still think there's a chance that it's something else.

From what you've said, I don't see anything you did wrong. However, there's always a chance that something got corrupted in some step of the process. If there is a corrupt game in the NGPC, when you hit the corrupt spot in the game, it could cause the behavior you described.

Thanks for your patience!
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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#7
(09-11-2012, 12:05 AM)Flavor Wrote: Well, it's possible that there's a problem with the ROM you are using. That could cause the behavior you describe. There was another guy that had a similar problem with a game before. We were able to fix it just using a different file. I don't know what happened, but I think part of the ROM was bad. It could have been a glitch while writing to the cart. It could have been a glitch that caused some sector to get erased. I don't know. We fixed it pretty easily once we tracked it down.

Could you please try these things.

1) Take the AA batteries from when Faselei failed, and use them to play Sonic again. This should tell you if the batteries are truly dead or if it's some other glitch.
NOTE: I think you're saying you already did this step with Biomotor.

2) Use the Linkmasta's "verify" button to compare the Flash Masta cartridge with the game ROM you wrote to it.

3) Use the Linkmasta to make a full backup dump of your entire Flash Masta cartridge and email it to me. I will try to inspect it and see if there's anything odd in the data.

4) Use the Linkmasta to make a backup of your Sonic cartridge. Then put that on the Flash Masta cart and play it.

5) Use the Flash Masta cartridge to write and play a different game (and/or another copy of the same game you had problems with).

The more I think about this, the more I believe that it's probably not a battery issue. It's probably some other glitch that just acts like a dead battery. If we can determine that it's a hardware problem with the cartridge, I can get you a replacement. However, I still think there's a chance that it's something else.

From what you've said, I don't see anything you did wrong. However, there's always a chance that something got corrupted in some step of the process. If there is a corrupt game in the NGPC, when you hit the corrupt spot in the game, it could cause the behavior you described.

Thanks for your patience!

1. Tested when playing Biomotor Unitron earlier (like you said); so, I doubt it's an issue with batteries.

2. Ran verification and got a few messages captured in screenshots, mostly about mismatches, but it also appears that the sizing is off:
Beginning of Verification
End of Verification
Mismatches should be simply because of me having played the game and saved. Since a clean ROM has no saves, that would cause the mismatch, right?

3. Private messaged you with a link.

4. Played Sonic Pocket for around ten minutes without any issues; so, maybe it's the ROM that has an issue? I'm going to let it run for a little longer. ([EDIT] Seems to run fine. [/EDIT])

5. I actually got my hands on a Faselei game; so, I'll try getting a backup of it and playing it once it comes in.
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#8
I've inspected your results from 2 and 3. The only differences I find seem to be in the save-game data. This should not cause crashes.

#4 does seem to suggest that there may be a problem with the Faselei ROM, but I compared your dump with another copy of the ROM. I have found nothing that makes me believe your ROM is bad.

I don't know what to do from here. If you want a replacement cart, I'm willing to get you one. Otherwise, if you would like to wait and see if you continue to have problems, I can understand that, too.

Just let me know how'd you prefer to proceed. I'm a bit mystified about the whole thing at this point.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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#9
Mm... I'll probably wait and see if Evolution or Cotton give me issues, as Cotton is way overpriced and I haven't seen an English version of Evolution on eBay... ever. If it doesn't act up while playing either of those, I won't bother sending it in. Who knows, maybe there's something weird about Faselei that causes the problem.

Anyway, if I want a replacement, I'll send you an email, but it probably won't be for a little while. I'm fine with waiting in case you don't have any ready, as well, so there's no issue there for me.
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#10
Just keep in mind that Cotton has a known save-game issue. In fact, it's the only game where I've heard of such a thing. I haven't tracked it down, yet, and I don't know if there's a workaround for it. I've barely played the game ever.

See here: http://forum.freeplaytech.com/Thread-Fea...d=21#pid21 (and following messages)
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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