Understading ancient GBA flash cartridges

[ultraforce]

Well at least they haven’t corroded all over. It’s a bit late and I don’t know if I have a multimeter and definitely don’t have the other tools to fix it atm other then the soldering iron

 

[Janni9009]

Is there a way to tell if either of these is the M3 Perfect or if neither of them are?

Open them and check for 32MiB/256Mbit of DRAM/PSRAM.
Or process a retail game through M3 Game Manager and try to run it (Pro can only run multiboots/256kb, Perfect can run most if not nearly all retail games)
Firmware and M3GM can be found here: http://linfoxdomain.com/nintendo/ds/ under the "M3 Perfect v31-v36" category. The prefix depends on the cart language, e* is english (and only goes up to v35. can still use M3GM-v36 with it). Most of these *cannot* be language-changed, only aware of the CF version being able to do so first-hand.

Also when soldering new batteries to these, please be careful. First of all, if the cart uses an ML (rechargeable) instead of CR cell (only aware of the lite doing this, but just in case), you *must* replace it with an ML (not VL, higher voltage!), or protect the battery from being charged. And secondly, use good tools, no direct-to-wall irons (not talking about portables like the pinecil, but those that go straight to an outlet with a regular AC cord) or gas irons, both of which are gonna scorch the fine pads and pull surrounding components off.

I recently found an old 3in1 flash slot for the DS and I assume GBA but gonna have to retest it tho.

For the EZ3in1 NORFlash works on GBA, but still need to flash it from a DS (Wood and YSMenu have native support for this cart, otherwise use GBAExpLoader). And of course the lite version won't fit a GBA (the phat version being exceedingly rare these days)
Main thing that breaks on these is the SRAM. Use this to test it: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/3in1_SRAM_Test and if it gives an error *after* reboot, you need a new battery. If it errors *before* reboot, you likely need to reflow and pray it works (sometimes this can still be battery related... sure isn't in my EZ5C10's case though)

 

[ultraforce]

Open them and check for 32MiB/256Mbit of DRAM/PSRAM.
Or process a retail game through M3 Game Manager and try to run it (Pro can only run multiboots/256kb, Perfect can run most if not nearly all retail games)
Firmware and M3GM can be found here: http://linfoxdomain.com/nintendo/ds/ under the "M3 Perfect v31-v36" category. The prefix depends on the cart language, e* is english (and only goes up to v35. can still use M3GM-v36 with it). Most of these *cannot* be language-changed, only aware of the CF version being able to do so first-hand.

Which part do I check for the RAM?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

View attachment 437651
Is there a way to tell if either of these is the M3 Perfect or if neither of them are?

The branding confuses me, but the bottom one appears to be the M3 Perfect SD Lite. It should be good, I think.
The top one I have no idea. Google suggests it might be some version of a M3 Pro but I can't find a definite confirmation of that.
Confusingly, there is also a M3 Lite Perfect, which is a newer and entirely different cart only compatible with the DS Lite.
M3's branding and product naming is confusing, they had too many models, and information is hard to find nowadays, I'm actually unsure which models are good and which ones are not.
The only information on the top one I could find is this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/which-m3-gba-flash-card-is-this.353463/
Which suggests it could have either 4MB RAM (which would be bad for GBA) or 32MB (which would be good) and the only way to know is to open it up and look at the chips.

 

[ultraforce]

The branding confuses me, but the bottom one appears to be the M3 Perfect SD Lite. It should be good, I think.
The top one I have no idea. Google suggests it might be some version of a M3 Pro but I can't find a definite confirmation of that.
Confusingly, there is also a M3 Lite Perfect, which is a newer and entirely different cart only compatible with the DS Lite.
M3's branding and product naming is confusing, they had too many models, and information is hard to find nowadays, I'm actually unsure which models are good and which ones are not.
The only information on the top one I could find is this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/which-m3-gba-flash-card-is-this.353463/
Which suggests it could have either 4MB RAM (which would be bad for GBA) or 32MB (which would be good) and the only way to know is to open it up and look at the chips.

Both of the most recent photos were of the same card just on both sides of the pcb. The top loading SD card m3 didn’t just slide out so I left it.

 

[Janni9009]

Which part do I check for the RAM?

Those BGA chips on the left of the lower image. That's definitely a perfect.

 

[ultraforce]

Those BGA chips on the left of the lower image. That's definitely a perfect.

Okay so in all likelihood a new battery and updating the firmware will make it a great choice for backing up my old GBA games without shelling out for the ez-flash omega de?

Edit: actually given my experience or lack there of with soldering these small things probably would rather just spend the extra money.

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2024

The branding confuses me, but the bottom one appears to be the M3 Perfect SD Lite. It should be good, I think.
The top one I have no idea. Google suggests it might be some version of a M3 Pro but I can't find a definite confirmation of that.
Confusingly, there is also a M3 Lite Perfect, which is a newer and entirely different cart only compatible with the DS Lite.
M3's branding and product naming is confusing, they had too many models, and information is hard to find nowadays, I'm actually unsure which models are good and which ones are not.
The only information on the top one I could find is this thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/which-m3-gba-flash-card-is-this.353463/
Which suggests it could have either 4MB RAM (which would be bad for GBA) or 32MB (which would be good) and the only way to know is to open it up and look at the chips.

Here's the images of the toploading one better laid out.

 

[assassinz]

@Apache Thunder Good call, the SCLite is a bit... special in that regard. It doesn't have a battery, at all. (best photos I could get, this thing sucks to take apart)View attachment 419948View attachment 419949

How well does it perform in regards to GBA games and saves? Does it have decent NDS capabilities?

 

[Janni9009]

@assassinz Same speed and compat issues as any other SCSlot2 cart. And a different DLDI so the odd app or two might work better or less.

 

[4d1xlaan]

it might be cool if someone figured out how to patch ds games for slot 2 and added compatibility for newer games for the old cards. it's kinda pointless but being able to play games from a slot 2 card is cool from a historical point of view.

anyone remember that old ds homebrew zelda game that only worked from slot 2? good times

 

[Janni9009]

@4d1xlaan For SD/CF based carts you can generally just use TWLMenu/nds-bootstrap.

 

[4d1xlaan]

@4d1xlaan For SD/CF based carts you can generally just use TWLMenu/nds-bootstrap.

interesting, I didnt know nds bootstrap worked on slot-2 cards. how's the compatibility? I dont have my ez4 anymore to check