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DARKSOFT AES Multi Cart Troubleshooting and help

Darksoft said:
Slyelessar said:
I wonder if someone can help me, as I have not been able to set it up properly at all. I have been following the firmware/menu and rom threads, and tried 8 times to set up as advised but every time I am getting 'no games' when booting up.
Click to expand...
Did you read the instructions?
If you can't set it up after resding them, you can send it to me and I'll have a look.
@BRAKKUS1 the same for you.

I won't be able to have a look until July 19th, so if you send it this week I'll be able to have a look when I receive it.
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It is most likely in my case, that it is something I have or have not done with the memory card. Does anyone have a fully loaded memory card by any chance? I can swap or purchase.
 
Here's step-by-step instructions for a Windows computer:

1) Download the application "guiformat" from here:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.exe

2) Connect the SD card to your computer.

3) Run the guiformat application. Choose the drive letter for the SD card, set the Allocation Unit Size as large as it will go, and click Start to reformat the card.

4) Download the latest Darksoft Neo Geo pack from here:
https://archive.org/download/everdrivepack

5) Make a folder named "games" on the SD card, then extract the contents of the game pack into the "games" folder.

6) Remove the SD card from your computer, plug it into the cart, and power up. You should now have a populated games list.


The root of your SD card should look like this:
Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 12.21.29 PM.png

And when you open the "games" folder it should look like this:
Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 12.21.43 PM.png
 
ShootTheCore said:
Here's step-by-step instructions for a Windows computer:

1) Download the application "guiformat" from here:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.exe

2) Connect the SD card to your computer.

3) Run the guiformat application. Choose the drive letter for the SD card, set the Allocation Unit Size as large as it will go, and click Start to reformat the card.

4) Download the latest Darksoft Neo Geo pack from here:
https://archive.org/download/everdrivepack

5) Make a folder named "games" on the SD card, then extract the contents of the game pack into the "games" folder.

6) Remove the SD card from your computer, plug it into the cart, and power up. You should now have a populated games list.


The root of your SD card should look like this:
Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 12.21.29 PM.png

And when you open the "games" folder it should look like this:
Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 12.21.43 PM.png
Click to expand...
I followed this exactly and it is saying 'error no games found' when I boot it up.
 
Slyelessar said:
I followed this exactly and it is saying 'error no games found' when I boot it up.
Click to expand...
Can you try with another microSD? Are you sure that your microSD is branded and from a trusted source? I recommend Samsung. Those work usually very well.
 
Hey all! I've been using the Multicart for about a month and by and large it's incredible. Nearly everything I've loaded onto it has been flawless.

Curious if anyone has noticed issues in the following games though-

Both AES and MVS files for Samurai Shodown 3 crash and reboot after about 3-4 minutes of gameplay.

Super Dodgeball crashes and reboots if the Attract Mode plays. If I skip it, the game plays perfectly.

Galaxy Fight crashes and reboots before a fight is loaded, after the character select screen.

Everything else has played perfectly, for hours on end, without any glitches. I have a stock (except for a power LED) 3-6 Motherboard AES, and I'm using the latest version of the menu / firmware. I also have the SD card that was recommend. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same issues on those games, I may be doing something wrong.
 
Last edited:
I don't have these issues here. Which AES model do you have?
 
It's a Japanese 3-6 motherboard with the stock bios. I'm using the recommended Triad replacement PSU.
 
I'll try again. I have the same motherboard as you right now installed.
 
Firmware revision: 0x0491
Firmware build: 0xa512
Top File Build: 0x50e0
Menu Build Date: Nov 22 2019
Menu Build Time: 22:10:59
Supported Games: 238 out of 242
Detected Hardware: AES

That's what my menu says. Maybe I have something incorrect?

Additionally, I am running a MC Cthulhu Joystick with a Brook Adapter - could that have anything to do with it? That could potentially be the issue with Sam Sho 3, I haven't tried that without it. Super Dodgeball is definitely unrelated and crashes with other controllers, unless the Attract Mode is skipped.
 
Darksoft said:
That's Ok. You've got the latest FW.
Click to expand...
Checked with different controllers (real Neo Geo ones) and the crash / reboots still happen on Galaxy Fight and Super Dodgeball. I also tried them in other "slots" on the cartridge. Weird. Super Dodgeball remains playable when I skip the Attract video- and one of the crashes, I noticed numbers (a lot of 0000000) flash on the screen during the reboot.

The Sam Sho III issue COULD be related to my MC Chthulu - Brook Neo Geo setup though. I was able to play a while with Sam Sho III on a "real" controller, while I was able to replicate the crash / reboot on Sam Sho III reliably when connected to the Brook. Essentially, it allows me to play for around 3-5 minutes, then goes down. Weird stuff. I have been planning on picking up a real cart of Sam Sho III, so maybe that will shed more light on it.
 
Ah, scratch my suspicions of the Brook board. I've been getting Sam Sho 3 crashes with regular AES controllers too. Maybe I just got lucky earlier in the day and got that one good session in by luck.
 
Nic034 said:
djsheep said:
It might be advisable to try a different brand, or reformat with larger cluster size? Did you use a Mac or PC to copy the files over?
Click to expand...
Hi
both Mac, pc using vm on Mac (parallels desktop) and a standalone pc in order to avoid Mac hidden files.

Try different cluster size too, default, large, minimal, try to format to fat32 from Mac and from pc too.

Don’t try another brand, darksoft will receive the cart soon to check this.
Thanks to him for support !
Click to expand...
Thanks to Darksoft to have analysed physically the issue and replaced my defective cart (by sending a brand new one up-to-date !)
He confirmed that my cart is defective and do not update anything else than flash.bin (this issue must be analysed and this can take a certain amount of time for sure)

Have a nice day
Nicolas
 
The issue is not with the cart, but rather with the way in which the firmware files were written. It was done in such an order that now you can't update properly anymore unless you use a STM32FDiscovery. Hopefully I'll find a way to overcome this, in case someone has this issue again.
 
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