SD2SNES question

[bigbacon]

Trying to figure out why I can't play FF2/4 with this thing. every other game I try works except this one. I've tried multiple different versions of roms, versions of the game, translated versions, easy types, etc..they all freeze at the battle screen.

I've tried different firmware from the official site and loaded all the bios files as well.

Anyone else this problem? Anyone with a SD2SNES can you try FF2 and see if the same thing happens or not and if it doesn't can you tell me what kind of SD card you are using, firmware, rom version etc?

[bigbacon]

Ok other games are doing similar things. Castlevania 4 starts ok, plays for about 10 seconds then black screen and the music continues.

So...the SD2SNES itself or something with my SNES?

[Greg2600]

Can you try a newer SNES (one with an embossed ejected button - not painted)?

[bigbacon]

not really....

[bb_hood]

Well, I dont have a sd2snes, Ive got a power pak. Ive never had any problems playiing FF2, castlevania or any other rom that it is supposed to play.
As long as you are using an actual snes and not a 3rd party clone system it should not be the systems fault.
Did you download the roms one at a time or all in a big pack via torrent? If you downloaded them from some site one at a time, you probably have junky rom files.

[Tanooki]

Try individual roms from a known site that are single downloads like EMU Paradise, Cool ROM, Rom Heaven or some others and see how that goes. If they fail, you got a SD2SNES that's faulty for some reason.

[bigbacon]

I've tried roms from all over. Packs, by themselves, my old ass roms from who knows when. the games that fail, always fail. Others work normally. I just played FF3 for 45minutes.

I'm using my orginal SNS-001 with the official power supply that came with it.

[bigbacon]

tried both ff2s from emu paradise, no go. same thing. tried a difference SD card just now as well, same thing.

[Tanooki]

Did you ever flash a firmware upgrade to it? Perhaps it's glitched.

[bigbacon]

Did you ever flash a firmware upgrade to it? Perhaps it's glitched.

i don't recall flashing anything to it. How do I re-flash it if I did?

[bigbacon]

just noticed that there is a diagnostic firmware for this thing. running that now.

I noticed in the comments for the diagnostic thing someone was saying their green LED was dim. mine is pretty dim.. capacitors going bad?

[Tanooki]

You're on your own I don't own one, too rich for my blood. But you seem to have figured out it has a reflash capability and diagnostic tools so track it and see what happens. Hopefully just corrupted firmware, it would suck if you had to send it in for repair or attempt it yourself.

[bigbacon]

You're on your own I don't own one, too rich for my blood. But you seem to have figured out it has a reflash capability and diagnostic tools so track it and see what happens. Hopefully just corrupted firmware, it would suck if you had to send it in for repair or attempt it yourself.


the diagnistics came back ok. Everything it runs passed. Now I'm not sure how the diagnostic relates 100% to playing a game + the SD2SNES + the SNES itself.

I've tried every firmware at this point and it continues. It would totally suck if it was the SD2SNES itself but i wonder now if the caps on my SNES are just not up to the job in some way...I don't know. It is a version 1 SNES with the separate sound board.

[bb_hood]

the diagnistics came back ok. Everything it runs passed. Now I'm not sure how the diagnostic relates 100% to playing a game + the SD2SNES + the SNES itself.

I've tried every firmware at this point and it continues. It would totally suck if it was the SD2SNES itself but i wonder now if the caps on my SNES are just not up to the job in some way...I don't know. It is a version 1 SNES with the separate sound board.

if your system can play regular snes games fine then the system wont be the problem.

[goldenband]

if your system can play regular snes games fine then the system wont be the problem.

Not necessarily true -- flash carts draw more power than regular carts and could reveal some failure in the power supply or caps.

[bigbacon]

does the SNES share a power brick with any other systems? I guess I mean, can I try a brick from something else just to test it?

[goldenband]

does the SNES share a power brick with any other systems? I guess I mean, can I try a brick from something else just to test it?

The Virtual Boy uses the same brick, IIRC.

[Niku-Sama]

Vb and that's it. Infact most of the time you'd be getting a snes one for your virtual boy

[Edmond Dantes]

I suppose the OP has already tried cleaning the SD Card's pins and the SD2SNES's pins with rubbing alcohol. If not that, it sounds like bad caps somewhere.

[bigbacon]

got a real copy of FF2, photo of what I get:
also got the black screen of death. It didn't used to do this.
:( my poor childhood SNES.
http://starshipvonbraun.com/ss/1/WP_20151022_15_12_53_Pro.jpg

[Tanooki]

So it's not the part, but the system I guess. That blows, that really is the best of the 16bit FF games by leaps and bounds in my book. You have a true experience system where you learn spells/skills by ranking up -- not pissing large sums of cash buying books or going into overkill fights to rank up little crystals you find. It's a set network of characters that stay in the party or some who pop in and out until they're killed or neutralized, but you have a core so you don't have to worry about ranking up like 10 people party flipping. And the story since you have set people is are more emotional and memorable.

Get a new SNES or a Retron5 or something :P Sorry (though the R5 won't do copier carts.)

I have to admit your thread is making me want to peek at FF2(4) again. I've still got my childhood cart and poster/manual still -- also have a nice CIB GBA release too. The fact it's a sub-20hour RPG makes it also very alluring.

[Zthun]

Well, I dont have a sd2snes, Ive got a power pak. Ive never had any problems playiing FF2, castlevania or any other rom that it is supposed to play.
As long as you are using an actual snes and not a 3rd party clone system it should not be the systems fault.
Did you download the roms one at a time or all in a big pack via torrent? If you downloaded them from some site one at a time, you probably have junky rom files.

Just to reiterate on this, the roms you want are from the Good* sets. IE: GoodNES, GoodSNES, GoodGen, etc..

The main ones that work best in flash carts are ones with [!] in the filename as those are verified good dumps. Anything with [b] is to be avoided as that means bad dump. Some of them will have [f] which means it comes with bug fixes so it plays better in the more popular emulators, but if you're using a flash cart, [!] is the way to go.

[bigbacon]

So it's not the part, but the system I guess. That blows, that really is the best of the 16bit FF games by leaps and bounds in my book. You have a true experience system where you learn spells/skills by ranking up -- not pissing large sums of cash buying books or going into overkill fights to rank up little crystals you find. It's a set network of characters that stay in the party or some who pop in and out until they're killed or neutralized, but you have a core so you don't have to worry about ranking up like 10 people party flipping. And the story since you have set people is are more emotional and memorable.

Get a new SNES or a Retron5 or something :P Sorry (though the R5 won't do copier carts.)

I have to admit your thread is making me want to peek at FF2(4) again. I've still got my childhood cart and poster/manual still -- also have a nice CIB GBA release too. The fact it's a sub-20hour RPG makes it also very alluring.

FF2/4 is my favorite of the 2d style FF games. I was wanting to replay it and obviously can't now. Got a deal on another SNES so hopefully that will fix it for me.

[bigbacon]

Just to reiterate on this, the roms you want are from the Good* sets. IE: GoodNES, GoodSNES, GoodGen, etc..

The main ones that work best in flash carts are ones with [!] in the filename as those are verified good dumps. Anything with [b] is to be avoided as that means bad dump. Some of them will have [f] which means it comes with bug fixes so it plays better in the more popular emulators, but if you're using a flash cart, [!] is the way to go.

Again.. the real cart of FF2 does the same thing ALL the roms did.

[Tanooki]

Well hey we think alike on that then. :) At least you were able to track down another SNES. Perhaps some cap or some chip is starting to fail on the system...something has to be sliding it can't handle the game, something it uniquely registers with the hardware that gets it all grumpy. There's probably other games you don't have or haven't tried yet that probably would flip it out too.

SNES went through if I remember right 5 primary revisions of the chip set over time and within those some smaller sub-revision tweaks. A perfect example is that 1CHIP model. While known to be the most reliable and also the one with the best picture clarity, some of them will foul up in displaying Pocky & Rocky and Super Ghouls n Ghosts so they're not playable. Mine though I could play both, but unless my eyes deceive the very edges (left/right) of the screen have some weird effect in SGnG where it's almost warping or appears to run at a barely different pace which is odd while the screen scrolls. You don't really even notice it and it won't screw you over, but if you look for it, it's there. Yet in turn with the clarity, look up FF3 and Super Metroid about the white bar up the middle of the screen the other SNES models do very sharply on a TV. The 1CHIP cleans it up largely and there are sites/assemblergames.com forum posts that cover this with pics.

[bigbacon]

i know castlevania 4 fails as well.

SOmeone at Nintendoage explained it that I guess some games use high memory and others use low (whatever that means) and it seems the games I am saying that do not work all use the low side where as ones that do work, like FF3, use the high side.

My SNES was the SHVC version

[Tanooki]

They could have been more clear and I think I know what whoever it was was getting at. The SNES unlike the old NES didn't have a slew of memory mappers (UNROM, MMC1,2,3,4,5,6, etc) to get games to go because the hardware alone couldn't hack it. The SNES used LoROM and HiROM style carts which each poll the system abilities and memories inside differently. Yes the SNES had some chipped games, but the chips did more specific stuff and not just a memory/bank switching type improvement.

Anyway if the games you're using all fail that are either LoROM or HiROM they I'd suspect that the system itself somewhere in the traces to the memory, the cpu, some lame capacitor...something is fried and games that need to run down that road to work, run into a wall and die. Time to buy another system clearly, but you knew that. :)

[Zthun]

Again.. the real cart of FF2 does the same thing ALL the roms did.

My point was just that after you fix this problem, if you still have issues, look for rooms with [!] in the name.