Blu Smc Slot Is Blocked

[bobele]

I got my BLU two days ago and was quite happy with the quality of the hardware, but there is a strange thing I found about the SMC-Slot which gets annoying:

From the beginning I found it difficult to get the SMC out of the GP32 again. It does not smoothly "slip" into the slot but needs some force to be inserted. As there is not much room to get a "grip" with your fingers when pulling it out, I had my problems.

I then looked inside the slot and found the reason. When looking into it with the screen facing me, I can see the green mainboard of the machine at the lower side of the slot. On the left I can see a small black component on the board, which is do big that it sticks into the slot. When I try to insert a SMC, it gets stuck at this component. I have to slip it in slightly diagonal at first to get past the obstacle and of course have to apply a little force to get it down completely.

I had to insert the card about 20-30 times by now, and it already has visible scratches at the corresponding part.

Is this so with all BLU-Units? Or does mine have some components not build in correctly?

 

[Yuglooc]

I have non such problem with mine :unsure:

Did you get the 180 or the 166, or the unmodded?

 

[bobele]

I have non such problem with mine :unsure:

Did you get the 180 or the 166, or the unmodded?

How can I determine if it is modded? It´s from LikSang, nothing was mentioned about Modding. They just say it is capable of 166Mhz.

Can´t you even see the black component I takled about? It seats on silver "legs". There is a small gap between it and the Board on my unit. Does it seat completely on the Board on yours?

 

[Vimacs]

can you start games from the smc? if not... turn it arround...

 

[Robster]

Hi bobele,

The part that you're looking at is the SMC socket itself. This is a component that is soldered to the main board, and it has a black plastic base with a metal cover over it (you can't really see the metal cover from the outside of the unit). The two legs you can see are the write-protect contacts, the SMC socket has many more contacts at the other end.

Your BLU is probably no worse than any other, I've played with about 15 GP32s and they've all had the same problem as you describe. Just a poor piece of design on Gamepark's part, I think. Grow your fingernails a bit, that might make it easier!

 

[bobele]

Hi bobele,

The part that you're looking at is the SMC socket itself. This is a component that is soldered to the main board, and it has a black plastic base with a metal cover over it (you can't really see the metal cover from the outside of the unit). The two legs you can see are the write-protect contacts, the SMC socket has many more contacts at the other end.

Your BLU is probably no worse than any other, I've played with about 15 GP32s and they've all had the same problem as you describe. Just a poor piece of design on Gamepark's part, I think. Grow your fingernails a bit, that might make it easier!

Ok, thanks for this answer

Will probably find me a tool to get it out. The card already shows marks of my nails...

 

[finty]

Check magoo's LOL thread (LOL forum), he super glued a cocktail stick or some shit, or take it out with your teeth.

 

[LHC]

This is old, but I think we should show it to anyone worried about their SMC's now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3939333.stm

 

[mattmagoo]

Check magoo's LOL thread (LOL forum), he super glued a cocktail stick or some shit, or take it out with your teeth.

paperclip actually, worked quite nicely

 

[BaDToaD]

Just out of interest how come you've had to insert the card 20 or 30 times in two days? I've got 4 cards and I don't change them more than a few times a day on a busy day and mostly I use them in cycles. GPcinema SMC for a few days. Doom SMC for a few days. Emus SMC for a few days etc.

 

[LHC]

He just got his BLU according to his post, so one would assume that he needs to shove a load of stuff on his SMC. I certainly was for the first few days.

 

[bobele]

He just got his BLU according to his post, so one would assume that he needs to shove a load of stuff on his SMC. I certainly was for the first few days.

Yep, exactly.

I had some problems with PCLink and so had to put the card to a Card-Reader quite often, for testing first, for getting everything set up now.

I´m sure you know that feeling: You have much more Emus and Games on the GP32 than you can use, even if you play whole day. But there always is another emulator, another game, another somewhat... You cannot rest until EVERYTHING is crammed on the f...... card

 

[mastaboog749]

if you put the label sticker on the end or whatever is a hell of a lot easier to get out.

 

[DemonStar55]

Mine goed in smoothly and I dont think it ever didnt go in smoothly...

 

[zj_jeepster]

I don't know about anyone else's but my BLU scratches up my SMC card's gold contact real good on the area towards the right (on the notched side). Anybody noticed this? Guess there's nothing to do about this.

 

[mike5622]

I don't know about anyone else's but my BLU scratches up my SMC card's gold contact real good on the area towards the right (on the notched side). Anybody noticed this? Guess there's nothing to do about this.

yep. exactly the same with mine. visible scratches and i only got it yesterday!

 

[DemonStar55]

thats from the same thing its done that to mine and they have funtioned the same besides one but I took that one out for a whiel and its working fine so it doesn't have any effect that I can think of

 

[Axeman]

I got scratches - but not bad enough to affect anything, and my smc is about 18 months old... with LOTS of use

 

[ralp99]

don't know what you guys are complaining about -- try removing an original style game card from a model 1 Atari Lynx, now THAT thing was a bitch to remove. Holy crap, I scraped up my fingernails trying to remove it. Dumbass designers, ha ha haa!

it was cool that thyey built little indent-things into the lynx cards so you could stack them easily, but the same design made them SUPER difficultt to inster and remove (especially for a dumb kid). They realized pretty quickly and eventually redesigned the cards to curl over atthe end so at least you could have something to grab onto when you tried to remove.

too much information. i know.

 

[zj_jeepster]

About the scratches again, I don't ever noticing any scratches when I remove SMC's from my digital cameras. I think it's definitely not a good sign that both my BLU's has been doing this scratch thing right from the get go. hhhmmmm???