End Of My Tether

[Ed W]

Hi All

I got my GP32 about 6months ago, 2nd hand with 2 SMC cards loaded with stuff. I connect this to my work PC, and dropped a few emulators/roms on from the discs I'd been provided.

All was well, until one of the SMC cards stopped registering (it simply says 'no SMC card or data present). Then, a week ago, the 2nd card started doing this.

From reading bits on this forum I've guessed they've become corrupted in some way.

My problem is how to format them. The GP32 standard software doesn't recognise they're there. I've got no access to a card reader, and can't really download software changes on my new PC. Has anyone got any advice?

Also, I'd planned to buy another SMC card brand new from my local PC World. Does this mean when I put it in my GP32 the standard software will recognise it, allow me to format it and use it? Or will I still need to format it on a PC using a card reader?

Sorry if these questions seem a bit silly, but any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

Ed

 

[yaustar]

It should recognise it straight away (unless it was preformatted to something else) and while you are at PC world you can SMC readers for less then £10..

 

[Ed W]

cheers..........

 

[Tobriand]

Out of interest, which firmware are you on? Some of them can re-format an SMC quite happily (even the official one, iirc, although could be wrong). Certainly Pacrom can, and I'd be extremely surprised if Slubman's can't.

Try going into PC-Link with no link cable plugged in and one of the SMCs that doesn't work in the unit too... you may find an option to "recover SMC". That is, if its the original FW; can't remember how with the Euro FW. That may or may not format it, of course, but its something to try if you haven't already.

If you've already tried this, and it hasn't worked, still don't despair. If you're on Slubmans (with Squidgelink or Phoda-Link built in - i.e. the GP32 can appear as a separate drive on the PC) then get hold of a nice util Squidge made (can't remember where, but a search of these forums for "low level format" should turn it up) for formatting completely messed up SMCs. Can't remember, tbh, whether its a GP32 one or a windows one, but I suspect, seeing as you're going to be attempting to recover exactly the thing it'd be stored on, its probably PC-based. Run it, if possible. This may also help fix your problems.

If you're *not* on a firmware with either of the link proggies implemented (at least in that style), then investigate an SMC reader (they're not expensive and they're very very useful - not only for GP32 stuff; plug into any 2k or XP machine and voila - access to SMCs, so great for carrying docs about and such), and run it on that. If that STILL doesn't work, then I imagine your SMCs have passed their 10000 writes in all sectors. But this seems so unlikely as to be almost untennable (they'd have simply gotten a lot smaller before they broke for a start).

Hope that helps

 

[Ed W]

Out of interest, which firmware are you on? Some of them can re-format an SMC quite happily (even the official one, iirc, although could be wrong). Certainly Pacrom can, and I'd be extremely surprised if Slubman's can't.

Try going into PC-Link with no link cable plugged in and one of the SMCs that doesn't work in the unit too... you may find an option to "recover SMC". That is, if its the original FW; can't remember how with the Euro FW. That may or may not format it, of course, but its something to try if you haven't already.

If you've already tried this, and it hasn't worked, still don't despair. If you're on Slubmans (with Squidgelink or Phoda-Link built in - i.e. the GP32 can appear as a separate drive on the PC) then get hold of a nice util Squidge made (can't remember where, but a search of these forums for "low level format" should turn it up) for formatting completely messed up SMCs. Can't remember, tbh, whether its a GP32 one or a windows one, but I suspect, seeing as you're going to be attempting to recover exactly the thing it'd be stored on, its probably PC-based. Run it, if possible. This may also help fix your problems.

If you're *not* on a firmware with either of the link proggies implemented (at least in that style), then investigate an SMC reader (they're not expensive and they're very very useful - not only for GP32 stuff; plug into any 2k or XP machine and voila - access to SMCs, so great for carrying docs about and such), and run it on that. If that STILL doesn't work, then I imagine your SMCs have passed their 10000 writes in all sectors. But this seems so unlikely as to be almost untennable (they'd have simply gotten a lot smaller before they broke for a start).

Hope that helps

​

It does thanks. I'm unsure of firmware, but will try tip 1 tonight.

I think I'll get hold of an SMC viewer (just £8 at my local PC world, so worth it).

Sadly as I'm using my work pc, I can't really risk downloading sofware onto it, so I'm probably stuck with the SMC viewer or giving up and spending £40 on a couple of new cards.

I'm still a bit worried about the cards as before the first one went it gradually got worse (only registered around 1 in 4 times when I switched the GP32 on), and gradually software - especially on GP Engine - started to corrupt - even with new batteries in!

 

[bumholesniffer]

Ive had problems before with smc's, two of mine have broke as well. Just for your info smc cards do have a limited number of writes before they adventually give up the ghost completely. Dont know how many but it is quite alot, I get the same problem when smc card goes wonky, I havent got a reader and software wont format it !! What I can recommend to find out if the cards are naff !!

Turn Gp32 on, press left shoulder button, right shoulder button x 2, left shoulder button, right shoulder x 2, left shoulder x 2

this brings up your firmware testing which goes though key functionality and smc functionality and a couple others.

When testing smc see if there are any free blocks, used blocks etc. If they are all 0 its probably screwed for life

Best of luck !! Oh this only works on original firmware i think

 

[ratx]

If you have a SMC that still works and are running XP/2000 download Squidges GPdrive and mkdosfs.exe ( search for a long thread about it on here ) then boot up your working SMC.. fire up gpdrive, insert a duff SMC and reformat the drive using mkdosfs.exe. It works - I've tested it..

 

[ralp99]

i thought flash cards were good for something to the tune of 10,000 writes??

or am i completely bloody insane over here?

 

[Tobriand]

Right... if it got *gradually* worse, then there's probably more of a chance that its simply reaching the end of its lifespan (i.e. the 10000 writes on each sector). On the other hand, if it simply vanished (which does occasionally happen, unfortunately), then its got a much better chance of being recovered.

You may find that you can recover some of the one that gradually went wrong, but with a few megs less of space, due to bad sectors...