Got My Gp32 At Last, But Won't Play Emus?


mrdark

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Messages
182
Okay, I finally got my new Gp32. The one that came fresh from gbax through their ebay auction. This one turns on and I get the bouncing ball against the white screen. Thank GOD.

But now I'm confused. Everyone knows I'm scared of doing ANYTHING to mess her up now, so I'm trying to be careful. First I put in the Install CD that came with it, which tells me to install the Gp32 program on my computer. Did it, and now it wants me to connect to the GP32. It demands an SMC, and after all this I can't afford a fresh new SMC yet, so I have to use one of the game cards. They gave me 5 and 2 of them are duplicates, which they said to use for storage, so I did as asked. I put the game SMC in my card reader IN the pc, opened it in windows, and erased everything. It now reads as a blank SMC. Except now it doesn't wanna read. Once connected, the system says "waiting..." while I get an infinite button on the computer telling me to connect the GP32 thru USB port, which I already did.


Now, on the GP newbie site, it says I can skip all this anyway since this is primarily for those with the crummy older firmware, right? If I'm totally incorrect, someone please tell me.

Instead of all this then, I decided to try an emulator (it should be noted that before installing the pc software or whatever, I tried the SMC I erased, Little Wizard, which worked fine).

Well, I went into Windows and created the 6 folders GPNewbie said to (all in caps as shown). In the GPMM folder I placed littlejohn (the single fxe file, unzipped) and I also placed, unzipped, all the game roms I wanted to try (about a dozen or so). It takes up less than half of the card.

When I turn on the GP32 with my card inserted and go to PLAY, it gives me its little logo load screen then goes black with the text telling me no card is inserted, I need to put one in or retry or whatever.

To some of you this will seem really easy or really silly I'm sure, but what exactly did I do wrong? I'm using Windows XP so I can't format the cards, and was told left and right that I don't even need to anyway (including the gpnewbie site itself). So was it a matter of placing the emu files wrong, or something I did wrong to the SMC? Or do I HAVE TO get that pc link to connect somehow for any of this to even work?

Thanks for any answers. I'm right on the verge of finally playing this thing after a month. Please help!
 
Bouncing ball? This may be the original firmware (if my failing memory is correct)

... if so, you need freelauncher ... search the forums here for more info .. youmay need to get a cracked version. Sorry I couldn't be of more help :(

Edit ... have you tried to format the SMC? (don't do it in Windows, use the Link utility that came on the CD)
 
That's possible, I'm not sure, but I read that the yellow/orange screen with the big GP32 on it is what I need to replace. I thought that THAT was the bad firmware..

Thanks though. Anyone else have info? I can't use this thing unless I figure this out!
 
Nice to see my site getting use. :)

Well, one thing that I've found is that the USB cable on the GP32 is very finicky, so be sure that it's securely inserted into your GP. Also, if I recall correctly, you have to install drivers for your computer to recognize your GP. In fact, it's right here.

Really, you shouldn't need to use gpManager for this.. Do you know for sure this card worked before you cleared it?
 
mrdark posted on Oct 11 2005 at 08:20 PM said:
That's possible, I'm not sure, but I read that the yellow/orange screen with the big GP32 on it is what I need to replace. I thought that THAT was the bad firmware..

Thanks though. Anyone else have info? I can't use this thing unless I figure this out!
No, you have the new FW. No need for Freelauncher.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Shinneri, I'm not sure what I need to do here. Am I to understand that this particular firmware or whatever is already equipped to play MP3s, Emus, and all the other stuff? If so, does this mean I don't need to even do this USB connecting for any reason?

If I DO have to, I'm unsure what to do: The first thing I did when getting this system was try out Little Wizard, which worked fine. Like I said, I don't have a spare SMC, so I erased the redundant copy of LW in windows and popped it in the system, which doesn't seem to want to connect to the PC.

But again, if I don't even HAVE to connect to the PC for any reason, then I'll skip it. But then I need to know what I'm doing wrong with playing my emus. Surely I put them in the wrong files or shouldn't have unzipped them or something...

Please stick with me for a bit if you can, and help me figure this out!
 
One thing you can try is on the LW card that you KNOW worked, just paste the littlejohn fxe file onto GPMM (if it's not there, make it). Then just see if littlejohn shows up in the program list under 'Play.'

Don't remove LW--just try putting this file on that card. Tell me if it shows up.


Also, where did you place the ROMs? They're supposed to go into a folder within GPMM called 'NES.' And I do suggest you zip your ROMs (one ROM per zip file).
 
Okay SHinneri so far so good! I did this and only this: Extracted the littlejohn fxe from its rar file. Copied the fxe. Pasted it directly onto the unopened GPMM folder within my Windows "My computer" area. You're right, when I go to play, I can select the game proper or littlejohn fxe. with a generic GP logo on the file.

This is good, now what should I do?

Oh PS: I think I did the emu all wrong. I dragged the littlejohn fxe into the GPMM folder, then placed the (unzipped) roms alongside it.
 
mrdark posted on Oct 11 2005 at 08:45 PM said:
Oh PS: I think I did the emu all wrong. I dragged the littlejohn fxe into the GPMM folder, then placed the (unzipped) roms alongside it.
Yeah, that's not right, but I don't think it would cause your card not to read, so try that app Vimacs gave you on that non-working card.

Now all you have to do is go into the GPMM on the card (one with littlejohn on it), create a folder called 'NES', and place your ROMs in there (zipped or not, doesn't matter). These sort of instructions are always included in the readme for the emu, by the way. ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
shinneri posted on Oct 11 2005 at 07:50 PM said:
These sort of instructions are always included in the readme for the emu, by the way. ;)

Not always, unless you assume that all emu's come with readmes, many don't. Sometimes you need to go to the author's site if the zip doesn't contain a readme.

Mr.Dark, when you try Reese's new Osnes(which I know you were keen on), make sure you read through the latest thread, as the new one deosn't come with a readme, last I checked.

Good luck with your new toy, cheers!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh fantastic. I'm pretty sure that god damn formatting thing fucked up my J drive (SMC).

Now when I try to simply open an SMC in the drive that before was working just fine, it now resets the whole goddamn computer. WHen it finally comes back on it tells me that I experienced a driver problem.

Fucking fantastic. Now I guess I can't do anything at all.

Anyone got a link to restore the drivers that that fucking formatting file destroyed?
 
i doubt that mkdosfs can harm a working cardreader, i have the feeling that your cardreader is defective/crap.
 
If you have a card reader on your PC don't even mess with PC-link and USB. Those drivers are mostly dodgy and very finicky. Drag and drop all files through windows it is much easier and faster.

What kind of reader is it? I have had problems with readers before, mostly those 258 -in -one readers. Single card readers were more reliable to me.
 
My driver worked perfectly fine, and has read anything I put into it until today.

Then I ran that formatting thing, which didn't even format the card that was in the drive (or change it in any way) yet now whenever I try to alter anything in that drive the whole system crashes and resets. I am then brought to a Microsoft support page that explains very clearly that my problem is that a new driver was installed that is resetting my system because it was either made poorly or is incompatible with my system.

Now I have the extra headache of trying to fix this before I can even try to play the fucking gp32 again. I swear, this system has been the biggest headache of a system I've ever dealt with.
 
Just search the make and model of your card reader along with "drivers" on google, and it'll surely come up.

Cardreaders aren't the most trustworthy hardware. I have to leave my SMC in mine for around 20-60 seconds after writing or the files won't stay on the card.
 
the formating tool is just a mkdosfs frontend, it dosnt install anything.
maybe you could try a dsl/knoppix boot cd and fromat the smc with that.
 
Also never format cards unless they are unreadable/corrupt. When you buy them they work fine out of the box. Just create the proper directories through windows and add files.
 
jesus mrdark, you've created quite a conundrum!

try this:

sorry if someone already mentioned this or something, but im doing HW and didnt read throught evey post.

connect the smc in the gp32 and plug in the usb cable. go to gpmanger and select the smc (despite it seeming to not be connected). see if that helps. If so, FUCKING FORMAT THAT FUCKER! If you dont, it may not pick it up again :)

i had some trouble getting off the ground w/ my system (as do most newbies). dont worry. good luck, and feel free to ask anymore questions. maybe I can help further if you give me info in detail as you go.

congrats on getting the greatest system ever!!! Enjoy!

- DCGM
 
Okay everybody, I haven't replied in like two hours because I've been talking with HP support and recovery this whole time. Long story short- The SMC reader (Drive J) reset every time I tried to make a new folder on the SMC. Total crash. It came back up with an error report for Microsoft describing the problem as "serious".

I talked with hp support and tried to adjust the drivers or reinstall them or whatever. Now I have NO drive J (my own fault. I didn't know what else to do but erase it and start fresh) and a card reader out of drive I. That one is the same but now has an actual SMC icon, but same thing- it reads the card but gives me a hard system crash when I try to add a folder.

I don't know what the hell caused this. I only know this: My history with the GP32 today was:

Turned it on to play Little Wizard. Played a bit. Seemed fine.

Installed little john fxe. and game roms incorrectly. Wouldn't play.

tried to adjust it according to sinneri's advice, which worked so far.

In the meantime, tried to format the smc with that link.

When I tried to continue adding roms the proper way, as per sinneri's instructions, it crashed. Nothing has changed since except me erasing the Sm drive, then getting it reinstalled to, apparently, a different drive (I instead of J). But the results continue.

Thanks to those who've tried to help, and I don't think I was given deliberately malicious software or anything. Just something VERY wrong happened to my driver/reader, and now I'm going through a SEVERE headache trying to get it to work.

This is exactly what I was worried would happen with this system. i don't get it, how inept am I? I tried to follow the instructions, and all i did was add the emu and roms wrong. Then in the meantime I followed that link (which really didn't make any observable changes at all) and now I have a messed up reader.

I swear I wanted to throw the system through the wall. No, it's my fault, not its, but it is still

FUCK

ING

FRUSTRATING.

By now I must be a legend of poor luck on this site. Well, it's back to the HP support chat right now, I'll be back later so if anyone has any definite advice or whatever, please let me know. And sorry if I lashed out at anyone, it's just that this is unbelievable. I mean, honestly unbelievable my history with this thing.
 
Back
Top