Gp32 Broken By Underclocking?


R

RichyX

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2004
Messages
125
Location
Cork, Ireland
Website
www.projectarse.net
Just one stupid idea I've had anyway.
Was play Shining Force on DRMD at 100mhz for a few hours on Saturday night and since then my GP32 has been behaving strangely.

1. Any text displayed in the menu of any of the firmwares is blockier and harder to read then usual. This includes the standard firmware.
I've tried reflashing but it made no difference.

2. Only certain programs now work.
Azcat and a few others that run at low clock speeds work ok (they have the problem with the text too though). Most useful emulators and other programs such as Minigame Project and DRMD won't load. One version of DRMD did load but gave an error when it tried to open any files, something like "File failed to close"

3. I have 3 SMC's (2x128MB, 1x16MB)
I've tried all of them and the problem is the same no matter what. I've tried refomatting them and it changes nothing.

Batteries are fine. Had two sets of rechargables and bought a new set specifically for flashing. These aren't the problem.
Since flashing changed nothing I'm now out of ideas for what to do with the unit.
This comes at a bad time as my GP32 was going to be part of a project I have coming up in collge.

Anyone have an experience like this before?
This is looking like the second GP32 I've wrecked in a year so I'd rather not let it end this way :(
 
I've not ever heard of anyone having a problem with underclocking... have you tried with a different SMC?
 
try reformating your card, I had problems when mine wouldn't work with fenix and some other programs, but they worked on my other card so I reformated and it worked

not sure if this is the same problem tho
 
Vimacs posted on Nov 12 2005 said:
batterys?
​
Click to expand...

Vimac could be right, as the GP32 is really "picky" about battteries, and every time mine run low (which is ALL the time, LOL,) it does something different and SCARY (until I replace them as see that everything is okay, LOL). You could also try taking DrMD out and installing it again. Try 4.1, as it's the best I've found so far, good luck, H.G.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is probably a long shot, But has your GP been modified in anyway, ie, Is your GP one that has had the resistor mod done to allow it to clock to ~166mhz (maybe not by you, But who you purchased it from) or maybe the pencil trick applied to it?.

Trooper
 
I had this also when running quake on 200MHz for a long while.
It didn't have anything todo with clockspeed, it was a moist problem.
Just put your GP32 on a dry spot, and let it dry for a while.

Hope that helps.
 
trooper posted on Nov 12 2005 said:
This is probably a long shot, But has your GP been modified in anyway, ie, Is your GP one that has had the resistor mod done to allow it to clock to ~166mhz (maybe not by you, But who you purchased it from) or maybe the pencil trick applied to it?.

Trooper
​
Click to expand...

I'm unsure if it was modded.
I believe the lad I bought it from got it from GP32z.com as a 160mhz unit.

In the time I've had it it's rarely been over 150mhz.

It won't have had the pencil trick done as that only appeared after I bought the GP and I wouldn't want to chance something like that myself.

I've had it in a warm dry place the last few days in the hope that'll sort it but it hasn't helped yet :(

I tried my copy of Her Knights and part of the game works. The training mode thing with the alien works perfectly but it crashes the GP32 after the character select for story mode.

One thing I've noticed is that whenever I run DRMD (v3.0 works but not others), it has to scan for ROM's everytime it starts up. Maybe it isn't saving to the SMC anymore?

My batteries are perfect, tried 3 different sets, some nimh's and some brand new regular batteries.

thanks for the suggestions so far lads
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Go look for (i think it was ratx's) SMC recovery program. Run that. I have a feeling you have a partially corrupt SMC. Maybe they all are? Maybe your gp32's reader is defective? maybe a LCD something (frame i think) buffer error? just try that one.

P.S. that will format your card.
 
sam fisher posted on Nov 16 2005 said:
Go look for (i think it was ratx's) SMC recovery program. Run that. I have a feeling you have a partially corrupt SMC. Maybe they all are? Maybe your gp32's reader is defective? maybe a LCD something (frame i think) buffer error? just try that one.

P.S. that will format your card.
​
Click to expand...

Tried it already, no luck.
None of them are corrupt.

It can read from the cards ok but it doesn't seem to be able to write to them (it had to scan for ROMs everytime I load DRMD)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That sounds like a sensible prognosis - if the smc write facility has broken, I can see that many games won't work or will crash that are expecting a file (such as an ini file) that they write to the gp32.
 
I'll attempt to get it to write something to the SMC tonight with a different program, at least that'll tell me if this is one of the problems.

It still wouldn't explain the text displaying in a blocky manner though.
 
RichyX posted on Dec 24 2005 at 02:33 PM said:
After a few weeks of it being fully stripped and living in our towel cupboard I checked the gp32 last night...it worked!!!

For 5 minutes that is.
Then the same problem returned <_<
​
Click to expand...
:lol:
I have sometimes things weird things like this too...
What could be the problem :huh:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Weird Problem With Displying Text On My Gp32 :(
Replies
4
Views
1K
RichyX
R
T
Games Don't Work!!!!
Replies
19
Views
2K
tonysnk
T
D
Problem With Original Gp32
Replies
19
Views
4K
johncross85
johncross85
M
Flickering
Replies
10
Views
2K
Blah
B
K
133?
Replies
15
Views
2K
kknd_cf
K
Back
Top