HELP!!! Weird Pandora Problem!! [Not Quite Solved Yet]

[Kumaki]

Ok, so here's the thing:

I have not put ANYTHING new on my Pandy in months.  Everything worked fine until yesterday or today.

Now, I have a custom program that no longer works...and also all my playlists on Audacious don't show up.  They show as "Untitled Playlist" and all with no songs on them.

BUT...the playlists ARE THERE in the appdata folder.

I was able to look at the content of both cards with the File Manager, so there isn't an issue with a card slot suddenly not working.

Also, VLC, for movies...works just fine as does PanMAme, and other programs.

It's only this custom program (I have contacted the coder of that one seperately) and Audacious...that I can tell.  But the thing that is weird is I have put nothing new on in months.  And the playlist files are still in appdata.

I am using Super Zaxxon 1.54  That should give you all some idea how long it's been since I have added ANYTHING onto my Pandora.  so I can think of no reason why it would do this stuff....or what, if anything, I can do about it.

Suggestions?

Outside of possibly just deleting the appdata files completely and letting them re-create themselves (which I have nt yet tried) I do not know what else I could do. 

 

[ekianjo]

Could be a SD card file corruption. This is no unheard of.

 

[Kumaki]

So what would I do?  Just delete the programs and reload fresh copies?

 

[ekianjo]

So what would I do?  Just delete the programs and reload fresh copies?

you could, or maybe it's a good sign you change to another SD card.

 

[Wally]

Have you tried turning it off and on again? Kidding.

Did you at least have a backup stored somewhere because it does sound like data corruption. Perhaps if it's a fat32 partition you could do a disk check in Windows or whatever OS your main PC has but you'll have to google how.

 

[rygD]

I would NOT delete the appdata, just rename or move it (just in case), unless there is nothing in there you need.

 

[EvilDragon]

I would do:


Checkdisk in Windows.


If that doesn't help: Backup all files, reformat, copy them back.

 

[HelenF]

Backup all the files and test the SD card. If you have an SD reader on a Windows or x86 Linux machine, reformat the card and test with H2testw or F3.

(The last time I checked, we didn't have F3 on the Pandora yet. Pandora has "badblocks" which could be used to detect a good card going bad, but wouldn't detect a fake capacity card which had started corrupting data when it became filled past the real capacity.)

 

[ingoreis]

Why dont you try an Upgrade of your Pandora OS?


Because you have written you use 1.54?


But when i renember right we are on 1.71 and ther are lot of Changes.


Maybe your Software Problem is simply solved with an OS Upgrade.

 

[rygD]

Why dont you try an Upgrade of your Pandora OS?


Because you have written you use 1.54?


But when i renember right we are on 1.71 and ther are lot of Changes.


Maybe your Software Problem is simply solved with an OS Upgrade.

That could also break the custom software.  I remember some things having problems after a somewhat recent update, and I think there is some stuff that still hasn't been fixed.

 

[iprice]

That could also break the custom software

Nope. I wrote the custom software. Updating the OS won't have any negative affect on that, as I'm up-to-date. The software is also not responsible for the loss of data itself.

I think the SD card is either on its way out or the Pandora corrupted it.

 

[rygD]

I think those are a good call as the cause of the problem.

Since the person that wrote the software says it won't hurt to update the OS I would do that (unless you use other stuff that might not work).  Everyone is giving good advice (make a backup if you don't have a current one, reformat the card and check out if it is good, upgrade or reflash the Pandora to the current version of the OS).

 

[FBnil]

Note about Firmware upgrade: Note that you will get new icons, and that the OS will feel a bit alien with those new graphics (I especially miss the red SD card icon... its now a blue one).

The os still feels snappy, (faster better stronger). Unlike say, other linux or windows OS upgrades, where everything is slower.

 

[Kumaki]

Oh, I knew the custom program did not CAUSE the problem.  I only mentioned it because It was one of two programs affected.  And I contacted him via private message...the reson being is I wanted to know what SHOULD be n the appdata for that program, so that I could check the files.  I have all the data from that program backed up elsewhere anyway, so no real big deal if that is lost.

I think I may try an upgrade of the OS and a chkdsk of my SD card, seems like good places to start.

I have out of town family in at the moment, so can't devote a lot of time to the issue, but I will update here as I discover more, and any help/guidance would be appreciated.

Appreciate the suggestions thus far.

By the way, it is possible to direct upgrade to the 1.71 from 1.54 - or do I have to go thru all the in-betweens?

I haven't put anything new on my Pandora in months.

I did have an issue where it got stuck, and I had to pull the battery to get it to unstick, and that may well have caused my problem.  In which case, it seems that maybe I will just have to delete the appdata on the affected programs and then start from scratch on them.  Hopefully I did not actually damage the card, just the data.

 

[TrashyMG]

By the way, it is possible to direct upgrade to the 1.71 from 1.54 - or do I have to go thru all the in-betweens?

If your internet connection is good, then you should be able to run the "Upgrade Pandora OS" tool in the system menu. 

 

[Kumaki]

Thanks, MG I will have to try that when I get back home.  Right now I am in the piney back woods of North Carolina, far from civilization, panning for gold.

 

[Kumaki]

chkdsk found and fixed some errors, but that did not solve the problem.  I am now upgrading OS.

Would be nice to know how long this is supposed to take...48 flippin' minutes and STILL NOT DONE!!!

OK, 55 minutes and finally done

I am now running 1.71

did not help.

going to format a new SD and start moving things over one at a time.

now that I have updated the OS do I need to download a new codec pack and where do I get it?

Also...I have a few files on the original SD card that I am not sure what they are or if I need them....sorry, but I am a real idiot...

 

[Kumaki]

OK, so I had a weird Pandora Problem, and every easy fix failed.  So I am having to totally rehab my system.

I upgraded to latest OS, 1.71 - that took almost an hour.  No soap.

I also tried a chkdsk on the existing SD card.  It found and fixed errors.  No soap.

So I got a new SD card, and have begun to rebuild my poor Pandy.

All four of my custom programs are working as intended now.

I got PanMAME, MAME4ALL, and MAME-EX working

I got FBA working

I got PicoDrive and DEGA working

I got Gambatte, GPFCE, and Drastic working

That is as far as I have gotten as I sign off for the night.

Am having trouble, however, with SNES9X.

Don't wanna work for me.  And it's weird.

First time, the Pickle Launcher came up...and of course, no games on it.

So now that I had the appdata file, I added games.

Now the pickle launcher would not come up.

So I deleted that appdata file for SNES9X.  Then the pickle launcher would come back up.

So next I added just a few games.  It worked, and I could even play them.

Then I tried to add a few more games.  Now the Pickle Launcher would not come up AGAIN.

So I deleted the appdata file again.  Now the Pickle Launcher would come up.

So I reloaded only the first set of games, which had worked the first time.

Now the Pickle Launcher would not come up even for THOSE roms, which is HAD worked the first time!

So I gave up for the night.  No ideas on what to try.

Is there a different Super NES program I could try?

Please note every program I have put back on Pandy, I have downloaded direct from the REPO...did not use anything off my old corrupted card.  And I recopied game files from an uncorrupted backup...not from the corrupted card.

So I got no clue.

 

[ekianjo]

Is there a different Super NES program I could try?

there are the ones PtitSeb ported. Search on the repo.

And there is the one from Sebt3 as well. 

Btw, the build with the Pickle launcher is ancient, I would not recommend using it anymore.

 

[Kumaki]

Is there a different Super NES program I could try?

there are the ones PtitSeb ported. Search on the repo.

And there is the one from Sebt3 as well. 

Btw, the build with the Pickle launcher is ancient, I would not recommend using it anymore.

I will try.  Not sutre I can find it if I do not know what it is called....not finding when I search by author.

SNES9x-EX Plus worked for me.  The files all work as I can tell.  spi.snes did not work for me, I could not get iot to recognize any of the game files.