Just Bought A Gp2x And Now Very Confused!

[Congealed]

Hello, this is my first post here and I am confused :blink: :blink:

I have bought a second-hand GP2X and I am attempting to play Atari games on it via emulation. The unit already has some games and apps on it but I am planning to erase them and start again.

The problem I have is this:

1) I think I need to update the firmware because the version that I have is V3.0. I believe there are benefits of updating this but I am unsure of how to do so.

2) I do not have a card reader and I am not willing to buy one considering that it is possible to do without it. I am having problems with picking the right combination of utilities and things that I may need from the file section of this site. There is a lot to pick from and not much guidance.

3) I have tried to format one of my cards from within Windows and it is now coming up as being 128mb instead of the full 1gb. I am now looking for a way to restore the card to allow me to use it for storage in my GP2X.

This is a large list of complaints and I understand if nobody wants to break this down into little baby steps for me! I have checked these forums and read as much as I can stand. I am now even more confused than when I started and beginning to regret ever buying this thing. I have also tried a VAST array of downloads and they have not done as I would have liked.

Sorry for the long list,
And thank you for your time,
Congealed

 

[Alghazanth]

Hey , welcome I probably dont have much knowledge as most of other pals here , but since I saw the thread earlier *yay* i will try to answer

1) I have a Mk2 F100 I bought 2 years ago and have been using 3.0 since the start and did not have any problems or need any new firmware. I think mostly f200 users have been busy with firmware updates ecently , and f100 owners with fw earlier than 3.0 , but I believe it"s fine

2) I mainly use my gp2x as card reader mainly. I think it is more convenient than taking the sd card in and out , of the gp2x and the card reader. No fear of sd card or the slot getting worn / damaged. But it is said to be faster with a sd card , so if you usually transfer lots of data between pc and gp2x , getting one could be a good idea maybe

3) http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,23,933 . This user guide is great and helped me a lot while first setting up my gp2x and sd cards , when I didnt know anything back then. Will be helpful I believe , since I dont remembe the solution right now.

Bye

 

[Sphinxter]

Whatever you do, do not update the firmware unless it's broken. Do not mess with the games installed on it or nand if you don't have to. Just shove an sd card in and enjoy it.

Ed. get the sd card reader, fighting with it will only make you tired.

 

[Squirrel61]

1) I have an F200 that came with 4.0.0 and isn't compatible with earlier firmwares, so I can't speak for this.

2) As already has been mentioned, you can leave the card in the GP2X and connect it to your PC using a standard USB cable, but a card reader certainly has advantages and is not that expensive. To answer the second part of your question, you don't need any additional software on your computer when you connect the GP2X with a USB cable. I assume you're using a modern OS on your PC, on Windows 98 you would need additional USB drivers for the GP2X to be recognized.

3) When you formatted your card without having a card reader, I assume you formatted it while in the GP2X. Since the GP2X is running Linux, you could format the card using only the GP2X itself by installing the necessary tools on the GP2X but this is a hard and tricky process and I don't know if it will lead to any success. You could try to force-format the card with a FAT16 filesystem, but the best thing to do is to grab a cardreader and reformat it. If you want to try FAT16, link your GP2X with the card inserted to your PC. Open a command terminal (Start->Run, type cmd in the box and click OK) and then type FORMAT X: /FS:FAT where you have to substitute X: by the letter your GP2X has. Another alternative might be to format the card in a digital camera, if you have one that accepts SD cards.

 

[juanvvc]

Congealed, the right collection of utilities and games is the one that you need. There are hundreds of available applications. What is you style of games? Emulators? Homebrew? Just tell us your likes and we will advice some applications.

Do not change your firmware if it works. It is dangerous and there is not any reason to do so. A card reader is certainly recommended, since it is significantly faster for large files and doesn't corrupt the SD as often as the direct link does. A USB card reader costs 5 euros/dollars, at most.

And the last question is about the 128/1GB SD card. Are you sure that it is a 1GB card? There are lots of fake/cheap/Chinese cards out there that have less space than claimed.

 

[trooper]

Just to echo some of the answers already made.

Do not upgrade your firmware, If it ain`t broke, Don`t fix it.

Do get yourself a card reader, Your GP2x and batteries will thank you for it.

It does indeed sound as though you have a fake SD card, A 128MB SD card that was mascaradeing as a 1GB card. If it is fake, There is not a lot you can do, Except be more careful in future.

Trooper

 

[Congealed]

Thank you all very much for all of that advice! It is all good!

I'm sorry that I havent replied but I have been away from any PC access for a couple of days. But I HAVE been playing the games that are already on it and it is simply awesome! I am addicted!

I am going to buy a card reader despite my earlier reluctance! And then I will try and get this card working again and hopefully install more games. I WILL NOT touch the firmware because I am not technical enough to deal with any disasters.

When I asked about the right software/utilities I really was wondering if I need to download a 'launcher' in order to get games to work or do I just stick them into the right folder? And if I maybe need to download any software that makes managing the files on the console any easier?

 

[Sphinxter]

Thank you all very much for all of that advice! It is all good!

I'm sorry that I havent replied but I have been away from any PC access for a couple of days. But I HAVE been playing the games that are already on it and it is simply awesome! I am addicted!

I am going to buy a card reader despite my earlier reluctance! And then I will try and get this card working again and hopefully install more games. I WILL NOT touch the firmware because I am not technical enough to deal with any disasters.

When I asked about the right software/utilities I really was wondering if I need to download a 'launcher' in order to get games to work or do I just stick them into the right folder? And if I maybe need to download any software that makes managing the files on the console any easier?

Example:
Plug the sd card reader into the pc and insert card, download some great homebrew like this
mount the sd card on say /mnt/sd
unzip the archive downloaded to the Game folder on it like
unzip CowSuckers-1.0.zip -d /mnt/sd/Game
unmount the sd card, remove it and insert into the gp2x
use the game browser to navigate to the CowSuckers folder and click the icon in it.

 

[Squirrel61]

When I asked about the right software/utilities I really was wondering if I need to download a 'launcher' in order to get games to work or do I just stick them into the right folder? And if I maybe need to download any software that makes managing the files on the console any easier?

Just copy your games to the sd card, preferrably in the game folder and it should appear in the game/sd menu of your gp2x.

 

[Congealed]

Thank you all for not cursing my stupidity and sending me off to RTFM. I did read it and many other things but these GP2X things are strange beasts and sometimes help is needed, so thank you!

I now know what was wrong!!

I was using a SD HD card and it will not show up in my GP2X at all. I can load games on but it does not show up in my GP2X. Should have RTFM more than I did and slower perhaps.

Now that I am using the cards that came with the GP2X (but are smaller), I am getting results. Everything is working fine.

The only thing is that one of the cards does not show at all but it used to. I am tempted to just bite that card to bits and swallow the fragments, perhaps I will assimilate the information and I won't even need a GP2X to play games!

Congealed

 

[Squirrel61]

Congealed, since this is the "I need help" part of the forum, you won't get RTFM answers here. At least, that's what I understood about this forum section.

To give the final answer to your question #1, now that you've given the missing information: Yes, you need to upgrade your firmware. The newer firmwares support SDHC cards, so with one of these, you must be able to use the SDHC card without problems and have the benefit of a bigger storage.

 

[Congealed]

Aha! Thank you again Squirrel61!

I will not risk changing the firmware. I know that I am a coward but I don't want to rock the boat. I am still having a BLAST playing just a tiny selection of the games that are available. I played some Atari games but I have found that the game I wanted to play was too small to view on the screen without going blind and also I needed to keep using the keyboard to play it and this was quite clumsy under emulation.

So I am now playing some other Atari games and also a selection of other delights with full success!

I will not risk messing up, I have an alternate use for those SDHD cards and I have found that the space that I have is sufficient for my uses.

Thanks all!