Mame And Firmware Help.

[brundlefly]

I just recently received my caanoo (which is awesome) but I'm having some troubles. I tried my best for over a day to work things out so I didn't have to bother anyone with helping me out, but I came up with no solutions. I have 3 problems, and they are:
- I've installed the gbsp (GBA emulator) onto my caanoo. Im certain I've put it into the correct location, as well as the games, but whenever I try to start it the screen goes black and freezes the system (requiring a restart). Has anyone had this problem and know of a solution?
- While looking up the gbsp problem I noticed some people saying that the firmware 1.5.0 fixes it. So i've been trying to get that to work. The problem is that I dont have a way of putting the file onto the SD card outside of the caanoo. In other words, the only way for me to drag and drop the firmware file onto the SD card would be when it's in my caanoo and connected to my computer. The directions make it clear that the file must be put on the sd card via a card reader or some other outside device that is not the caanoo. I've tried it with it in the caanoo just to see if it worked, but it didn't.
- The most infuriating problem though is trying to get mame4all to work. I've installed the actual emulator and it shows up under the games menu. Whenever I select it I see the menu screen for a second before an error alerting me there aren't any games to select. I do have game files in there and i've tried putting them in every folder possible but I think I just dont understand how mame works at all (compared to the simplicity of console roms). I read the "readme" for mame4all and checked out the what the correct games are and what they should be named, even after doing that, nothing.

I'm working off of a mac and dont have access to a pc. I know that that does matter in these situations.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[alyinsanfran]

Just read this post, and it's late here (for my old bones anyway), but the first thing I'd say is you do need to pick up a card reader. I've used GP consoles back to the GP32 and they've all been waaay easier to use with a reader than with syncing, *especially* to a mac, which I share with you. I use a pre-intel mac and with a reader it's a straight drag and drop. I just ordered a new one for myself, $15 from Amazon. Make sure you get one that will read whatever card you have - many older ones will not read SDHC above 2gb. Ask at the counter.

I'll check back tomorrow and if nobody else has helped I'll work through it with you. Don't stress mate, it'll work out, it just takes a day or 2 to figure it out if you're new to GPH.

 

[alyinsanfran]

Ok once you've gotten a card reader this is how I formatted my card (8gb SDHC) - I just took it out of the box, stuck it in the Caanoo, and as I selected 'movie' or 'game' or 'music' etc it created those folders for me. Don't make the folders yourself - let the Caanoo do it for you.

If you use a reader, getting the emulators to work is as simple as drag and drop, but DO MAKE SURE you read the readme for each and every one. I've been running emulators since 97 or so, but I still make sure to always always skim the readme to see how to install it. They can be finnicky to get right, just take time to do it exactly as described.

I upgraded my firmware last week, using a 2gb SD. I'd seen on the forums that this was the recommended card to use, and they're silly cheap, so I got one at Radio Shack for about $6 or something. I didn't format it - just took it out of the box, stuck it in the reader and copied the appropriate files onto it, and followed the procedure, making sure I used the right method (there are two ways to do it, depending on if you're running 1.0.6b or 1.0.1 - it's all in the file archive HERE)
Once I had the new firmware GPSP worked fine. Before that I had the same problem as you.

The most important thing I have to stress, if you're running a Mac use a reader, don't plug the caanoo in to the Mac. It's just too bloody difficult.

So try all that and let us know how you go. Good luck!

 

[brundlefly]

Ok once you've gotten a card reader this is how I formatted my card (8gb SDHC) - I just took it out of the box, stuck it in the Caanoo, and as I selected 'movie' or 'game' or 'music' etc it created those folders for me. Don't make the folders yourself - let the Caanoo do it for you.

If you use a reader, getting the emulators to work is as simple as drag and drop, but DO MAKE SURE you read the readme for each and every one. I've been running emulators since 97 or so, but I still make sure to always always skim the readme to see how to install it. They can be finnicky to get right, just take time to do it exactly as described.

I upgraded my firmware last week, using a 2gb SD. I'd seen on the forums that this was the recommended card to use, and they're silly cheap, so I got one at Radio Shack for about $6 or something. I didn't format it - just took it out of the box, stuck it in the reader and copied the appropriate files onto it, and followed the procedure, making sure I used the right method (there are two ways to do it, depending on if you're running 1.0.6b or 1.0.1 - it's all in the file archive HERE)
Once I had the new firmware GPSP worked fine. Before that I had the same problem as you.

The most important thing I have to stress, if you're running a Mac use a reader, don't plug the caanoo in to the Mac. It's just too bloody difficult.

So try all that and let us know how you go. Good luck!

thank you for the help, i was able to get a memory card and get to a pc to put the firmware on. After my caanoo is fully charged I'll try it out. I'll see if that fixes most/any of my problems.

 

[brundlefly]

so i tried to do the firmware, and came up with nothing again. I placed the caanoo firmware 1.5.0 file onto the root of my memory stick (2gb and earlier I had tried my 4gb), booted the system holding R, and the selection screen came up like normal. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.
I'm upgrading from 1.0.1 if that makes a difference too (I did look up the instructions for 1.0.1 to 1.5.0, so i know i at least did that correctly).

 

[alyinsanfran]

Well that's weird. When I did it it was super-easy, took about 1 minute. If you're following instructions to the letter I can't see what it would be.

Anybody else have any ideas?

 

[CKeichel]

Well that's weird. When I did it it was super-easy, took about 1 minute. If you're following instructions to the letter I can't see what it would be.

Anybody else have any ideas?

Maybe you should try first updating to 1.0.6, if I remember correct, it updated some part of the internal Caanoo updater and needed a restart before the real firmware update started. I always thought this part is included in the 1.5.0 firmware, but maybe it's not.

 

[brundlefly]

ill just continue to try different methods, something has to work out eventually. i appreciate all the help.

 

[qbertaddict]

ill just continue to try different methods, something has to work out eventually. i appreciate all the help.

Yes i had to goto 1.0.6 first because it updated the bootloader.

You should use 1.0.6 anyways it is faster

You can get 1.06 at the company website. www.fungp.com