New Member Seeking Advice

[CBurgess]

Hi! I have just bought a GP2X and i am already loving it!

It is the value pack version running V3 firmware.
Also have a PSU etc..

I have a couple of emulators running and gpmenu.... i have seen a few things on the forum about people moving from 3.0 to 2.1.1 and was wondering if this is worthwhile?

I understand i would get better compatability if i went to 2.1.1

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also any advice on how to get the best out of my new favourite gadget would be more than welcomed!

Thanks to all

Cheers

Chris

 

[shinneri]

Well, I don't think there are compatibility differences between 2.1.1 and 3.0.0. One of the biggest weaknesses of 3.0.0 (outside of it being pretty unnecessary) is that the start up time is actually greater than 2.1.1.

It's really up to you whether you want to do it or not.

Also welcome to the community. If you need more help, you should check out the website in my sig.

 

[Orkie]

I'd advise against downgrading if you can cope with 3.0's 1 or 2 second extra boot time as it reduces the chance of you ending up with a brick.

 

[CBurgess]

Thanks guys!

I already managed to stuff up my nand, but using an autorun.gpu i failed to test first, so i reflashed the stock 3.0 firmware(minus the demos etc..) but all seems to be fine.

Performance in the emulators is amazing, so overall very happy!

 

[sehs33]

A good thing in firmwares before v3.0 is that you can writo to the Nand, which can be handy for a quick game of Tile Match if you didn't have your SD card(s) around.

 

[CBurgess]

That seems to work anyway in 3.0?

I can open a USB connection to the NAND and put sutff on there.......is that not supposed to work?
That could explain why i bricked my console first time round

 

[ThorC]

As far as I know, it should work in 3.0. As for an autorun file on the NAND causing a probem, you should be able to hold down start+select when you bootup and it will ignore the autorun and allow you to fix it. However, for almost everything, it's much better to use an SD card, rather than using the NAND. Much more space, and you don't have to worry about hurting the NAND (and you can still use autoruns).

If you like the idea of homebrew, for getting the most out of your handheld, I highly highly recommend you go through the GP2X News forum, go through each topic, (using the next topic link) and look at the screenshots and read the brief information about each release. Anything that interests you, download to your computer. When done, unzip them out to your SD card and try them out.

I recently did this, and ended up with around 100 homebrew games which I really enjoy, which I might have never found or explored. There's some really good things hidden away which haven't been updated for a while but are great fun.

Welcome to the community and I hope you enjoy your GP2X as much I have and am

 

[Orkie]

That seems to work anyway in 3.0?

I can open a USB connection to the NAND and put sutff on there.......is that not supposed to work?
That could explain why i bricked my console first time round

No, it doesn't explain it. USB does work in 3.0, but by default the NAND is virtually full so you have to clear some of the stuff of there to make space for whatever you want to put on.

 

[CBurgess]

Thanks Thor and Orkie

Wish i knew the Start&Select method before i reflashed.
The upside is the V3.0 i grabbed from the GPH website didnt have the demo's in it.....so i now have 30MB of free space on the nand

One strange thing i have noticed....since reflashing and only when i use the original GP2X menu(i.e. leave out SD card with gpmenu on it) then when i hover over an icon there is a flashing box with vertical lines in it, right over the icon.

When i navigate around the icons, the box moves so appears to be a selection box.....i certainly cant remember seeing this before the flash!

It doesn't appear to be an issue though, ugly yes, but no problems appear when using an alternate launcher.

 

[imhotep]

That could explain why i bricked my console first time round

Well you didn't really 'brick' it.

My guess is that you installed gmenu2x's autorun.gpu to the NAND without editing it. You have to open autorun.gpu in a text editor and change the directory location or it won't work and your device will hang on startup. The autorun.gpu's info assumes you are placing it on the SD.

I hate to admit it, but I did the same thing when I was a n00b. I just run gmenu off the SD now and I don't think using the NAND is an overly good idea anyway. It's the piece of flash memory you can't just chuck out and buy new if it gets permanently corrupted.

 

[CBurgess]

its all a learning process!

One heart attack thinking i've trashed my new device.......learned a valuable lesson!