dantemdie
Saturn Player
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 113
Location:
PSN: danteMdie
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Post by dantemdie on Mar 7, 2017 9:17:47 GMT
I'm probably repeating someone's post, but i didn't find anything similar tbh... Anyway, here it goes: i bought yesterday my first Memory Card (official EU one, my Saturn is the 2nd PAL model) but i'm having some issues with it. Hopefully, someone can point me in the right direction.
I encountered 4 main problems:
1st) Wierd letters and punctuation on saved games description
2nd) All the saves were wiped out from the memory card
3rd) Some difficulty while recognizing the memory card
4th) When i was able to make saturn recognize the memory card, i tried to copy some saves and i had a warning saying "not copied" several times.
I did take off the memory card while the Saturn was functioning as i was thinking it worked like a regular PS1 memory card, but maybe i was wrong.
Is there any kind of good practices i should be following while trying to use this?
Thanks in advance ; )
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Post by linkt101 on Mar 7, 2017 11:09:52 GMT
The most obvious thing I can recommend is not to insert or remove carts when the Saturn is powered on.
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dantemdie
Saturn Player
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 113
Location:
PSN: danteMdie
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Post by dantemdie on Mar 7, 2017 11:33:32 GMT
The most obvious thing I can recommend is not to insert or remove carts when the Saturn is powered on. So, if the saturn doesn't recognize the memory card should i just turn it off - reinsert the memory card - and then turn the console back on until it does?
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Post by MIK on Mar 7, 2017 13:35:35 GMT
If you see strange text on the memory card it will need to be formatted. Sometimes and this is rare, the only way to format the cart when it's like this is to also wipe the internal memory as that can also mess up and prevent you formatting the cart.
Clean the pins of the cart using ear-buds with either rubbing alcohol, swan lighter fluid, liquid glass cleaner. You can also use a pencil eraser to clean the gold pins off, much easier to do if you can open the cart.
Once clean it should work, (that's if it's not damaged as you should never insert or take out the cart when the machine is on!).
For the most part the carts work, however they can be sensitive to static and may mess up once in a blue moon. It's something that has happened to most of us and there is nothing you can do when it happens... Once the cart is working do not move or take it out. If you have just put the cart in, use the dash to check it's there before loading any games. As long as it's clean and seated properly you should be a-ok.
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dantemdie
Saturn Player
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 113
Location:
PSN: danteMdie
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Post by dantemdie on Mar 7, 2017 14:15:15 GMT
Wow this memory card has a lot more issues that i expected. I bought it without manual too, so i had no clue whatsoever that it could be troublesome if i took off the card with the power on...
Thanks for the tips, i'll try to clean the mem. card!
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Post by MIK on Mar 7, 2017 16:25:50 GMT
Yeah, sadly they can be temperamental but if clean and working you should OK for a good while.
A lot of games on Saturn also auto save so try and go back to the title screen and allow a couple of seconds before you reset or turn the machine power off...
BTW With most games and while in-game or in pause you can press and hold A,B,C & START to go back to the title screen. This may not work if a game is loading so best to do it once any loading has finished.
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Post by zyrobs on Mar 7, 2017 19:49:25 GMT
I've had a lot of my cards get junk 1 block saves, but work fine otherwise.
Other than that, clean the pins.
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dj898
Saturn Gamer
Joined: November 2008
Posts: 171
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Post by dj898 on Mar 7, 2017 21:38:18 GMT
official or not when I get the Saturn memory carts I always open and clean the cart pins as well as sanding the edge of the circuit board around the cart pin using the ultra fine nail polishing stick. Haven't had any issue so far.
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dantemdie
Saturn Player
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 113
Location:
PSN: danteMdie
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Post by dantemdie on Mar 7, 2017 22:54:16 GMT
Alright, i cleaned up the pins and cleared the whole memory. It's working just fine right now.
One last question: is it okay if i just leave the memory card inserted in the saturn or should i take it off every now and then?
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Post by zyrobs on Mar 7, 2017 23:11:29 GMT
It's fine either way.
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dantemdie
Saturn Player
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 113
Location:
PSN: danteMdie
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Post by dantemdie on Mar 7, 2017 23:21:41 GMT
Ok then! All is well.
Thanks a lot guys, i was really having a hard time sorting this out. Was finding lots of scattered info and nothing too precise. Your responses did help : )
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Post by davyk on Mar 7, 2017 23:34:16 GMT
Just don't plug or unplug with the power on. I keep mine perma-plugged in but I have one each for my JP and PAL consoles. I only unplug the cart on the JP console when I want to use the 4MB cart or my 4-in-1 which isn't too often nowadays.
I have 2 official carts and between them I have had one corrupt file in over 10 years. So I have found them reliable (though I do have them backed up to my 4-in-1). The carts themselves are probably OK - issues are more than likely with the cart slot.
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Post by davyk on Mar 8, 2017 9:29:55 GMT
By the way , has anyone compile a list of those games that don't support the memory cartridge?
I have a few games that save high scores etc but only to system memory.
Some games let you select system or cart memory. A lot of games will just save to system but if you copy the file to the cart then the game will sunsequently load and save to the cart.
There are a few that don't save anything anywhere (Bubble Bobble + Rainbow Islands, Darius Gaiden, I'm looking at you) - but there are some games that only save to system memory.
DoDonPachi is one example. And I'm pretty sure that Pro Pinball The Web is another.
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Post by MIK on Mar 8, 2017 10:06:44 GMT
WipeOut is always one I remember not supporting the memory cart. And for some reason my memory says Need 4 Speed has the same issue some where, as in the normal internal save will not load if copied over to the memory cart. I've seen Alien Trilogy corrupt the memory cart after saving to it a couple of times... I gave up saving this one and opted for the password code instead as there are no issues on PS1. PS1 only supports password saving.
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Post by zyrobs on Mar 8, 2017 12:16:30 GMT
All three Digital Pinball games will only save to, and read saves from, the internal memory.
And obviously all the games that can't run without 1mb or 4mb expansions.
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