Action Replay 4M Plus

[thund3r]

Hi i just bought a Action replay 4m plus from consolegoods.co.uk. Now i'm a bit concerened because when i put in a japanese game my saturn says it cannot recognize the disc!
Also something else thats strange is the box displays the cart as having the serial connection on top of the cart, but the ACTUAL cart is missing this.

Is there some sort of code i have to put in to play other region games? Or did i order the wrong kind of action replay cart?

[nickellingworth]

The latest versions of the Action Replay cart don't have a COMM port as practically no PCs have them these days. It's odd that the disc was unrecognised, did the ARs own operating system appear? If not the Saturn may not have detected the cart.

[thund3r]

nope i had nothing on boot, tried other games and they've got the same problem.

[nickellingworth]

Well the Saturn's cart port is notoriously poor, have a play with the cart and keep turning the console on and off, once you get it working just leave it alone from then onwards.

[Liger]

I had similar problems in that my import Saturn would not detect my Action Replay 4M when I loaded up Marvel Vs SF & Dark Saviour, which was a bummer as these games require the extra RAM.

I disassembled the console, and using a clean cloth, gently cleaned inside and around the cart port. Also, blow on the cart port to dislodge any fibres that might be preventing proper contact between the port and your cart.

Once I did this the problem was solved and the games booted every time. I doubt your Action Replay is the problem, more a case of a finicky Saturn cartridge port.
Hope these suggestions help

[rossi46]

This should be stickeyed, I think.

Pull the AR cart out by 1 - 2mm and try again. Just lift one side, even and try it.

I once binned an official cart that appeard to be dead, then I found out about this trick. It's the poor quality cart port that's to blame.

[thund3r]

May 24, 2009 22:35:30 GMT rossi46 said:

This should be stickeyed, I think.

Pull the AR cart out by 1 - 2mm and try again. Just lift one side, even and try it.

I once binned an official cart that appeard to be dead, then I found out about this trick. It's the poor quality cart port that's to blame.

Ok i pulled it out by a few millimeters and its still not working. I've also looked inside the slot, but is their an easy way to clean the points? I have some alcohol i normally use for other carts, but their generally alot easier to get to!

[digichan]

you dont need to clean it.. its just the saturn cart port is really fussy.. might take a few triest before it recognised the AR..

but when it does work you will know as it will go into the AR screen and you boot the game up from there.

[macpete]

Pull the AR cart out by 1 - 2mm and try again. Just lift one side, even and try it

This trick should work ... it has always worked with the old Datel Pro Action Replay carts. So, the more recent 4 in 1 suffer from the same problem, doesn't it?

(this is the old PAR)

[17daysolderthannes]

I don't know much about the Saturn cart slot, but having a large NES library has taught me a few tricks (I play them in an FC Twin, so its virtually the same type of slot). You can put rubbing alcohol on the cartridge edge and insert and remove it a few times to try to loosen any built up corrosion. Try inserting one side, then the other, like push down more on the right, then the left. If you really think its corroded, your only option is to use a spray electronics cleaner (never tried it on a video game console, may lead to other problems) or to take an emery board and lightly sand the pins. I would try the wiggle around trick first though as thats the best option.

[syn]

I've found that humidity plays a factor also, high humidity = more problems.

Just an observation after years of use.

[superdeadite]

It's not always the case, but I've seen many Saturns where the cart slot solder is cracked. I reflowed the solder and then the slots worked perfectly. It be worth checking.

[sg1000]

Hi,

Get a old thin cotton t-shirt, wrap the cotton the shirt around the credit card. Now douse the card wraped in cotton t-shirt in some alcohol cleaning agent, push card in and out of the cartridge connector untill sparkly clean

Worked for me, if this didn't work you could try and pull up the cartridge connectors

[rygaros]

I have some problem as well with the action replay plus 4M 3 in 1 , I've jsut bought one from Play Asia.
I started my saturn and the action menu comes up. I went into the memory manager and copied the internal savefile to the card. Now I had the save in both spots.
After that I started the game but could only choose from the internal memory. I loaded it anyway, went into the game and to a place ingame were you were you should be able to save only to a memorycard. But there it said no memory installed.
So I rebooted the system, deleted the save file from the internal memory, started the game but I couldnt load any save at all from there.

After that I pluged out the memorycard and plgued it in again, after that both savefiles were gone, nothing left. So now 40 hours of gaming on Dragon Force is gone.

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong here, why didnt the console found the savefile on the catridge and why did it disapear complety from there when I pluged it out? Is it broken?

Now the system doenst find the catridge at all but I will try do as you guys posted above with plug it out and in again some times. Will even try to clean it with a creditcard,t-shirt and alcohol

[superdeadite]

The cart isn't a standard memory cart. No game can save and read directly from it. You have to transfer saves into the Saturn's internal memory before booting the game.