Action Replay 4M Plus

[zyrobs]

Well I can imagine a lot of reasons why that can happen. The codes might still exist in the firmware level. The firmware may have space reserved for codes. Maybe it sets a fixed size for the memory function depending on initial firmware size. There could be fragmentation issues preventing the use of the freed up sectors. Maybe the cart doesn't even handle fragmentation at any level. Or maybe the firmware is partitioned, half the cart for codes, half for saves. Just from the top of my head.

Either way if you are using as much as 4000 blocks, then perhaps you should think about getting another cart anyway, just in case.

[captainkael]

Finally tested my AR sych. Went under 4000 blocks. Once i exited it had to compress the files but it seemed to have no trouble doing so. Most of my files are <100 blocks though so maybe they are easier to compress.

[ndiddy]

By the way, I just bought my Action Replay a week or two ago and it turns out that they've redesigned the board once again (my guess is that they ran out of 16 mbit DRAMs so they have to make do with 4 8 mbit DRAMs). I don't know what they'll do once they run out of components, as every IC on that board is at least 18 years old.

[antime]

Jun 29, 2018 20:00:45 GMT ndiddy said:

I don't know what they'll do once they run out of components, as every IC on that board is at least 18 years old.

They use old components because they're cheap, not because no-one's making them anymore.

[rsonic]

I have two questions about action replay 4M:

-the one sold from playasia etc. are newly produced or they are all from old stock?

-in case they are newly produced, does they solve the issue with the pcb thickness so it could easly recognized by the saturn cart slot?

[sonix]

Apparently it's my turn to have some trouble with AR cart.

After a month of waiting my Action Replay cart ordered on Play-Asia arrived and.... it does not work. 5 years ago, when I bought the cart it worked like a charm, I plugged it in once and that was it - no fiddling required. Now, not so much.

I wasn't sure if it's the cart's or the cartridge slot's fault, but after some testing I'm pretty sure it's the Action Replay. First of all, my Saturn seems to recognize that something is inserted in the slot. After the boot-up sequence it does not go immediately to the media player interface, but there's a black screen that lasts for about 12 seconds (the SEGA logo with copyright info does not appear) - then the media player shows up, displaying the message "Disc Empty" (there is no disc inserted, just the AR cart). Interestingly, when I boot the Saturn without the AR cart in the slot, and then attempt to plug it in, as soon as the pins touch the system starts the "Checking media format" and then shows the same message - this tells me that it's most likely not a connection problem, but I may be wrong. But then again - what does it mean exactly? If AR cart works, it boots up almost instantly - in my case you get a long boot up attempt (I guess?) which fails after all.

So, in short, the cart seems to be recognized but it does not boot up - in the end Saturn treats it as if an empty disc was inserted. Does it mean this AR cart is corrupted and no matter how many times I will clean the pins it won't work?

I'll try to post pictures of the board soon, maybe someone will be able to notice if there are any visible faults on the hardware.

EDIT: It doesn't say "Disc empty", but "Drive empty", my mistake.

Some more observations - when I plug in the cart and also put a game in the CD drive (PAL or JPN), after the 10-second black screen, the media player appears but it's heavily dimmed for a couple of seconds, then appears in full brightness. The disc spins but no "laser noise" can be heard, although the screen says "Checking disk format". However this continues indefinitely. Even if you remove the cart, open the tray and close it again, Saturn will be stuck on the "Checking disk format" phase until turned off.

Pics:





Looks fine to me...

[zyrobs]

Corrupt firmware is the most likely issue, although it looks like it is at least partially working, because it still tries booting the program on the cart.

I'd just reflash it.

[sonix]

Assuming that's the case (I'm starting to think it might be the cartridge slot's fault...), is it possible to reflash if it's not actually detected?

I might get another one, but I'd feel stupid if I ended up with 2 AR carts that don't work with my Saturn. Can't even resell them at normal price since I can't confirm whether they actually work or not.

[zyrobs]

The pins on the PCB look very clean to me, so I doubt your problem is the cartridge port, unless your machine has physically defective pins on the port.

I think the more interesting question is how would you boot the AR flasher application when the card prevents your Saturn from booting discs in the first place...

[sonix]

After cleaning the port and the cartridge pins, as well as blowing them with compressed air, and wedging the cartridge in every possible way... after about 50 tries I have given up. It's always the same - boot-up animation (stays up for a while, just like when a game is about to boot), then black screen for 10-12 seconds, and then it just goes back to music player.

I'm going to order one more AR cart from Amazon (fastest delivery, but not the cheapest option). If it won't work as well, can I blame it on the cartridge slot or is it just bad luck with the carts? I wish I had access to at least one more Saturn to confirm what exactly is wrong here...

And if I end up with two unusable AR carts, it would have been wiser to just get a Japanese Saturn, would cost about the same.

And about the swap trick (though I'm not sure if I could pull it off on my model 2, though apparently you don't even have to open up the system, just put a wedge in the right place) - if I boot up the disk with AR flasher and put in the cartridge afterwards, it won't work?

Some more observations - sometimes after resetting the console with AR cart plugged in, there will be just a black screen - not even a boot-up animation. Also, once after reset, the CD that was in the tray actually stopped spinning (more like slowed down to a stall) as soon as the Saturn started rebooting. I don't know if the stuff I described indicates problems with the cart itself, or can it be blamed on faulty or "incomplete" (as in, it's a case of one or two pin-connector pairs being out of order?) connection.

[sonix]

Turns out the cart I got was faulty, had a chance to test it on another Saturn and same things happened. So I ordered another one, this time from (or rather via) Amazon and thankfully this works with no problems (and no "specific wedging" required, guess the cart slot is still in good shape).

[davyk]

result

[rsonic]

I have to buy a new action replay, since my ST-key adapter is not recognized anymore (even after more than 20 tries there is no way to make it work).
I though it could be my cart slot, but my official Sega memory card is recognized at the first try, so cart slot is fine.

Do you have tips about what version of action replay to get and from what shop?
I'm looking for a cart with the correct pcb thickness, so it get recognized at the first try if possible like an official sega cart.

[zyrobs]

You might just need to re-flash the AR cart. They often destroy themselves when a faulty connection causes them to accidentally overwrite their own firmware.

[earthwormgrim]

1) is it worth buying Action Replay from play-asia vs. on ebay ?

I'm after the 1M/4M ram and cheat functionality,

also

2) does action replay cheat functionality work with rhea/phoebe? Reading conflicting things about it