Issues flashing PRG ROM data on NROM INL-ROM board

[The Rook]

I submitted a ticket on infiniteneslives.com for this and I posted this question to the nintendoage forums and have not received a reply.

I purchased 2 boards and the Kazzo Dumper-Programmer to create some custom cartridges. I've been having problems though writing the PRG files to the boards.

I get an error -116 when writing the PRG to my NROM board.

I've tried writing the original 32k PRG, a 128k PRG (4x the 32k), and a 256k (8x the 32k) PRG. All give the same error.

I created PRG and CHR files from a Super Mario Bros. (W) [!].nes ROM (from the GoodNES set) using http://www.kevinselwyn.com/ReadNES/

I always erase the board with the ERASE_PRGCHR.bin file (selecting the header option).

The 8k CHR writes fine.

I tried 2 NROM boards. Same error every time of -116. Is there documentation about the errors?

After I receive the -116 error clicking the Test button results in a -5 error.

Any info would helpful.

Thanks.

[NYMike]

I am in the process of trying to figure out the NES side as well. I get -5 errors when burning so its probably something we are doing wrong on our end. Try viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9632 for a different source to split your files perhaps? It splits them into .bin files which INL retro-prog seems to prefer. If I figure this out, I will let you know what I did wrong!

[NYMike]

Ok so I just got Mother to burn and save correctly. What I did was flash the header with the ERASE_CHR.bin then erase header again with ERASE_PRG.bin. I then used READNES3 to split the file, and just match up the Program and Character.bin to the PRG/CHR respectively. I hope this helps!

[The Rook]

I'm still getting the same error, -116. I've tried 256 PRG, 128 PRG, 64 PRG and 32 PRG. All -116 error.

I used the ReadNES command line program to split the files.

No luck. And I've still not heard back from infiniteneslives.com either.

[The Rook]

Is it possible I have the wrong version of the NROM board?

I've attached pictures of my board. Front and back.

[NYMike]

Honestly, its kind of the blind leading the blind at this point. I have only burned this 1 NES game successfully. I am getting a little better with the SNES side. Can you try splitting a different version of that rom with ReadNES3? I started a post over in the Repro side listing off all the SNES games I have successfully burned and failed at. People are saying that some of the games I said as bad are in fact able to be burned. That right there is proof that some roms are just not burn ready. Also there is the possibility that you purchased the wrong chip set for the game, though I could be totally wrong. The only thing I could suggest is using a program like NEStopia and their iNES header editor to ensure you ordered the right size chips on your board to accommodate your rom. It also looks like there is a high/lo switch on this cart, I have not saw them on my NES chips before. I know you can burn SNES games with the switch in either position, but I do not know if you can do that on the NES side. Maybe look into that? If all else fails, and you cannot get an answer here from someone who knows what they are doing, I would recommend emailing at sales@infiniteneslives.com I got a response from them in less than 6 hours.

[The Rook]

Thanks for the info. The ROM I'm using should be good, it's from the GoodNES set. It's very possible I have the wrong board, which is why I posted pictures. The switch on the board is for mirroring (horizontal or vertical). I've left the switch in the vertical position be cause that is what Super Mario Bros. requires. I looked that up on the NES Cart Database by bootgod. It really doesn't seem like a lot of people are using these boards. I've not received many replies at all. I have flashable Genesis boards and they just work it's quite simple really. SNES might be easier since there is only one board type unlike NES.

I'll try emailing sales@infiniteneslives.com. I have a ticket in with them about this -116 error but they have not responded.

Thanks for you suggestions. If I get this figured out, I'm going to do a detailed step by step for others.

[NYMike]

Can you pull up your paypal account and tell me exactly which board you ordered? I can then look up the rom you are trying to burn and see if they are compatible. I was not aware that there were other companies out there that did these type of solderless boards, so I cannot tell you if any other companies are better or worse. Feel free to post a few, and I might place an order here or there just to compare shipping times cost ect ect.

[The Rook]

NROM CHR-ROM Flash Boards
Item # NROM_f

NROM is the proper board for Super Mario Bros. Their website says the following about the board:

Supports NROM-128 and NROM-256
All boards are actually NROM-256, just double a NROM-128 rom file to convert it to NROM-256.
Mirroring selection:
Flash boards include toggle switch to select H/V mirroring (no soldering required).


The PRG for Super Mario Bros. is 32k, so using ReadNES I copy it 8 times to get 256k to write to the board. The 8k CHR writes just fine. It's only the PRG that is giving me problems.

I'm not familiar with other flashable NES boards. I have several Genesis flashable boards and they just work. It's super simple.

[Joe]

The PRG for Super Mario Bros. is 32k, so using ReadNES I copy it 8 times to get 256k to write to the board.

You've confused kilobits and kilobytes. 256 kilobits is the same amount of data as 32 kilobytes.

You're trying to write 8 times the chip's capacity, so of course that won't work.

[The Rook]

Perhaps I'm just confusing things by saying 32k.

The page on infiniteneslives says KB.

Besides 32 doesn't work either. I've tried, 32, 128 (4 x), and 256 (8 x).

Plus, the board is suppose to have 8 KB of CHR space, which writes just fine. At one point I accidentally doubled the CHR file and the program actually told me it was too large.

[Joe]

The page on infiniteneslives says KB.

Yep. I didn't see it say 256KB though.

Try using another computer to erase and rewrite the PRG. Use a short USB cable, if possible. Avoid USB hubs. I don't know if any of those will help, but at this point it's all I can think of.

[The Rook]

Okay, so here is a summary of what I've tried so far:

I am simply trying to write an original Super Mario Bros. ROM (not a hack or anything special) to a flashable NROM board that I bought from infiniteneslive.com. The ROM is from the GoodNES set and is named "Super Mario Bros. (W) [!].rom" and you can see below in the attachments a picture of it's file properties. I tried another version of this ROM but it failed when attempting to split the file into PRG and CHR.

I use ReadNES (both the online version http://www.kevinselwyn.com/ReadNES/ and the command line version) to split the ROM into PRG and CHR. Super Mario Bros. is iNES mapper 0. It has 32KB of PRG and 8KB of CHR. This information can be seen on the NES Cart Database here: http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=270. When I split the ROM file using ReadNES I get a 32KB file named "Super Mario Bros. (W) [!]Program.bin" and a 8KB file named "Super Mario Bros. (W) [!]Character.bin".

Before attempting to write either of these files to the NROM board, I first reset the INL Retro-Prog device using the button on the device. I insert the NROM board. Then I open the INL retro-prog v1.1beta.exe application. Clicking the Test button gives me a "Test OK" message. I select "header" from the drop-down menu in the upper left corner and then click the Load button. I navigate to the ERASE_PRGCHR.bin file. I then click the Write button and receive a "Verify OK" message. (I have also erased the PRG and CHR individually with the ERASE_PRG.bin and ERASE_CHR.bin files.)

Next to write the CHR I select "8kB CHR" from the drop-down menu, click the Load button and navigate to the "Super Mario Bros. (W) [!]Character.bin" file. I click the Write button and the message box clears and the progress bar shows. When it finishes it says "Verify OK".

Next to write the PRG I select "32kB PRG" from the drop-down menu, click the Load button and navigate to the "Super Mario Bros. (W) [!]Program.bin" file. I click the Write button and the message box clears and immediately shows "Error : -116". The light on the device is now solid red and to continue I have to reset the device.

The following text is taken off of the infiniteneslives.com page for the NROM board:

Code: Select all

MAPPER #0 NROM

This is the most basic circuit board for the NES.  Lots of early NES games used this board prior to the creation and development of mappers.  These boards have "no mapper" and therefore no complex bankswitching and are limited to 32KB of PRG-ROM, and 8KB of CHR-ROM/RAM.  If you're making your first homebrew game, we (and most developers) recommend starting with this configuration.  See the nesdev wiki for more information on this mapper.
    Supports NROM-128 and NROM-256
        All boards are actually NROM-256, just double a NROM-128 rom file to convert it to NROM-256.
    Mirroring selection:
        Flash boards include toggle switch to select H/V mirroring (no soldering required).
            Excludes large order of 50 or more, we can solder jumper for you if you tell us your mirroring config.
        EPROM boards have mirroring solder jumper to allow you to select mirroring yourself while soldering EPROMs.

After reading this I have tried to create a 128KB (4 times the 32KB file) and 256KB (8 times the 32KB file) PRG file. Both of these also fail with the -116 error. I noticed that with the 256KB file, the progress bar does start, but then fails soon after. I have created the files using ReadNES and also using HxD. I actually did a file comparison using ExamDiff on a 256KB PRG from ReadNES and a 256KB PRG file from HxD and they were identical.

I submitted a ticket with infiniteneslives.com several weeks ago and I still have not heard back from them.

I also emailed sales@infiniteneslives.com this morning. Nothing yet.

[The Rook]

The page on infiniteneslives says KB.

Yep. I didn't see it say 256KB though.

Try using another computer to erase and rewrite the PRG. Use a short USB cable, if possible. Avoid USB hubs. I don't know if any of those will help, but at this point it's all I can think of.

I use the USB cable that came with the device which is only 3 feet long and a nice cable from what I can tell. I don't use a USB hub. I've tried it in USB 2.0 ports and USB 3.0 ports. Same result.

I've read the provided instructions numerous times and just can't seem to find anything I'm missing. I can't be the only person who is trying to do this with an NROM board.

[lidnariq]

Error -116's shown up a few times before: viewtopic.php?p=122232#p122232 viewtopic.php?p=123405#p123405 viewtopic.php?p=129024#p129024

It tentatively looks like error -116 might mean "EEPROM already contains data"... what happens if you ask the Kazoo to dump the PRG after you get that error?