The card reader that came with my PowerPak doesn't work

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:58 pm

The all-in-one card reader that came with my PowerPak won't recognize the CF card that came with my PowerPak. However, other CF-enabled devices can recognize the card just fine.

Do I have a defective reader or is this a known problem?

MottZilla · Post by **MottZilla** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:31 pm

Probably just defective or maybe a driver problem. When I bought my PowerPAK the included CF card wouldn't work and I had to get another. It happens.

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:45 pm

I just went to Best Buy and got a Dynex multi-card readermajig, and this one reads the CF card without any problems.

I suspected the reader was at fault, because the thing would act really funny when I had the CF card in there; it'd shut off, the power light would blink, Windows would report the device as perpetually not-ready, all until I removed the card.

So beware, I guess.

On another note, holy cow is this thing awesome!

clueless · Post by **clueless** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:01 pm

I purchased my Power Pak a few weeks ago. I bought the PP and card reader from Retrousb (as you did), but I got my CF card from newegg (8GB Dane-Elec). My CF reader works fine.

The CF reader that Retrousb shipped is in a blue transparent plastic shell, about 2" long, 1.25" tall and maybe 1/3" thick. There is a visible silk-screen on the PCB in the unit that reads "910". The CF reader has slots for other media types too (XD, SD/MMC and something else labeled MS/MSPRO).

Does this describe the CF reader that you got too, or did you get a different one?

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:05 pm

The one I got with my PowerPak is a transparent yellow one with no branding on it whatsoever. It has silkscreen "USB2.0 All-in-1 Card Reader [hi-speed USB logo]", and "[CE logo][FCC logo]Made in China" on back.

Also, apparently the PowerPak doesn't like Wario's Woods. o_O

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:35 pm

Drag wrote:Also, apparently the PowerPak doesn't like Wario's Woods. o_O

I don't think there's anything special about that game that would make it not work on a PowerPak, it appears to be a very normal MMC3 game... Check the header, a lot of ROMs fail to work because of bad headers.

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:56 pm

tokumaru wrote:
Drag wrote:Also, apparently the PowerPak doesn't like Wario's Woods. o_O
I don't think there's anything special about that game that would make it not work on a PowerPak, it appears to be a very normal MMC3 game... Check the header, a lot of ROMs fail to work because of bad headers.

Nope, the header is as correct as I can tell. The menu screen gets garbled, and there are major graphical problems in game, and certain modes lock up.

Krusty's Fun House has a glitchy info screen when you start the game... I wonder if the MMC3 mapper I have is bad? The Acclaim screen is glitchy when you reset too.

3gengames · Post by **3gengames** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:14 pm

Did you put Loopys mappers on there? I think there was something about MMC3 being wrong in some aspect that was fixed.

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:20 pm

I downloaded the mapper pack from retrousb, which supposedly includes Loopy's mappers.

3gengames · Post by **3gengames** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:26 pm

The most recent ones?

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:38 pm

v1.34, from the PowerPak page.

Are there newer mappers buried somewhere in this forum?

3gengames · Post by **3gengames** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:44 pm

Replace the ones inside the mappers folder with these I believe. I don't know, I don't own a powerpak....yet.

http://home.comcast.net/~olimar/NES/

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:51 pm

Wow! Thanks a lot, that fixed Wario's Woods. I'm assuming it'll fix KFH too.

You know, powerpak.zip contains "loopy's readme.txt" or something, so I assumed I had the latest loopy mappers. I guess that's a little misleading. o_O

Alright, so the next problem is my television's overscan. The topmost item in the file listing is offscreen, and I can barely see the red arrow cursor. I might be able to fix that myself though, if I can RE the firmware.

thefox · Post by **thefox** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:59 pm

Drag wrote:Wow! Thanks a lot, that fixed Wario's Woods. I'm assuming it'll fix KFH too.

You know, powerpak.zip contains "loopy's readme.txt" or something, so I assumed I had the latest loopy mappers. I guess that's a little misleading. o_O

Alright, so the next problem is my television's overscan. The topmost item in the file listing is offscreen, and I can barely see the red arrow cursor. I might be able to fix that myself though, if I can RE the firmware.

The one's on loopy's site are probably included in the latest beta (guessing 135b2) in: http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/

Drag · Post by **Drag** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:06 pm

You know, that would be an incredibly handy thing to have linked to the product page.

"Here is the latest working beta, use at your own risk"