Problems with flash cart

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zinger
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Problems with flash cart

Post by zinger » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:05 pm

My 64M flash cart from tototek used to work fine just a few days ago, but today my computer didn't recognize the cart. I've checked all settings in BIOS and it's still set to EPP, I've tried all different versions of DreamWriter that are availiable through tototeks homepage. The cart works fine when I use it with my Mega Drive. So what could be the problem here? Is the programmer very sensitive? I've only had it standing on my desktop without touching it basically...

Chilly Willy
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Post by Chilly Willy » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:20 pm

Try simple solutions first - replace any cables.

zinger
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Post by zinger » Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:03 pm

USB or parallell cables wear out after only using them a few times? :roll:

Chilly Willy
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Post by Chilly Willy » Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:09 am

If it was 99% bad due to a manufacturing defect, just simply taking it out of the package would be enough to push it over the edge. :wink:

Besides, changing a cable is quick and easy, and sometimes fixes the problem. If you ASSUME the cables are good merely because they are new, you might leave them for last and spend many hours/days on a wild goose-chase. Lots of new parts go bad very quickly. In electronics, parts are more likely to go bad with the first few weeks than within the first year. That's why most warranties are for 90 days. If it can go 90 days, it'll probably make it for the entire lifespan of the part.

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Post by Fonzie » Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:33 am

Normally, if the cart work fine on megadrive, it should not be damaged (its the same mechanism)... So its either the cable or your EPP that went bad (due to a windows update?) :)

zinger
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Post by zinger » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:18 pm

Fonzie wrote:Normally, if the cart work fine on megadrive, it should not be damaged (its the same mechanism)... So its either the cable or your EPP that went bad (due to a windows update?) :)
Hmm, sounds reasonable. Unfortunately my laptop is unable to handle EPP devices (or so it seems) so I cannot try it anywhere else. I'll run some experiments, thanks for your help guys!

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Post by Chilly Willy » Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:25 pm

One computer we were using for a universal programmer (EPROMs, etc) had an interesting problem - when the other guy plugged in the cable, it pushed in all the pins in the connector. I guess it wasn't aligned properly and he just forced it rather than figure out why it was hard to plug in. That was a real pain to fix. :lol:

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