MoD Transfer Cable issue

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:34 pm

I'm having a problem dumping only ONE of my Games. All of my other games work, but "Revolution X" always freezes at 91%.

The game is apparently a 34 MegaBit game according to the PC app when I select "Auto" on the Genesis.

It never completes the 4MB dump (stops at 3.93MB).

Any ideas? Computer is fine, EPP (not ECP), and as said, works on all other game.

EDIT: Oh, and on the Genesis side, it goes back to the main dumping screen, inferring the dump was complete.

EDIT 2: I tried again, made it to 92% and it did 3.99MB, but still wouldn't run in an emulator.

I don't think dump can properly dump a 34 MegaBit cartridge, cause when the dump is viewed in an hex editor, it's full of the ascii character "D", no actual data is dumped.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:32 pm

I have a 4MByte (32Mbit) dump on my HDD and it works fine... and I doubt that game is 34Mbit, because then it would have to use bank switching, and AFAIK there's only one method emulated and that game doesn't use it. Maybe the header is just incorrect.

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:39 pm

Hold on, so it's 32Mbit? I was sure 4MB was 34Mbit. (33.554Mbit to be precise, round off to 34)

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:59 pm

how come ? 8Mbits = 1Mbyte

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:02 pm

But 34Mbit is 4.0531MB..

I still think this game is 34Mbit.

Just in case, I'm forcing a 32Mbit dump.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:09 pm

Where the hell do you get this 34Mbits ?

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:13 pm

TmEE co.(TM) wrote:Where the hell do you get this 34Mbits ?

From MoD's transfer suite, it auto detects Revolution X as 34Mbits..

Didn't you read my original post?

The game is apparently a 34 MegaBit game according to the PC app when I select "Auto" on the Genesis.

Jeez.

I forced 32Mbit, and it successfully did a dump.

Here's the header from a sucessfull dump.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/ ... n/head.png

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:27 pm

I saw 32Mbits in the header (3F FF FF FF)...

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:29 pm

TmEE co.(TM) wrote:I saw 32Mbits in the header (3F FF FF FF)...

Then it's settled. MoD needs to make a minor fix, as some games with correct header still get incorrectly dumped.

Mask of Destiny · Post by **Mask of Destiny** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:37 am

I doubt this is a bug in the dump program. Usually when you see funny megabit values you have one of two problems:
1) The connection between the Genesis/MD and the cart isn't quite right and so it can't properly read the header
2) The Genesis/MD and the PC didn't sync properly and so the PC didn't receive the size properly

Anyway, I've got the rewrite of my transfer suite working well enough that auto-detect dumping works. It's just not feature complete yet. You can't do fixed size dumping, BIOS dumping, 40Mb dumping, or program transfer for dev stuff. I'd also like to optimize the transfer code a bit before release. It's measurably faster than the old protocol (at least if you don't include checksum calculation time), but I think it can still be faster.

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:51 am

My problem isn't number 1 that's for sure. I constructed a cable of very high quality, with cold plated connectors. I tested the cables with a continuity tester for every pin under stress testing, no faults.

Number 2 sounds more plausible.

I'll wait for a re-release.

Mask of Destiny · Post by **Mask of Destiny** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:04 am

evildragon wrote:My problem isn't number 1 that's for sure. I constructed a cable of very high quality, with cold plated connectors. I tested the cables with a continuity tester for every pin under stress testing, no faults.

No, no. I wasn't talking about the cable connection. I was talking about the connection between the cartridge and the MD/Genesis itself. That said, since you do seem to have gotten a clean dump by forcing the size, it would appear that the first option isn't the issue (unless you removed and re-inserted the cart between your auto-detect and manual size tries).

evildragon · Post by **evildragon** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:22 am

oh my bad, misread it.

i didn't remove the cart, i left it in the whole day with pin B32 taped up. (no 32X attached just in case)