How is your Dreamcast gaming going on?

[Ziggy]

I've thought about disconnecting the speaker in my VMUs, but then it occurred to me that you're really not playing the Dreamcast unless you hear the dead battery beep from the VMU every time you power on the console.

[Reprise]

I've thought about disconnecting the speaker in my VMUs, but then it occurred to me that you're really not playing the Dreamcast unless you hear the dead battery beep from the VMU every time you power on the console.

Indeed haha.

[RCBH928]

Well, doesn't the flash memory fail after some time? I mean...its been 24 years

[Ziggy]

Data retention depends on the type of memory. I just watched a tear down video of a VMU and apparently there's only one IC in there, a custom Sega chip. I would guess it's a CPU or micro controller with memory built in. So I can't look up a datasheet for it and get the specs. Ordinarily you can look up the datasheet for flash memories and they usually specify shelf life or data retention as well as erase/write cycles. Just for reference, a lot of flash memory is rated up to 100,000 write cycles (meaning it will last at LEAST that many times). That may not seem like a lot, but if you do the math, it's way more than you'll need in your lifetime. So then it just comes down to how long the memory will retain the data before data rot occurs. AFAIK, every time you save your game, you're resetting the clock for data rot. If you have saves that you haven't accessed in many years, you can copy them to/from another VMU and that will be a fresh write.

A lot of flash memory seems to be pretty robust. Given the age of the Dreamcast, if there was a widespread problem with the part we'd probably know about it by now. But every once in a while there's a part that dies prematurely. Not to go off topic, but just as an example, apparently there's flash memory in the Wii U that is not uncommon to exhibit data rot or even failure.

[Reprise]

Yeah, that Wii U issue supposedly relates to the black deluxe models in particular (for some reason) and is mostly launch models, as a later revision used a different flash memory supplier/brand/whatever the correct term is.

Touch wood I haven't had any issues with mine (yet).

[Ziggy]

Yeah, that Wii U issue supposedly relates to the black deluxe models in particular (for some reason) and is mostly launch models, as a later revision used a different flash memory supplier/brand/whatever the correct term is.

Touch wood I haven't had any issues with mine (yet).

I've actually been meaning to post a thread about this. As to not go off topic in this Dreamcast thread, I made a thread for the WIi U problem here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=54032

[stickem]

Well, doesn't the flash memory fail after some time? I mean...its been 24 years

I don't recall ever having a ps1/2 memory card ever going bad on me either

[o.pwuaioc]

Flash memory has a write limit, not an age limit, iirc.