Dodgy Action Replay 4M Plus - Technical Help

[tomhoneyfield]

Hey fellow gamers, thought I'd come here because you guys might know a bit about this. I've had my action replay 4m plus for my saturn now for a good 6 years but I've always kept it in mint condition.

For some reason, when I travelled to Uni last year, once I got into my room and set up my saturn for a bit of retro gaming, I noticed that my AR4M+ suddenly decided it didn't work anymore.

This is what happens, I put the cart in, turn on the console, the Sega splash screen doesn't animate, it just automatically goes straight to being still and complete (if that makes any sense? Like you know how when you press a button during the splash animation it cuts it short and just displays the sega saturn logo? Yeah goes straight like that).

Then it goes onto the black "Produced under license from Sega" screen like it normally does before booting the cart main menu, THEN..... the console resets itself .

I know what most will say "Buy a new one", but the fact that over the last 4 or 5 years i've modded my saturn and got used to taking stuff apart, I wanna fix the one I've already got, anyone got any ideas? I've already taken it apart from unfortunately can't find anything superficially wrong with it, like i said, the cart itself is in near mint condition.

Cheers in advance anywayz

[Hobie-wan]

A friend had one that just died on him too. I opened it up and couldn't see anything wrong. It will still copy things to and from the memory, so it sorta still works as a backup cart, but you can't boot games while it is plugged into the system. I can't see anything obviously wrong with it either. I've redone solder joints on it and it didn't help.

[tomhoneyfield]

A friend had one that just died on him too. I opened it up and couldn't see anything wrong. It will still copy things to and from the memory, so it sorta still works as a backup cart, but you can't boot games while it is plugged into the system. I can't see anything obviously wrong with it either. I've redone solder joints on it and it didn't help.

Hey cheers for your reply, it always helps to hear similar problems that others are having. I suppose it is quite old now (mine is 6 years old), it's interesting that your friend can still use his for memory, I don't think I can even do that with mine. I'll probs end up getting a new one, but in the meantime I've been having fun with the region mod

[sneth]

The most common reason saturn carts stop working are the female slot connectors. They do not have the "spring" found in say ...NES adapters. With just average use, the carts no longer make full connections with some of the pins in the saturn slot.

[Hobie-wan]

The most common reason saturn carts stop working are the female slot connectors. They do not have the "spring" found in say ...NES adapters. With just average use, the carts no longer make full connections with some of the pins in the saturn slot.

In the case of the half dead one one from my friend, it does the exact same thing in 3 different Saturns though. I bought a new AR and it works fine in my Saturns, as does the Memory Card Plus I've got. So it is definitely that particular AR that is acting up.

[CRTGAMER]

The most common reason saturn carts stop working are the female slot connectors. They do not have the "spring" found in say ...NES adapters. With just average use, the carts no longer make full connections with some of the pins in the saturn slot.

Wait, are you saying NES toaster game contacts are more reliable? Saturn cart in dire shape.

Perhaps a slight careful bend back of each contact with a "Dental" probe?

[SnowKitty]

The most common reason saturn carts stop working are the female slot connectors. They do not have the "spring" found in say ...NES adapters. With just average use, the carts no longer make full connections with some of the pins in the saturn slot.

In the case of the half dead one one from my friend, it does the exact same thing in 3 different Saturns though. I bought a new AR and it works fine in my Saturns, as does the Memory Card Plus I've got. So it is definitely that particular AR that is acting up.

it could be a firmware issue, some cheat carts are prone to bricking or malfunctioning when the firmware gets corrupted (can happen if the power gets cut while writing to the flash or a glitch or something)

[electrochip]

if your Saturn is modded (or swap trick) you could try grabbing this disc here http://www.rockin-b.de/saturn-rb-all-stars.html under the "Resource" and reflash the firmware. If I remember right you have to boot up the disc without the AR in and go to the flash utility then insert the AR and flash.

"How to reflash a BROKEN PAR cart"

about:
This is about rescueing Pro Action Replay carts (PAR, EMS and compatible) that got corrupted by:
- misusage (inserting or removing while Saturn is on or while a PC connection is present)
- flash error (reflash with wrong firmware or error while reflashing)

Those carts will freeze when starting Saturn, because their flashrom content is destroyed. If the cartridge hardware itself is still okay, then they might be rescued by reflashing the firmware.

Solutions:
There are three ways to reflash a cart:
1) using a PC Commslink connection
2) using a reflash CD
3) do it the professional way with a chip programmer

Now 1) and 2) do only work if the cart is working (e.g. it boots and runs) correct and 3) is no option for most of us.

However, you know that cartridges need to be inserted carefully in order to work. If just plugged in, the PAR cart won't be recognized in most cases (although it's content can be accessed by Saturn programs). So the cart won't boot, allowing a reflash CD to boot (however if Saturn always boots from cart, you can try inserting it when the Saturn is already running).
That's our solution to get 2) working! :banana

How to reflash a broken cart:
1) Put in the broken PAR cart, ensure that it does not boot the cart when turning on the Saturn. If you can't manage this, insert the cart after step 3), when the Saturn is already powered on. You can verify proper cart installation by viewing the firmware content using the Memory Viewer of the Save Game Manager (see below). In it's menu, select "set start" under "dump firmware" and you will see the firmware in a hex viewer. If you can read "SEGA SEGASATURN" and what you see doesn't change when scrolling through the firmware, it's okay. If instead you see only FFFF displayed or the shown stuff changes or flickers when scrolling, it's not installed correct.
2) Download and burn the C4CD 2005, it includes the Save Game Manager, which is used for reflashing the cart.
3) Run the CD in your Saturn, start the Save Game Manager(select with LEFT/RIGHT, run with START) and close help screen with START.
4) Select your firmware of choice (carefully): the CD drive should already be highlighted, move in folder "FIRMWARES" (select with UP/DOWN, open with A) and select an appropriate file (must fit the manufacturer, newset EMS firmwares won't necessarily work on older PAR carts) with UP/DOWN.
5) Open menu with START, select "flash Action Replay" with DOWN/UP and press A. You may be prompted to confirm (with A/C) overwriting cheat codes and save games, depending on the size of the firmware you selected.
6) Then program arflash from ExCyber is started: press START+A+B+C and wait. It may take some dozens of seconds until "writing..." is followed by "writing page..."
7) When "done" appears, your finished. :rockin:


You can't imagine how good it felt reviving my EMS 4M Plus cart whose 4MB RAM extension I need for testing an SNES emu on my Saturn. I initially planned to insert the cart when the Saturn is running, risking another damage.

-about:
This is about rescueing Pro Action Replay carts (PAR, EMS and compatible) that got corrupted by:
- misusage (inserting or removing while Saturn is on or while a PC connection is present)
- flash error (reflash with wrong firmware or error while reflashing)

Those carts will freeze when starting Saturn, because their flashrom content is destroyed. If the cartridge hardware itself is still okay, then they might be rescued by reflashing the firmware.

Solutions:
There are three ways to reflash a cart:
1) using a PC Commslink connection
2) using a reflash CD
3) do it the professional way with a chip programmer

Now 1) and 2) do only work if the cart is working (e.g. it boots and runs) correct and 3) is no option for most of us.

However, you know that cartridges need to be inserted carefully in order to work. If just plugged in, the PAR cart won't be recognized in most cases (although it's content can be accessed by Saturn programs). So the cart won't boot, allowing a reflash CD to boot (however if Saturn always boots from cart, you can try inserting it when the Saturn is already running).
That's our solution to get 2) working! :banana

How to reflash a broken cart:
1) Put in the broken PAR cart, ensure that it does not boot the cart when turning on the Saturn. If you can't manage this, insert the cart after step 3), when the Saturn is already powered on. You can verify proper cart installation by viewing the firmware content using the Memory Viewer of the Save Game Manager (see below). In it's menu, select "set start" under "dump firmware" and you will see the firmware in a hex viewer. If you can read "SEGA SEGASATURN" and what you see doesn't change when scrolling through the firmware, it's okay. If instead you see only FFFF displayed or the shown stuff changes or flickers when scrolling, it's not installed correct.
2) Download and burn the C4CD 2005, it includes the Save Game Manager, which is used for reflashing the cart.
3) Run the CD in your Saturn, start the Save Game Manager(select with LEFT/RIGHT, run with START) and close help screen with START.
4) Select your firmware of choice (carefully): the CD drive should already be highlighted, move in folder "FIRMWARES" (select with UP/DOWN, open with A) and select an appropriate file (must fit the manufacturer, newset EMS firmwares won't necessarily work on older PAR carts) with UP/DOWN.
5) Open menu with START, select "flash Action Replay" with DOWN/UP and press A. You may be prompted to confirm (with A/C) overwriting cheat codes and save games, depending on the size of the firmware you selected.
6) Then program arflash from ExCyber is started: press START+A+B+C and wait. It may take some dozens of seconds until "writing..." is followed by "writing page..."
7) When "done" appears, your finished. :rockin:


You can't imagine how good it felt reviving my EMS 4M Plus cart whose 4MB RAM extension I need for testing an SNES emu on my Saturn. I initially planned to insert the cart when the Saturn is running, risking another damage.

-RockinB

[matacks]

Hey I just found this thread after doing a search because my action replay cart stopped working recently. When turning my console on it would just boot up normally and say -disc format not recognized- or I forget exactly, when trying to play foreign game disks. The action replay wouldn't start up at all.

the person who suggested the female connector in the sega saturn being the cause had the correct answer for me. I found out if I put some pressure on back of the action replay cart pushing it towards the front of the console the action replay screen would start up and it would work normally. To make a more permanent fix I cup some pieces of plastic from a baseball card protector case and wedged it behind the cart. Any kind of plastic would have worked, I suppose a few guitar picks stacked together would have done the trick too. With the plastic wedged behind the cart it seems to be working great now.

[matacks]

Well unfortunately I have to update the status of how my action replay is working. My action replay has stopped working again The plastic wedged behind the cart worked for a little while but no longer. I dunno what to do. Guess I could try cleaning the cart slot using the credit card and thin cloth method or buy another sega saturn and hope the slot isn't worn out too badly?