PAR 4-in-1 not functioning as RAM cart or memory backup

[quash]

So I was given a PAR awhile back and it worked fine for a few weeks.

Then sometime after that, I tried transferring a Dragon Force save from the PAR to the Saturn, only to discover it that the save was corrupted (every castle was maxed out, no enemies on the map, 999 awards, etc). When I restarted the Saturn to try re-transferring the save, every single save on the PAR was gone!

It will still boot (get the full boot sequence animation), but it doesn't function as a RAM cart anymore. That, and any time I try to copy a save it just hangs.

I tried cleaning the cart slot (using a cotton cloth and rubbing alcohol) but to no avail, as well as trying to flash the firmware with the Atlas homebrew disc, but it doesn't detect the PAR either.

This is one of the older PAR's with the COMM port on top, if that matters.

There doesn't seem to be many people having issues with these things, as I haven't found much of anything in my search for a fix.

Any help is much appreciated!

[TheGMan]

FWIW, I had problems with mine almost as soon as I got it. I bought a new one without the comm port and it would not transfer saves or remember new cheat codes.

I opened mine up and immediately found extremely poor solder joints. There were gaps and holes in quite a few of the joints on the bottom of the pcb. I simply reflowed and added new solder with an iron to a good majority of the joints on the board and it's working perfectly now.

Might be something to look into. I have also heard of the flash chips being bad, and in that case it would just be easier to buy a new one. Maybe quality standards have improved since then.