GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[Tigerpaw28]

I've been trying to fix a broken GS Pro v3.2 by seating it on a working v3.2 (and a game on the broken one) and then updating the software using the v3.3 N64 hacking utilities. However everytime I try it, when it gets to the end of the data transfer, it throws me an error message stating 'Update Failed. Checksum error, check cable' or something very similar to that.

I've noticed that the BIOS file that comes with utilties is named ar3.enc. Does the AR stand for Action Replay and thus is the wrong BIOS file? Or is the problem somewhere else?

[zoinkity]

No. All the bios files are named exactly the same thing. I've had this happen once before but for the life of me can't remember what you have to do...
What originally happened to the busted 3.2? Did it fail after switching enable codes? Was a code added to the list and afterward it wouldn't boot? In either of those cases you don't need to reflash them...

Are you overwritting the code list as well? (it's an option below the update button)

I can try to do it again with my two working ones and see what is needed to get past the error. It is possible though - the same thing happened to me once and both were magically fixed - so keep playing around with it.

--useless info:
For the record a checksum error occurs when a file transfer's running sum total doesn't match that returned from the cart. In the case of bios/codelist uploading, it doesn't write the data to the proper hardware address from the buffer as a result.
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[Tigerpaw28]

What originally happened to it was a failed attempt at flashing it using a v3.3. It was working fine except it wasn't connecting to my PC. After trying several things, to no avail, I decided that it must need to be reflashed.

In hindsight, I don't think it needed to be reflashed at all (Well, at least if I didn't care to get into the options menu of the shark. It would freeze if I tried to.), I just needed to push the cable further in and/or hold it in manually.

Anyway, I seated the 3.2 on top of the 3.3 and then seated a game onto the 3.2 (GE, I think). I turned the system on, it loaded, and I started the game. I think I went far enough in to get to gameplay and then turned it off. Haven't been able to get the 3.2 to work since.

I suppose I'll try playing with it some more. But I don't know what else I can do differently. I would ask you to try it, but I'd hate to put you at risk of breaking a working GS.

[zoinkity]

When a shark is on top of another it acts as nothing more than a passthrough. There are rom differences between the two versions, and starting the game with codes, setting options, even mundane things like toggling codes on and off cause it to write directly to 'both' GS roms.

Earlier I flashed a 3.3 back to a 3.2, then tried to flash it up to a 3.3 again while on top of another 3.3. At first it didn't work. When I set it to overwrite the code list as well it worked fine, so it may have to do with the offset being changed or something along those lines.

So, what I suggest:
1) upload a copy of the current code list for as many sharks as you can get working.
2) stack the non-working 3.2 on top of the 3.3
3) set it to flash the code list as well, then try the full upload.

If that worked you can send the code list back to the shark. You may also be able to do that with them stacked. Honestly, I've never tried it. Here's hoping it works though.
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[Tigerpaw28]

I don't think I can do what you suggest because my 3.3 doesn't have the LED, so it won't connect to a PC.

Or would I be able to use the port on 3.2 once's it's on top of the 3.3? I didn't think that would work?

[zoinkity]

Okay, you've lost me. In the first post you said that the 3.3 is on teh bottom, 3.2 on the top, and that after trying a flash it gives you the 'checksume failed' error. That implies that one of these things has a working port.

Set it up however you had the carts in the first post, make a copy of your codes either to the controller cart or upload it to PC, then flash your BIOS with the 'overwrite code list' feature toggled. That should force both of them into working. Otherwise, not certain what would be required.


Only the bottom port should work. The controller for the parallel port is on cart itself, so the hardware access shuld be cart-sensitive.
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[Tigerpaw28]

Sorry for the confusion. To clear things up, let me state that I have a total of 3 gamesharks. An led-less 3.3, and two 3.2's.

I started with just one 3.2, that stopped working after I stacked it on the 3.3 and went into a game (I read something that indicated that it could be flashed that way). So then I bought another 3.2 in order to get my first one working.

Now then, I did get the upgrade process to sucessfully finish for once. However, now neither 3.2 wants to load. I might've used a bad BIOS image, a result of trying to use a downloaded BIOS/ROM in order to get the process to complete before. It's a v3.3 .z64 file that I got from Romhustler.net. It's the same size as the BIOS file that comes with the utilities though, so it might not be different.

The only other thing I can think of, that might have caused a problem, is that I bumped the Shark stack while it was sitting at the Upgrade Complete screen. That caused the whole thing to freeze. I guess I'll have to pick up another 3.2 to try and resuscitate the first two if I can't get one of them to load.

Thank you for all of your help zoinkity.

[zoinkity]

Shame it isn't working for you. You definately have my sympathies. Datel never made a more annoying piece of hardware...
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