Acekard 2 - Save corruption

I'm using an Acekard 2 with the most recent stable firmware, 4.07a15. There's a beta of 4.08 out, but the changelog states that it may not be stable. I've also got a 2GB Sandisk microSD card.

My problem is that, every so often, one or two saves will get corrupted. Just the saves, never games. By corrupted, I mean that the file cannot be copied during my nightly backups (God, I sound like a bigger geek than normal). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this might be? I have very little experience with microSD cards, but it seems that a faulty card could be the cause. I remember reading that an average of one out of so many bits are defective in this type of card.

If that is the case, could switching to the other identical card I have be an improvement?

I have backups of everything: untrimmed roms, roms that I trimmed, my firmware, saves, etc. It's no big deal to retransfer everything as I've already done it a few times.

Thanks for reading. Any help would be appreciated. Other than my above problem, I would recommend an Acekard 2 to any beginner in "the scene." It's cheap when compared to other cards and is very easy to use.

I forgot to mention that I've already done a search for "save corruption" and didn't turn up anything. The game saves this happens to also seems random. It's always games I haven't played since my last backup, so it doesn't seem to be a fragmentation issue. I usually defrag my card often, too.

 

Well, generally betas aren't considered stable releases Could be your MicroSD is just wearing out, or something could be wrong with the writing code of the firmware. If it's happened with previous firmwares, then something is probably wrong with your MicroSD. Sandisk and Kingston are the best brands, so it wouldn't be the brand thats the problem.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I hope my card isn't the problem. I've had both the MicroSD card and my Acekard for pretty much one month to the day. The firmware I'm currently using was released the day before I got my card, so I've never had an occasion to use any other version.

Thanks for the help. I'll try switching cards on the off chance that I wore one out in a month. If that doesn't work, I'll assume that it may be fixed in a later firmware release.

I've got an update on the situation. It seems that a few files on my other card were corrupted, also. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that all of these corruptions seem to happen when my DS freezes during startup. When it's turned on, the word "NINTENDO" fades in from left to right. Sometimes my system freezes when the second or third letter is fading in. I'm not sure why that is, but it seems to be related somehow.

 

That means your MicroSD is probably fragmented or something is wrong wrong the firmware, or something or rather. That sort of thing used to happen to my friends DSTT, just reformatted it for him and it worked fine. But since you've already done that, I'm not sure, maybe try using an older firmware.

 

Sorry for bumping this.

My Acekard is officially dead. No amount of cleaning/formatting/switching cards will let it start. I get a FAT error every time I try to load from slot 1 while the card is inserted.

If this happened to be from the bad batch, I doubt if I can return it. I got it through some guy on Amazon. Any suggestions for this problem? Smash it with a hammer and get something better?

 

Did you buy it new or used from Amazon?

 

It was supposedly new. The package looked unopened, but that is meaningless. The package could easily be opened/closed and no one would know.

 

Hmm, so you're sure you have already reinstalled the firmware? Or run chkdsk on it? Oh, just a note, I was implying where did you buy your MicroSD.

 

Sorry, I thought you were referring to the AK. Both MicroSD cards were new. They're both 1GB Sandisks. One is from Wal-Mart. The other is from what seems to be a reputable Amazon seller.

I've reinstalled the firmware multiple times, to no effect. I ran chkdsk after you mentioned it. There are no problems there.

Don't worry about this problem. I've probably got my money's worth out of the card already. While I don't care for the thought of losing that money, I've pretty much resigned myself to grabbing a different card when I get the cash.

 

Okay, if you need to know on which flashcart you want to buy, just ask I'd say the hardware on this particular Acekard 2, was failing.