Just what I need before we go camping for 4 days... NOT.

December 23, 2010 7:21 PM

My kids have a new R4 card for their Nintendo DSi's. It has stopped working after 2 days, proudly announcing that there is a system error. Is there a rescue remedy?

This bloody thing cost me $50 and it has stopped working 2 days after we received it. When my kids try to open the games, they get an error message saying that a system error has occurred, turn off, turn on again, if it continues contact Nintendo. (Yeah. Right. Contact Nintendo at 2.15pm on Christmas Eve? No chance.)

I've googled... some results suggest replacing the itty-bitty memory card, some results suggest replacing the R4 completely, and some results suggest that the R4 shouldn't have worked with DSi's in the first place.

I'm throwing my hands in the air in frustration, and asking if any Mefites have a definitive answer as to what the problem is, and can it be fixed.

This would be the part where I confess that my cousin-in-law rang me from Kuala Lumpur, saying that she was buying her son an R4 and asked would I like one for my kids. I had never heard of them but when she explained what they are, I stupidly said yes, get us one, when I should have googled and found that I can buy them here in Oz for less than half what she paid. The box says Made in China. Perhaps it's just a dodgy knockoff, ie, ripoff?

posted by malibustacey9999 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Do not call Nintendo about this; R4s are not Nintendo-sanctioned devices. In fact, Nintendo hate the R4 and are trying to shut it down (with good reason, honestly.)

If you have the error described on this page, follow their instructions.

Otherwise: Connect the small memory card to your computer with the USB adapter it came with.
Find a two folder called "NDS" and "SAV" (or something along those lines) on the card, it should be large.
Move that onto your hard drive. If you don't have that, just move every file called .nds or .sav to a folder on your hard drive.
Delete everything on the card.
Get the new firmware here.
Extract it onto the memory card.
Put all the .nds stuff in a folder called NDS and all the .sav stuff in a folder marked SAV.

That should do it.
posted by griphus at 7:32 PM on December 23, 2010

The first thing to try is reloading the original firmware if you can, though I understand it may have been discontinued.

Next would be to replacing the MicroSD card and loading the firmware onto that. I've done this when I had a SD card go bad, and it was dead easy.

A third option is to try the Wood R4 kernel. I haven't tried it, but it was recommended on MeFightClub, our sister site for gamers, and that's good enough for me.

Regarding the legality of the R4DS, I have one and I don't use it for piracy. There are plenty of freeware apps out there. For example
posted by lekvar at 7:38 PM on December 23, 2010

They're not necessarily illegal (check the update at the bottom.) And if they were, they'd be illegal to sell, not own.
posted by griphus at 7:42 PM on December 23, 2010

Mine did this a while ago and it turned out to be the date, set the date back a year and see if it is playable
posted by the noob at 2:26 AM on December 24, 2010

Thanks, y'all... it wasn't the date error, it was something else.

I tried all remedies suggested, but I think we just got a dodgy cartridge. It's utterly unreadable now, and I can't extract files onto the now-empty cartridge because my 'puter tells me the thing has an error.

I told the kids that I'll get them another one (NOT from KL and this time I'll pay $20, not the $50 that my SIL got).

All suggestions much appreciated.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 3:19 PM on December 25, 2010