Frequently Asked Questions and Most Known Problems
The Cart in General:
Q: The game crashed while I was playing, and now when I turn the cart on I just get a scrambled Nintendo logo!
A: That may in some occasions be a bad sign, but don't panic. Most likely this is a problem with the golden pins or they just don't get a proper connection to your GBA (unless the hardware is physically damaged). The first thing you should try is to make sure you insert the cart so perfect that it makes the best possible connection with the GBA. The cart is supposed to "click" into the GBA for the last half centimeter. If it slides slowly into the GBA with resistance as you push it, that usually means it doesn't make a proper connection. You should also try to blow in the cart and in the cart slot on your GBA as well. Look for any dust on the pins and try clean them. If that wont work try to take the cart in and out of your GBA 10 times. This is to make a better connection to the GBA. If the problem persist you will have to RMA your cart back for an exchange.
LittleWriter:
Q: LittleWriter recognizes my cart as EZ-Flash II 128mbit! Help!
A: This usually happens if you have already sent a multiboot to the cart using a different flashing software. Simply reboot your GBA and close and re-open LittleWriter to fix the problem.
Q: LittleWriter randomly crashes and locks up during flashing! How can I solve this?
A: First of all you should shut down all other programs that are running in the background so your computer can completely focus on LittleWriter and letting it use as much free RAM as possible. Basically just let it work and go do something else during the flash. LittleWriter is know to sometimes be unstable on systems with 256MB RAM or less. So you may consider getting at least 512MB if you want it to be as stable as possible.
X-Rom Flasher:
Q: X-Rom Flasher detects the cart just fine, but when I try to do anything flashing related (flash, erase, save backup/restore). It just gives an error! What's up with that?
A: Most likely you have already started LittleWriter before you stared X-Rom flasher. Make sure the GBA screen says XROM OS. If it shows the LW screen, turn your GBA off and then back up with START + SELECT and try again. You must also unplug it from the linker cable from your PC for at least 10 seconds. If it still doesn't work, reboot your computer and make sure you don't open LW before opening X-Rom Flasher. Also, sometimes (usually if the linker isn't fully inserted into the GBA) it will make a sound like it's correctly plugged in and booted up, but instead of the GBA screen showing XROM OS it will just show a horizontal white line. If this is the case do the same. Turn your GBA off and then back on with START + SELECT and try again now.
Q: Whenever I click "Build" after using "Flash Current Compilation" I get an error saying that my roms use more than 8 slots, but I know that's not the case since it happens no matter how many roms I use!
A: I am well aware of the problem and it happens to a lot of people (everyone?), but I have absolutley no idea why it happens. It doesn't always happen though. Sometimes it works just fine. I think it's a bug with X-Rom Flasher since X-Rom Testing Tools and X-Rom FrontEnd are both able to build the exact same compilation without problems. Therefor I recommend using one of these two instead until the problem is fixed. But "Flash Multi-Boot File" and "Flash Single GBA Rom" are both working fine so you can still use X-Rom Flasher for these functions.
X-Rom Testing tools (usbcable):
Q: When I open usbcable.exe a dos window appears and then quickly closes right after. How am I supposed to use it if it closes by itself the same second I open it?
A: Usbcable must be run in a dos command line. This is explained in the usbcable guide.
Pogoshell:
Q: When I build flashme.gba the file gets much bigger than the root folder. What's wrong? Does the Pogoshell menu itself take up that much space?
A: No, in fact Pogoshell itself takes less than half a MB. But this is a known problem, and it is indeed a bug. makefs.exe doesn't sort the files correctly. The only thing you can do is to try different games (with smaller sizes) or remove a game or two. Sometime even just removing a few small sized NES games or other small files will fix it. But it totally depends on the files you use. The clue is to FIRST try to get as close to 256mbit as possible. Test as you go. Try to get a flashme.gba with a correct file size which should be less than 32 MB. If you are able to do that, you can add whatever you want later to fill up the second half of the cart, and now you will hopefully get a flashme.gba file which is less than 64 MB. We can only hope that Sasq (the creator of Pogoshell) will fix this in his next Pogoshell release. He is aware of the problem, but for now we will have to live with it. It IS possible to get the correct size. You just need a little bit of trial and error, and a little bit of luck.
Q: I can flash Pogoshell onto the cart, but when I launch it all I get is a black screen!
A: You are flashing Pogoshell in multiboot. Pogoshell MUST be flashed in single rom mode. Which means alone on the cart without a loader. This is due to the save system that Pogoshell uses. This means all your games must be inside Pogoshell Otherwise Pogoshell will only show a black screen (sometimes with green and red vertical lines).
Q: You say I can manage saves directly on the GBA. How do I do that?
A: Keep pressing the B button until you see "rom", "sram" and "cartroms" on the screen. Enter the SRAM drive. You will get a list of all your saves from all your games. Select a save, press START and use the commands cut, copy, paste and delete to manage your saves the way you want. Between different users for example. You can also copy saves or other files from the flash memory (rom) and move it in the SRAM drive, but you can't delete files from flash or move new files to it.
Q: What does all the pre-installed plugins in the plugins folder do?
A: Here's the list and what they do:
krawall.bin = s3m module player.
nsf.bin = NES music player (nsf files).
pogo.gba = boot-file for carts other than X-Rom.
pogox.gba = boot-file for X-Rom carts. (Don't delete!)
goomba.mbz = gameboy emulator (mono or dual).
pce.mbz = pce emulator.
pocketnes.mbz = NES emulator.
GBATA:
Q: I have to SRAM patch a game, but the Patch button is grayed out so I can't click on it.
A: Could be one of two reasons. The game could already be patched. Check the save type under header viewer. If it already is SRAM then there is no need to patch it. If it says "(patched)" at the end it also means that it is SRAM patched so no patch is needed here either. The other reason could be you're using version 0.5 or older which only supports SRAM patches for EEPROM games. If that's the case, download version 0.7.
Other:
Q: What should I do if I want to send the cart back for an exchange/refund?
A: Fill out the RMA form here.