Viper GC Extreme Cobra BIOS 2.1 USB Backup Error - Solution

[noobcube]

Hey Everyone,

I've had a Viper GC Extreme for a few years now. However, over time I found it somewhat quirky so I moved on to a Xeno GC, as it is much more straightforward to use if you're just playing disc games. For a while I had both chips in my DOL-001, though recently I removed the Viper GC and USB adapter. Out of curiosity, tonight I installed the Viper GC Extreme and USB adapter in a spare DOL-101.

Going back, one of the main reasons why I purchased the Viper GC Extreme was to make backups of my retail discs. The funny thing is that the Cobra Backup 1.0 utility seems to work perfectly when backing up DVD-R backups but gives a "cobra bios USB remote is not responding" error when attempting to backup retail discs (most people probably want to backup their retail discs, not the backups they already have). The Viper's USB interface seems to work properly for transferring/loading .dol files, streaming the PC desktop, etc....

In testing, I noticed a curious difference between how the Viper GC boots backups and retail discs. With backups, the drive spins up, then spins down, then spins up again, presumably to patch the drive for reading backups. However, with retail discs the drive spins up and remains on continuously.

This behavior seemed odd, and got me thinking; so I started the backup procedure by booting with a backup disc and then quickly put in a retail just before the drive spun up again. Sure enough, Cobra Backup worked perfectly! No USB error occurred and a playable backup resulted. I'm guessing that it has something to do with the Cobra Backup utility not being able to read the drive properly until it has been patched, though I'm not sure. At the moment, the GC has the lid switch taped down, if that makes any difference.

Maybe one of the gurus can explain what's happening here? Hopefully this might help someone else who has had trouble using the Viper GC Extreme to back up their retail Gamecube discs via USB.

BTW, I was going to post this in the Dumpers/Loaders/Utilities forum, but could not start a new topic there.

[Dragoon]

Never had this problem, but good work non the less

[emu_kidid]

most likely caused by the lid switch difference you have there.

[noobcube]

most likely caused by the lid switch difference you have there.

Thanks for the response!

Just did another test:

If the Viper GC Extreme's lid sensor is set for "Closed", Cobra Backup will work with a backup, but fail with a retail disc, giving the "Cobra BIOS USB remote is not responding" error.

If the lid sensor is set for "Passthru", backing up a retail disc works as expected.

When I had both the Viper GC Extreme and Xeno GC installed, I recall having some lid switch related issues. Even if the Viper was disabled with the USB adapter DIP switch and set for "Passthru", it would still interfere with the Xeno GC's lid sensing, sometimes not allowing the drive to spin up, plus not giving the normal "lid open" messages. That issue was solved by connecting the lid sensor directly. At this point, perhaps someone else might be able to make better use of the features of Viper GC Extreme, as now that I have a softmodded Wii, I just use my Gamecube for disc games.

Here's the old post showing the dual-chip mod: http://128bit.me/index.php?topic=1693.0