Tutorial: Launching games from SD card with SDML

[Slab of concrete]

This is for anyone who wants to run games from their SD card.

1. download the latest revision of Swiss here: http://code.google.com/p/swiss-gc/downloads/list

2. place your sd card into your computer and drop the .dol onto it and the game you wish to play

3. open Disk Defragmenter and analyze the SD card to see if any of the files are fragmented if they are then defragment your SD card since if the game is fragmented it won't work

4. remove your SD card from your computer and place it into the adapter

5. place the sd adapter into one of the memory card slots and place your SDML disc into your gamecube

6. press the power button and wait for SDML to load

7. select SWISS-LZ.dol from the list and wait for it to load

8. once you get to the screen where you may choose DVD, SDHC or IDE-EXI before you do anything else open up your gamecube and remove the SDML disc and insert a legit gamecube game

9. now you can select SDHC and pick your game from the list and push boot

if your game doesn't boot now it's either not compatible or it's corrupt or a bad file

also it can get random errors so if your game freezes you can turn off your gamecube and remove the legit game and insert the SDML disc again and start from step 6 and maybe it will work

I hope this will help somebody. Have fun!

[kevstah2004]

You should check the sd card for errors as well.

Example

CHKDSK D: /F

If any files are currupt it'll place them into a hidden FOUND folder on the root of drive, each recovered file will have a .CHK extension you may then need to defragment these recovered files, I use a hexeditor to verify what the recovered files are and rename them as some are still salvageable.
I use Auslogics Disk Defrag since it includes batch scripts to run chkdsk the Disk Defragmenter in windows is crap it miss half the fragmented files, Auslogics Disk Defrag also allows you defrag invidual files

[Slab of concrete]

kool thx

[kevstah2004]

No problem.

[ct_the_1]

You should consider, that running defrag on a sdcard will decrease the life span of it.

[kevstah2004]

How? it's no more so than it being read / written too.

[ct_the_1]

How? it's no more so than it being read / written too.

Yes, you are right.

Although it is more stress for the card, cause sectors being overwritten more than 1 time.

[kevstah2004]

ok.

[kevstah2004]

If a file is renamed autoexec.dol or autoexec.bin it will be automatically run by
SDML.

[Slab of concrete]

thx for the advice guys

[mikog]

Does this play wii/gc games?

[kevstah2004]

The Swiss dol / elf plays GC backups, SDML just launches .bin / dol's or AR for cheating on original discs with v2 sdml.

[mikog]

Thanks for your answer.....
I might get this! ( it sounds cool/helpful. )

[liquitt]

lemme know - i got one that i don't really use!

[kevstah2004]

You may want to make a manual mod improvement to the SDML gecko, get a small flathead screwdriver and lightly open the case, you'll notice on the pcb it has circuit breaker near pin 5, this is used for the smdl loader menu for when you just remove the sdcard instead of the whole sdml gecko unit + sdcard.

If you don't have the sdcard fully pushed up it won't close the the switch, I find it's better just to solder the circuit breaker together on the last two pins on the right and remove the sdcard + sdml gecko as one whole unit instead, it's more reliable and runs like a standard sd gecko does.
Alternatively you could add a Tactile switch on those on those pins instead of bridging them together with solder. Click the case back togther after you've made the mod.