Is my GC's Serial Port 2 damaged?!

[Mario9654]

I got a memory card with a hacked 007: Agent Under Fire (1.0) save on it and an SD2SP2 pro off eBay. The memory card booted Swiss just fine, but Serial Port 2 never appeared as an option in Device Selection. Device info always displayed "empty" under Serial Port 2 in device info no matter what I did. The old 2GB MicroSD I had lying around wasn't the culprit because my computer was able to detect it. I don't mind using 2GB because I'm planning to run SNES games via SNES9XGX and my 1.46 GB GC discs are working and I don't see a reason to run them off SD2SP2 instead.

Details:
DOL-001 (USA) NTSC Revision 1.0
The 2GB MicroSD had nothing on it
The SP1 cover was missing. I assume the SP1 cover should press against the SD2SP2 pro's cover to make it fit perfectly.
The SD2SP2 came without solder on the pins (solder makes it stay in easier) and it was a little loose. It didn't fall out of the console when I picked it up, but it was a little wobbly. I guess this is what's making it not work, but I'm still very worried about the port on the GameCube being damaged.

How common is it for an SD2SP2 (pro specifically) to come defective right out of the box?

EDIT: forgot to mention I'm running Swiss v0.6. Also, settings gives me a config failed to save error. It's likely the port's dirty from not being used for 24 years, but I don't want to risk blowing into it and I don't have anything to safely clean it with.

[Extrems]

The adapter itself cannot be detected, only the SD card in it can be detected.

[emu_kidid]

Also, got a picture of the SD2SP2?

* You don't need the SP1 cover for the SD2SP2 "Pro" (the style that brings the SD card slot out to the side).
* Try a larger SD card (> 2GB), it's possible but unlikely that byte addressed SD support is broken.
* FAT32 formatted?

If the GameCube was missing either SP1 or SP2 covers, I'd clean the slots. I use a folded piece of paper with isopropyl alcohol sprayed on it, carefully clean the slot without bending the pins or putting too much paper in (or letting it go soft and break in the slot, but you get the idea).

[Mario9654]

I can't take a picture right now, but the SD2SP2 was assembled and it had the 2GB MicroSD in the slot. I formatted the card to FAT32 before the memory card and SD2SP2 arrived. It's likely the port's just dirty, so I might clean it later. I have paper of course, but I don't have IPA.

The adapter itself cannot be detected, only the SD card in it can be detected.

The SD card was inserted but it had nothing on it at the time. I just wanted to see if it would detect first. I already assumed that if the SD2SP2 had nothing in it, the circuit would be incomplete.

[Mario9654]

I forgot to get IPA, but I took some pictures of Serial Port 2 and the SD2SP2 (sorry they're big)

The last picture shows some stuff on the pins, but half my DS games are like that and they work fine. Let me know if something seems off to you. I think some solder on the SD2SP2 might make it work (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhYO1dy238), but some people said that's not a good idea because the solder can rub off on the port and cause connection problems later. A dirty/dusty port can easily be fixed. My GameCube's been through quite a lot, so knowing there's nothing internally wrong with it will be a relief. I really hope the loose SD2SP2 wasn't hard on it.

If the GameCube was missing either SP1 or SP2 covers, I'd clean the slots.

Only the SP1 cover is missing. The SP2 cover was there before I replaced it with the SD2SP2 pro.

[Papy.G]

If you bought it for homebrews and emulators, you should have bought an SD to memcard slot adapter (Commonly called SD Gecko, although we only see WiiSD in the shops for centuries) for the sake of compatibility.
For the same reasons, it may be better to format your card to Fat16.

Some older HB and emus are often too old and not updated so just not compatible with either SD2SP2/Fat32/SDHC/cards bigger than 2GB.

DBorth's emulators had quite trouble to cope with SD2SP2 back in the days and I don't even know about the current state of the art, as I'm using them from a WiiSD, and going on from very old versions prevented me from having troubles back in the days.

Beeing able to see a said memcard on a computer or any compatible device is never a guarantee it will bee seen by any other one of a different kind.

You got the save configuration error as long as SWISS doesn't find any proper support to save where it is supposed to do so.

Many good reasons to dump your games and play them off an SD card: ensure optical assembly better lifespan, quieter console operation, faster swapping games from the couch...

You can clean contacts just by dry friction with thick paper, that's the main way I clean my GameBoys' Carts and slot contacts.

If you want to get safe, copy your save exploit to another memcard, with a boot forwarder, so you can also have SWISS, it's config file, and the "soft reset shortcut" on the SD card. Then, put the memcard you bought aside in a safe place.

[Mario9654]

Bad news: my SD2SP2 completely killed my 2GB microsd (I think the spring loaded slot was hard on it) and my computer wasn't able to detect it. However, I found a GC2SD and it should arrive before 10/28. Again, it was only 2GB and it had nothing on it before it broke, but it's still a shame.

[Andross89]

The 2GB SD card issue is real. I thought it was a problem and I'd have to return it. When I used the 200GB one, it worked without any problems. I'm wondering if it's a GameCube issue or the adapter. In any case, 2GB isn't an option these days.

And I still had to troubleshoot the bad connection.

I think it's unlikely the adapter will kill the SD card if it's connected correctly. I'm betting on a PC or something else.

[Mario9654]

I think I was hard on the microsd when I loaded it into the SD2SP2 trying to get it to work. I just wanted something less demanding that I could use it on (most SNES games are <4 MB in size and NES games are much smaller). I had no intention of storing GC games on it for a 2 reasons (Papy.G made some really good points about playing games off another device though):

• I'm that kind of person who uses the stuff they already have for the sake of nostalgia. I'm sure the modding community takes this into account as some internal mods such as FlippyDrive (not the GCLoader) give people the option to play physical discs despite the ability to play games off an SD card even though compatibility off the SD drive is already great and will definitely get better as the mod continues to mature.

• FMVs might stutter due to the slower transfer speed of the mem. card slots. A video showed the SSBM intro stuttering heavily and the audio went out of sync. I know this has been mostly fixed for SD2SP2 but I'm not sure if the mem. card slots have been fixed too, but I don't think that's likely because the slow transfer speed seems like a GameCube problem.

Quiet operation seems nice, but the somewhat noisy disc drive is something I've dealt with and I can barely hear it from a good distance and I have a fan in my room. Now that I don't have a small microSD I can use a bigger one that's more suitable for stuff these days. Looking back, it was probably a better idea to give the 2GB to someone who had a device that didn't support cards >2GB. Now that I've heard 2GB cards aren't ideal anymore I don't feel so bad about losing the card anymore, but I was still amazed it was reading/writing stuff well over a decade later.

[Extrems]

Memory Slot B is functionally identical to Serial Port 2.

[Andross89]

...Now that I've heard 2GB cards aren't ideal anymore I don't feel so bad about losing the card anymore, but I was still amazed it was reading/writing stuff well over a decade later.

There's no reason to feel bad about losing a card. They are, by nature, very fragile. For what we're doing here, we need to handle them multiple times. The right thing to do would be to transfer everything from the PC and leave it connected to the GameCube forever.

And it takes a very specific scenario to use a 2GB card these days. I myself use one to preserve a 256GB card until I finish what I'm working on. I no longer find it "fun" to transfer so much data onto large-capacity cards due to errors I've never seen happen with a USB flash drive, for example.

[emu_kidid]

Yeah, get yourself a GC2SD V2 by Bitfunx, they work in slot B with DMA and you don't have to fiddle around with a loose slot (those edge connectors look very dirty considering you've only just bought it too!). Otherwise just clean the port a lot, carefully.

[Papy.G]

Until recently, I had a 128GB SD card with NKit ISOs in SP2 and 2GB SD card with emulators and utilities in Slot B. I had an 1GB formerly, but it ended up dying on me, It had been used much in a camera for years.

Emukidid> Is the V2 thing only about having an OR gate somewhere on the lines?

[emu_kidid]

Emukidid> Is the V2 thing only about having an OR gate somewhere on the lines?

Yeah it works around the EXI bus issue where the data flows back out and sends SD cards/devices garbage when using DMA. Note that it doesn't work in slot A, it'll just fallback to normal PIO functionality there

[Andross89]

...but it ended up dying on me, It had been used much in a camera for years.

You meant read-only mode, right? I think it's easier for the camera to stop working than for the card to not be recognized. That's what I expect from my oldest working card in a Nokia C2-00.

[Papy.G]

Yeah it works around the EXI bus issue where the data flows back out and sends SD cards/devices garbage when using DMA. Note that it doesn't work in slot A, it'll just fallback to normal PIO functionality there

OK, so that is enough for it to be a v2 device?
Is it needed for Ethernet adapters too?
Is it a kind of a termination issue?
Don't care for Slot A, I always use Memcard in it, except for older Homebrews, just hope it works in SP1 & 2.

You meant read-only mode, right? I think it's easier for the camera to stop working than for the card to not be recognized. That's what I expect from my oldest working card in a Nokia C2-00.

Yes, read-only mode for that specific one, but I have a 64GB that I used for my dumps, and a 4GB from a Nokia E72 that totally died, I think it's because of using them with VirtualBox and not doing things properly when switching from host to virtual machine. I think my EZFlash JR's 2GB card is not getting well too, because of that.

Still using your Nokia C2-00?

[Andross89]

Yes, read-only mode for that specific one, but I have a 64GB that I used for my dumps, and a 4GB from a Nokia E72 that totally died, I think it's because of using them with VirtualBox and not doing things properly when switching from host to virtual machine. I think my EZFlash JR's 2GB card is not getting well too, because of that.

The write cycle is a lottery. My first USB flash drive writes normally. And I used it a lot back when I only had one. Until now, read-only mode has only happened with a USB flash drive and an SD card. But that's an expected death.

The problem is that it's not a rule with SD cards for several reasons.

And speaking of cameras... I've been keeping a Memory Stick Pro Duo. I wonder if I'd have as many problems if the Memory Stick Micro had taken over the market...

Still using your Nokia C2-00?

Yes. I have an LG TV(70un7310psc) that killed a tablet and almost killed two USB flash drives that used to store old videos. The C2-00 + 64GB SD card solved my problem.

[Extrems]

Is it needed for Ethernet adapters too?

Most SPI devices don't care. It's just the misdesigned SD card protocol that does.

[Mario9654]

Good news: My GC2SD arrived a day early. I picked up a 32 GB MicroSD, formatted it to FAT32, and put the files for SNES9XGX on the card. When I launched Swiss, it immediately detected the card and SNES9XGX booted up without any trouble.

If anyone's wondering if the Original (240p) option displays in proper 240p or not, I can confirm the latest version as of writing this (4.5.7) outputs proper 240p in that mode so people with SD CRTs can get a real crisp picture. I just heard some people say the original mode displayed in 480i, but those posts were made back in 2020/2021.

I decided to give up on the SD2SP2. While the SD2SP2 frees up a slot, its connection isn't very good and not a lot of homebrew apps support it.