gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

Hi all,

I recently just got all the gear I need in order to start playing my GF's gamecube! (SDML, SDHC, time!). Earlier today I copied super mario sunshine ntsc over on to my SDHC and went through the process of booting up SDML -> Swiss (switch SD cards) -> and loading Super mario sunshine. I set the right settings for the audio to work, and everything was great and I played for a few hours. Later on today I put a few more games on the SDHC and I went back to play (super monkey ball) and the screen was black. I followed the settings provided on the compatibility list but figured maybe it was just the game. I went to try super mario sunshine and now that will only load a black screen. This goes for all the games I currently have. I'm curious what could have changed? Thanks for any insight and let me know if there is any more information I could share to make this easier to diagnose. Also, thanks a lot for the opportunity for me to even play these games in the first place

edit: Also on a side note. Does anyone here use the SD reader that came with SDML? Mine seems like a piece of turd. I have to fiddle with the SD cards just right in order for them to get detected. (they are good brand SD cards.). I already ordered a new SD reader from dealxtreme, but I'm just curious if anyone else had this same problem. thanks!

I'd say get a better SDGecko or try to put Super Mario Sunshine on the card again by itself.

Thanks for the response. I agree this SD card reader that came with SDML is a piece of garbage. I already ordered the Wiikey SD Card Adapter from dealextreme and judging by the comments there it seems to work on the Gamecube and is of decent quality.

I appreciate the quick response!

Have you checked the swiss compatibility list robownz7.

http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.ph ... ility_List

I have, and I've set the settings to the correct things. After I had these problems I did a complete reformat of my SD card and transferred all the games back on there in one shot. I then proceeded to launch Super Mario Sunshine again with the appropriate settings and it worked like it did earlier. I then restart, launched swiss again and chose to run Super Monkey Ball with the appropriate settings and it launched the game to a distorted color pixaled image where it looked like it said Loading, but it was clearly frozen. (this happened before.) So figuring I broke something, I restarted once more to launch Super Mario Sunshine and sure enough it is only a black screen. I'm not sure if its a fluke, or if one thing affects the other. But I'm back to where I was before. Things seem to only want to work one time. Also I get a lot of page file could not be read errors when I try to read the SD card from the B slot until I fiddle with it enough to get it to actually read. I want to say the culprit is this garbage SDML SD reader I have but maybe some of these symptoms are a red flag for something else?

Edit: also analyzed with a defragmenting program and there are no fragments, whether that means something or not.

if you have to play with the adapter then its possible you might have a contact issue...
not sure if the issue might be on the adapters SD side or GC side....


you could always try tape as shown here to see if it improves the adapters connection to the GC side
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=798&p=10427&hilit=tape#p10427

I was actually thinking the same thing, like it may be miss firing when trying to read off the card due to contact issues. I took apart the casing that came on the SDML sd reader and everything in there is just freefloating around and when i shake it i can hear it rattle. I'll try tightning it up and see if it'll make a difference before my new sdgecko gets here. Thanks for the link.

edit: No change. I made it not rattle and it fit nice but it still will only detect any SD card after about 10 tries. I think it's a waste of time to really try to fix the issue further when I strongly believe its the SDML SD reader just being faulty. I will have a follow up post in a week or two when the new SD reader gets here. Thanks for the help

I have not tried NTSC Super Monkey Ball One for sometime but it used to freeze on load screen with an old swiss release.

I also seem to remember the PAL version was reported as working.

That Datel SD reader does cause issues no question about it. Its junk.

I have a question about PAL and NTSC. Doesn't it matter which I use? Is it dependant on the console or on the TV, or neither? I'm about 99% convince its this Datel reader as well, makes me mad I had to pay nearly $30 for it all.

Usually best to use the region that matches your GameCube, but generally it shouldn't matter within Swiss.

Hey all. I just wanted to come back and post a follow up. I FINALLY just got the new SD reader after having ordered it 3 weeks ago, and by far the quality of this SDGecko is beyond the datel one. Popped it in booted up super monkey ball in one shot no problems. I believe the problem began and ends with that crappy SDGecko. Thanks for the help and happy gaming