Updating the DS Frimware

Wow. This was a breeze. I had been using ver 1.02 firmware for most of the year because i never really saw the need to update it. If it ain't broke then don't fix it, right? Here's what i did for upgrading to 1.08:

-removed micro SD card and plugged it into USB card reader
-copied over every file from micro SD and thus backing up all of my files
-copy over unzip'ed firmware files
-copy over game data
-done!

Somehow i ran into an odd issue. The zip of 1.08 had the following four files:

• _system_
• moonshl
• _Ds_menu.dat,
• _Ds_mshl.nds

What i had on my DS was:

• ds games (my game data)
  
• moonshl
• _ds_menu.dat
• _ds_menu.sys
• _ds_mshl.nds

My problem was that my DS was no longer recognizing the card. It would boot regularly as if here was no mod card in there. After talking to a friend who had a similar setup I figured out what the problem for me was. On mine i had "_ds_menu.sys" from when it was initially set up 10 months ago by someone else. The new firmware had "_system_" in it. It seems as though that the contents of that directory was conflicting with my *.sys file. After removing my old *.sys file, my mod card was recognized immediately and that was the end of that. I'm not sure why i had that file in the first place but then i never set my card up in the first place so i have no idea what happened.

A properly configured 1.08 firmware (like mine now)should have the following:

• ds games (my game data)
  
• moonshl
• _ds_menu.dat
• _ds_menu.sys
• _ds_mshl.nds

What difference did i notice after the firmware update? The major difference that i noticed is that somewhere along the line they built in a way to enable cheat codes on a lot of games. Most of the cheat codes work but on a few games (Bomberman) they don't. Aside from that, I'm now able to play "Zelda: Phantom Hourglass" finally.

This whole ordeal took me appx 30 minutes to resolve. Not bad considering i had no idea what i was doing initially but then this also reflects how easy the M3 Simply card is to use.

On a negative note, i feel the need to comment on my only grumble thus far with the M3 Simply. Since it uses micro SD as it's memory and you need to remove that card so you can transfer files and/or firmware updates, you have to constantly swap the card in and out. On occasion the micro SD doesn't make a solid connection with the mod cart after a swap which can be annoying. Micro SD cards are very small and i keep worrying that i'm going to break either that or the cart. So far i know four people who have the same carts that i do and none of theirs has broken yet but they have all expressed the same concern as i have about this happening. Just my $.02 worth on what is otherwise an excellent purchase for my DS Lite!

Yay! Rayman 2 is ready to be transferred over so i can try it out!!!

:)