Testing this out now because my GDEmu is slow as hell.... 2 minutes loading time? I dream of 2 minutes right now! Mine is taking about about 4-5 minutes to get into the boot up screen (load/vmu/clock/etc) and then it's just freezing... well, taking an eternity to do anything. I'm way beyond 2 minutes!
So, I decide to give this a shot and I get "ERROR: the media is write protected" - this card used to work fine with MadSheeps tool - but since I opened my DC to fit a Pico PSU I'm just getting the slow, dare I say it, eternal, load up times.
That error was with 128gb SD. Now I'll try with the 32gb and report back...
(some time later...)
The 128gb - in both MadSheep and this tool both give me the error "media is write protected" - and this card worked fine a month ago with about 10 games on it. Now neither tool recognise it properly.
Okay, tested 32gb (formatted fat32) and no dice... still just hangs at the blue screen for ages then, eventually, load to DC startup menu, then just hangs on "please wait while disc is being checked"... at which point I turn it off - it's no good if it takes 30 mins to load the menu, even if it does load eventually (which I am doubting)
So... plan B - I have another DC which I'm going to dismantle and see if the GDEmu behaves any differently.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is categorically the worst mod I've ever crossed paths with. Heck, even the vintage (really early) PS2 mod where I had to hammer the power button 5 times, then do a super fast disc-swap as the original boot disc came flying out, spinning at 400mph, was still more fun than this. At least I could actually 'play' the games with that disc-crunching modification. This GDEmu has been one brutal headache after another. Sure, when it works it's great! But the key is getting it to 'work'.
Sorry to grumble here but I need to vent my woes... I'm tearing my hair out with this thing and I don't have many hairs left
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Edit... okay, I hope this helps others here - CHECK THE GDEMU PCB! - I spotted a tiny blob of solder on the chip (not the one directly next to the SD card slot - the other one (of the two) I just scraped it with a screwdriver and it booted up straight away
Edit 2... had to nip off to do some work for a while. Came back, took it out and did some more scraping, put it back in and... hangs on blue swirl logo (slow) just as before. Wiggled it around a bit in the connector and it finally started working (again). I still don't trust this thing - I'm now thinking it 'may' be down to how you plug in the GDEmu and the slightest move will knock it out of position and cause the eternal slowdown thing that keeps happening - that's what it felt like when I got it working now. I dunno. I'll keep it for 1 game at a time and use it like that. The corrupt SD cards have also been a constant problem... even though the cards are fine.