Text Characters Are Messed Up. Smc Not Working...


Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
118
Hello, I've recently picked up my GP32 NLU only to find that the text is messed up.

Letters are swapped. For example, every character "e" is replace with "g", upper and lower case. So instead of reading "repeat", I see on the screen "rgpgat".

It's not just the letter "e". "u" is replaced by "w". "m" is replaced with "o", etc.

I tried to flash multiple firmwares via JTAG (originally it had slubman.gpdrive, flashed Aquafish multi 5, flashbios the recovery firmware and Stock firmware 1.5.7) and they all have the same problem...

I could not flash the usual way because on top of that, SMC reading and writing is not working... well with the GP32. I don't think it is the SMC because when I plug it in my Computer using a USB reader I can use the card just fine. I tested data retention and total capacity. When I try to format SMC either via firmware or PC-LINK (with a firmware using PC-LINK) I get weird error and it does not create any folders... On PC-LINK, the folder GAME is created but then I get a process error...

I don't know what to do about this and I was wondering if anyone had ever experienced the same thing? What can I do with this? Is it possible the eeprom's data might be corrupted? Is there a ROM chip with vital information about SMC I/O protocol and fonts database?

Please help me!
 
With JTAG, I don't want to tell you how to suck eggs but:

http://www.cobbleware.com/gp32/gp32jtag.html

Seems, to have a custom mini firmware, to then install a full one (I like Slubman).

As for the letters being jumbled, I did get something odd on a couple of units before, one I put in fresh cells and successfully re-flashed.

The other unit is called "Parts", as the re-flashing did not work.

I can only assume as you suggest that some EPROM, went and lost some data (static?, a surge from power up, whatever!).

Sorry, I can't give a definite answer.
 
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