GameDrive is especially sensitive to flash media used

[eightbit]

Now that my Jaguar is repaired and I can actually play around with the GameDrive I have been having a blast most of the day and evening

 

I did discover fairly quickly however that it is pretty picky when it comes to the flash media. Not necessarily with detecting it, but success rate of loading games.

 

 

Initially I was using a Sandisk ImageMate 32GB microSD card, this one in particular:

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/SanDisk-32GB-ImageMate-microSDHC-UHS-1-Memory-Card-Up-to-120MB-s-SDSQUA4-032G-Aw6ka/547052541

 

It worked fine for the most part...I played quite a few games. But, there were some issues that I would have completely chalked up to the GameDrive versus the media. Stuff like Braindead 13 glitching, Dragon's Lair freezing on launch, Iron Solider II going to a black screen (even the cartridge dump). 

 

For the heck of it I decided to change the media and use what I normally use, which is this Sandisk model:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GY9NYRM/

 

 

And wouldn't you know that those problems are gone. I have not tested all of the Jag CD games, but the aforementioned titles now work and Iron Soldier plays just fine (both CD and cart dumps).

 

 

Maybe all of this is common knowledge but I figured I would throw this out there. If you are having issues it might be the media and not the console or the GameDrive. I find it very odd however that both of these cards have similar specs but one works fine over the other. It must be the NAND flash that is used in each.  

[+Mitch]

Did you check if your original SD card was fragmented? That can cause issues for the JagGD, though mainly for CD games.

 

Mitch

[eightbit]

57 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Did you check if your original SD card was fragmented? That can cause issues for the JagGD, though mainly for CD games.

 

Mitch

 

It was newly formatted FAT32 using GParted. Fresh format and then copied the games over. I used the same process with the good working 32GB microSD card.

 

I have run into this sort of situation with other flash carts and ODE's in the past as well, so now when I run into loading issues my first instinct is to try different media.

 

Initially when I was getting the black screen with Iron Soldier 2 I searched the forums here and found some other posts with people saying the exact same thing so I chalked it up to a compatibility issue. I was quite surprised to see that the game actually DOES work...just not with my first choice of media.

 

I think my point is really that if people are having issues launching titles it may be a good idea to try alt media. The 32GB microSD card model I use that is working great is quite cheap ($7 and change) and these have been pretty reliable. 

Edited April 27 by eightbit

[SainT]

This is known, yes, I mentioned it a long time ago, but has most likely got lost! It has nothing to do with fragmentation as mentioned above, the CD image cannot be fragmented or the GD will give you an error.

 

it’s down to how fast the memory card responds and provides data. Personally I found the older cards I had gave issues, but the newer were ok. There may be issues with certain new cards too, I guess! I mostly use a 16GB sandisc card.