Hello everybody. I work for an undisclosed company that sells R4s in the UK. Recently, we've gotten a lot of complaints, returns and generally a ton of problems since transitioning over from normal R4s to SDHC ones. Say what you will about them being "fake" but as it stands the "real" R4 doesn't look like it will make any sort of return so this is the best you're gonna get if you're wanting to use SDHC cards. Also, no, they wont brick your DS. I know, I use one Back to the point at hand. Every day I have to personally sort through nearly 100 "faulty" R4s, 95% of them being in perfect working order. So why are they getting sent back as faulty? Because people are using the wrong firmware. We then have to point them toward correct versions of firmware. It's tedious. So, without further ado, I present: MYTHBUSTERS: R4s - To Brick or Not To Brick? 1. The Original and Best: The original R4 company died ages ago. I'm sorry if this is news to you but it's very much old news to me. Most fo the R4s supplied these days are *SHOCK HORROR* "fake"! Except they're not, since usually these companies are made up of old R4 staff in the first place. The new wave of SDHC R4s are not exceptions. 2. Buyer Beware: So, let's assume you want to buy an R4. How can you tell what sites/sellers are reputable? Well, for one thing, you can check feedback to see if their goods are dodgy or not. If you buy from a reputable seller with good feedback then usually the product you are getting wont brick your DS. 3. Arr Four: There are in fact 2 types of R4 on the market - the one that only supports up to 2GB microSD cards and uses the v1.18 kernel (for the remainder of this post I shall refer to these R4s as Version 1's or v1's), and the one that can support all microSD cards up to 2GB, AND all SDHC cards from 4GB to 16GB and uses the v1.21 kernel (We shall call these ones Version 2's or v2's). Oh, and by the way, they're ALL "fake". See above. 4. Oh You Card!: Now the main course of this fine banquet of information - the microSD card itself. Depending on which one you pick should decide which R4 you should pick up and which kernel you should download. For ease of use, here's the list: (Key: -> = works on) - 1GB -> v1 with 1.18 AND v2 with 1.21 - 2GB -> v1 with 1.18 AND v2 with 1.21 - 4GB SDHC -> v2 with 1.21 - 8GB SDHC -> v2 with 1.21 - 16GB SDHC -> v2 with 1.21 5. Troubleshooting (And I Have Good Aim): Lets go through the most common problems R4s get. - Stuck on LOADING...: this is the most common problem, and it's easily solved - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT FIRMWARE. How do you check that? Well, the fact you have this problem means you aren't using the correct firmware. Delete the current firmware and get the other one. This SHOULD fix it. If it doesn't then chances are your R4 is actually faulty and you should get a replacement. There is also a small chance that you have faulty R4s that get past the loading screen. This a problem I have only encountered in v1 R4s, and you can tell it straight away as instead of the menu screen you get an error message in Chinese (translated, it says "Hardware Not Supported"). These should be returned as they are faulty and you cant fix them. Phew, that's a hell of a wall of text if I ever saw one. Anyway, I hope this answers any questions, queries and problems you have with your R4. If you have any other queries, post in this thread and I'll get back to you.
wouldnt it be easier for your customers if you include instructions within the R4 packaging to which firmware to use?
We do, for both types in fact. The 1.21s go out with a letter that points you to which firmware you should be using and some websites where you can get them. It's the same for 1.18s, but they get a different letter with information on what firmware they should use and, again, where to get it.z
