It seem after reading all these post every successful brand of flash cart has an even bigger unsuccessful clone. Just as I thought I was bamboozled by my R4-SDHC purchase looks like I should just be happy it works now and hope it continues. Even the pirates are fighting piracy. Ironic
It has to do with the way things work in china. The laws are very different when it comes to bootleg products there. So long as the name of the product is just ever so slightly different there is no legal recourse to prevent knockoffs. If someone made their own flashcart and called it the R4 then they would be stopped by the authorities. But if they call it the R4knockoff then they're legally in the clear to profit off the name of the successful product, even though theirs is (likely) of inferior quality. Every product in china is like this. They even make knockoff products that don't make any sense at all, like 'Microroft' brand cola. The idea is that so long as they look somewhat like a known brand of anything they'll see a sales boost.