Need help. Bought from Ebay. NO knowledge on tech stuff

richard6040

Hi. I know this is an ongoing topic but this is a subject that can make someone go crazy on google. I just want to play my games from the past. I went on Ebay and paid for the complete set up. Everything worked fine for a few months. Just the other day. Random roms from all emulators have stopped working. Some just go to a black screen. Some back the menu. Some glitch now. I have been looking for help online but all I can find is super tech talk. Can anybody explain in simple folk terms? I hope this can be solved just by using this SNES controller that came with my system. Thanks in advance for your help.

lostless

Sounds like your sd card has gone corrupt. We can’t help you with a third party images because we have no idea how it’s set up. You might have to just restore and start from scratch. And most fixes will require more than “just using a snes controler”

Hex

@richard6040 Can you ask the ebay seller for support ?

felleg

Rip ;(

rbaker

@richard6040 said in Need help. Bought from Ebay. NO knowledge on tech stuff:

Can anybody explain in simple folk terms?

If the roms worked and now they don't then something is probably corrupted. So for example, how do you power down? Pulling the cord can corrupt your SD card. If you are trying new roms that you have not tried to play before and they are returning you after a black screen, it means that the system is set up incorrectly and certain essential files are either missing or in the wrong place. A controller cannot really be used to reconfigure the system. You need a keyboard as a minimum. Ideally, you need a pc which is networked so you can access the Pi remotely and perform maintenance and transfer roms. The thing about this project is that it is a learning tool and is not designed to be plug and play. Every aspect of the system can be tweaked and customised. The person selling the setup is actually doing nobody any favours because Retropie is free and it is illegal to sell it. Buyers are basically being scammed. These sellers then have the audacity to refer people here for support with their 3rd party, poorly configured setups that nobody can possibly predict or understand. That's the reason no real support can be offered other than recommending that you flash the official image and start again. That way, it's a known quantity. In the past people often post that they are not interested in that, they just want it working. This is the wrong project for them in my opinion. It's not and never will be plug and play, it's too complex. It's this complexity that allows for the infinite configuration choices and the learning opportunities that they bring. I hope that this is clear. In simple terms, you might be able to solve your black screen issue by reading this which is written in non-technical terms. However, you will need to have basic folder and file manipulation skills with a pc like drag and drop etc.

BobHarris

You have two options:

Stick with official plug and play devices like (s)nes classic mini
Start a new hobby creating your own personalized Retropie system by starting from scratch. It's not that hard. All the information is readily available on this website. You may want to invest in a quality micro sd card first.