SNES does not show at all
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@rbaker Wow, thanks! This is what I mean about being out of my depth, though. Or at least new to so much. In the process of this, I learned about ImgBurn and ripping my PS1 disks (I also ripped my PS2 disks before I learned that I wouldn't be running those on the Pi), and then I had to learn about Win32diskimager to install Retropie. I used to goof around with my desktop a little beyond, like, Word, web-surfing, and games, but haven't had to in years. And games require less of that sort of thing than they used to, obviously, so anything I had there is total rust.
In some ways that makes this exciting, but MAN do I get nervous downloading and using programs I don't actually understand. That will probably make using the official guide this time a little less stressful.
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I tried reformatting the card with Win32DiskImager. It said "Access Denied" a couple of times. I looked this up, and it was suggested on a video that I try out SD_CardFormatter. This one took around 10 minutes to flash the disk (right terminology?), but it -seemed- to do something!
When I plugged it into the Pi and booted it, nothing showed up on my monitor. At first I was panicked, thinking I somehow damaged the display port. No particular reason, I just treat the thing like it was made of spun glass. Googling lead me to wonder if I just had a red light inside, or red and green. I'm just getting red. So that means it's not reading anything off of the card, right? I made extra sure that it was facing the right way in the slot and it was far enough in after that, but no change.
I type all of this out partially so you guys know that I'm not trying to abuse this resource/your time, that I'm trying to fix it by myself. At this point, I don't know if the card is corrupted (please don't be a corrupted card, I don't really want to buy more stuff), or if there's a better way to clean up the card and get Retropie on there again. I thought I'd ask you after doing this much by myself - for all I know, I've taken my circumstances and come to a wrong conclusion or two.
Thanks, as ALWAYS, for your time.
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Okay. In the previous post, the "Access Denied" bit always happened when Win32etc was at 2% progress. While waiting on advice, I figured that the flash (right terminology?) from SD_CardFormatter went so poorly, I could at least try a re-do with Win32etc.
This time it went the whole way through the process! I plugged it into my Pi, flipped it on, and things showed up on the screen! Yay things! But the scrolling text stopped abruptly. The last line started with "Kernel panic" and ended with 179, 2. I followed instructions stating to hold Shift and turn the device back on, but it didn't respond.
So, what the heck, clearly there's -something- going on with my Retropie install, right? I tried using Win32etc again..... and we've come full circle, back to it stating "Access Denied" right at exactly 2%.
I hope this information isn't totally random, and helps paint a picture to someone. Bad Pi? Bad SD card? PEBKAC?
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@tanneseph use etcher. Much simpler than win32diskimager.
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@tanneseph SD Card Formatter is to prepare the card. Win32 Disk imager is to write the retropie image to the prepared card. You have to complete the stages in order. You format the card according to the guide. You then write the image to the formatted card using Disk Imager (after extracting the file - you will extract the downloaded .gz file and the extracted file will be a .img file). The whole process is very fast - less than an few minutes. It is important that you have a genuine SD card and not a fake. I always use Class 10 Sandisks and have never had an issue. Etcher is another option because it means that you do no have to unzip (extract) the image from the file that you download first. You can write the image directly to a card from the file you download.
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I used Etcher, and was successful in flashing a loading SD.
After the long process of transferring my roms, I have discovered SNES -still- to be missing. I triple-confirmed that I placed them in the "snes" folder.
Also, the first time I booted this iteration, I saw no PS1 games. This happened with my first iteration. Back then, the second time I booted it, I could see just a couple of my PS1 roms (no rhyme or reason on which), then a couple of loads later I could see all of the PS1s.
So this time I immediately tried reloading ES, since that seems to be an answer to Things. Boom - four random PS1 roms out of at least a dozen. Still now SNES roms.
I tried reloading ES, and then the whole Pi, one time each. No new ROMs.
Furthermore, half the time "shutting down" the Pi involves a bunch of script, then a black screen. At that point I hit the power switch on my NesPi case. Now, the other half of the time I get a colorful, small ASCII screen with a Retropie joystick and such. It -seems- like a quit screen I should've always been getting?
Finally, I noticed that sometimes, in the middle of all that startup text, there's "FAILED" followed by something along the lines of "failed to mount 'usbdrive.'" If this is useful information, I'm happy to catch a pic of it with my phone and share.
Hopefully these details paint a picture that makes sense to someone. I followed the official guide this time.
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I may try building a new folder of snes roms in a totally different location, erasing the current snes folder, and replacing it. Is that a process that would make sense? Maybe there's a problem rom in the batch. If that doesn't work, I assume the next logical step is wiping the entire stick and transferring the roms again, making sure to use the new snes batch instead of the old?
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@tanneseph said in SNES does not show at all:
Is that a process that would make sense
No. If your roms are the correct extension and you haven't messed with anything else refreshing ES after adding your roms should make the snes system show up. Otherwise something else is going on.
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@tanneseph said in SNES does not show at all:
At that point I hit the power switch on my NesPi case.
This might be your issue. By default, the NESPi case simply kills the power without letting Emulation Station shut down properly and save the listed games. You have the right instincts, in that you're waiting for the software to shut down before you press the power button. However, the black screen you're seeing means that Emulation Station is still saving the games list. When a lot of games are added, or modified during a session, this can take an extra long time. Always wait until you see that ASCII joystick before you kill the power. Better yet, there's a scripting mod that allows the NESPi power button to shutdown Emulation Station properly and then safely power down the Pi.
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Well, shoot. So I know about that, now. And I've got no problem waiting to see the joystick to push the button. I should wait to dabble in extra scripts until I have a device that runs all of my stuff, maybe, ha!
So, uh, am I back to the drawing board of reinstalling the whole darn thing AGAIN?
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@tanneseph said in SNES does not show at all:
So, uh, am I back to the drawing board of reinstalling the whole darn thing AGAIN?
No, but a good place to start troublshooting is to first find out if the ROMs are actually being transferred. The advice given above by @rbaker in this post is likely to be the easiest way. An expansion on this information can be found here.
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You can also use the File Manager found in the RetroPie menu to view the ROM directory. From where it starts you off, you would navigate to
RetroPie >> roms >> snes. -
The snes folder was, in fact, empty. I'm so stunned, and so confused. The ps1 folder only showed the games ES is displaying.
Stranger still, when I attempt to exit the file manager with 10, I get a black screen with small text in the lower left. It says the following :
root@retropie:/home/pi#10
bash: 10: command not found
Press any key to continue...I can try any other option and get the same message with the number appropriately replaced.
I am at a point where I don't even know how to safely shut the darn thing off. I'll cut the power in an hour if I don't figure anything out. And try not to bash my head into my desk too hard.
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@tanneseph said in SNES does not show at all:
Stranger still, when I attempt to exit the file manager with 10, I get a black screen
It's a bit misleading, but it actually means 'F10'.
And try not to bash my head into my desk too hard.
I know that game.
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You know, I tried F10 first. But nothing happens. I just tried it a few time to be sure. Is it something like ALT+ or Shift+, or something else unstated?
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I'll check.
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@Tanneseph I couldn't find any information about your micro SD, can you tell me which one it is?
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'F10' is working on mine. It could be that your keyboard needs to be setup in the Raspi-Config. Killing the power is not a good practice over time, but odds are it'll be fine here.
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@martincrocenzi said in SNES does not show at all:
@Tanneseph I couldn't find any information about your micro SD, can you tell me which one it is?
Fair enough: I have a SanDisk Ultra Plus 16GB.
@mediamogul I couldn't find a place to update my keyboard setup. The first time I use it, I configure it, but only as a pseudo-gamepad for ES, basically. When I enter the more DOS-like parts (is that how I know I'm in Raspbian?), it has it's own configuration. The Arrows work as arrow keys (as opposed to WASD, which is what I'm using in ES), etc.
I use an Apple keyboard with my computer (which is Windows) because I like the keys. There's rare times where this causes issues with small things. I'll have some more time this afternoon, during which I'll hook up a Windows keyboard and see if that's the issue.
My PS1 games are now showing, because why not?
I am no longer getting the ASCII Joystick at close. I get the black screen, and then after a brief moment, my monitor flips to the blue "no HDMI signal" and itself goes into sleep mode.
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All that said.... I put SNES roms on my thumb drive. The Pi doesn't see them there! And it selectively choose when it didn't and didn't see a pile of PS1 roms. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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