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Possible Issue with Pokémon ORAS Stopping to Work?

Kazooie

Kazooie

Member
Jul 17, 2019
5,023
In our very small German video games community, physical Pokémon ORAS games have stopped working at a surprising rate. Overall, there are six known cases to us of Pokémon ORAS games just refusing to start up. Among the tested cartridges, that's a failure rate of about 50%. We are unaware of any other 3DS games that may have stopped working among our community, so this is a surprisingly large number. We would like to gauge whether we are just a particularly unlucky batch or if there is a widespread problem. So please, if you have some time and can check your copy of ORAS, tell us whether it can still be started or not. Please also state the region of the game; with us, it is always a German card that stopped working.
 
ReddishGUI

ReddishGUI

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,001
I don't have a German copy to test but I remember reading similar stories with Persona Q.
 
Martin

Martin

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,432
Same happened to me! I also have German version of Ruby!
The game won't start but I could still put my Pokémon into Pokémon box
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,294
I don't know what country they were originally from (EU at least) but in our store we've also had several of these that would just give errors seconds seconds after start-up. No other games have had this issue (I didn't test every game), just ORAS.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,634
Hmmm... that's bizarre. I'm currently charging my 3DS because I was gonna play on Ace Attorney later on, but I'll check my UK copy of Omega Ruby afterwards and report back.
Is it both versions?
 
Doctor Phishshoe

Doctor Phishshoe

Member
Apr 26, 2020
736
Mine oras card doesnt work anymore as well... And based on my research it is a widespread problem. This has been the case since spring 2020... For me

EU btw...
 
Pikagreg

Pikagreg

Member
Feb 5, 2018
469
We had this problem with Persona Q in the US and I wasn't aware of any other games with a high cart failure rate
 
Giga Man

Giga Man

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,225
Well, this is frightening...

Anybody tested their US carts yet? I can't check mine at the moment.

Pikagreg said:
We had this problem with Persona Q in the US and I wasn't aware of any other games with a high cart failure rate
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I don't have Persona Q, but now I feel like I need to check all my 3DS games now and find a way to back them up for emulation!
 
Valkerion

Valkerion

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,234
Giga Man said:
Well, this is frightening...

Anybody tested their US carts yet? I can't check mine at the moment.


I don't have Persona Q, but now I feel like I need to check all my 3DS games now and find a way to back them up for emulation!
Click to expand...
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My Alpha Sapphire cart is working (just checked, also surprised my 3DS had any charge since I have not used it in a year.
 
RXM027

RXM027

Member
Dec 18, 2020
1,017
Giga Man said:
Well, this is frightening...

Anybody tested their US carts yet? I can't check mine at the moment.


I don't have Persona Q, but now I feel like I need to check all my 3DS games now and find a way to back them up for emulation!
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American here. Checked both OR and AS cartridges. Both ran completely fine.
 
scamander

scamander

Member
Oct 27, 2017
522
I just checked and my German copy of the game runs fine. If it's such a widespread issue and likely due to a bad batch, I would just contact Nintendo inform them about it, though. Maybe they are already aware and offer a replacement or send a code for the digital version.
 
Bremsstrahlung

Bremsstrahlung

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,368
Oof, that sucks. I checked my NA copy of OR and it seems to be fine. I did get hit by the Persona Q one tho. Which makes me curious, did EU Persona Q carts have the same problem?
 
Hieroph

Hieroph

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,995
Kazooie said:
We would like to gauge whether we are just a particularly unlucky batch or if there is a widespread problem. So please, if you have some time and can check your copy of ORAS, tell us whether it can still be started or not. Please also state the region of the game; with us, it is always a German card that stopped working.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You should also track the age of the cartridges if possible. Like, was it bought at launch, did it have any patches pre-installed, and anything else that might point at the general manufacturing date.
 
DoctorPlayer MD

DoctorPlayer MD

Member
Feb 4, 2021
2,187
Brazil
US cartridge here working fine.

I have a problem with Pokemon Moon, though. I can boot up the game and load my save in front of the PC in the Pokémon Center. If I try to leave the Center the game crashes. Nothing I do (healing my pokémon, depositing on a PC box, etc) seems to change that.
 
OP
OP
Kazooie

Kazooie

Member
Jul 17, 2019
5,023
PachecoMD said:
US cartridge here working fine.

I have a problem with Pokemon Moon, though. I can boot up the game and load my save in front of the PC in the Pokémon Center. If I try to leave the Center the game crashes. Nothing I do (healing my pokémon, depositing on a PC box, etc) seems to change that.
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This, together with the Persona Q thing is pretty worrisome that there may be a fundamental issue with 3DS cartridges. At least with the ORAS issues, resetting the cartridge (and thus deleting the save file) does not rectify the issue, so it is surprising this is even possible (outside of degradation of the module).
 
ashm

ashm

Member
Oct 26, 2017
259
The cart I've had issues with is Smash 3DS. Specifically, the game gets stuck on the loading screen when certain fighters are selected as the player character. I recall Luigi having that issue specifically, but I could still fight against a CPU Luigi. I've tried deleting DLC data in case it was related to that, but nothing changed. I always attributed this to my 3DS being on its last legs and Smash maximizing use of 3DS's RAM, but now I think the cart may actually be malfunctioning.
 
IonMagus

IonMagus

Member
Feb 18, 2021
1,599
Thats scary, I have a lot of the more expensive 3ds JRPGs and it would suck if they would just stop working
 

Suichimo

Member
Mar 17, 2021
966
Unfortunately I no longer have the system, lost it in my recent move, to be able to check. However, is there any possibility of illegitimate cartridges? That's tended to be the issue the last few times people have had issues with Nintendo software.
 
darkside

darkside

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,290
Suichimo said:
Unfortunately I no longer have the system, lost it in my recent move, to be able to check. However, is there any possibility of illegitimate cartridges? That's tended to be the issue the last few times people have had issues with Nintendo software.
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Yeah that was my first thought. Maybe theres just a huge batch of counterfeits out there
 
Ginger Hail

Ginger Hail

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,134
Haven't gone through my collection in a while. Kind of worrying if this is something a lot of people have been experiencing. Has anything similar been observed with DS cartridges as of late? Wonder how different the two kinds of carts are if one's going and not the other.
 
DinoBlaster

DinoBlaster

Member
Feb 18, 2020
2,757
Wow all my pokemon that I've transferred from prior gens are on my Alpha Sapphire cartridge. Better get those loaded to the pokebank
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,071
Ive had this happen before not with ORAS but with Metroid Prime Pinball one day the game just completely stopped working and would not boot up.
 
OP
OP
Kazooie

Kazooie

Member
Jul 17, 2019
5,023
Suichimo said:
Unfortunately I no longer have the system, lost it in my recent move, to be able to check. However, is there any possibility of illegitimate cartridges? That's tended to be the issue the last few times people have had issues with Nintendo software.
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All cases I know of were bought new from Amazon.
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,071
Stopdoor said:
I hope you tried cleaning it lol. I order used carts online a lot and rarely ever fail to get a cart working after buffing the contacts.
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I actually haven't, didn't even want to touch those areas at the time but I should since if its messed up anyways. How do you go about it? Just a wipe or a q-tip?
 
-Peabody-

-Peabody-

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,597
ashm said:
The cart I've had issues with is Smash 3DS. Specifically, the game gets stuck on the loading screen when certain fighters are selected as the player character. I recall Luigi having that issue specifically, but I could still fight against a CPU Luigi. I've tried deleting DLC data in case it was related to that, but nothing changed. I always attributed this to my 3DS being on its last legs and Smash maximizing use of 3DS's RAM, but now I think the cart may actually be malfunctioning.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I had this issue too but part of me thinks this is just an issue with Smash taxing the 3ds to the point it's hard to run with all the dlc.
 
RXM027

RXM027

Member
Dec 18, 2020
1,017
Suichimo said:
Unfortunately I no longer have the system, lost it in my recent move, to be able to check. However, is there any possibility of illegitimate cartridges? That's tended to be the issue the last few times people have had issues with Nintendo software.
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AFAIK, there's no known 3DS bootlegs like with the GBA and DS, especially ones that run on unmodified hardware.
 

Suichimo

Member
Mar 17, 2021
966
Kazooie said:
All cases I know of were bought new from Amazon.
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Anyone know how to verify 3DS cartridges? I remember reading guides for how to verify if a GBA cartridge is authentic or not, haven't seen a 3DS infographic.

RXM027 said:
AFAIK, there's no known 3DS bootlegs like with the GBA and DS, especially ones that run on unmodified hardware.
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This came in as I was typing the above. That should clear out that hurdle, then.
 
Anim

Anim

Member
Oct 29, 2017
115
scamander said:
I just checked and my German copy of the game runs fine. If it's such a widespread issue and likely due to a bad batch, I would just contact Nintendo inform them about it, though. Maybe they are already aware and offer a replacement or send a code for the digital version.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No such luck. I've had this exact issue with my German copy of Omega Ruby 2 years ago. I contacted Nintendo and was told to contact the shop where I bought the game and they should replace it if it's within the 2 years guarantee period. Unfortunately it was more than 2 years since I bought it back then, so I eventually ended up double dipping with Alpha Sapphire.
 
TheAggroCraig

TheAggroCraig

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,913
Just checked my OR/AS copies and both are fine. Is there anything unique about those cartridges (higher memory than other games or something?) that could cause issues?
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,230
Mine still works thankfully. I just started playing it again, funny enough. That's still concerning though. It'll be interesting to learn why these games are affected.
 
RXM027

RXM027

Member
Dec 18, 2020
1,017
TheAggroCraig said:
Just checked my OR/AS copies and both are fine. Is there anything unique about those cartridges (higher memory than other games or something?) that could cause issues?
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For ORAS, not sure, as they're smack dab in the middle of the 3DS cartridge sizes (games are 2GB, cartridge sizes are 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB) I don't think the 8GB ones were used, but maybe some of the other games mentioned in this thread mentioned might be 4GB cartridges, which would probably be the most prone to failure.
 
ROMASS

ROMASS

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 15, 2018
586
Italian launch date cards, OR is fine, AS stopped working somewhere in between 2017 and 2019.

Game crashes before starting and gives an error message, and the digital manual doesn't work.
Tried to rip the game and the ROM had the same issue, but I could backup the save file.

A friend had the same problem with OR, it's a widespread issue.
 
TheAggroCraig

TheAggroCraig

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,913
RXM027 said:
For ORAS, not sure, as they're smack dab in the middle of the 3DS cartridge sizes (games are 2GB, cartridge sizes are 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB) I don't think the 8GB ones were used, but maybe some of the other games mentioned in this thread mentioned might be 4GB cartridges.
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Interesting, no idea then.

I could see HGSS/BW/BW2 having more issues considering their cartridges have extra hardware like infrared built in (not that I could see that causing an issue, but it is fairly unique to DS games), but if these are just regular 3DS carts then hell if I know.

Maybe it's just because a lot of people have these games so there's a higher ratio of people finding issues with them.
 
OP
OP
Kazooie

Kazooie

Member
Jul 17, 2019
5,023
TheAggroCraig said:
Interesting, no idea then.

I could see HGSS/BW/BW2 having more issues considering their cartridges have extra hardware like infrared built in (not that I could see that causing an issue, but it is fairly unique to DS games), but if these are just regular 3DS carts then hell if I know.

Maybe it's just because a lot of people have these games so there's a higher ratio of people finding issues with them.
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I am not sure, but with the starting point (our small community), it is actually an issue exclusive to ORAS.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,110
Just checked it out... My copy (EU/UK to be specific) is seemingly dead as well, won't even show in the menu whatsoever of the original or New model.
It does seem to know that something is being inserted or removed, since the text: "There is nothing inserted into the Game Card slot." flashes when putting it in.
But other than that, it does not actually show up...

Edit: What's the best course of action now? Accept that I'm out of a working cartridge? Send it to Nintendo and see if they might replace it/fix it?
 
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