wildfruit
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 138
Fave PCE Shooter: Gunhed
Fave PCE Platformer: Dracula X
Fave PCE Game Overall: Maybe cratermaze!
Fave PCE RPG: Ys IV
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Post by wildfruit on Oct 27, 2019 13:09:31 GMT
I left my duo unplugged for some time. Maybe 4/5 months. Does anyone have any advice how long I should leave it plugged in to put charge back in the capacitor to keep it for a while ?. I used to plug it in for couple hours every week or so and this worked fine but just forgot this time.
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Post by dshadoff on Oct 27, 2019 13:24:41 GMT
Did it lose the data, or are you asking just as a point of reference ?
I'm not sure about the Backup RAM (and this may vary based on whether it's a Duo, an IFU-30, or a Super CDROM add-on), but I have found: - Tennokoe Bank battery loses its charge between 5-15 years later (many variables) - Memory Base 128, on fresh batteries, may run low as quickly as 2 weeks, or may survive up to 2 months
Also, back to the Backup RAM, I suspect that simply having it plugged in is not sufficient - that it may require that the machine is turned on (at least for a moment) in order to charge.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Oct 27, 2019 15:46:31 GMT
Leaving it it plugged in will do nothing, it has to be switched on. I would imagine turning it on for five seconds every week would do it. You don’t have to play or do a thing, just turn it on.
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wildfruit
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 138
Fave PCE Shooter: Gunhed
Fave PCE Platformer: Dracula X
Fave PCE Game Overall: Maybe cratermaze!
Fave PCE RPG: Ys IV
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Post by wildfruit on Oct 27, 2019 16:21:16 GMT
Yea it was the backup ram. Some sweet saves gone o well. Thanks for your advice chaps. Will turn it on periodically from now on.
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Post by munchiaz on Oct 28, 2019 19:48:16 GMT
I forgot about this and didn't play my DuoR for 6 months and when i booted up dynastic hero, I got an error about not being able to locate memory. I kept the console on for a bit, and it seemed to fix itself.
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pokun
Gun-headed
Posts: 85
Homebrew skills: HuC6280 assembly
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Post by pokun on Oct 31, 2019 18:48:03 GMT
According to the manual for Duo-R, its internal backup memory should last a week, in my experience it's more like around a month. 6 months seems like a lot but I guess it's not impossible. You never know if it's just the game that accepts the save file despite it really being partly corrupt.
My Save-kun lasts well over a year if good modern batteries are used (I use Eneloop low-discharge rechargeable batteries). I'd guess the MB128 is no different.
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Post by spenoza on Oct 31, 2019 20:20:54 GMT
Is there a not-too-difficult way to hack a battery circuit into the Duo? Something you can slap a couple AA batteries into? There’s room in that case.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Oct 31, 2019 23:58:34 GMT
Oh for sure that would be easy. I never would though, personally. I don’t want my Duo to have a maintenance schedule. The included solution satisfies everyone except people who think they need to keep their saves forever even though they aren’t turning the system on.
From my experience, when my Duo was new-ish, I’m pretty sure I had a save last over six months but for sure a month is no problem. If I’m away from a game that long I don’t remember WTF I was doing anyway so it’s never bothered me.
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Post by _jash on Nov 1, 2019 16:07:28 GMT
I still want to know if his data was lost after 6 months. For what it's worth I mainly use a SGFX-SCD2 setup and leave my Duo stored most of the year in a closet. It comes out in January, May, and September for game conventions. That's about it, and it's been that way for the last 2ish years. All the saves are still intact.
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Post by dshadoff on Nov 1, 2019 16:10:17 GMT
I took “some sweet saves gone” to mean that he did lose data
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wildfruit
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 138
Fave PCE Shooter: Gunhed
Fave PCE Platformer: Dracula X
Fave PCE Game Overall: Maybe cratermaze!
Fave PCE RPG: Ys IV
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Post by wildfruit on Dec 15, 2019 13:03:03 GMT
I still want to know if his data was lost after 6 months. For what it's worth I mainly use a SGFX-SCD2 setup and leave my Duo stored most of the year in a closet. It comes out in January, May, and September for game conventions. That's about it, and it's been that way for the last 2ish years. All the saves are still intact. Yes I should have been clearer on OP. The data wasn’t lost as such. The file names were still in the menu. Nothing would load though. Tried multiple games. Wiped the memory now saving and loading correctly. I just presumed must have been a charge issue as left it idle for so long. Maybe it wasn’t.
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Post by elmer on Dec 15, 2019 19:18:33 GMT
For what it's worth I mainly use a SGFX-SCD2 setup and leave my Duo stored most of the year in a closet. Ahhh ... my favorite PCE setup! It's a pity that it takes up so much physical space though. Yes I should have been clearer on OP. The data wasn’t lost as such. The file names were still in the menu. Nothing would load though. Tried multiple games. Wiped the memory now saving and loading correctly. I just presumed must have been a charge issue as left it idle for so long. Maybe it wasn’t. Yep, that'll be the charge slowly running out ... presumably even though the filenames were OK, *some* of the data was lost, and so the checksums on each of the files would fail, and the games would refuse to load them. If you've got a Turbo Everdrive, you can just backup that BRAM to SD card now. Don't forget to copy the SD card to a PC at some point (or load/save the BRAM slot again), IIRC SD cards are rated for something like 10 years of data retention.
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