VMU not working?

[Zeno]

When I put my Dreamcast memory card into the controller, it emits a long high pitched beep. (Longer than normal) The Dreamcast doesn't show/detect it. Does anyone know whats wrong? "No memory card found." It also has no LCD display... My other memory card works. The beep lasts for 3 seconds, while the working memory card beep lasts 1 second.

[DCDayDreamer]

The beep indicates the VMU battery life has run down on normal VMU's, the problem with your VMU with the longer beep I'm not sure of, it should still register but it might be corrupt.

[Zeno]

I heard from other Dreamcast users that it works fine with a dead battery.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Yeah, dead battery shouldn't be a problem. The length of the beep probably also doesn't have any signficance to your problem, Sega changed the length of the beep at some point during the Dreamcast's (or really the VMU's) life because everyone was so annoyed by the long ass beep every time they turned their system on. You probbaly have one older VMU with a long beep and one newer one.

I would recommend cleaning the contacts on the non-working VMU and also of course trying it in different ports if you haven't already. Or it could be simply an altogether zapped card as DayDreamer suggests, I've never had any of mine (first party or third) go totally bad, but it's certainly possible and eventually even likely, I guess.


...word is bondage...

[Eric]

I have had a 3rd party go to the dumps given to me by a friend. I have no clue what the name of this card was and i think it was a japanese one. It was blue i believe had a red light at the top to choose a different memory card cause it was 4 memory cards in one. The problem started occuring after playing Soul Caliber and using a 3rd party rumblepack.

Everytime i used this Rumblepack the memory card wouldnt load or save. If i put the rumble pack in after i was done loading the game it worked fine but i would have to take out the rumble pack in order to save. Well after all that nice work I would load Soul Caliber and it the beginning it would what we call "TRY" and load save but an error came up.

Eventually i formatted that memory card and 2 slots wouldnt read of the card anymore and 2 would but saving and loading off of it was impossible making the one card i wish didnt break not work anymore :( . But i dont know what truly happened cause i just shared all of the info of what could have made this vmu fault and by the way the Soul Caliber game was in japanese.

Eric

[Zeno]

Hmm, so the beep doesn't matter... Well I tried cleaning it before and it still doesn't work. I guess I'll try again.

[ptr.exe]

Everytime i used this Rumblepack the memory card wouldnt load or save
The two VMU slots take power in parallel, if something taking power is in the other slot, then the VMU can't save. I'm guessing the rumblepack is 3rd party?

Zeno, the VMU is fried, i seriously doubt you're gonna get it working, check the connection with a multimeter if you can, and open it up to see if there is any gunk causing a short or something. Otherwise its a blown resistor/cap somewhere which is gonna be hard to find.

[Eric]

Yeah the Rumble Pack was 3rd party i was so pleased to get the thing only being 4.99 canadian. But i found it very disturbing i couldnt use it with a vmu and i think i eventually threw the thing out as it was pretty much a waste just to use with out saving or loading a game.

[ptr.exe]

You could of just unplugged it when you wanted to use a VMU to save/load.

Disturbing? bit strong :p are you sure you don't mean just annoying :)

[Zeno]

Zeno, the VMU is fried, i seriously doubt you're gonna get it working, check the connection with a multimeter if you can, and open it up to see if there is any gunk causing a short or something. Otherwise its a blown resistor/cap somewhere which is gonna be hard to find.

Sometimes the VMU works, but rarely. How would it be fried if it sometimes works?