FMCB on new retail PS2s

[jajakola]

Hi TnA,

Thanks for your reply. I was able to get the MC copied from a friend of mine who had 5004 and mine was a 9004 so free mcboot works fine, but now I have 3 new problems (

1) When I go to uLaunch, I get an error saying "Failed to load LAUNCHELF.CNF" on the top left corner. I installed free mcboot using the noobie package on skapps. So I dont know what I did wrong, how to I get this fixed?

2) ESR - I dont know how to get this working. I am inserting a BackedUp game (which works on a modded PS2 just fine) and launching ESR but says "invalid media in drive" I click on launchDVD and get a Black screen. My question is how do I play backed up games with freemcboot like I would on a modded system?

3) On the Main Menu Launched with freemcboot there is an option saying "Launch Disc" below "Browser", "System Configuration" Etc. But when I insert a BackedUp game on the PS2 and click on "Launch Disc" I get the Red Screen saying not a valid playstation disc. Is this not for launching BackedUp Discs?

Pls help. Totally new to all this.

Thanks.

[TnA]

Hi TnA,

Thanks for your reply. I was able to get the MC copied from a friend of mine who had 5004 and mine was a 9004 so free mcboot works fine, but now I have 3 new problems (

Wow,... You are one of the luckies, with a 90k and 2.20BIOS.
Glad you got it working.

1) When I go to uLaunch, I get an error saying "Failed to load LAUNCHELF.CNF" on the top left corner. I installed free mcboot using the noobie package on skapps. So I dont know what I did wrong, how to I get this fixed?

That is a default message, which appears if no custom configuration is done (so it uses the internal standard-settings).

It is no Bug. It is only a message, letting the user know that uLE uses its internal default settings.

To avoid this message, (which isn´t necessary at all, because like I said it is just a notification for the user,) press SELECT change something and save your config.

2) ESR - I dont know how to get this working. I am inserting a BackedUp game (which works on a modded PS2 just fine) and launching ESR but says "invalid media in drive" I click on launchDVD and get a Black screen. My question is how do I play backed up games with freemcboot like I would on a modded system?

You need to patch your backup before ("ESR-Patcher").
There is no way around it on un-/non-modded systems.

3) On the Main Menu Launched with freemcboot there is an option saying "Launch Disc" below "Browser", "System Configuration" Etc. But when I insert a BackedUp game on the PS2 and click on "Launch Disc" I get the Red Screen saying not a valid playstation disc. Is this not for launching BackedUp Discs?

Pls help. Totally new to all this.

Thanks.

Nope. It is only a "Fake-Arg" (to show people, what can be done with the config/CNF, if they want to use it... Same goes for "Reload Configuration", which has a higher rate of usefulness in my meaning.).
It only start the internal routine for "Fastboot".
AFAIK different, than the OSD-Routine (some steps, till it similar again) and if the OSD-Routine do not work, you can try this one (but it shouldn´t make a difference in the end).

[jajakola]

Yes it seems I got lucky with the 900x series with a 2.2 bios

Noted your comments, and I was able to play a backup patched with the ESR software. Works great!

Is there a way to play backups without patching it with the software? So I could just put in my friends backup and play straightaway? I know you said it is not possible with ESR but I read somewhere you can do so by putting the SWAPMAGIC ELF file into the MC and use it to boot and swap the disc without actually having the SwapMagic Original Disc. Also something about Cogswap? Is this possible?

Also Im having a little bit of an issue with the SMS player trying to get it to work on the network through SMB. Works great with RadHost and Ps2Client, but when I choose the SMB protocol for using it with the shared folder on my PC or my NAS it just hangs. I have to restart the PS2, any idea why this could be happening? My setup is through a router.

Appreciate your help.

[TnA]

Is there a way to play backups without patching it with the software?

Yes, there is... But you still need to do the swap-trick.

So I could just put in my friends backup and play straightaway?

No. Patched, or the swap-trick.
Nothing else,...

I know you said it is not possible with ESR but I read somewhere you can do so by putting the SWAPMAGIC ELF file into the MC and use it to boot and swap the disc without actually having the SwapMagic Original Disc. Also something about Cogswap? Is this possible?

SwapMagic works through a combination of an application and a retail-disc, you need to swap.
You can start the application itself from other devices of course (USB/MASS, MC,...), but you ever need to perform the swap-trick with this software.

Cogswap is a similar software.

You need to swap with a PS2-DVD for DVD-Backups and a CD for CD-Backups. <-- In this case you have to keep in mind, that the TOC of the Original game needs to be bigger, than the one of the copy.
There is another way which needs some "playing" and you can swap also with DVD-Video-Disc. <-- In this case, you don´t have to remember about if the "swap-disc" has a higher TOC, if it is a DVD5 or DVD9 and also if you use a Video-DVD for swapping, it can be burned also and mustn´t be an original.

Also Im having a little bit of an issue with the SMS player trying to get it to work on the network through SMB. Works great with RadHost and Ps2Client, but when I choose the SMB protocol for using it with the shared folder on my PC or my NAS it just hangs. I have to restart the PS2, any idea why this could be happening? My setup is through a router.

Appreciate your help.

Hm,... You provide too less info. It can be the fault of an application-version, wrong configuration and so on.
You might post SMS´s ".smb"-file?!


Btw.: Just saw a previous post of you where you posted the date-code, so it was pretty sure you´re a lucky one.

[dlanor]

Yes it seems I got lucky with the 900x series with a 2.2 bios

Noted your comments, and I was able to play a backup patched with the ESR software. Works great!

Is there a way to play backups without patching it with the software? So I could just put in my friends backup and play straightaway? I know you said it is not possible with ESR but I read somewhere you can do so by putting the SWAPMAGIC ELF file into the MC and use it to boot and swap the disc without actually having the SwapMagic Original Disc. Also something about Cogswap? Is this possible?

Possible yes, convenient no, dangerous maybe.

Disc swapping relies on using a pressed original disc in the tray for the PS2 disc validation, and then replacing that disc without the PS2 'noticing' this change, so it will allow the new disc to be played without any new disc validation, as needed to run an unpatched burned backup disc.

This involves blocking the sensors the PS2 uses to detect disc replacement and for the case of the fat PS2 also some method to be able to access the disc without using the normal tray eject button (one of the sensors that must be circumvented). This usually involves sticking a specially made plastic card into the small space beneath the disc tray, so as to physically yank at the ejection mechanism so as to force it to open abnormally, without triggering any sensor. Another method for such swapping involves replacing the entire top half of the PS2 cover, so as to get a 'flip-top' lid allowing access to the CDVD disc bay without ejecting the tray at all.

Several people have damaged their consoles by yanking at the internal eject mechanism too hard, or at the wrong angles, or simply by poking their 'swap keys' into the drive bay too carelessly, poking stuff that should have been left alone.

On a slim PS2 the access to the disc for swapping is much easier to arrange, though you still have to block several sensors (three I think).

Also Im having a little bit of an issue with the SMS player trying to get it to work on the network through SMB. Works great with RadHost and Ps2Client, but when I choose the SMB protocol for using it with the shared folder on my PC or my NAS it just hangs. I have to restart the PS2, any idea why this could be happening? My setup is through a router.

Since you don't mention having created a Samba configuration file (SMS.smb in the SMS folder on MC) I assume that this is what's missing, preventing it from working.

Best regards: dlanor

[jajakola]

Thanks guys, you guys are great!!

Ok, regarding the SMS player working with SMB, I can get it to work with my laptop running windows xp. I configured the SMS.smb file to connect to my laptop IP and the shared folder can be accesible and works fine.

But... When I configure the SMS.smb file to conenct to my NAS (Maxtor Shared Storage II) and run the sms player and activate network support, it just hangs after 3 secs (and shows nothing on the "available media"). I have to restart the ps2 again. There is a public folder on my Maxtor (NAS) with no password and also folders with username and password. I tried to configure the SMS>smb file both ways with the username and password and without, but I get the same result. Any suggestions? I tried with the media server on the NAS enabled and disable both but the same result as well.

I dont have a problem accessing the NAS from a PC at all. I just cant figure why SMS player would just hang on me when I activate network support with the NAS smb file but would work fine when activated with my laptop or PC..!!!???

[Horscht]

The box itself will probably not differ from new ones...