Topic: Freezing Issue?

I have an NDS cart that freezes at the exact same spot every time it's played. It boots fine on the 3ds and DSi and has no issues doing literally anything else except for this one section of the game. Whenever I try to play this section the screen fades white as it should while it loads the battle, but the battle theme never starts and the screen stays white while the overworld theme continues playing.

I thought maybe the cartridge was fake but as I said, it boots on newer systems so it seems unlikely. Does anyone have any ideas of what I should do/how should I investigate further? Could it be possible to deal with this freezing error?

What game is it?

@Tasuki Digimon World Dusk. It freezes when I attempt the rank up exam

@Sizer25 One thing you can do is, try to rule out the console hardware as the problem. You'd have to play the same section of the game on another console, to see if you can reproduce the freeze/crash there. If the game freezes there too, then that should mean the game is probably corrupted/damaged/fake. Bad news for the game, but it's good sign that it's not a console hardware failure.

@WoomyNNYes ah thats a shame. It plays identically on the DSi and 3DS so I would imagine it's either corrupted or fake. I suspected fake but if it is a fake its really well done. the only thing out of the ordinary I can spot is the copyright logo next in the nintendo logo on the back of the cart. It's hard to see clearly but it looks like it might not be a R or a C in a circle but merely a dot, in which case the carts definitely fake.

It was labeled as "used" so its also totally possible that its just damaged.

Here is an Imgur galley showing off pics of the front and back

I've been trying to discern if its a fake cart but I'm new to NDS hardware as I'm just rebuilding my NDS collection. I did read that fake carts shouldn't boot on newer systems so I the fact that it boots on both the DSi and 3DS made me doubt that it was fake but if you're more experienced than I am at detecting this kind of stuff please let me know what you think. As I said, the only thing that looks outstandingly strange is the copyright symbol next to the nintendo logo. Should it be easier to discern that it is the C or R in a circle and not just a small dot?

Update: I was going to include this information just to help warn other potential customers if it turned out that this cartridge is a fake, but upon searching this seller's name on etsy and seeing their other posting it's clear they're selling fakes. (pokemon black 2 for 30$, pokemon soul silver for 25$)

Digimon World Dusk was 20$ but I bought it from them as a third party seller from best buy's website, and thought I was buying from best buy itself, not knowing about their marketplace feature.

Well, maybe this is a copyright protection measure, in which case that really sucks since they lock certain aspects of progression from being achieved. Also I put 8 hours straight into a fake cart when it arrived XD

MediaRain is the name of the seller, don't buy from them lol.

@Sizer25 Thanks for the update. Interesting.

I would agree with your assessment that the cart looks fake, unfortunately. The Nintendo logo embossed on the back (in your photo), it's subtle, but the Nintendo oval shape looks a bit off (not as slender as the official Nintendo oval on my DS carts). There's more space inside the oval. And the font looks off, but the oval stands out the most to me. I'm bascially just outlining what I see, in case anyone else can learn from it.

I'm actually surprised you can still find the seller. But I only base that on my experience with buying some Splatoon amiibo cards off Etsy; They looked really good, very high quality, looked like official Nintendo art, however the seller was gone a 6-12 months later, which is probably a smart move, to stay out of trouble.