BUYING / R36S
Before buying a bare R36S, check these five things ↗
What “bare” actually means, why the board revision matters, and which questions belong in your delivered-cost quote.
The journal
Notes on the hardware.
Practical notes for people who like to understand what they are holding. Some of these are buying decisions; most of them are the questions that arrive after the box does.
BUYING / R36S
V12, V21, V30 — and who should not buy one ↗
They are supplier board revisions of the same handheld, not performance tiers. What actually differs is the finish list and whether our WiFi module is offered — plus the long list of reasons not to buy.
TROUBLESHOOTING / CARDS
The games are on the card, but nothing shows up ↗
Which partition the frontend actually scans, the exact lowercase folder names it looks for, and the five things that stop a correctly copied ROM from launching.
TROUBLESHOOTING / CARDS
Windows says the card needs formatting. Don’t. ↗
That prompt is usually about the Linux partition Windows cannot read. How to tell a false alarm from real damage, and how to image a card before you touch it.
TROUBLESHOOTING / BOOT
The screen stays black, and nothing tells you why ↗
A wrong device tree is the usual cause of a black screen after flashing. Board revision and panel variant are separate axes, and two files with identical resolution can still refuse each other.
TROUBLESHOOTING / SYSTEMS
ArkOS, ROCKNIX, or the system it came with ↗
A firmware image is four layers, and only the device tree has to match your unit. What the stock system already does, which projects we are willing to point you at, and the order to do this in.
TROUBLESHOOTING / WIFI
Wi-Fi that vanishes when you unplug the cable ↗
On the unit we tested the Wi-Fi chip is a USB device on an internal hub, and the outer cable takes the hub down with it. The kernel log, the ~30-second outage, and the mechanism we have not verified.
CAPABILITY / EMULATION
What games can it run? Four tiers, not a list. ↗
The band is set by the chip class; which titles behave inside a band is a different question. Plus the three separate reasons a game fails, and why “it tried every core” is a remedy for only one of them.
TROUBLESHOOTING / SAVES
The save is gone, and nobody can tell you why ↗
Three different faults all get called “it lost my save”, and they need different responses. How to find out which one you have — and the four things we have not verified and will not pretend to.
TROUBLESHOOTING / SOFTWARE
“I change a setting and it goes back.” ↗
RetroArch keeps settings in four layers, and an override silently blocks the global save. Plus the four independent places an auto-firing turbo button hides.
TROUBLESHOOTING / POWER
The light is on. The number is not moving. ↗
The indicator is not a battery gauge, the DC port is the only charging input, and a USB-C-to-USB-C cable on a PD brick can deliver nothing at all.
For first-power and charging guidance, go straight to the first steps guide.