R4 sdhc not working on dslite and R4 sdhc 3ds not working either

hi, and ok here is the thing .. i have 3 R4 sdhc's (one for each person in my house) they are theR4 sdhc revolution for ds/dslite. they all worked. but suddenly they all stopped working. i did download updates, nothing. all i see is a screen saying loading, but it doesn't load. on a friends ds lite ut said no ds card.
and i bought a r4 for 3DS that worked in the beginning, but suddenly stopped working also. i did download the update (the kernel). but all i get it the black screen saying Error, push power button. i didn't update my system as far as i know. it is ver 8.1.0-10U. oh, its the white R4 for 3ds, it was the only one i could find at the time. when it loads it shows a pic of spongebob. but now it won't load (it will show the pic in the ds lite tho, but that is it. it will show the pic, but not play. i think my son tried playing the R4 for 3ds in my ds lite and that might be the reason.
how can i get the R4's and R4 for 3ds running again?
thank you

Try to copy/paste every file on the microSD that you use for the R4 into an empty folder on your PC, then format your microSD, and copy/paste everything back.

i tried that, i used different updates. any idea how to get my 3ds r4 working again ?
and thank you.
i used a new sd card and put the r4 kernel on it and the games. same problem

I have an imitator R4i with it's standard firmware from the site I bought it from. Anytime it gets stuck on the loading screen, I just do that and it works. Idk what to do if it isn't working for you, sorry