Are you using PCBs/kits from SmashTV or are these your own boards or what?
Since this happens w/out the banksticks attached, it sounds like there might be a wiring/soldering problem with J4 on the core (the bankstick interface). I’d check for shorts, etc. on those four connections. I don’t know how the FW detects banksticks, but if the SC or SD pins are shorted to Gnd or +5 that might be the problem (a guess).
FWIW I was just looking at the core schematic and the way it is drawn is sort of odd. It shows SC on J4 with a red line saying “Pin #28 of PIC”. I guess that means it gets connected to pin 28, but that seems sort of weird since that pin is going to J15 already. You may already have this sorted out, but I would double check on that if you’re making your own board or something. If you got boards from SmashTV they should be fine in which case I’d focus on shorts.
Yes, i think that schematic is a bit odd too… I don’t get why SC and SO connect to RA4 (pin 5) and RD5 (pin 28), but they sure do on my PCB… They measure 1 kOhm between 5V and SD/SC. So that seems to be correct…
Is this correct?
Btw: I indeed keep getting the formatting (of all patches when MBNet is not initialized), even when no bankstick is connected!