Anyone ever replace the batteries in a cartridge and have it still not save?

[Anonymous No.8264092]

It just happened to me with my Metroid Fusion cart. The new battery I soldered in is registering 3.2 volts on the multimeter but the game still doesn't save.

[Anonymous No.8264101]

>>8264092
Solder it again.

[Anonymous No.8264117]

>soldered
i just used some duct tape for my crystal cartridge
worked perfectly

[Anonymous No.8264118]

>>8264101
I already tried that but I'll give it a shot; I'm desperate and maybe the third time will be the charm. If it doesn't work, I am starting to wonder if it could possibly be something wrong with the SRAM chip where saves are stored itself.

[Anonymous No.8264491]

You can check if the SRAM is the problem by saving a game, soft-resetting the system, and loading that save. If it's not there...

[Anonymous No.8264541]

>>8264092
>Anyone ever replace the batteries in a cartridge and have it still not save?
Yes. It happens quite often.

[Anonymous No.8264661]

>>8264117
Solderfags btfo

[Anonymous No.8264664]

>>8264092
What are you doing owning a multimeter? You just happened to have one laying around?

[Anonymous No.8264668]

>>8264092
I assume that you must have soldered it incorrectly, so try breaking the solder and redoing it.

>>8264117
Well, fuck. And it doesn't shift or anything? Feels less 'pro' but also, if it works it works.

[Anonymous No.8264695]

>>8264664
Maybe he's an electrician and likes retro vidya?

[Anonymous No.8264717]

>>8264491
Well, fuck. I just did this (soft reset with A+B+start+select) after a session where I saved a couple times and as always, my saves are nowhere to be found. This for sure means SRAM is the problem?

What a strange issue. I never hear anyone talk about faulty/broken SRAM chips.

>>8264664
Took some electronics courses in college. It's a handy thing to have around.

[Anonymous No.8264726]

>>8264717
A further strange thing I should add: the game DID retain a save, once, last night. This was after the first time I replaced the battery (which made me think I fixed the problem, how naive of me). This morning, this save was no longer there, which prompted me to try desoldering and resoldering batteries two more times today. I have never been able to save after this one time.

Anyone smarter than I know how the SRAM explanation could explain this? Do these chips just sometimes start working completely inconsistently with age/usage?

[Anonymous No.8264739]

>>8264726
>mono
I hope you change that shit to stereo

[Anonymous No.8264752]

>>8264092
Never solder in a new battery. Solder in a battery holder or a cable so you can clip a battery in.

There is almost always enough space in there for one of these solutions.

[Anonymous No.8264784]

>>8264092
I haven't done a fusion in a while and I could be wrong, but pokemon GBA games have a bizarre two point negative lead. It's a plated hole that an arm of the battery sticks into to make contact along with the pad. Since the generic tabbed batteries being sold don't have the correct tabs, I flow solder into the via to make contact with the negative lead. Post your solder job so I can comment on it.

[Anonymous No.8264789]

>>8264784
picture of what im talking about

[Anonymous No.8264806]

>>8264789
>>8264784
This is promising; I had no idea about that.
Here's mine, let me know what you think.

[Anonymous No.8264808]

>>8264806
Looks a little chunky, apply some fresh flux and it might help. Try to get the solder coating even especially on the negative terminal.

[Anonymous No.8264843]

>>8264808
Thanks for the advice. I'm new to this so I'll give it another shot. I could see myself making a soldering mistake. For the record, the tabs on these batteries are really short (as you probably know as we seem to have used the exact same battery), so I had to bend the shit out of the positive tab just to get its edge to barely touch the solder pad diagonally. Was this part of my issue? I assumed that as long as the tab was at least touching a giant blob of solder attached to the pad, there would still be continuity and it wouldn't matter, but maybe the tab has to be directly covering a large area of the pad for it to work reliably or something - I'm a n00b and I don't know.

I'm also curious if you have an opinion on this anon's >>8264491 assertion that soft resetting and not seeing a save is an indication that the SRAM chip is messed up. This seems to assume that the SRAM chip uses power from the console instead of the battery to back up saves as long as the console is powered up. I'm not sure if GBA carts really work like this or not.

[Anonymous No.8264861]

>>8264789
>>8264806
why wouldn't you solder in a clip holder are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.8264863]

>>8264843
You should bend the tabs to fit, but be sure not to be too rough with them as they could break from the cell itself. Something something measure twice. You want as much of clean orientation with the pads as possible and of course a reasonable amount of solder to secure the battery. if it helps you, putting pressure on the leg as the solder solidifies is a perfectly fine strategy to help adherence, this way you can be sure it's bonding to the pad securely. Obviously don't burn yourself.

There is a possibility that other parts of the board are failing, I've seen on plenty of GB/A games where the legs on the chips are cold and need to be reflowed. Don't resort to this immediately however as it can be easy to botch if you don't have the optimal tools.

>>8264861
very small clearance in GBA cartridges.

[Anonymous No.8264910]

>>8264863
clip holders aren't any thicker

[Anonymous No.8264917]

a lot of those battery "holders", the kind you just slip the battery in with no soldering, on repro carts aren't soldered very well. I was losing my mind always replacing batteries for a Dragon Quest 6 fancart until I eventually just removed the holder and soldered the battery in place.

[Anonymous No.8264932]

>>8264910
send me some and I'll buy them

[Anonymous No.8266015]

>>8264664
>he dosn't have a cheap useul tool just laying around

[Anonymous No.8266030]

>>8264092
Happened to me with Pokemon Silver, tried soldering it all nice and tidy, didn't work. Two tries with different batteries. Finally got mad, figured fuck it, pressed the soldering iron to the board for way longer than on previous attempts (the way I saw it, game was dead anyway, so worst case scenario should I burn it - oh well, life) and... it actually worked. Works to this date actually.

[Anonymous No.8266590]

>>8264808
>>8264806
This is my most recent attempt. About to try it. This time I really tried to bend the tabs so they would be touching the pads directly. I also have the - side of the battery facing upwards this time because it was easier to get it to attach that way with how the tabs are oriented. Wish me luck.

[Anonymous No.8266676]

>>8266590
And I saved! I'm hoping it actually keeps working this time.

[Anonymous No.8266683]

>>8266676
Try saving and resetting a couple of times just to make sure.

[Anonymous No.8266713]

>>8264664
if you are gonna do anything with electronics the second thing you should get is a multimeter, retard.

>>8264117
can confirm. you still need some soldering though.
>desolder old battery
>steal its tabs
>use electrical tape to hold the tabs in place on a cr2032 battery (larger than stock)
>solder back in

[Anonymous No.8266737]

>>8266683
Well, crap. Guess I was too eager to rest on my laurels. First time I tried loading a save I got a "Save Game A was corrupted. Using old data." message. The odd thing was that I had only ever saved once, so I still got to start off with the same save I had despite the message. However, after playing for a little bit, the game froze and now when I try to boot up the game, I get the GBA error screen (with just "Game Boy" and blank space below it instead of "Nintendo"). Nothing like this ever happened when I had a non-functional battery; even through all my various unsuccessful attempts at soldering new batteries in, the game itself always worked fine, just didn't save.

I'm going to start with cleaning the contacts incase some stray flux got there before I resort to anything more drastic, but I'm beginning to worry if I damaged something in my most recent soldering attempt. Possibly broke the flow on one of the contacts for the game ROM, such as here?

[Anonymous No.8266819]

>>8266737
just remove the battery and see if the game revives.

[Anonymous No.8266830]

>>8266737
could be this

[Anonymous No.8266832]

>>8266737
>>8266830
yea its different from the before picture
I'm not gonna act like I know a lot about soldering but its probably that.

[Anonymous No.8266842]

>>8266015
Doesn't seem very useful in this case

[Anonymous No.8266885]

>>8266830
>>8266832
Well spotted guys. That's actually a blob of flux that I cleaned off with alcohol between taking that picture and testing the game, so possibly not as promising a lead as it initially appears. I am worried about something like that being a problem though so I'm going to remove the battery yet gain, do this >>8266819, and then make sure everything on the ROM chip flows fine before attempting another battery. I'll keep updating the thread.

[Anonymous No.8266959]

>>8264789
Are you sure that's actually a thing? Because I'm looking at a sapphire cart that I recently replaced the battery on and it's working fine without soldering onto that through-hole

[Anonymous No.8267065]

OP here, think I ruined my game. I'm going to cut my losses, sell all my rotting plastic and get a MiSTer. Thanks for the comments.

[Anonymous No.8267076]

>>8267065
you should have just fucking used duct tape like i said

[Anonymous No.8267265]

>>8267065
Now that's some quality bait.

[Anonymous No.8267284]

>>8264117
Based

[Anonymous No.8267294]

>>8264092
Wait, GBA games still used battery? I thought they used flash memory. I remember the battery died on my copy of Pokemon Ruby which meant the clock didn't run anymore when I wasn't playing but I could still save.

[Anonymous No.8267339]

>>8267294
early games still used sram.
but you are correct. at some point in time they switched to fram, making batteries unnecessary.

[Actual OP No.8267584]

>>8267065
Good meme, but this isn't me. Troubleshooting and learning about tech is the funnest part of buyfag life.

>>8267294
Some early games like Fusion used SRAM + battery for saving while later ones switched to FRAM (no battery, saves to a chip). Pokemon games like you described use FRAM for saving (I think) and the battery to power an Xtal chip that keeps track of the clock.

[Anonymous No.8268369]

>>8267294
Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire used either two batteries, or it used a battery and a flash memory. Either way, the save functionality lasts for quite a lot longer than the battery powering the clock functionality, most which must have gone dry quite a lot of years ago.

[Anonymous No.8268487]

>>8264092
Are you sure it's a legit cart?

[Anonymous No.8268552]

>>8266842
That's just because you don't understand what they're for. Not surprising as you don't have one just laying around, and are also retarded. One of the functions is to measure voltage. Anon did that and now knows for certain that the battery is good. Other functions can help check other potential points of failure.