NES, SNES, N64 Battery Replacement

[tpugmire]

I've decided to offer battery replacement service to you fine folks.  I'm not posting this anywhere else, it's a vgcollect.com exclusive!  

Here's what I'll do:
Desolder and remove your dead battery.
Solder in a battery holder (to make future battery changes quick and easy).
Install a new CR2032 battery.
Polish the PCB connectors.
Clean the cartridge casing if needed.
Test the game to ensure it saves data again.

I'm only charging $12 plus return shipping.   If this sounds like something that you are interested in, let me know.

I also still have a bunch of XBOX 360 disc drive belts if anyone needs one.

Oh, and I'll accept trades instead of payment too.

[tpugmire]

I fixed the price.  Lousy fat fingers...

[forte]

I don't suppose there's any way this can be done without losing the existing saves, is there?

[tpugmire]

Not sure, I've never tried.  I believe it could be done, although I'm not exactly sure how.  All the ones that I've done have already been dead.

[scott]

I thought about that too, the only way I could see it working is if you soldered the new battery into place somehow, before removing the old one. Not sure if that's even possible.

[tpugmire]

So I've been doing some reading on this and nobody seems to be able to get it to work.  In theory, it should be possible.  In reality, not so much.  I'm going to say that I can try and maintain the save files, but I wouldn't count on it.

[killerchameleon]

I managed to do this not to a game cartridge but to a device that needed constant power also to maintain its memory.  What I ended up doing was removing the circuit board and using a meter I found the positive and negative points on the opposite side of the battery. I then soldered wire at those points, had my temp battery in a battery holder that already had wires coming off it. I just added alligator clips to it and clipped it onto the wires I soldered.  I then removed the battery and replaced it.  Everything working out fine not sure if this will work on cartridge but might be worth a try.  Only thing that might be an issue is the jump in voltage but didn’t effect my application and in theory it was doing the same thing as a game cartridge.  

[tpugmire]

Yeah I've heard that method, and that is how I would do it, but nobody seems to be able to actually get it to work.  I think you're right about the voltage though.  When you add that second battery, you're effectively doubling what it is designed for, and that might be causing the erasure.  

[dstone]

Adding batteries in parallel should increase the amperage. The voltage should stay constant.

If you added a battery in series with the existing one, then the voltage would double (assuming both batteries have the same voltage).

[darko]

What does it take to fix a GBA game that wont hold a save?

[tpugmire]

I've never opened one, but I think they use flash memory, not batteries.

[darko]

Me either. I'll pop it open and see what's going on inside. Maybe it just needs a good cleaning (me keeping my hopes up).

[scott]

@darko I popped open a copy of Aria of Sorrow on GBA and I can confirm there is no battery.

[darko]

@darko I popped open a copy of Aria of Sorrow on GBA and I can confirm there is no battery.

Hmm...I wonder if there is a fix at all then. I'll do some more research. I have two copies so it's not a big issue...but I basically gave a friend my extra copy and don't want to end up being "that guy".

EDIT: Well...Breath of Fire 2 definitely has a battery...that's soldered on.

[scott]

Hmm, lemme check my Aria copy again. to be sure... I opened it up like 2 years ago, so I could be wrong? haha