Fixing eBay Junk - Game Boy Advance Game - Game Won't Boot Up - Pokemon Fire Red

I bought Pokemon Fire Red for the Game Boy Advance off eBay in non-working condition. This ended up being a rusted pad on the connector which was not getting any signal from the chips on the board. Just required a jumper and it's good to go.
#RetroRepairs #FixingEbayJunk #PokemonFireREd #GBA
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Want to buy me a beer? Or a broken console? Hit up the donate link (But only if you want, don't feel obligated). www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Thanks for watching

[@SputnikManFishing]

Haha the guy managed to transfer all his pokemon out before it broke

[@killuazoldyck7705]

Except for the machoke

[@SummonerArthur]

@@killuazoldyck7705 and the iron holding onyx

[@ColdFuse96]

I guess he noticed it was dying and transferred everything before it finally gave out 😂

[@pokemonanimebattle3615]

Maybe it was still able to read it for pal park in gen 4 while the screen was still white

[@karastired]

I've just gotten back into retro gaming again (although it wasn't retro when I was first into it, I guess) and your videos have helped so much! Even for the basics I never thought about, like taking the plastic off to clean the inside of a cart. Thank you for doing what you do!

[@ItsPronouncedGif]

I repared a 8gb ram because of your videos. Thanks a lot for come back

[@RetroRepairs]

Awesome to hear. Alot of the same concepts work for all kind of stuff

[@kiddobernal5536]

Did u make a video out of it

[@mistdyna]

The background music started to haunt my soul as it kept going over and over. Other than that, good stuff.

[@hootsmccoy1450]

Enjoyed the repair. Looking forward to many more repairs!!

[@nickhysaw]

I really enjoy your videos. Glad you are back.

[@BakuretsuTen]

I am so glad you’re back! Great video as always

[@pjcollects]

Glad you were able to get it fixed. Looks like the previous owner transferred all the good pokemon off the cart, which is why there's just leftovers now.

[@AgapeGaming17]

Awesome video! I like that you investigated the game after fixing it 😃

[@dacastro3098]

im glad you're back dude

[@MaligNyant]

Great Video! Almost has like some kind of therapeutic effect. Keep it up!!!

[@SummonerArthur]

00:31 "... Minimal *time* and *space* ..." *Spatial diamond and temporal pearl confirmed!*

[@Thezapman1]

this did not age well, also wouldn't it have been Temporal Diamond (Dialga, god of time) and Spatial Pearl (Palkia, god of space)?

[@cullbear55]

@@Thezapman1 yes and yes

[@sirmr.mansavage]

This is the best video I've seen on how to repair this. Thanks and keep it up. You gained a sub

[@user-im9lb5ht2d]

One man said the cartridge could never be repaired, but you did it. Bravo! And thanks a lot😄

[@margalocaris]

Yesterday I got a faulty LeafGreen cartridge that was supposed to be for my sister- this video just reminded me of it. It'd be interesting to see if it'll ever wind up in a game cartridge repair video. (It's being returned, we found one that works)

[@jochenwuerfel]

Another video!!! Can't wait for the rest from your mail haul ;)

[@PuppetMaster8707]

What a great video I recently bought a small batch of GBA games from eBay that were not tested and all of them needed cleaned and worked great except for 1 game it still does nothing now I'll have to take a closer look after watching this

[@_to_dream_or_not_to_dream]

This guy makes it look so easy.

[@knowgeeksallowed8195]

glad you're back mate!

[@shiva_hardly_sarcastic]

So informative to watch, i wanna bust out my old broken devices/game cartridges and see if i can fix them, just need to find a soldering iron

[@everaldopereira4087]

Great work ! Waiting for next vídeos and repairs ...

[@seanmacgillivray7831]

Welcome back. I love your work and you inspire me to start doing more of this.... I have 1000's of games and quite a few broken things here and there that I have acquired over the years. The majority of my fixes on "broken" stuff has just needed a good clean

[@davidmcgill1000]

looked like SRAM Chip Select pin. strange that that not being connected would show up as no cartridge inserted. Well, unless the signal being low was sending garbage data over the data lines.

[@JoaoLopes-gs5sd]

I've been a fan of yours for a long time, now thanks to you I finally fixed my Super Smash Bros.(broken trace) I can't thank tou enough!

[@RetroRepairs]

Awesome to hear!

[@themechanic3352]

Glad to see you back, always love to see your content

[@malekdahou95]

Just picked up a fire red with the exact same issue. 3rd pin to last. I cleaned it up and managed to get it to boot up and got the message “The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed” looks like I’ll need to run a jumper on the same pin 🤣 luckily I had already watched this video prior to even purchasing this game so always handy!

[@PUHCsi]

Cool fix, from your mailday vid , I can see some cool videos coming up, some real cool pickups, I've never seen the colecovision add ons before, I'm gonna look forward to the next few weeks, good luck Adam in all you do

[@Dicksquish]

Seeing a lot of component swaps to fresh printed PCBs, may be the task here a couple years down the line but awesome work regardless

[@Sparkette]

You should dump the save and send it to the person you bought it from; that's what I'd do.

[@ColdFuse96]

flarn2006 Sorry, I’m stupid, but how would you do that? Is there a way to access the cartridge’s contents on a computer?

[@Sparkette]

Luciano Martinez You can do it using a DS flash cart. There's software you can put on there that will dump the ROM and save file from the GBA slot.

[@martijn439]

Lol i am actually sad when i buy a game and the save had been removed.. it is rare to come by a original copy of the game these days though

[@aarongarza4769]

Luciano Martinez yes. There are devices you can purchase which allow you to dump roms onto your PC. Check RetroRGB dot com and you should find all the info you are looking for.

[@dujavufear]

You should pick up some fiberglass, brass, stainless steel scratch/brush pens, you’ll have more control of where you are sanding.

[@xX12VincEXx]

Nice :) thanks for sharing this content ^^

[@JracoMeter]

Thanks for the information on how to repair the connectors. Can't you use vinegar and water, with a small amount of baking soda, to remove corrosion?

[@modest123]

180 hours on slow text speed oh my god

[@retrorestoration9053]

Very interesting video. This sort of thing is good to know.

[@Timmymantwo]

To check if they are legit easier look for the 2 Characters on the right of the cartridge under the sticker

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

He's back!!!!!

[@KISSbestfan]

Good job ! Now waiting for the Sega 32

[@SamMurlless]

Thank you. This helped a lot.

[@Bmystyle]

Great stuff! Can you PLEASE do a video repairing the "gold teeth" or pins on a DS game cartridge? My old Pokemon Platinum needs help. The gold seems to have eroded away in quite a few places D;

[@Bmystyle]

A few people on message boards suggested conductive paint, but I wasn't sure it was safe. (for the save file)

[@l1z4rdbr34th90]

My hands are shaking just looking at the soldering! Curse these shaky hands... At least I was able to fix the open disc tray error for my XBox 360.

[@joshua199628]

Hey retrorepair,do you have a list of the things you use? Like ex: that blue mat, the flux pen ect

[@blankpage9277]

The quiet Pokemon music in the background makes it seem like the cartridge's ghost is anxiously watching to see if he can fix it.

[@RetroRepairs]

Interesting take.... I like it!

[@sebastianlozanofilms]

Mi boi back

[@fajrdn]

Off topic. Hi Retrorepairs how to fix SNES with no sound? i replace the av cable, av connector, whole capacitors but still doesn't work. some people said the audio chip is damaged but i dont know. any other suggestions? btw your cartidge fix videos inspired me to fix random cartridges from flea market, so far i fixed more than 30+ mix of gba snes megadrive cartridges

[@kbee4536]

it's probably the audio chip.

[@captainsanchez6329]

Hey there! Love your channel! I have a copy of pokemon crystal that crashes and i cant seem to fix. Love to send it to you to make a video of and pay you for your time.

[@SuperLuigiGuy64]

I got a question, if the PCB of the cartridge was in an unrepairable state and the chips are good are there any other branded PCBs to use? or do we have to use a donor one?

[@gunnarthomas3824]

Hey there! I love your channel! Thanks for all your contributions. I am having trouble with a GBA cart. It's definitely not a super simple fix. Do you think you could take a look? PLEASE?

[@unnamedchannel1237]

Respect and wish i could get hold of some of this stuff to have a project but copper does not rust.. slip of the tong perhaps.

[@aurum3747]

Maybe he meant corroded?

[@Vizavucha]

Hey, I bought some Pokémon games as parts and I think I found out what the problem is. They’re missing the capacitor near the battery. My question is do you know where I can get some capacitors to attempt to fix them. Thanks :)

[@Mandalore06]

That's awesome! I'm glad you saved an innocent GBA cart. I am wondering about the long term effects of the repair though. Is the solder job going to last with repeated use? Will the difference in material/thickness damage your DS pins? I figure there must be a reason why the pins are gold plated to begin with rather than being soldered.

[@acumenium8157]

I think it would probably wear within a few years of use (swapping, mostly, since being inserted and not swapped out is the same as any other storage media as far as "wear" goes for those pins) it'd probably wear away again, but that's not really an issue since you can just... well, do it again. GBA Pokemon games save on the flash chip and not an actual battery.. Short of an EMP wave, or something really unlucky happening, your savefile will always survive. So just repair and move on!

[@inputfunny]

@@acumenium8157 The flash chip can only be saved to a certain amount of times before they fail though. Will that be in 5 years, or 50? I guess it depends how often you save the game.

[@acumenium8157]

@@inputfunny It is *really* unlikely. Even low-quality flash chips can handle terabytes of data writes and a GBA save is only going to cost 1MB at most each time (since if memory serves Pokemon games double save and use a 512KB savefile). I mean you bring up a good point but it is more likely the sun blows up than the average flash chip fails in a GBA cart. Some will due to the sheer number used but you'd probably know by now if it was gonna fail since, well, bad flash chips don't tend to last 20 years before going belly up.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

how well does the solder wear when it plugs in and out of the game?

[@basoaltojp]

Nice video!!!

[@ricardorlopezsuarez9277]

Gracias por estos videos amigo, amo tu trabajo y espero sigas subiendo mas reparaciones de consolas de videojuegos, yo tengo un problema con mi Pokemon Esmeralda, le cambie la bateria para el reloj de las bayas y aun asi sigue sin funcionar, ya cheque la polaridad de la bateria y probe con otras baterias y no funciona, se habra descompuesto algun microcontrolador o algo asi?, que podria estar fallando en mi cartucho? Saludos desde Mexico City y perdon por hablar español

[@Upload098765432]

Puedo tranducir mucho de Este. He changed the battery on his Pokemon emerald and now its not working. He checked the polarity and tried a couple other batteries but it still wont work. He is wondering if it's possible that he damaged the microcontroller and would appreciate any help in solving this issue.

[@cholo_instinx6423]

Do you do repairs? My fire red red recently started to show the 1m sub circuit removed message. The cart is real but it's just old and I lost it for 6 months a couple years back. I tap on the cart or blow in it and goes back to normal.

[@forestgump3977]

What is that wire called that you bridged the connection with? I need to order some please help.

[@superboy3229]

Awesome Video!!! I wondering that Pokemon games circuit board.. I was soldering a melt on my Emerald. its gone of gold finger on the right top. My emerald has a new battery. I tested it is worked well. I was wondering that emerald was doing work without gold fingers plate. I think do Pokemon circuit board really need repair gold fingers on the circuit... I know that Gold fingers PCB KIT is so very expensive than Soldering iron... Maybe call to service??? Do you have any idea?

[@Deathaxel1998]

... I have a confession... This is like asmr to me 😭

[@PkMkPresto487]

Nice intro!

[@mewmewmineable]

Is he using a multimeter to check the current? The tool that hes using the red and black one that makes a buzz noise? If so any recommendations ive looked on amazon and see many and dont know if i should spend on a cheap one just for gba games or something higher priced

[@RetroRepairs]

You can get buy with something relatively inexpensive, but if you need to measure accurate values, they can get very expensive. Mine is a Lomvum t28c. I think it costs about $40

[@cesarguerrero5630]

What size wire do you use to repair traces?

[@viewtifuljacob]

Gonna have to try this. My FireRed won't read at all and the contacts are squeaky clean so I'm sure there's something messing with it.

[@phoenixrestorations315]

I got a question maybe you could help me with. I have been looking for a battery holder that will fit into the gameboy and GBA game carts. This would make it so much easier to change the battery when they eventually run dry. I have not been able to find a holder that will fit into the cart and allow it to close up. Any ideas?

[@RetroRepairs]

Ive never tried. These batteries should last 20+ years, and GBA carts do not rely on a battery to hold the save game - only for time related events. In my opinion, there's no point to doing that. The solder job to replace a battery is a pretty straightforward task if you have an iron.

[@Vintagesonic1]

Oh my god, so I looked this up to see if I could fix one of my GBA games, however, I needed to unscrew the thingy to get to the thing. But, there was a sticker covering the screw for some reason, so I peeled it off and saw that the bottom of the sticker was gold. I thought "hmmm... maybe it was the sticker what was making it not boot? Maybe it has some sort of weird metal on the sticker, what's interfering with the game cartridge? Naah, that sounds silly, but I'll try it anyway." And then... it suddenly worked. Maybe the seller I bought it from, put that sticker on there to protect it or something?

[@gabrielalfaro9127]

bro and what if boot the game, pokemon firered but when after of charizard of the title show a message 'the 1m sub-circuit is not installed'? any solution or not works anymore?:(

[@sebastianlozanofilms]

Hi retro repairs why couldn’t you just use brasso or some thing like a eraser to remove the corrosion on the pins

[@RetroRepairs]

Brasso will probably strip the pads clean off in that condition. They really need to have the corrosion neutralized, then add some material on top to ensure there's a good connection.

[@ReshiLuna]

I use rubbing alcohol/isopropyl alcohol and my cleaning toothbrush, it works almost every time for me.

[@jacksmallwood1507]

Hey there! I have an issue with my fire red cartridge! I got to the boat and saved before the Blue fight but then my console randomly turned off! Shocked and worried about my progress, i turned off the already powered down console (the original gameboy advance) and booted it up again. My data was gone. 6 hours of data gone but i decided to play again literally 2 minutes after it occured. I saved the game as soon as i got into the game and it did it again. Any ideas on how this happened and how to fix it? I’m not sure if it’s genuine or fake haha. Many thanks, Quinn.

[@ephraimtimmerman4476]

Fire red was the first game I owned back In the day. Unfortunately I don't know where it is and the best GBA cart I managed to fine was Spyro 2: Season of Flame.

[@GameKollector]

I have a Pokemon Emerald that is really clean and no noticeable problems with pins or traces that will not boot. Can you help with it?

[@RetroRepairs]

Id try reflow the chips

[@tavotwo]

Love your videos, I got a pokemon saphire that stays on white screen, if I post an image of the cartridge circuits could you look at it, and tell me if you see any problem?

[@RetroRepairs]

Yeah, i could take a look

[@tavotwo]

@@RetroRepairs RetroRepairs thank you so much. m.imgur.com/a/14FLFPY Do you see anything wrong? I have cartridges that look worse and still work, it always gives me the white screen after the gameboy logo just like in your video

[@ReshiLuna]

@@tavotwo try cleaning the pins with rubbing alcohol (isopropyl, the highest percent that you can find) and a q tip or a cleaning toothbrush. Fixes most problems for me.

[@ZaPpaul]

Is that intro music Shining in the Darkness?

[@neyensb]

I have a repair question: I got a Pokémon red that works on my SP but doesn't boot up on my GB, GBC or gba. Only on my SP it works :D Any insights?

[@neyensb]

@MaarioMash Thought that as well.. but no all the consoles work perfectly with other games. Only my pokemon red starts up with a 'scrambled nintendo logo' on start up. While it boots perfectly in both my GBA SP's

[@silverthornluquier3242]

What multimeter do you use?

[@claudioeol]

I have the same cartridge too but mine doesn't save the game. I buy it as junk

[@ginamar6218]

What are the odds that single strand losses continuity from being inserted and removed to many times? Feel like there has to be a more permanent fix?

[@volkswagenginetta]

to be fair how often is that cart going to be taken out and put back in? Its probably going to be a collector item sitting around or its going to be played by an adult who doesnt beat it up like a 6 yo.

[@dorfschmidt4833]

Here is the right way to repair PCB traces: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKmYYYyqeqhliZo

[@ukrpgfan4029]

Woohooo hell yeaahhhh!!

[@habeebsama3849]

Bro u rr awesome..

[@huojin01]

Can you fix my Nintendo SP action replay?

[@princesszelda6847]

can u fix mine the pin is rip off completely won’t boot up

[@gamerdude0]

Use a sharp tool to scrape the one corroded pin instead of sanding many.

[@supremeoverlordetna]

Or a fiberglass pen

[@alexcameron2880]

Use Brasso first. It's a polish, so most top layer corrosion will actually lift away and makes the pins look nice.

[@thegamingeevee95]

Will you be able to repair my gba sp

[@user-jj1lu5ow1d]

Can u do this on ds game card? My pkmn hg and bw2 dosent work well while im looking for solerwick way, i found this tutorial I hope u make ds card version of this plz

[@ARTxZxTECHx]

Thank you for the video. My Fire Red copy just stopped working. I cleaned it all up and checked the contacts and all the contacts work but it still won't boot. Do you know what else might be the issue?

[@RetroRepairs]

Ive got a few videos fixing GB carts. Probably need to reflow the chips on it

[@ARTxZxTECHx]

@@RetroRepairs Ok so I watched one of your videos and I found out one of the holes that have the copper around it corroded so that there is a hole in the trace. I wonder should I run a wire through it?

[@RetroRepairs]

@@ARTxZxTECHx yeah, you could run a wire through it and solder from both ends to complete the circuit

[@ARTxZxTECHx]

@@RetroRepairs The only problem is that the little hole connection is messed up on both sides of the board so I would need to run a wire on the front and then run another one from the back I believe. Also thank you so much for your help and thank you for posting these videos. Your content has helped me the most

[@RetroRepairs]

@@ARTxZxTECHx if you can email me some high res photos of the front and back, and indicate what exactly you're talking about, I might be able to offer a suggestion. [e-mail]

[@SuperBill1995]

I want to buy something like the surface retro repairs is using, but I don't even know how to google search it

[@RetroRepairs]

Look on amazon. Work mat or something to that degree

[@miguelguerreiro9949]

hey, i have a question i don't know if you can help me. I have an old Pokémon crystal game but the save file is corrupted, do you know if there is any way to recover it? are you able to do that?

[@RetroRepairs]

I doubt it, but i could be wrong. I'm not sure if it's possible

[@miguelguerreiro9949]

@@RetroRepairs ok, i already had to do some searches but so far i haven't found anything. thanks for answering me 👍

[@mjc0961]

5:01 - The bigger the glob, the better the job. 👍

[@martingamer5242]

Genius and also handsome

[@GregBaloney]

i bought a brand new emerald game and it shows a white screen. wtf do i do?

[@RetroRepairs]

Try the same thing i did here

[@teejay3250]

😂 "Lil'd"... Really dude? It's clearly supposed to be "Lil D"... Great repair bro.

[@RetroRepairs]

Haha, id have put a dash if spaces werent an option

[@Sparkette]

Reminds me of Twitch Plays Pokémon X

[@MrAceFe1]

How can I get in contact with you on a repair

[@heroshotlgn]

If you need to get a little corrosion off use some aluminum foil not sandpaper

[@ruimartins2748]

Could you fix my red rescue team cartridge pls

[@subtledemisefox]

There was probably nothing wrong with the game when you tried it right after repairing. In my experience, the DS Lite sucks at reading cartridges. GBA cartridges especially.

[@RetroRepairs]

I got a similar thing with a regular gba, but the backlit screen is better for the video

[@jfgme]

How did he get the 8 badges lol, wonder id he beat the elite 4?

[@thescourge30]

He transfer all the good pokes before the game stop working

[@mewfanatic6025]

i have a fire red my old friend game me back like 11 years ago

[@drewcolarusso3582]

Hey i have a special anniversary ps4 controller with a drifting left stick is that something you could fix

[@JoaoLopes-gs5sd]

I've got this problem before too, you need to open it up, remove the metal pieces on the sides of the analog sensors (that are locked inside some little square blue plástico cases), clean them with alcohol and put them back on. It's this simple.

[@matt4193]

sweet!

[@rqyhae3340]

!teews

[@ThugCuZx713]

How would you be able to fix the ones that says "1-mb sub circuit board not installed." They are completely legit but were the first day released ones , that one that you repaired are the newer versions that came with the wireless adapter included.

[@MrRidged]

wow i would have used some copper sheet and glued and soldered ove the old finger

[@GustoTheGamer]

198 hours of playtime? Damn

[@mikeshobbiesandrandomstuff]

That piece of wire is going to be rough on the game boy socket contacts.

[@RetroRepairs]

That was my initial thought, but it's size, combined with the fact the edge isn't sharp anymore as there's solder creating a "ramp" should lessen the impact of i

[@guanaka4342]

RetroRepairs oh no! He got killed before he could finish, oh the tragedy