Replace a Game Boy cartridge battery without losing the save - Fixing eBay Junk

[@Csharpminor9]

just one tip: You could use an old/ beat up cartridge shell to avoid melting or damaging the plastic on the original shell

[@11Davidrh]

Quality content as always. Please keep uploading! This eBay junk series is highly educational!

[@JohnGotts]

Another way would be to find a good spot on the board for positive battery voltage and ground and connect a bench supply, or even a cheap wall wart, in parallel to the existing battery. At this point you can swap the batteries. That way you keep all saves.

[@KISSbestfan]

Not everyone really owns bench supply, while if you own a Gameboy game that needs battery replacement its natural that you own a Gameboy. But I agree, that was the first thing I thought about too!

[@_mnejing]

That's honestly what I thought he was going to do, then he busts out the GBA and I'm like "no....really?"

[@teddyvasquez84]

Nice trick, I would have never thought this thru and especially with the gba giving more work room! Thanks Adam, keep the good content coming!

[@DougieFresh_83]

That's such a cool trick! I had no idea this was a thing! I imagine doing this with a GBA, NES, or SNES game would be a tad trickier.

[@GilWanderley]

If I recall correctly, by the time of the GBA, the cartridges use flash memory for save data and don't need batteries.

[@RetroRepairs]

That's correct, I'm not aware of any gba games that use this type of storage. The rare time a cart actually has a battery is for time-based events

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Hmm. Couldn't you just put the game card PCB into the NES (preferably top loader) or SNES and just follow what Adam did from there?

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

@@RetroRepairs yeah like for Pokémon Ruby Sapphire and Emerald

[@MilkerMurphy]

@@RetroRepairs I only know that early versions of Metroid Fusion used fram (I have one), later cartridges don't have a battery except for RTCs

[@The8bitBasement]

This is a great trick man! Love seeing these little tricks of the trade and learning something new everyday!

[@MilkerMurphy]

I've been telling people to do this for a long time, but they always fear they'll scorch something and break it. Which couuuld happen, but if you have a tiny bit of experience it'll be fine.

[@RetroRepairs]

Yeah. Like anything else, practice helps. If you've got a game you don't care about, try it on that first

[@Darxide23]

This isn't the kind of thing I'd recommend to someone who isn't already pretty solid and experienced with soldering. Easy way to not only blow up a game, but a non-zero chance of blowing up the console, too.

[@MilkerMurphy]

@@Darxide23 If you're clumsy, but really its easy. On GBA cartridges it's a bit more tricky, you'll have to remove the back of the console and the battery is placed on top of a chip. It's all managable though, if you don't feel skilled enough then don't do it.

[@kornolis]

Great vid; so glad you are back.

[@JuicyJakeRepairs]

not sure why i never thought of this, nice trick!

[@teh_supar_hackr]

They said it could'int be done, but you did it!

[@FranklinClinton1]

That is my first pokemon gsme around 1998 a great time....Original Gameboy in Grey later with the Gameboy Color...😇

[@damustermann]

Great method! What happens when you short the 3v with the tweezers? You went pretty close there.

[@MilkerMurphy]

Well the one he removes is already drained obviously, but you will drain the new one if you short it.

[@damustermann]

@@MilkerMurphy But shorting the contacts of the cartridge while being powered can be damaging for the game, I guess. I'm not that concerned about the battery, it'll be fine.

[@haloslayer255]

It'll wipe the save game, ironically I tried this method a year ago on Yellow and must have touched something shorting the battery. Oh well, I can always redo the save. But use a ceramic non conductive tweezer like I learned.

[@MilkerMurphy]

@@damustermann Yeah well obviously don't short any pins.

[@andrew7629]

@@haloslayer255 I just did this with Oracle of Seasons... I was actually using a multimeter continuity test to test around the cartridge like a dummy and must have done that by mistake.

[@gingerhippygaming7962]

Wow I didn't know this was possible to do great video mate

[@george27121984]

Nice job! 4:35 - 4:52 just flip it on x axis...

[@RCM442]

Never thought of doing it that way! Thanks for the trick!

[@mtshark7]

Awesome job man! That's a pretty neat trick.

[@benjaminstokes4229]

Cool repair I will definitely have to give it a try

[@aublak7492]

works even better if you installed battery holders rather than tabbed batteries.

[@lukedougan7908]

Great to know never thought of that, thanks Adam! 👍

[@jochenwuerfel]

Oh wow, that's handy to know, thank you! Did you ever test this with a SNES or another console?

[@RetroRepairs]

I have not, i imagine the process would be the same, but you need to be careful as the cart will be sitting vertically, so just be aware of any excess solder which could fall and short something

[@DrKeez]

Just a tip for anyone, a 2032 will fit snugly in a GB cart with a slight trim of its tabs. ~30% more capacity.

[@inputfunny]

Why would trimming the tabs help it fit better?

[@STHelton1]

Seriously good tip. Simple is always best. Obviously you could save it onto an external card, but this is something anyone can do. I had always thought about rigging a connection to a benchtop power supply. I can’t believe I never thought of this. Great video.

[@WhatIsThisVid]

Or you can just buy a cart dumper for like $30 and dump the save. Change the battery on the cart and throw the save back on it. Although I think Joey Jrs cost a little more than they used to since the chip shortages. So they might be more like $50. This is also fun as you can swap saves between emulators and real carts.

[@moneyymanetv]

Can you link me one for 30$?

[@WhatIsThisVid]

@@moneyymanetv JoeyJr from Bennvenn, they're $40 now.

[@Panagiotis-Skordilis]

Excellent as always

[@lukeb6394]

Very good idea!! Is the other way to use wires to a spare battery while you replace the original?

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

It'd be hard to do because you'd have to desolder the old battery whilst the temporary placeholder is in place

[@Sleep133]

Hey what solder do you recommend for this and reflowing game chips? Thanks

[@alexandrosvezyropoulos2344]

hello i have a sapphire . that got water damage. the SRAM chip is destroyed and the C2 C4 R5 also. any its what the values of those are so i can replave them . and if the ram exists somewhere to replace?

[@MrShagdog80]

Just changed the battery in my Pokemon yellow last night lol

[@tpierce104]

Weird idea but do they make rechargeable versions of that battery and if so, could you wire something up inside the cartridge that recharges the save battery while you play the game?

[@Tomy_Sakazaki]

I dunno about rechargeable battery, but there's a project to replace the SRAM with a FRAM www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comments/fe3tec/non_volatile_fram_replacement_for_game_boy_with/

[@tpierce104]

@@Tomy_Sakazaki that's probably a much better idea. Lol

[@RetroRepairs]

There are rechargeable batteries similar to this. I believe the Sega CD used them, but they still fail and eventually need replacing As the other person gets responded, a FRAM reprehensible is probably the best solution.

[@Miaoudingo]

Do you think it works with a Nintendo DS Tank?

[@MemeSource.]

What iron do you use and at what temp

[@RetroRepairs]

Hakko fx-888d. Usually around 700f

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

How fiddly would it be to just replace the chip with some nvram? I reckon you could pull the battery and jump the + lead to vcc, but I don't know the board layout.

[@RetroRepairs]

There is a project I've seen replacing various games with fram, reddit has a bunch of examples of this, and would be a pretty good option

[@TheSkaldenmettrunk]

I always thought it's a pity to loose the save when you replace the battery because you have to do this at one point but there you go.

[@frozerinosrepairs]

Thank you for sharing 🙂😊🙂

[@IrishAnonymous01]

Is there a way to get the save data out of the cart and store it somewhere digitally?

[@RetroRepairs]

Yes, there are adapters you can get for a computer. It would back it up as a file on your pc, that you can somehow load back on the chip

[@randykoger4646]

Great idea!! Thank you!

[@ConsolesRetro]

L’idée est bonne! C’est cool de l’avoir mise en ligne ✌️🕹 Perso je le fait sur la sp… mais avec la gba ça m’a l’air bien plus pratique !

[@AnSturbin]

Very clever!

[@MoseyingFan]

Here in Sweden, I've bought 99.5% IsoPropyl Alcohol (IPA) from drug stores (really expensive 0.1L glass bottle), Kjell&Co (electronics store, 1L similar to what Adam ts using) and CarCare (car cleaning products store, 4L plastic jug)

[@blumasteripod9108]

Children, please don’t take coin cell lithium batteries in your mouth

[@TheStickCollector]

Interesting

[@arthurmorgan9559]

I know right

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

...please tell me more.

[@wojiaobill]

you forgot to mention, it also helps if it's specifically a Pokemon GBA

[@odntht]

Just need to be careful to not melt anything… 😁😁😁

[@retroradar_de]

Nice trick!

[@DrRubix1712]

That's awesome! Is there an easy way to do gba games?

[@RetroRepairs]

GBA games typically don't need a battery to maintain the save state. Most of the ones I'm aware of that require a battery such as pokemon, only used the battery for clock events. So there would be no need to do this.

[@RetroRepairs]

But in theory you could remove the back shell of the gba, but I'm not sure how reliable the connection would be

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

I wonder is the original solder leaded or lead-free?

[@thepthepthep]

Leaded

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

@@thepthepthep cause lead-free is banned in air and space industry. For lacking properties needed to work. Cracking under vibration was the first of the reasons.

[@Vladimir-hq1ne]

@@thepthepthep it was rhetorical. Planned obsolence

[@KJM321]

You forgot the diffuser in the power LED of your GBA

[@michaeladams9807]

👍👍

[@samljer]

If the battery is bad, isnt the save already lost?

[@RetroRepairs]

Yes. This would be a preventative repair. Fix it before it's dead

[@Copper20]

I replace game boy batteries on the spot.

[@bryandrobny7690]

Pokemon yellow with a yellow battery 😲

[@chromatiCityGame]

"Awake brain surgery" for gb games :)

[@BodziuM]

like a surgery on the living organism

[@rittol2365]

make more videos!!!!! lol

[@ZackMuffinMan]

:D

[@bioniclepizzaman]

I would never recommend this, primarily because the fear to permanently damage the cart and shell is a very real thing. I would recommend Getting a Mega Memory Card/Monster Brain or one of those tools to dump the cart and Save first if you really wanted to retain the save and change the battery

[@Rodville]

Came here expecting tons of "Help I've melted my cart shell!" posts.