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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- With a few exceptions, most Gameboy Advance games come with a small coin cell battery inside them. In this video, I explain what these batteries do, how they work, and how to replace them. This tutorial is the final video in my Gameboy cart battery replacement series, and one that I've been asked by many to make for over a year! So pull up a chair, grab a snack, and enjoy the tutorial!
See the latest on my Instagram:
/ kyleawsm
How to Replace Gameboy Cart Batteries (Updated):
• UPDATED: The RIGHT Way...
GBA bootleg cartridge tutorial #1:
• Adding Save Batteries ...
GBA bootleg cartridge tutorial #2:
• Add a Save Battery to ...
GBA game list website:
offlinelistgba.free.fr/
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First time using a soldering iron and I used this tutorial to replace Pokemon Emerald's battery. Very useful tutorial with some in-depth knowledge about the carts too.
I'm actually in the exact same sitation and need to replace the battery in my pokemon emerald game as well haha, what a coincidence. Though i haven't started the process yet and honestly don't know if I'm going to because the process seemed overwhelming to me.
@@matsstrmsli6178 Me too lol. It's a good game that's why. I bought one on the market and was worried about it being a fake, but turns out I just got a really great deal on a legit Pokémon emerald with a dead battery. Works for me! I lost my game a long while back and had to buy a new one and lost that somehow as well. this will be my third one which won't be lost anymore because I don't have sibblings living with me
I'm in the same boat with my Ruby edition. Once the batteries arrive I'm gonna give it a try, until then I'll have this video on repeat lol.
Can someone tell me , my battery has also run dry but I have my saves (Pokémon Ruby). If I change my battery will my saves be gone ??
@@harvesterofsorrow8499 thank you !!
You are a legend. You presented in 7 minutes what i found in 2 full days of research.
What is the proper temperature to solder the tabs?
I don’t want to burn it 😓
I’m still a little new to soldering 😅
Thanks again for the awesome repair work! It’s crazy seeing my cartridges on a repair video
You all prolly dont care but does any of you know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..?
I stupidly forgot my password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Mustafa Gordon Instablaster =)
@Benjamin Justice thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and im in the hacking process now.
Seems to take a while so I will reply here later with my results.
@Benjamin Justice it worked and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy:D
Thanks so much you saved my account !
@Mustafa Gordon Happy to help :)
I'm no slouch when it comes to soldering and electronics, but this is, without a doubt, the most thorough tutorial I've seen on both the batteries AND the fake cart epidemic that's been going on for over a decade. Absolutely fantastic job, good sir!!
I LOVE how professional this is, and thanks especially for sharing your tools
Such a great rundown, and I was prompted by the game clock message on sapphire so I’m super stoked you covered that in the video. Good to know I don’t have to worry about wiped saves, may eventually still replace it but this is great!
I'm doing this exact method for my Metroid Fusion cart as well. Thanks for the amazing tutorial 👍
Great video. I feel informed and confident in tackling the task bow. Great job
Probably the best GBA battery replacement vid I've seen by a long shoot! Thank you dude 😊
You explained exceptionally well. And what a soothing voice. Amazing tutorial. Thanks a bunch!
thank you for keeping it short and straight foward. Appreciate it a lot.
I gotta say...holy shit. This has to be the most straightforward, easy to understand and pickup, while also being the most thorough guide I've seen. Some monumental congrats you to my friend and thank you
Professionally done! Great video
That has been the most thorough video on replacing a battery in a gba great job amazing video.
Fantastic video, really well structured and super clear info
Thanks for this video, it's really straight forward and will help me out a ton in the future. I've traditionally been more of a Gameboy Pocket/Colour fan but recently bought a GBA and absolutely adore the form factor and have picked up a few really fun games, but one of them doesn't save (all genuine). This is just what I needed to do a good repair job.
You stay awesome Kyle! Thank you for the in depth tutorial, I have no experience with a soldering iron and am planning on changing the battery on some of my old gbc and gba games.
Thank you
You are one of the very few who talks about soldering properly
I for whole my life until recent month thought liquid was bad, so I never used things like flux.
Thank you! Followed this and Pokemon Ruby is working like new, great video!
Great tutorial! Getting the batteries to connect properly over the chips can be really tricky. Also, props for mentioning flux - so many neglect it.
The first time I replaced an internal battery (for Pokémon Gold) I used the first TH-cam tutorial I could find. It showed basically ripping the battery off the tabs and holding a new one in place with electrical tape. It was a terrible idea! Constantly slipping slightly out of place and losing my data... Don't do it, kids!
Great tutorial video! I needed to know the correct battery to purchase.
This was first time using a Soldering Iron and this tutorial was soooo good. So clear at what to do and was nicely paced and easy to follow.
I can report that I no longer get that “Internal Battery has run dry” error anymore.
Time based events WILL OCCUR!
i heard that doesnt fix the daily events on ruby/sapphire/emerald can you confirm this?
@@luismata2814 you can check by going to the lottery and see if it changes.
Thank you for the concise, well-made tutorial; One gba pokemon cart battery replacement down, two more to go; first one went perfectly thanks to you!
This is informative, thank you!
So incredibly helpful, thank you so much!!
Great tutorial, thank you!
Nice tutorial, this is pretty much all the steps I do and it gives good results. One extra step I do that helps is to tin one of the pads first before dropping the battery down. Then use that tinned pad to tack the battery in place. It stops the battery from moving around when you have solder and an iron in your hands like at 5:53. Then I finish up the other tab, then return to the "temporarily tacked down" tab and apply more flux and solder to finish it off. I also bend the tabs down (on GBA) and found a 45 degree bend works best.
Great tutorial! For anyone wanting to backup their save before switching batteries, I can personally vouch for the GBxCart RW. Just a heads up for those who are doing pre-emptive replacements.
Thanks so much! I try to promote my friend Bennvenn's stuff wherever possible, so just including the obligatory post here for people to see: Check out the Joey Gen3 and Joey Jr. as well for save backup. Another battery wired in parallel temporarily works too. Cheers, and thanks for watching! 🙂👍🏻
Excellent tutorial, I will consider changing my GBA games' battery with this
Mate, this is an epic summary of everything you need to know about doing this repair
Wow, I thought all GBA games had flash memory. This is a very informative video.
There are about 30ish games that use Sram (2% of the GBA library), the vast majority used non-volatile forms of save (eeprom/fram/flash/passwords). Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire used flash memory with the battery being used for the clock.
I was taking pics for a buyer and saw the battery in a non pokemon game that definitely didn't have an RTC so I was so confused. That led me to look up this video.
It’s mainly for clocks. They aren’t technically “save batteries” in most cases.
Yeah, I did too. My Metroid Fusion cart has a battery, but my Zero Mission does not for example
Kirby nightmare in dreamland for example has Fram or sram, just depending on the model, this TH-camr straight saying that sram is most common is incorrect
Great tutorial! Just one question, what temperature should I have my soldering iron set to?
At what temperature do you set the soldering iron to? F or C
Great video! This is by far the best tutorial video for replacing game cartridges 👍
thanks.. I learned alot regarding different saving types of GBA cartridge.
This was super helpful! I was able to replace the battery in the pokemon ruby copy i just got!
Great tutorial and explanation, thank you very much! =)
Excellent video. I'll attempt to replace the batteries in 4 carts next week. I was one of those ppl asking for this video and appreciate your time.
Thanks for continuing to upload great tutorials. :)
Thanks so much! Glad to oblige, my friend! 😎👍🏻
I've been doing quite a bit of digging into how the RTC works on the pokemon games recently. Even if you replace the batteries in Pokemon R/S/E, most clock based events wont work. The main issue will be Shoal cave, which is only accessible during low tides, so if you have a dry battery, it's best to set the initial time to one where low-tide will be present. The next thing would be growing berries, which probably won't effect many. When the battery is replaced, the RTC is reset to 1/1/2000 and 00:00am. This is also the case when starting a NEW game in Ruby or Sapphire, where as Emerald just updates the time set, and not the date of the RTC. The way the game deals with growing berries is to count time from the last save point, and check to see if the value is greater. Since the last save is probably pretty far into the future from the year 2000, berries will basically never grow. There are some homebrew apps that can run from either a GBA or DS flashcart and access/update the RTC.
It can get pretty convoluted, but if you really want to update the time on the games after installing a new battery, using a $10 DS flashcart and the homebrew app is really easy, as it'll just read the RTC from the game in the GBA slot, and allow you to edit it.
I don't think I fully understood. The game counts time from the last save point, but what does that mean if you reset the game's clock to 1/1/2000? Do you mean that it takes into account the date at which the previous save file was last saved, meaning that if I had a save file that I last saved in 2012 and then started a new game, that save file from 2012 would still be some point of reference for the new game? If that's not what you meant, I don't really understand how it works. When you wrote that the game "checks to see if the value is greater", could you specify greater than what? I'll be very grateful if you clarify, mad respect to you for digging into this and sharing.
You are talking about the infamous berry bug right? That can be fixed if you have a copy of the newer pokemon games like FireRed/LeafGreen/Emerald. Basically involves connecting 2 GBA with a link cable and update the game using the Berry Patch included in those games. It only affects certain batches of Ruby/Sapphire.
amazing video!
Well I'll be doing this for the Pokemon Ruby I got recently. I used to have the whole crew of generation 3 games, but lost them all a while back. Excuse me while I shed a few more tears.
Got me through my first replacement!
Thanks a lot! I recently got a cartridge with a corroded battery.
This is a great video. My only quibble is I wish that you would have taken a voltage reading on the battery after you replaced it. Still, very well made and informative.
Amazing tutorial! Just a quick question, what are you using to hold the pcb up like that? Seems extremely helpful.
Thank you! 🙂 This is the thing: www.amazon.com/dp/B07TZ5C746/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zWivFbEDS6RG2 Just get some shrink tube for the alligator clips and you're good to go. 👍🏻 Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the new great video I’m currently ordering cr 2025s to replace my Gold silver red blue yellow and crystal carts
And I’m ordering cr 1616s too or wtv for whoever is gunna say yellow use them
Thanks man, I did everything step by step flawlessly on my Pokemon Emerald.
You can actually also fit CR2016 coin cell batteries in GBA carts too.
So awesome ill use this when i replace mine not for years though as i bought them already newly replaced
If anyone watches this more recently, this does not fully fix the Pokémon carts. You actually need to have a way to manually adjust the RTC on the cart after the new battery is installed. This is because replacing the battery sets the date back to the year 2000 so time based events are still frozen until it reaches whatever year it last read before the battery died. You can also fix this by just restarting your game from scratch but using 3rd party software and hardware is the only way to save your save file properly after replacing the battery. Otherwise this video is perhaps one of the most definitive tutorials out there for replacing a battery properly. Thank you very much for making this amazing video!
I've just bought myself a copy of Fire Red and haven't started a save file yet. Am I best off changing over the battery before starting the game to avoid any issues later on? Thanks
@@RobertPaulson87 From what I understand, you can either change it or wait to see what happens. If you bought it from someone and they can tell you they replaced it recently then you are good. If they haven't then maybe consider doing so. But honestly I am not sure if Fire Red actually needs the battery the same way Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald do.
Fire red and leaf green don’t have batteries
@RobertPaulson87 if it had a battery, yes.
But since only the Hoenn games use a battery, you're fine.
For Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald you should definitely replace the battery before starting a new savefile, if it's still the original battery. Those games are 20 years old now and if I recall correctly, I heard somewhere that the manufacturer expected those RTC batteries to last up to 15 years!
Omg a good youtube video?! Call me suprised :)
Great job btw
Thank you so much you save my data
Great video ..detailed. Pro!
My Pokemon Sapphire just showed the clock error T.T and I have no soldering experience :( so guess I'll have to learn that first! thanks for the awesome tutorial though!!
Where are you getting the batteries? I see a couple on Amazon but reviews seem so suggest the tabs are shorter and kinda tricky to use on gba carts. Thanks and nice video!
Nice tutorial! Does lead-free solder work with this as well?
Where do you purchase your batteries from? The ones I found did not have large enough tabs and I was not able to attach it to the board.
Thank you
Good tutorial. I have a question. This could also be made for placing a battery holder for coin cells instead a soldered cell? In GBA cartridges there isn't much space left.
I've seen it done in GBC carts, but the limited space in GBA doesn't make it very feasible. The most I can get in there is a CR2025 and it is a difficult fit. A holder for a CR1616 would be impossible. If anything, you'd have to find an even smaller holder and battery and reduce its capacity.
Wow, thank you so much for this video, this was extremely helpful. As a kid, I never even knew that cartridges had batteries in them.
How do we go about finding that little stand with the clamps? super useful
I have a question regarding the soldering iron temperature you used for the soldering process. The reason is, I don't want to pull out the pads by mistake due to putting an incorrect temperature setting in Celsius.
Edit: I found a comment for the temperature setting you replied to and you said just above 375 degrees C. But unfortunately for me, I have 99.3% tin and 0.7% copper wire.
Do you recommend I use a different soldering wire?
What temperature/wattage is best to use on the soldering iron when performing this?
Thanks! Currently trying to collect the main series Pokémon games so this will help me save some cash lol
Since you emphasized that it should be a temperature-controlled soldering iron, what temperature do you recommend setting the iron to? I know the basics of soldering, but I don't know how to tell the right temperature and I'm always worried of setting it too high, but melting solder takes forever at lower temperatures and that can make the job quite tricky .
some solder got on the BT1 hole (located just below the negative contact) currently the cart still works, but am worried once i add a battery that the current my do something, should i be worried? I've stopped for now until I find or get an answer
Edit: Didn't get an answer so figured I'd give it a try after cleaning up as much of the solder as I could. works fine.
Great video. One question though. When the battery dies, is the save in sram also gone? or does it just lose the ability to save new data into it?
When the battery dies, the save data is also cleared. Thanks for watching! 👍🏻
Just a quick question. Where did you get that scalpel you are using? Thanks!
He installed backlight in his gba. This guy is a genius.
I just lost all my save data for metroid fusion as well, but i made a new file to test it out and the new file saved. I even shook the Gameboy around to see if the cart was loose and it still saved. So now I have to replay through the entire game again.
ty
I looked this up because my Pokémon Ruby battery is dead/low so I got that message in game about the clock, but my game save file is totally fine with all my Pokémon. I don't know about soldering (I'd have to buy all the stuff) but maybe I can get someone else to do it for me. Thanks for helping me to see what needs to be done in so much detail.
Warning: certain events in Pokemon R/S/E are tied to the internal clock proceeding past the time where the previous battery died. However when replacing the battery the internal clock resets to January 1, 2000 (halting certain events specifically tied to what day it is like berry trees, but not things tied to the clock simply moving forward like the Umbreon and Espeon Eeveelutions). In order to fix this you need to modify the save data so the internal clock is set to the correct time. Then all time based events will work properly without any issues.
How do you modify the internal clock itself?
@@stephen7862 i believe it requires a ROM dumping device (a cartridge reader that connects to a computer) and a save editor. There was a video on it that showed off exactly what to do, but I don't remember what the title of the video was.
@@doutchebags Late reply but you can just use a DS/DS Lite for that process if you have a R4 Card
If you don't mind restarting the game, creating a new save file will also fix the RTC issue
@@doutchebags please can i have more info on this? i dont find anything online
You're like an ancient blacksmith forging japanese katanas.
Can you make a video about "differentiating clone-false games and consoles from original ones"??
The force of nintendo be with you.
Question: Does the solder have to be 60/40 Tin-Lead? I have 99.3-0.7 tin copper and wanted to know if that works as well.
Question: Does the original flash always state MX? Ordered a new cartridge that seemed legit, but the only thing that was off was another flash chip, idk.
Late to the video but what temp do you usually have your iron on when doing this?
I personally solder at about 650° F, but I'd advise lower temps (at least above 375° F for 60/40 solder) for those new to soldering.
my gba cart I am working with is using a cr2025, to be fair it is a flash cart but it does still fit in the cart.
Can I use contact cleaner instead of IPA to clean flux after changing the battery?
Question: You use the braid to clean the pcb and apply flux to better help the cleaning?
I solder by the mantra "clean, flux, solder, clean" - The flux is to help the solder bond with a metal surface by removing oxidation from that surface, which would otherwise make it harder to get solder to "stick". This goes for the solder pads, wire, components, AND the copper braid itself. So yeah, more or less the flux helps to clean the surface of impurities that would otherwise make soldering more difficult. 👍🏻 Thanks for watching!
What is one of the metal taps are missing on the cart? Anyway to add a new metal pads on the gba cart?
Im replacing my battery so I can hunt for a shiny kyogre in sapphire. I hear with a dead one the rng works the same way as emerald. If i replace the battery can I then go on hunting like normal or will it take a full game reset? I’ve heard most in game clock events dont work until a full reset. Will this also mean I can’t get the Regis?
Would you recommend that someone who’s never soldered before, try this? I’m very tempted to
No - Lately I've seen too many people rip the battery terminal pads off of the PCB on these carts. Try soldering on a broken clock radio or something from a thrift store first, and remember to always use flux! Thanks for watching. 👍🏻
I have problems finding the tabbed batteries, any hope to find a video on how to tab them ourselves?
Well, I've kinda considered it before, but doing so requires welding, which is not something I particularly want to get into, at least not right now. Batteries are also tricky, and I'm not comfortable with instructing people how to weld to them, since they could explode. Although, I've seen people do it themselves - Check into it!
@@KyleAwsm yeah I had 2 batteries explode for overheating while welding them, silly mistakes and not all that dangerous given the size, but still not ideal situation.
Thanks a lot for replying so fast.
I accomplished this without applying flux, removing old solder, and cleaning with alcohol. Should I restart the process to prevent any damage?
Question. What should you do if one of the pads decide to lift from the board? I can't find an answer anywhere.
There is a special 3M epoxy you can purchase to re-secure the pad to the PCB. After curing, use a meter to make sure you still have continuity everywhere it's supposed to connect to. Cheers!
Hey dude, when are you doing a full review of the VGAMite?
Before Christmas - It's coming, I promise! 🙂
I'm a bit late to the party but how hot is your soldering iron when using desolder braid ? It looks so easy when you do it, but mine just keep sticking to the PCB with the solder >
Well I lifted my battery pads on my Pokemon emerald is there any way to run a jumper wire from the battery to the rtc or crystal found at 1:57?
Tnx
Welcome! 👍🏻
I think I have a later official variant of the Metroid Fusion cartridge as it doesn't have a coin cell battery inside. I do have a Megaman Zero cartridge that does have a coin cell inside so this will come in handy when it's time to replace it.
Yes, Metroid Fusion was one of the games that was later released with Flash memory. You can even convert the original one over to flash memory. Seen a video of makho doing it. The Pokemon games are the ones that really drain the battery due to the real-time clock.
what tempwra do you have the iron at?
Make sure that if your using a hand me down soldering iron that it still gets hot enough to desolder stuff or you may end up with ripped pads like me.
Yes it was Pokemon Emerald.
I can get a CR2025 in a GBA cart. Takes a little work, but you can do it. The Metroid Fusion I have has no battery, one of the few games where there was ones with a battery and ones without. The Pokemon ones are likely the ones you will see depleted most because of the Real-Time clock.
Also I forgot to recheck the video before I removed the outside and a small plastic bit broke off. How bad is that?
Just curious, other than Pokemon GameBoy Advance games, why do some GameBoy Advance games contain batteries? For instance the two Metroid GBA games contain a battery, but the Super Mario Advance games do not. However, you can still easily save game data on each game? Or the 2nd Densetsu No Stafy game contains no battery but 1 & 2 both do. Kinda of sucks because it causes more of a headache to worry about losing game data and saves.
What soldering kit did you use for this?
Theres something captivating about cartridge technology.
Quick question: Around what temperature should I be setting the soldering iron (to get sufficient heat without damaging the underlying PCB)?
Did you find out what temperature?
@@austingallo7937 I've been setting it to 750F with no issues. Just make sure not to leave the iron in contact with the board for more than a few seconds at a time.
Bit late to the party but would it not be better to get a cr1616 battery holder in stead of a tabbed battery?