Gaming Pokémon Omega Ruby displays an error after the main title screen

[KhronosX]

My game cartridge is recognized, launches, but when I try to get past the main title screen this message appears:

An error has occurred. Hold down the POWER Button to turn off the power, then turn it on and try again. For help, visit support(...)

Other Pokémon games work all right in this console (N3DS) and I tried the problematic cartridge on my O3DS which gives me the same error.

I’ve cleaned it to no avail (IPA 99%).. any help is appreciated.

 

[Flame]

Oh no.

ive heard people with pal versions are having problems...

check this out V

https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/n4jzh7/users_on_resetera_are_reporting_that_their/

 

[emmanu888]

The same issue happened a while back with Persona Q physical copies. Some are also reporting their copies of Smash 3DS getting stuck on an infinite loading screen.

Its something that has to do with the ROM chip degrading. I feel like having a small homebrew program to verify data integrity could be a good idea
since the ROM chips in those carts have a shelf life of 5-15 years before degradation starts occurring.

(Edit) Reading into it again, seems like some copies uses a different type of FlashROM whereas other copies uses Macronix XtraROM chips like those found in Switch carts. Its the copies with the FlashROM that are degrading whereas the copies with XtraROM chips are still working fine.

 

[Snintendog]

The same issue happened a while back with Persona Q physical copies. Some are also reporting their copies of Smash 3DS getting stuck on an infinite loading screen.

Its something that has to do with the ROM chip degrading. I feel like having a small homebrew program to verify data integrity could be a good idea
since the ROM chips in those carts have a shelf life of 5-15 years before degradation starts occurring.

(Edit) Reading into it again, seems like some copies uses a different type of FlashROM whereas other copies uses Macronix XtraROM chips like those found in Switch carts. Its the copies with the FlashROM that are degrading whereas the copies with XtraROM chips are still working fine.

There are many reports that can confirm it isnt the save area being messed with Pokemon bank can still access the save data from the dead cartridges yet games cannot something else is at play and seeing a majority of those that have it are of PAL is it due to a FW they have? Didn't 3ds recently have a "Stability" update in the last few months?

 

[emmanu888]

There are many reports that can confirm it isnt the save area being messed with Pokemon bank can still access the save data from the dead cartridges yet games cannot something else is at play and seeing a majority of those that have it are of PAL is it due to a FW they have? Didn't 3ds recently have a "Stability" update in the last few months?

Seems like the save data partition of the flash chip isn't affected since its not as accessed as much as the main game partition.
Its still a big problem if carts starts dying left and right simply because a batch of games used cheaper FlashROM instead of XtraROM chips

 

[Mayo1990]

Oh man. I suppose the price for working ORAS carts is going to skyrocket now.