Hardware Hacking GBA Rapid battery drain EZ Flash Junior

[Mancore]

Noticed one oddity. I use EZ Flash Jr with GBA SP (AGS-101) and the battery dries out in a month. This is my second EZ Flash Jr. Does anyone else use this cartridge with the SP AGS-101?

Post automatically merged: Oct 23, 2022

I will add information: I used batteries from different manufacturers (Duracell, Kodak), I use a SanDisk Extreme Pro 32Gb memory card. I would like to know from other people the statistics of the EZ Flash Jr with GBA SP (AGS-101).

 

[moon_rabbit]

I recently bought two ezflash jr, but they both discharged in one month.
I tried a lot of batteries, but it didn't improve.

Because the rtc circuit is same as omega de,
It is estimated that there is a lot of power consumption in junior's Sram.

In the early days, junior's Sram was 64mbit, but it seems that it has changed to 32mbit these days
It is difficult to know exactly what the problem is because there are two sram.

----

I checked that omega de has s71pl064ja0 (flash+psram).

ezflash junior
s71gl064a08 -> s71gl032a08 (X) ---- s71pl032j80 (O)
problem with the changed sram seems clear.

-----
edit

changed chip was written incorrectly.
s71pl032j80 <- this is changed chip.

When I looked up the datasheet,
This is a psram, not a typical sram.

Problem is that standby current of psram is much higher than sram.

This was the problem.

@EZ-Flash2
Is this change official?
my ez-flash junior's production dates are 0822,1022 and both are the same s71pl032j80 chip.

deep sleep mode can be done by new firmware ?

 

[moon_rabbit]

Can you check each of junior's s71 chip??

Location of s71 chip is in the picture.

 

[Mancore]

Can you check each of junior's s71 chip??

Location of s71 chip is in the picture.

View attachment 333797

Yes, I have chip 71PL032J80.
The date 0822 is written on the board itself.

 

[moon_rabbit]

Yes, I have chip 71PL032J80.
The date 0822 is written on the board itself.

I ordered 71PL032J08

I'm going to exchange it this week.

If the replacement works correctly,
I'm going to check if battery continues after a month.

 

[Mancore]

I ordered 71PL032J08

I'm going to exchange it this week.

If the replacement works correctly,
I'm going to check if battery continues after a month.

Thanks for answering and testing.

 

[moon_rabbit]

I changed 71PL032J80 -> 71PL032J08

So far all function is good.
Save, RTC, Recently played game, fw update and etc

And finally, only battery problems remain.
I'll report it later.

 

[moon_rabbit]

Five weeks have passed.
RTC is still stable.

final conclusion
power consumption of psram only keeps coin battery for a month.

Q. How do I know if the s71 chip is psram or sram?
A.
The mark of psram is 80.
The mark of sram is 08.
71xL0xxx80~ <- psram mark
71xL0xxx08~ <- sram mark

Q. My chip is psram. how can i solve this?
A.
There are two options.
1. Replacing coin batteries with cr2032
It will probably last 5 months.

2. Buy sram chip and replace it
It will probably last for a year.

Q. Which chip should I buy? how do i replace it?
A.
71GL064A08
71GL032A08
71PL064J08
71PL032J08
Buy one of these you can buy.
prepare a hot air station and Learn how to replace bga chip on youtube.

 

[Plstic]

wew, sounds like a lot of work. you're better off buying an everdrive at that point.

 

[ghjfdtg]

Sounds like a major oversight or a deliberate cost saving measure. I'm leaning towards the later. PSRAM is much more power hungry.

 

[moon_rabbit]

Sounds like a major oversight or a deliberate cost saving measure. I'm leaning towards the later. PSRAM is much more power hungry.

I think they don't have sram chips anymore.

I bought 2 more junior and now have 4.
It's all psram.
My Omega DE also has psram.
But it doesn't matter because it uses fram.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
And I have a question.
Did you solve the bit flip of nor flash?

I did a lot of test on my omega de.

When I changed the oscillator to 24.545mhz instead of 24.54545mhz
last 32MB of nor flash was flashed perfectly.

However, even after several tests, bit flips continued to occur in the front part.
I'm planning on reball s98, but I think this is most likely not the problem.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hmm, I don't have this problem. My EzFlash Jr's are nearly 2 years old and keep saves no problem.

 

[swutch]

So there are only psram juniors left to buy?

 

[dotted532]

I enjoy a good soldering challenge so I want to attempt this. Finding a replacement part is tricky but I'm going order from here: depu.net/products/search/71GL064A08

Can anyone confirm that this method is still solid or has it maybe even been improved upon with something ells?
Also I plan on adding a battery swap mod from this thread for even more longevity: gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-jr-high-capacity-cr2032-battery-mod.643868/

 

[Jayro]

I've owned an EZ-Flash Jr, and hated it. Mostly for the sluggish menu navigation and it's a huge power hog. I've since replaced it with an EDGB from AliExpress, and buy dedicated MBC carts like Bennvenn's MBC3000 for games like Pokemon that need RTC. Much happier with this route, and I also gain beautiful cartridges as a result. So it's a win-win for me.

 

[moon_rabbit]

I enjoy a good soldering challenge so I want to attempt this. Finding a replacement part is tricky but I'm going order from here: depu.net/products/search/71GL064A08

Can anyone confirm that this method is still solid or has it maybe even been improved upon with something ells?
Also I plan on adding a battery swap mod from this thread for even more longevity: gbatemp.net/threads/ez-flash-jr-high-capacity-cr2032-battery-mod.643868/

Yes, it's a solid way.
I was able to maintain the battery for at least a year after replacement.
If you exchange it for cr2032, it can be maintained for at least 5 years.

 

[apf3l]

Which features are effected by the dry battery? I kept using my ez jr with the dry battery for some time and until now it works fine for me.

 

[ghjfdtg]

And I have a question.
Did you solve the bit flip of nor flash?

I did a lot of test on my omega de.

When I changed the oscillator to 24.545mhz instead of 24.54545mhz
last 32MB of nor flash was flashed perfectly.

However, even after several tests, bit flips continued to occur in the front part.
I'm planning on reball s98, but I think this is most likely not the problem.

Sorry for the late response. I missed this question. No, the bit flips are still there. I honestly don't know the cause. EZ-Flash said it's a power issue but i doubt that.

 

[moon_rabbit]

Sorry for the late response. I missed this question. No, the bit flips are still there. I honestly don't know the cause. EZ-Flash said it's a power issue but i doubt that.

Thank you for your response.
It's a pretty subtle issue.
I did a lot of testing and concluded that the problem is with NOR FLASH itself.
If the programmer of that chip existed, I could come to a 100% accurate conclusion, but as of now, I don't even have access to a replacement chip, so I think it's best to get the Omega as cheap as possible.

Post automatically merged: Jul 14, 2024

Which features are effected by the dry battery? I kept using my ez jr with the dry battery for some time and until now it works fine for me.

If the battery runs out, the data below will be lost.
Save data in SRAM, RTC, Recently played games list

 

[apf3l]

Save data in SRAM, RTC, Recently played games list

Do you mean save my game data? Because I can save my ingame data. I do a reset of the flashcard with the card internal button and the card asks me to "BACKUPSAVE" which i can accept with "A".