Problem with dumping Pokemon Emerald

huncho · Thursday at 9:37 PM

Hello, im unable to dump my copy of pokemon emerald since replacing the battery.

its kinda weird, it plays perfectly fine and backing up the savedata works flawlessly but dumping the ROM gives me data integrety errors or incorrect dumps with every method I tried (GB Operator, GBxCart, GC to GBA Link Cable dumper)

I attached a few pictures from my copy maybe there is something yall see. I try to dump it tomorrow without the battery, maybe thats the problem but not sure.

its a german copy if that helps

Hunter · Thursday at 9:43 PM

when you remove the battery, it will not wipe the rom so you do not need to worry about that,

just backup the save, make sure that works by writing it back etc, then replace the battery and restore the save

EDIT: STUPID ME, it is flash save, so that wont even wipe

also have you tried to remover the battery to make sure all connections under it are no bridged on the rom?

huncho · Thursday at 9:46 PM

Hunter said:
when you remove the battery, it will not wipe the rom so you do not need to worry about that,

just backup the save, make sure that works by writing it back etc, then replace the battery and restore the save

EDIT: STUPID ME, it is flash save, so that wont even wipe

but thats not really what im asking sorry if my post was not clear enough.

im trying to dump the game but its always giving out a bad dump after replacing the battery

Hunter said:
also have you tried to remover the battery to make sure all connections under it are no bridged on the rom?

thats the next step I try, i was just posting this thread in advance to check if maybe someone sees something unusual on the board that i miss

huncho · Saturday at 12:39 PM

little update:

removed the battery, cleaned everything - same issues. im kinda lost atp

i dont see anything shortened or other problems on the board

Patxinco · Saturday at 12:48 PM

Cleaned the contacts? They seem pretty bad on the photos

huncho · Saturday at 12:50 PM

Patxinco said:
Cleaned the contacts? They seem pretty bad on the photos

yeah i cleaned them multiple times, they probably just worn out atp

Patxinco · Saturday at 12:53 PM

huncho said:
yeah i cleaned them multiple times, they probably just worn out atp

I've been using Joey Jr. dumper, so cannot help with the other methods, sorry

RAHelllord · Saturday at 12:58 PM

Do you always get the same ROM dumped or does it change between dumps? If it changes try cleaning the contacts some more with some proper IPA 90%+ and a q-tip until the q-tip stops getting dirty.

If you don't have any IPA at home you can also gently use a regular pencil eraser, just don't go too ham on the pins.

Edit: on some closer inspection, the leg of the battery on the left side is a little close to the pins of the chip there, maybe double check you don't have any shorts there.

huncho · Saturday at 1:07 PM

RAHelllord said:
Do you always get the same ROM dumped or does it change between dumps? If it changes try cleaning the contacts some more with some proper IPA 90%+ and a q-tip until the q-tip stops getting dirty.

If you don't have any IPA at home you can also gently use a regular pencil eraser, just don't go too ham on the pins.

Edit: on some closer inspection, the leg of the battery on the left side is a little close to the pins of the chip there, maybe double check you don't have any shorts there.

yeah its the same dump, checked the files between dumping (also between different methods) and md5 checksum etc.

RAHelllord said:
If you don't have any IPA at home you can also gently use a regular pencil eraser, just don't go too ham on the pins.

i can try clean them again with IPA but idk did this multiple times now without results.

RAHelllord said:
Edit: on some closer inspection, the leg of the battery on the left side is a little close to the pins of the chip there, maybe double check you don't have any shorts there.

i removed the battery to make sure the legs dont short anything out but sadly same results

RAHelllord · Saturday at 1:23 PM

What's the md5 hash you get?

Jayro · Saturday at 2:30 PM

I think you accidentally removed a component... Likely an SMD diode or capacitor.

huncho · Saturday at 3:44 PM

Jayro said:
I think you accidentally removed a component... Likely an SMD diode or capacitor.

View attachment 444477

nah there is no component in that place was just solder on there, i already removed it when i saw it.

but ty for pointing it out!

RAHelllord said:
What's the md5 hash you get?

a91300cb5ff99887e8edb407e6298366

Jayro · Saturday at 4:15 PM

If you have a DS Lite and a DS flash cart, you can dump save files that way using the GBABF homebrew.

huncho · Saturday at 7:59 PM

Jayro said:
If you have a DS Lite and a DS flash cart, you can dump save files that way using the GBABF homebrew.

i fear that method will give me a bad dump too just like the others but I sadly cant test it right now because i dont got one in hand atm

RAHelllord · Saturday at 9:07 PM

That's not an md5 I am seeing anywhere, so chances are pretty high it is a bad dump. What's the label say, any markings for a revision? There shouldn't be any for Emerald / Smaragd but who knows.

Also, what software did you use to dump the cart when using the GBxCart RW? If you used insideGadgets's own software you could give LesserKuma's FlashGBX a try. That one has a few extra diagnostics tools on board.

Last but not least, just for a giggle you could drop the ROM into gbata and check if that thing can either recognize any damage or thinks it's a valid dump and spit out some extra information about it.

4d1xlaan · 2024-06-30T00:05:59+0100

it's not going to fix the problem, but out of curiosity I would compare it with a known good copy in hex editor and see what's actually different in it

N7Kopper · 2024-06-30T10:32:59+0100

If you're getting dump errors "but the game plays fine", I would wonder if some part of the ROM is broken. I have a Pokémon Blue cart with what I can only guess is a damaged ROM, given how the contacts are squeaky clean but the Nintendo logo check still fails. Unless something else went wrong, you may have damaged the ROM itself when swapping the battery somehow - or it was already damaged and you just didn't know.

I would suggest dumping it multiple times and making sure you have the same checksum across all dumps - if you do, it's most likely not a contact issue, but rather a damaged ROM. Of course, depending on where it's damaged, it might be fine. Not likely, but possible.

4d1xlaan said:
it's not going to fix the problem, but out of curiosity I would compare it with a known good copy in hex editor and see what's actually different in it

I was just about to suggest this myself. In fact, I want to do that for my Blue, but I don't want to buy dumping hardware for a GB cart and the software method of doing so is esoteric enough that I haven't yet been arsed to figure it out.

huncho · 2024-06-30T10:41:22+0100

thanks for all the suggestions, i will go through them all later when im back home

N7Kopper said:
you may have damaged the ROM itself when swapping the battery somehow - or it was already damaged and you just didn't know.

i fear thats the problem. would be sad with how much emerald costs these days but atleast the save backups fine and the game works perfectly on real hardware and thats a bit more important than dumping the rom for me in the end.

N7Kopper · 2024-06-30T10:45:11+0100

huncho said:
thanks for all the suggestions, i will go through them all later when im back home

i fear thats the problem. would be sad with how much emerald costs these days but atleast the save backups fine and the game works perfectly on real hardware and thats a bit more important than dumping the rom for me in the end.

It might not work perfectly on real hardware though. You could easily run into a part of the game that doesn't work, and then blow up your save.

huncho · 2024-06-30T10:51:08+0100

N7Kopper said:
It might not work perfectly on real hardware though. You could easily run into a part of the game that doesn't work, and then blow up your save.

yeah I know the risk, but if its a damaged ROM there is really not much i can do in the end i guess

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