want to try an experiment?
grab 1 gba game, any game will probably do.
make sure akaio is set up to automatically back-up saves on reboot, via the settings.
flash to psram, play for a bit, and save.
reboot the nds, dump the save to the micro sd, flash the same game again and see if the save loads
if its working then your battery is fine and psram has no issues.
take the msd out and delete the gba save file (or delete it via the akaio delete option). put the micro sd back in and boot back into akaio
blank the NOR via the akaio options or use
hyperlisks NOR eraser
flash that same game (confirmed working at this point) to NOR
play for a bit, make a save, and then reboot the nds
dump the save to the micro sd card
load the same game and see if the save is present (as it should be)
if everything is working then nor is fine.
if the save appears to not be working, manually take the save off of the msd card and put it on your computer. use the
akaio gba save converter (to strip out the first 16 bytes), and then test that save on a PC based GBA emulator.
if the same is working, that means its being correctly written by the game and dumped by akaio. which would point to an issue with the NOR.
some things to consider:
some games may not be properly save patched via the akaio native flashing software. some eeprom games might not be correctly patched for sram, some sram games may not be properly patched, etc. if the game you are testing with doesn't work, try another game. DO NOT use the same game(s) you have already confirmed as not working.
some versions of the older 3in1 (v2) used 2 nor chips instead of 1. i've talked to one person who was unable to get saves working with akaio, they were always corrupted. it is possible you have this 3in1.
if games are working with gba exploader (saves working with both psram and nor) then the issue is with akaio and not your 3in1.
-another world