I got an EZ-Flash IV about two weeks ago, mainly to play Mother 3. I set everything up, and it worked fine, until the next day, when it showed the "Battery is dry or first in" error.
After browsing the forums, I figured that the battery was just dead, so I opened it up and checked the voltage, which was pitifully low for a 3-volt battery. I am experienced in soldering, so I decided to solder a fully-charged VL-2020 to replace the dead CR-2025. This fixed my problem for about two days, until I started getting the same "Battery is dry or first in" message again upon bootup. I checked the new battery's voltage and found that it, too, had been reduced to a few tenths of a volt.
This makes me think that my first battery was just fine when I got the cart (even though I never actually checked its voltage) and that the cart might have a short or other problem that is causing its battery to drain too fast.
Is there anything I can do to fix this permanently? I have to let the cart charge inside the console for at least a half hour before I begin playing, if I want to be able to save later on.
Additional info:
* When the battery dies, the Mother 3 file from the NOR is renamed with Chinese characters and other symbols, and it becomes unplayable, though the Mother 3.sav file I have is left in-tact with all my data. When this happens, I just recharge the battery, delete the corrupted Mother 3 file from the NOR, and flash the rom from my SD card to the NOR again. That gets it working as if nothing ever happened, until the next time the battery is left to rot. I was wondering if the corrupted NOR file was a normal side effect of a dead battery.
* I have been using the GameCube's Game Boy Player attachment to play games through my EZ4, but I doubt that it is the source of this problem. I tried unplugging the cart from the console after use, wondering if that might stop a circuit from draining the battery or something, but it still drained.
* I also tried installing the sleephack patch to the Mother 3 ROM, but it made the file just big enough to be too large to fit onto the NOR. I was wondering if there was another way to install the sleephack, so I could just soft-reset without a battery to have to rely on.
* I created this account specifically to get help with this issue, so sorry about being a noob.
After browsing the forums, I figured that the battery was just dead, so I opened it up and checked the voltage, which was pitifully low for a 3-volt battery. I am experienced in soldering, so I decided to solder a fully-charged VL-2020 to replace the dead CR-2025. This fixed my problem for about two days, until I started getting the same "Battery is dry or first in" message again upon bootup. I checked the new battery's voltage and found that it, too, had been reduced to a few tenths of a volt.
This makes me think that my first battery was just fine when I got the cart (even though I never actually checked its voltage) and that the cart might have a short or other problem that is causing its battery to drain too fast.
Is there anything I can do to fix this permanently? I have to let the cart charge inside the console for at least a half hour before I begin playing, if I want to be able to save later on.
Additional info:
* When the battery dies, the Mother 3 file from the NOR is renamed with Chinese characters and other symbols, and it becomes unplayable, though the Mother 3.sav file I have is left in-tact with all my data. When this happens, I just recharge the battery, delete the corrupted Mother 3 file from the NOR, and flash the rom from my SD card to the NOR again. That gets it working as if nothing ever happened, until the next time the battery is left to rot. I was wondering if the corrupted NOR file was a normal side effect of a dead battery.
* I have been using the GameCube's Game Boy Player attachment to play games through my EZ4, but I doubt that it is the source of this problem. I tried unplugging the cart from the console after use, wondering if that might stop a circuit from draining the battery or something, but it still drained.
* I also tried installing the sleephack patch to the Mother 3 ROM, but it made the file just big enough to be too large to fit onto the NOR. I was wondering if there was another way to install the sleephack, so I could just soft-reset without a battery to have to rely on.
* I created this account specifically to get help with this issue, so sorry about being a noob.
