[GBA] Pokemon Ruby & Sappire Battery

[Toomuchsugar]

Alright so recently I replaced the battery in a copy of Ruby I bought last week at a used game store and now I no longer get the Battery has run dry message.
When I replaced it in my copy of Sapphire which I've had since launch, it still gets the message. I've tested the battery, re-soldered it multiple times, tried new batteries, swapped the battery from the working ruby over to sapphire, and reset the saved data. Still I get the message and I have no clue why. I'm seeing mixed information online, some people are saying they get this message as a result of the berry glitch and others say it's unrelated.

Anyone have any experience with this issue or know of a solution?

 

[migles]

i don't believe it's related to the berry glitch.
you said you reseted the data right? by reset you mean you used the button combo to erase the save and restarted fresh?
after starting fresh, with the berry glitch or not, the message should go away..
did ya double checked the battery polarity? and the cart is official right?
maybe the clock crystal might be broken or something wrong with it..

edit: maybe try to save, load the save, wait a few minutes, then save again, and load it again, maybe it helps but i am just trying to guess...

 

[Toomuchsugar]

i don't believe it's related to the berry glitch.
you said you reseted the data right? by reset you mean you used the button combo to erase the save and restarted fresh?
after starting fresh, with the berry glitch or not, the message should go away..
did ya double checked the battery polarity? and the cart is official right?
maybe the clock crystal might be broken or something wrong with it..

edit: maybe try to save, load the save, wait a few minutes, then save again, and load it again, maybe it helps but i am just trying to guess...

Reset with the button combo, yes.
Battery polarity is fine. I can show you a picture if you like.
Cart is official, bought it new back when it first released.

I'll give the save and load thing a try. Any idea what component the crystal clock is? Can it be tested and replaced?

 

[Toomuchsugar]

 

[Toomuchsugar]

Saving/loading gave no results. Open to ideas, can't find any information online about the issue I'm having.

 

[migles]

unless i am wrong, and this is from what i understood:
the red circle is the cristal oscilator thing (the clock)
and the blue circle is the memory bank controller (i believe they still use memory bank controllers in the gba?)
either is the memory bank controller (which manages both memories and the clock) or the chip that keeps

do you have a way to backup\restore your saves? (can be done with an original ds or ds lite and a flashcart)
i got one more thing to try before you try to rip that thing appart

dump your save, get pkhex, there is a edit RTC function, try the berry glitch fix button, or manually advance the game like 5 years from the 2000 (you can either leave INITIAL TIME alone or reset it to zeros)
restore your save back, see if that fixes it, but i really don't think it does

 

[Toomuchsugar]

I have a ds lite and I'm still waiting on a r4i to arrive from chine so I can't try that just yet. I may just pull the back off my DS and bring out a multi-meter, see if I can't find where a connection is weak or broke.

 

[Toomuchsugar]

So this is what I've figured out after some digging around, and on my cart there appears to be corrosion on the top right pin of the RTC. Hopefully the chip itself isn't bad, no clue where to find a replacement.

 

[Toomuchsugar]

View attachment 135562
unless i am wrong, and this is from what i understood:
the red circle is the cristal oscilator thing (the clock)
and the blue circle is the memory bank controller (i believe they still use memory bank controllers in the gba?)
either is the memory bank controller (which manages both memories and the clock) or the chip that keeps

do you have a way to backup\restore your saves? (can be done with an original ds or ds lite and a flashcart)
i got one more thing to try before you try to rip that thing appart

dump your save, get pkhex, there is a edit RTC function, try the berry glitch fix button, or manually advance the game like 5 years from the 2000 (you can either leave INITIAL TIME alone or reset it to zeros)
restore your save back, see if that fixes it, but i really don't think it does

Tried that and no luck, seems for the the berry glitch is not related to the dead battery warning. Finally got around to testing some of the components on the board and discovered that the
(I think)capacitor marked at C4 is bad. On the working copy of Ruby I'm getting about 3v to and through that cap, on sapphire I'm getting 3v going to but not through. Anyone know what C4 is on this board?

 

[lordhardware]

So this is what I've figured out after some digging around, and on my cart there appears to be corrosion on the top right pin of the RTC. Hopefully the chip itself isn't bad, no clue where to find a replacement.

Your handwriting is beautiful

 

[Dat-Boi]

Was this ever figured out? I need to know what the cap at C3 is on my Ruby cart.