Is there a known failure mode for the capacitors on the GBA or are you just randomly flinging terms out? I have seen non electrolytic ones fail but it is more in high power roles. Going by your other threads you have some strange ideas about electronics for the long term and failures associated with such things so IU want to make sure we are not heading down that path. I am not otherwise aware of any but before now most would have probably just replaced the motherboard or got a new device.
you're right, i shouldn't be faulting the capacitor as the direct cause of my console's malfunction. the truth is, i don't know much about electronics, so whenever something goes wrong, i always blame the capacitors for it, because that's the only part of an electrical component i have a tiny bit of familiarity with.
earlier i was under the impression that i would need to re-cap the console even if the capacitors inside weren't leaking, as you've so kindly assured me last year that they likely would not. with that said, i've updated my first post to remove all references to capacitor being at fault.
Are you using a flash cart or an original cart? Some flash carts and repros can short things out and that may see a shut off. You can test this by jiggling the cart and putting pressure on it with the device on.
yes, i think it might be the supercard flash cart acting up, because when i yank the flashcart out of the gba and turned it on, the console managed to stayed powered on for a full hour with no power interruptions or anything.
i also popped in a couple of genuine gba carts into the gba, and it managed to play them just fine with no sudden power-loss. so it seems that the source of this problem is the flash-cart afterall.
another thing i neglected to mention in my first post is that the fully charged gba would also occasionally shuts itself off while booting up the flash cart, this however, does not happen with genuine carts.
Thank you so very, very much for troubleshooting my problem and for sharing your vast knowledge on the gba with me FAST6191! i'm truly grateful for all the help that you've given me here on gbatemp in all the time that i've been here! Thank you so much again FAST6191!
Your spare genuine official battery might also be bad -- they likely have not been made in well over a decade at this point and they are not good in long term storage. I don't know offhand how many cells make the battery but "full" to unworkable charge in an instant is a popular thing; if you ever see things like people changing just a couple of the cells in a tool or laptop battery, or having a phone drop from high 90 percents to rather lower in an instant, then same idea.
You might also try playing with the charger in. If it is the battery then it should offset the lack of power -- some flash carts might be just a little bit higher but it should not matter for these tests.
thank you so much for the detailed info, especially the part about full-to-unworkable charge, it was very informative and helpful. i guess this explains why all those vintage re-chargeable batteries i bought were degrading so fast even though they were sealed & brand new. thanks again for letting me know FAST6191!
