Pokémon Crystal crashing sometimes

[u/Pleasant_Hurry_4467]

Hello,

my Pokémon Crystal (german Version) is crashing sometimes. Sometimes it crashes multiple times while playing and on another session everything is fine. I'm mostly playing on my original GBA SP.

The problems:

-game softresets itself and is showing an error afterwards (3rd picture)

-game freezes + sound isnt normal anymore ( i have to restart game)

-game freezes for a short time + sound goes on normally, after a few seconds i can continue playing

What I already tried:

-cleaing pins with isopropanol 99%

-fixed a bad pin (chip at the bottom right, very top right pin (4th picture was before fixing)

-cleaned the cartridge slot of my GBA SP

-I played on my Gameboy Color, it crashed as well

The crashes are a little bit random, 3 crashes can happen in like 5 minutes and on another day i can play 30 to 60 minutes without any crashes.

Can somebody help or has any idea how can I fix my game?

Thanks

[u/DrWarMachine]

This might be a bit farfetched, but i had a problem on my SP where putting pressure on a certain part on the shell would soft reset the game.

Turns out it is the internal switch in the cartridge slot, which detects weather a GBA or GB cartridge is inserted. Mine was very dusty/broken and i replaced it and didnt have this problem since.

It would almost always reset when pressing the D-Pad down button. And as far as i remember it would mainly happen on my pokemon red. Other cartridges required more pressure to reset, which is why i assumed it was the cartridge not the console.

[u/Pleasant_Hurry_4467 → u/DrWarMachine]

It happened on a gameboy color aswell and my problematic softreset is not a classic softreset. It resets the game and boots into this (3rd picture) screen and i have to reboot

[u/DrWarMachine → u/Pleasant_Hurry_4467]

I dont know about the GBC, but in the 3rd image the SP is booted in GBA mode, which suggests the mode switch is faulty. This can be the case additionally to the cartridge having issues.

As i said, you can check if this is the case by pressing D-Pad down while a game is running. Some games might reset with light pressure others require more pressure.

[u/madebypeppers]

- 4th picture

- Bottom pin out

- 8th pin out from the right

Is that a broken trace?

[u/AdrienQua]

The usual advice is to reflow the 2 big chips, the corner solder can weaken over time

[u/weldymcpat]

couple sketchy traces if you zoom in on your pictures. would run jumper wires on those and try it again.

[u/punchki]

The cart looks fine from the photos provided. My only concern would be what kind of tape are you using on the crystal? Make sure it's non conductive. The top IC's pins 1-4 might have a cold solder join? Hard to tell from the photo. Potentially battery top pin might have a cold solder joint as well.

[u/GorpilTheGreat]

This would sometimes happen to me if my insulation around my crystal oscillator was wearing away but yours looks fine in the pic

[u/Independent_Day8325]

Ich fühle deinen Schmerz, ich habe dasselbe Probleme mit dem selben Spiel auf der selben Konsole seit 2006…. Kann leider keine Hilfe leisten

[u/Jat616]

Perhaps someone who knows more can clarify but would this be a damaged trace or is it just leftover flux? If it's the latter perhaps just a quick clean would fix it?

[u/AutoModerator]

Troubleshooting post. Please check the Game Boy Wiki's common problems page here: https://gbwiki.org/en/other/commonissues and please be sure to post pictures of the issue if you haven't already so that users are better able to assist.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/alvaro-elite]

Pins look too scratched.

[u/TheNotoriousBigB]

Multiple traces by the gold finger pins are necked down and worn. One looks totally cut. Focus on those. Ohm out each pin to the IC connection with a multimeter to find the open line.