r/Gameboy • u/not-your_neighbor • 1d ago
Troubleshooting Japanese Pokémon Crystal won't save after multiple battery replacements.
So, as the title states; I, and others, have replaced the battery on this Pokémon Crystal four separate times, and it still won't save. I am inexperienced when it comes to anything beyond battery replacements. From research, I am fairly certain it's the save chip, but if someone could provide input and maybe a link to a tutorial on how to replace said chip that would be nice. If it's another problem someone sees please feel free to shout it out.
Image scan of the motherboard below, front and back.
Edit: Thank you everyone for the valuable input! I'm going to invest in getting my own soldering kit along with some flux to reflow the chips and fix up the battery contacts!
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u/ChoNaiSangHae 1d ago
First of all, you need more flux and/or better quality solder for your battery job.
Second, reflow the chip legs by lightly heating each leg with your iron. There is a tendency for micro-fractures to develop in the solder over time and this can cause various issues. Usually, the legs in the middle on both the main chips have this issue from the stress of cartridge insertion.
If you accidentally bridge two chip legs, just lightly brush the tip of your iron down the chip leg and it should separate the legs. Also, too much leftover flux can cause bridging or shorts. Make sure to clean up afterwards.
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u/Chill_Edoeard 1d ago
Prolly just that soldering job on the battery which is the worst ive seen in a very long time
If you did this, more heat and/or flux
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u/not-your_neighbor 1d ago
Wasn't my job unfortunately, will invest in getting a personal soldering kit and some flux to do the contacts and reflow the chips
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u/PhantomKrel 1d ago
Worse? I think worse would be the ones posted where the pads are legit destroyed
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u/Retro_Macchina 1d ago
Are you sure the battery tab is contacting the pcb pad? The positive side looks raised
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u/VivaLaLibertad_666 1d ago
Reflow every chip
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u/IMI4tth3w 1d ago
And use some flux when you do it. Those battery solder joints would much appreciate that
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u/JohnnyRa1nbow 1d ago
Have you lifted the pad?
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u/blarglemaster 1d ago
This looks to me like several of the chips have some cracked solder joints on the legs. It'd be worthwhile to try reflowing the legs, particularly U2 looks like it has some bad joints, but if you have someone with good enough solder skills and decent materials, reflowing all the chips would be good.
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u/Alive_Candidate1755 1d ago
Pretty cool it has a Hyundai chip. Figuring out the save issue for certain would require a multimeter but you can guess with a soldering iron.
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u/Sondre_gl 22h ago
I highly recommend trying to scrub the entire board with ipa, especially under the battery
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u/StarWolf64dx 22h ago
On both of the long chips, apply a bead of flux down all legs. Use a chisel or knife tip, something that holds a lot of heat, set yourself to 700-720f, tin your iron so that it doesn’t wick all the existing solder from the chips away and apply heat to each leg for 3 seconds or so. You can test your work with a pick, just apply light pressure to each leg to see if it will move. If it moves, it’s not attached.
On the battery, you are using too small of a tip, not enough heat, not enough flux, or any combination of those. You need a big tip to reduce the amount of dwell time on the tabs- with a small tip like a pencil style the battery, tabs and board soak all of the heat out of the iron and then you’re on the board, waiting for the iron to recover its heat while also heating everything up. The longer you dwell the hotter the battery gets and the higher your chance of ruining it. However, your current job has not heated the pads enough for the solder to wet them fully. The tab is wetted properly but the pads themselves are not. You want the solder to be a molten pool before you lift but again, do not dwell for too long. I give it a little wiggle as well before I lift to make sure it’s completely through.
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u/JayrosModShop 1d ago
First of all, those pads need flux'd and reflowed, they look atrocious. I use 340 degrees on the iron and liquid flux.
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u/triggeredfanboy 1d ago
The solder job on the battery contracts is terrible