I've been watching your videos for a while now, and they've inspired me to repair my video games and consoles. I just got accepted into a computer tech course as well, can't wait to start repairing my old electronics 😊
We are battery twins! I use the same yellow battery replacements. You inspired my new hobby of buying broken ebay SNES, and selling them on marketplace.
Love your videos. Replaced the battery on a Japanese Pokemon blue cartridge following your instructions. Enjoyed the process, and worked like a charm. Thanks a lot!
Got a copy of Pokémon Silver with a faulty save battery, just got my security bits in the mail today so I’ll be able to crack that bad boy open soon ;)
Just a question if you find it interesting! A few years ago my dads SNES started to have an odd problem. It had a thin horizontal green line across the middle of the television on any game he would play and also there was a very faint hum in the audio too. He got a replacement later and all of those same games worked perfectly fine without any issues. To this day I wonder what the hell was up with that other SNES
I work in marketing, completely unrelated to this. I am self taught, started by trying to fix some stuff and just learning more as I go. Mostly through RU-vid and web forums
A store i bought a used Pokémon gold they have put an cr1616 witch of my research is gba battery,but it holds the save it work fine. The bad news u think its that it will last not long in comparison with cr2025 amd 2032?
Perfect for me, I have a soldering iron but was worried about attempting to replace my Pokémon batteries... namely 2 Crystals and 1 each of Gold and Silver. Looking forward to giving it a try. Where can I purchase the 2032 (rather use the bigger one) batteries?
@@RetroRepairs Unfortunately, I have 3 retro game stores around here, and I'm 99.9% sure none of them stock batteries to replace. Damn. Was hoping to not deal with eBay
Yeah, there are a couple ways to go about something like that. On repairs like that, I just find all the broken traces from the break visually and using the continuity tester on a multimeter. Then I solder on some bare, usually single strand, wire to bridge the gaps between the broken traces. You usually have to scrape away the green (sometimes a different color) solder mask on the traces so the wires will connect directly with the traces. I personally just use the edge of an exacto knife for that Be sure to use some flux on the bare traces as well to help the solder flow onto the traces and the connecting wiree. Also be sure to check the solder joints on the chips too. Whatever caused the board to crack, may have loosened some solder joints on the chips as well and might need a good reflow.
Now batteries, how long do they last and what brand do you prefer? I just got a Gameboy Color with old Pokemon Yellow, but doesn't save, and don't want to replace it due to it being a cheap brand. And could I just take a normal CR 2025 and reuse the old pins from the original battery?
You cannot reuse the old pins. They're welded on, you can't solder them together. Most of these tabbed batteries are no name now. They'll probably be fine, maybe a few years less lifespan, but were talking 16 years instead of 20? Hard to say.
@@RetroRepairs Thanks for the info, is it Adam? Well I'll order the battery tomorrow and just hope I have steady hands. Thank you for posting these repair videos and already fixed my SNES from its card reading issue. Keep making videos!! Edit: how would you like to buy an old GBA SP?? It needs a battery, shell, and the front light fixed in it. I got another one along with that with a few problems of itself. Message me back if you are interested.
Hey RetroRepairs, where do you find all of these broken cartridges and consoles? I have found a few on ebay, but most of the time they are overpriced or competitive auctions. What kind of prices should I expect and how do I find these deals?
You just have to be lucky. The good listings don't last long. Sometimes i find a bunch, sometimes none. I haven't bought a broken cart in a long time, they are tough to find
I have a question. what about using brasso to clean the pins? i have used it on many games and it works more reliably and fixed games that just didnt work. the pins also look clean and shiny brand new. is there a downside to using brasso?
Good video man. I enjoy watching your videos. I have a copy of crystal and replaced the battery about a year ago, it still saves today. Also do you know if there is going to be a part 3 for the Sharp Twin Famicom repair? I own one and the disk drive still works. How long does it take for the belt to break?
The old belts used to dry up when sitting. If it was consistently used, it might even last longer. I haven't touched the sharp in a while, but i want to pull it out one of these days and start again. I need to find some schematics to find the fault.
Lead/tin solder melts around 420f, so 450 is usually a good starting point. You might need a bit higher with big pads like these as it will act like a big heat sink
I fixed my gold version's battery a few years ago, but I didn't have any way of soldering it, so I just attached it with electrical tape Never realised till now how lucky I was that it worked
Hey retro, I'm wondering if there's any way I can contact you because I'm having a weird problem with my pokemon silver game. It wasn't saving like yours in the video so I just thought I could replace the battery and that was it, but when I opened up the cartridge the motherboard looked completely different. It only took up half the space of the cartridge and the battery was different as well. I tried looking this up but I couldn't find anything online. I haven't tried replacing the battery yet but I was wondering if you knew anything about this, thanks.
You can email me at retrorepairsca@gmail.com. It sounds like you've got a fake copy. The half sized board is usually a giveaway. If there are any black blobs of epoxy, that's another giveaway
Hello, do you think it would be possible to use a CR2040/CR2050 instead? I have never see one in person and I'm puzzled whether it would fit inside the cart without damaging it or not. Furthermore, some people have successfully installed a FRaM over the SRaM!
@@RetroRepairs Alrite I'm looking forward for your upcoming FRaM mod! GBC cart shells are thicker than GB ones, I'd like to think that CR2040 or CR2045. I have never seen one in person and only but a few onlines stores carry them!
Hi, first post here even though I suscribed the channel quite a long time now ^^ Do you have any reliable provider(s) to recommend for purchasing these kinds of replacement batteries ? I already found some US resellers in the past but they usually do not ship outside the US :-/ Thank you for helping
@@@RetroRepairs : Thank you for aswering ;-) I am living in EU. Nonetheless I will have a look on these Canadian sellers because they maybe ship here ^ ^
Unfortunately i dont do repairs for individuals. I just dont have the time to commit to timely turnaround, and I'm based in Canada so shipping is expensive
@@RetroRepairs Now I just saw this comment, what if you paid for the shipping, and what if this is a very old console. It is called an Emerson Arcadia 2001, and has a broken RF cable and quite a few cosmetic flaws. Could you help me with that in any way? I don't even know if it still plays games with the torn up RF cable. Thanks.
Do not solder to the battery cell, it could explode. Worst case, you risk damaging it severly. Buy a battery with tabs, try something like super glue, or better yet.. just buy one with a fresh battery and sell your cart that needs a battery.
@@RetroRepairs I'd personally never glue one in, but I think I'd rather see someone attempt that before they just taped it in or worse yet... tried to solder directly on a battery without legs. I'm one for doing it right, the first time :) and if I can't... I'll pay someone who can
@@chrispattas8813 well... I mean if it game has the ability to save and the save files don't get lost every time you turn the game off... then do nothing? If that is the case, it's just a matter of if you care that the game is a fake or not. The only option would be to buy a real cart. If it's a fake that doesn't save, odds are very good there isn't a way for you to make it save. Consider it a lost cause and huck it in the trash bin. It's sad, but even among the fakes quality / functionality can vary widely. Some offer an original experience, if only on reproduction hardware.... some are just straight up junko cash grabs.
I did this with my games a wile ago but I didn't have a sodering iron I just removed the tabs from the batterie pealed the rubber of wraped it around the new batterie and glued the tabs to the new batterie. the games still save perfectly fine
It actually doesn't save to the battery, games from that time usually used SRAM to store save data, SRAM is volatile memory, which means it requires power to maintain data, once the power is removed the data will begin to vanish, so the battery is necessary to maintain power the SRAM chip to keep save data
I'm thinking about modding the 2 Zelda Oracle games, Metroid Zero Mission, and Metroid Fusion, with aftermarket battery holders. I found some really low profile ones that should fit, and all 4 games use CR1616's.
@@RetroRepairs The idea behind it is I don't want to solder more than once on each cartridge. Amazingly, all 4 of those games are still on the original batteries and still work. I think I'm going to leave them as-is until the batteries die. In the meantime I got one of these devices and dumped the save files so I won't lose them. submodule.co/
@@StormsparkPegasus i get the idea behind it, but with how infrequently you actually need to change batteries, i just really don't see a point. A replacement battery will last another 10-20+ years. I've got 25+ year old carts with original batteries still. They work fine. There are some applications where a replaceable battery makes sense, but i don't view cartridges as one of them. Im not sure it's any cheaper either. Only benefit is maybe you can source a holder and battery locally, whereas you likely need to order tabbed batteries online.
It's in a drawer. One of these days i plan on pulling it out and trying to troubleshoot more. Trying to knock off some smaller items ive still got backlogged
So I have this Pokémon Sapphire game that used to work properly until I decided to change its battery a couple months ago. After I did the procedure, I inserted the game on my Nintendo DS and the DS simply wouldn’t turn on. After I took the game out, the console still had the same problem (no lights would turn on and if I connected it to the charger, the orange “charging light” would turn on for a few seconds, then turn off again), so the dumb me decided to test it on another DS and, guess what, it broke too. Later on (after a lot of searching), I came to the conclusion that the soldering I did somehow blew the F1 fuse inside both DS consoles and I confirmed that by actually buying new fuses and (with some help from someone that actually knows how to solder haha) changing the blown ones, getting both DS to turn on normally again. Now I still have the Sapphire game and I removed all the soldering I did (and put the old battery back) and I noticed that some of the fuses on its main board are blown. I tested it on one of those DS again (yeah, pretty dumb) and when it’s inserted on it, the console won’t turn on at all, but when I take the game out, it turns on normally (no blown fuses this time hahaha). Do you think that it’s possible to fix the game somehow?
Probably possible. It sounds like you've shorted power to something which keeps killing your ds. You need to clean up the soldering job, make sure there's no bridges or bad connections.
Look for some local deals for old NES or Genesis. Alot of the time they just need cleaning. Simple component replacements like batteries and fuses are great to learn how to use a soldering iron. Watch RU-vid tutorials about soldering, and practice.
@@RetroRepairs hi! I'm considering to get into it too :) Home I got an old snes, a gbc and a gba, would they be a good start too? If not I got old Sony consoles too. Thanks in advance :)
P.S. I'm getting into it because I find it very cathartic, but if I don't gain a profit from it I can't really do it as my finances lean on the lower side: do you got any tip on maximizing my profit? And just to be clear I'm not expecting high profits any way. Thanks a lot in advance, hope you find the time to answer me :)
@@RetroRepairs il have to take a look i believe so i did 3 or 4 at a time with the same batteries and they all worked but this one only wants to hold the save for a few hours i might just have to get another battery for it Thanks for the reply btw 😊👍
I have noticed sometimes when ordering new batteries of that manufacture that the poles have been switched or rather the fasteners have been bolted to the wrong side. So don't just assume that they're always in that alignment, make sure by looking at the print on the battery. I have also had bad batteries in a batch so if it doesn't work check that the battery isn't flat by connecting wires and doing a tungue test or something. Nice and concise video dude :)
My reason for not, is that most people doing this mod won't have a desoldering pump. I could have just left all the sllder there and reused it, but i like to use fresh where i can. If this were a more advanced repair, then yes id use the pump
@@RetroRepairs The hand powered pumps are usually not very expensive and should be readily available. I think anyone who is interested in soldering should get one in addition to the desoldering braid. For those who do a lot of PCB-repairs a desoldering gun, though quite expensive, might be something to consider. I see your point, I'm just listing the options here.
i tried replacing battery of pokémon gba games never soldered before so i added too much solder and ended up with a big blob at the positive end of the battery and now game won’t read i assume getting rid of any solder on the board that is interfering with the connectors should be good to go then cleaning with the alcohol
Yes, but the wick does a better job on surface mount pads, plus i feel that most people doing this job on their own wont have a pump. Really though, removing the old solder isn't exactly necessary. You can just heat up the old solder and bury the tabs in it.
i got a copy of crystal not long ago as it was the last original gameboy/color pokemon game i needed for a full set and it wouldnt run at all, so i fixed it by reflowing the solder on the chip
Looking like that's what I will have to do. I Just picked up a non-working copy that, aside from a janky battery replacement by someone else, looks fine visually for the most part; I am hoping it will solve the problem.
I have no experience soldering, I just modded my GBA with the v2 ips screen and wanted to solder the wires to have brightness control. Somehow I dropped solder onto the processor's connections and bridged like 4 of them. Literally felt my heart drop into my stomach. Then I remembered watching one of your videos where you whipped out the solder wick. I next day ordered some from Amazon and cleaned that shit right up! Needless to say my Gba doesn't have brightness control currently 😔.
Just got my cr1616 batteries in, still waiting for my soldering iron. Thankyou for doing it right, have seen some cringe worthy videos with people just ripping the tabs off and using tape. I am in bc so hit me up if you need a cr1616 eh. Do need some help with a rechargeable battery pack. Would like to tug at your ears for some help with it.
I love all your videos but I think we have covered the battery replacement process on your channel. You just did this with Pokémon Ruby game no? Let’s spice the content up a bit!
@@RetroRepairs I'm with Brendan on this one. I love your channel, I've seen nearly all your vids, all excellent.... It would be nice to see some of the stuff I'm playing around with trying to repair though... PS1,2,3... Wii... Xbox & 360.... They are another step up in difficulty from snes etc, and I sure could use help learning how to fix them properly... and how to properly service the ones that are running, so they stay running....
@@gameclassics I should elaborate, I work at an electronics MFR, ESD safety is paramount. There's possible static build up with using a paper towel and could potentially discharge on a component, therefore causing damage. Chances are slim, but the environment I'm in at work, it sure stands out to me!
He did a full reveal at one episode, when there was a contest to win a Super Nintendo. Hey, we all have our looks after all ! But since this series is more focused at the eBay junk, so I guess thats why we are not seeing him too often.
@@KISSbestfan I think there's just something about the human psyche that wants to see the face behind the voice. Which is why face reveals are a big deal, I guess.
@@frazzleface753 sure thing. Well if you are interested its a video of Mario Party 3 repair. This is a nice idea if you put it that way. I may record something for the channel for all the followers through the years as a form of saying thank you for being there !
