Abominari
07-29-2008, 11:23 PM
So I had this hardcore craving to play Chrono Trigger the other day, but after booting the game, playing a while, and then saving, I found.... I can no longer save! My old files are there, I can play on them, but no new saves can be created.
My cartridge battery is kaput.
I'd known it would be coming eventually. CR2032 batteries are awesome for longevity, but they still don't last forever. And now that it's dead, it needs to be replaced.
Rather than do the whole carefully with hot iron and razor remove contacts from battery and then apply solder to new battery and replace in contacts thing I saw at most websites, I picked up a bunch of battery holders and have been just removing the old tabs from the circuit board altogether and putting the holders in their place. That way, next time the battery dies, I can just pop it out of the holder and clip the next one in, same as motherboard CMOS. I'll still lose all of my save data, but I figure I don't really need to keep that stuff longer than 10 years anyway.
This is no small feat, though, because I don't have any previous experience using a soldering iron. I did trial runs with carts of Super Mario World and Stunt Race FX and both went okay, though I'm still not completely confident with the joints. All data was lost but both games save fine.
Anyway, have any of you guys had the same problem? What have you done to fix it?
What the hell, any other system maintenance you've had to do? Replacing 72-pin connectors for your NES (did that for two of 'em), for example.
My cartridge battery is kaput.
I'd known it would be coming eventually. CR2032 batteries are awesome for longevity, but they still don't last forever. And now that it's dead, it needs to be replaced.
Rather than do the whole carefully with hot iron and razor remove contacts from battery and then apply solder to new battery and replace in contacts thing I saw at most websites, I picked up a bunch of battery holders and have been just removing the old tabs from the circuit board altogether and putting the holders in their place. That way, next time the battery dies, I can just pop it out of the holder and clip the next one in, same as motherboard CMOS. I'll still lose all of my save data, but I figure I don't really need to keep that stuff longer than 10 years anyway.
This is no small feat, though, because I don't have any previous experience using a soldering iron. I did trial runs with carts of Super Mario World and Stunt Race FX and both went okay, though I'm still not completely confident with the joints. All data was lost but both games save fine.
Anyway, have any of you guys had the same problem? What have you done to fix it?
What the hell, any other system maintenance you've had to do? Replacing 72-pin connectors for your NES (did that for two of 'em), for example.