nickstr

Since this is a very common question I get asked after mentioning that I replaced the battery in a Gold cartridge is how to do it. Well I will answer that right now and tell how to get into the cartridge. The first thing you should know is what type of batteries are in each cartridge and which ones will replace them. Inside the R/B/Y cartridges there is a CR1616 button cell and it can be replaced with a CR2025 which is just slightly thicker but the same voltage if you cannot find a CR1616 and in the G/S/C cartridges there is a CR2025 battery which can be replaced with a CR2032 if you cannot find one. In order to get the security nut off or as its also called a game nut you are going to either need a special screwdriver or you can do one of these two things which are to take a Bic type pen apart and melt one end of the ink part of the pen (the opposite side from the tip) until the plastic is slightly changed and turn it to the left until the nut moves. The method I have had success with was to use a corkscrew on one edge of the security nut and the very tip of the corkscrew should fit inside of one of the recessed spaces in the nut. Once the cover is off you will see three things which are the battery and two chips, one chip is the M-ROM chip that contains the game data and the other one is an S-RAM chip which contains the save game data. The purpose of the battery is to keep the S-RAM chip alive so that it retains the data and when the battery dies the save game data is lost because the RAM chip has lost power and thus the data just like the RAM on your computer. In replacing the battery there are two methods, one of which I personally used and another one that I heard works but have not tried yet. The method I used requires soldering and goes like this, unsolder the battery from the board but be careful not to put too much heat in one place for too long or the board will scorch. Then, take a knife or something similar and use it to pry the contacts off of the battery while noting the polarity of the contacts compaired to the PC board (take a picture before un-soldering the battery if this will help) To put the new battery back in simply solder the contacts onto the battery in the same orientation they were in before you pried them off of the dead battery but if there are bumps left you can simply put the bumps down which might help hold the battery in place but if not turn the contacts over and solder them onto the battery by melting a bit of solder onto both sides of the battery and then reflowing it to bond the battery to the metal contacts. After this solder the battery back onto the board with the ends of the contacts facing the same way they were originally (if you took a picture of the way the dead battery was orieinted use this to determine the correct orientation) and then solder them back into place and put the cover back on. The other method which does not require soldering is to pry the battery off with a blade of some sort while noting the polarity that the battery is in and taping a new battery in place while keeping the polarity the same as what the dead one had. If you are successful after booting the game and setting it up you should be able to save the data as soon as you get into your character's bedroom, restart and see continue on the menu options once again. If so then congratulations, you just brought your game back to life! Or if not then go through the whole process again and find where you messed up and repair the issue. By doing this you saved yourself some money and learned a bit about the internal workings of Gameboy and Gameboy Color games.