Battery dead in your SNES game? Do this!

[aaron7]

Took a CR2032 battery and socket off an old computer motherboard, soldered it on, and ground it down a little to fit in the case!

Works great!

Now to fix the focus on my damn camera...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/aaron7/PICT3752.jpg

[sayin999]

Amazing. I have though of doing this but wasnt sure if it worked. Plus this makes switching batteries alot easier.

[RARusk]

I done this to several cartridges over the years. Pretty easy to do. Desolder the old battery, solder in the battery holder (after modifying it slightly so it will fit better in the cartridge), and pop in the new battery.

The hardest thing to do when switching batteries is to open up the Nintendo cartridges due to their security screws.

[shoes23]

If you use the Cold Heat soldering iron and some very thin solder, you can just leave the clips on the board, bend them over and resolder your battery that way. It has worked great for me so far, and the soldering iron doesn't get hot enough for long enough to heat up the chips or the board (or the battery for that matter, Eyeballs+Battery acid is a no-no) so no fear or ruining your precious game.

For those who don't want to deal with soldering, electrical tape can still do the trick, although I might be worried after a few years of the battery shaking loose.

[atomic]

Actually, most of the game sI have came without the security screws....and at first you tihnk someone opened them and changed them but no, I got them this way brand new

Kinda neat I guess. Haha nice tutorial type of thing aaron......I wont be home all day so Ill see you tonight Aaron.....

for anyone confused hes my brother.

[Ed Oscuro]

Actually, most of the game sI have came without the security screws....and at first you tihnk someone opened them and changed them but no, I got them this way brand new
That's odd...

[heyricochet]

If you use the Cold Heat soldering iron and some very thin solder, you can just leave the clips on the board, bend them over and resolder your battery that way. It has worked great for me so far, and the soldering iron doesn't get hot enough for long enough to heat up the chips or the board (or the battery for that matter, Eyeballs+Battery acid is a no-no) so no fear or ruining your precious game.

For those who don't want to deal with soldering, electrical tape can still do the trick, although I might be worried after a few years of the battery shaking loose.

The problem with this is that the cold heat actually uses electricity to melt the solder, and could blow chips on the board because of that. I've been told it even says on the packaging do not use on electrical components, or sensitive components, something to that effect.

[aaron7]

Uhhhh... that wouldn't make any sense. What the hell else do you use a soldering iron for? LOL x_x

[Kitsune Sniper]

Uhhhh... that wouldn't make any sense. What the hell else do you use a soldering iron for? LOL x_x

Soldering Iron != Cold Iron. :P

[rbudrick]

There was a thread once where someone showed where you could buy those clips that hold the battery in place so you'd never have to solder them again, just pop it out in 5-10 years and put a new one in. Wish I could find it...

You know, to this day I have not had one battery in a cart die on me.

-Rob

[shoes23]

There was a thread once where someone showed where you could buy those clips that hold the battery in place so you'd never have to solder them again, just pop it out in 5-10 years and put a new one in. Wish I could find it...

You know, to this day I have not had one battery in a cart die on me.

-Rob

The batteries lifetime is pretty random. The amount of juice that it takes to save and store information is so low that their average lifetime is ~15 years. I still have NES carts that are going strong, but it seems that resource intensive saves (Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 SNES) will drain them a little quicker. Now if they would just make a 2032 battery that lasted more than a month in the Dreamcast VMU's.

[SkiDragon]

Would it be possible to have two coin holders hooked up in parallel? That way, not only would they theoretically last twice as long, but one could be replaced while still maintaining the game save.

[dao2]

The batteries lifetime is pretty random. The amount of juice that it takes to save and store information is so low that their average lifetime is ~15 years. I still have NES carts that are going strong, but it seems that resource intensive saves (Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 SNES) will drain them a little quicker. Now if they would just make a 2032 battery that lasted more than a month in the Dreamcast VMU's.

a month? when i used em damn things wasted in a week ;p

[Porksta]

Do batteries only get drained when saving and loading? So If I played a 20 year old factory sealed NES game would I expect the battery to be dead or last 10 years from date of first playing?

[SnowKitty]

Do batteries only get drained when saving and loading? So If I played a 20 year old factory sealed NES game would I expect the battery to be dead or last 10 years from date of first playing?

they drain regardless. the save RAM will always draw current i would think using the game more often would conserve the battery though as it'd be running off the system's power and not the battery...

[megasdkirby]

Actually, this is not a bad idea. I have a few games (Crystalis and Act Raiser, for instance) whose batteries have long been dead.

So I can simply take out the old one, replace one of those adapter things, and that is it? I pressume something like this is necessary:

http://tinyurl.com/6c3yjp