Help with GBA HW [FE6]

Hello all!

Was having trouble finding a community that could be knowledgeable on this, and was recommended on a discord to come here…

I have an original JP FE6 cartridge that has issues saving reliably. Over the past month and a half, it has wiped the save data on the cartridge, requiring me to start over (and run through normal mode again…)

I looked into it and understand FE6 used SRAM to save the game, s0o any interruption to the battery’s supply to the SRAM chip will wipe the save. What I don’t understand is the fact that after it wipes a svae, I can save again. It wiped ~~1.5 months ago, and so I had to start over. After ~50 hrs of gameplay, it wiped again… but is saving like normal.

I checked the battery with a multimeter and it’s outputting a consistent ~3.2 V; the minimum on some videos I watched was 1.8, so the battery doesn’t seem dead. The solder looked clean; it was first party and the cart never looked opened or tampered with so I don’t think that’s the issue.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there a more permanent fix? I recently purchased the GB Operator from Epilogue to upload my save data onto my laptop; if it happens again I can just upload my save and not have to replay normal mode again. Also, I really love ironmanning this game in my free time so this fix with duct tape is still a bit frustrating.

If you can point me to a more HW oriented community lmk, or if you have an answer lmk. I don’t want to solder the connections on the battery if I don’t have to!

If the game is using battery+SRAM for the save and it still has the original battery; the battery is ~22 years old and is likely on it’s last legs despite giving a good voltage. The only fix I can think of is replacing it, you can get pre-tabbed CR1616 batteries for GBA games pretty cheaply and easily so you only need to worry about soldering the tabs to the PCB. (Search “cr1616 battery gba” on amazon)

While you have the cartridge apart you should also inspect the board for possible damage or corrosion on the traces and pins on the chips as well.

OK, thanks for the input! I guess I have to bite the bullet and solder one in.