A friend of mine mentioned that her Pokemon Silver cart wasn’t saving. Naturally ones mind immediately goes to a dead battery. Doubly so for the Pokemon Silver carts as they not only have to power the SRAM but also the RTC for timekeeping. She mentioned that the battery was replaced a few years prior by another friend. This struck me as odd because a proper repair should have lasted at least 10+ years. So I was admittedly preparing myself to fix a botched repair.

I cracked open to cart to see what we were working with and boy howdy, I was not prepared. I was expecting some cold solder joints or maybe some corrosion/water damage. Here’s what we were greeted with.

Believe you me when I say my flabbers were gasted. Now I know you are probably struggling to catch your breath right now, it is a natural reaction. But let’s break this down.

So: we got an off the shelf coin cell battery held to the contacts by a wad of sickly, smeared, electrical tape. Completely unsoldered. Just…holdin on for dear life via the pressure of a tape with a long failed adhesive.

But how did this person get the contacts to sit right to even wrap tape around them? Check this shit out.

Man just beat the contacts flat. I’m assuming with a rock. This poor poor cart never stood a chance.

But let’s steelman this a bit. If we assume that the tape stayed stiff and that the contacts were doing their job, that doesn’t explain why it died so quickly. Unless it was pulled out of something else. Now at this point I feel a metaphysical connection to this guy through the weave and he wouldn’t do that. No he would use a fresh battery at least. So what’s the deal? Wellllll….

Oh. Welp. That’s a short right across that battery. You’d think with all that tape one would insulate the one place that has to navigate the coin cells greatest design flaw (or boon depending on situation)

But yeah problem solved. Cart got dropped or jostled from normal use and the tape failed just a bit and shorted itself across the positive rail. I didn’t have my full tool set so I didn’t pull a voltage from the battery to check.

This was a bit spur of the moment so I didn’t have any soldering tools or replacement batteries. We found a brand new coin cell in a cupboard and I bent the contacts into the correct orientation. Then I kept it in place (insulated) with some tape and paper until I could get my tools out there. I’m sure we can all laugh at the irony.

“I’m not like that last tech” I hear myself say. “There’s no way my fix is practically identical. I’ll fix it later!”

How’s that saying go? Nothing is more permanent than a temporary fox? Idk how animals are involved.

Anyway.

Will update later lol.