Internal battery

[nd2003grad]

Hi there, still new owner here. Wondering about internal memory--does this require a cr2032 battery, and should I replace it? I haven't had any issues yet, but I hate to start Lucienne's Quest or something and have saves zapped. I can't really get a straight answer about it by searching. I know this is an issue with Sega CD and Saturn but not Dreamcast so.....input much appreciated!

[Keatah]

Crack it open and see. Then you know for sure without the ambiguity and nonsense the internet gives you. The battery is cheap enough, so just replace it by default.

[nd2003grad]

I guess I don't know at what point systems started using, I suppose, "flash memory" like PS1 or Dreamcast. I know there's a battery, but I don't know if it functions like, say, a Saturn (saves) or Dreamcast (clock).

[Keatah]

Play some games and save them. Pull the battery (or not) and see what happens.

[UHATEIT]

I have multiple of these consoles that use the save battery and I hate the idea of them since they die out over time. On basically every Saturn I have owned it boots up with the select date/time so I always replaced the battery (bought a pack of 15 on ebay for like $12 I think it was). They are all running strong now, but I do get worried about what happens when they die out again. IF they die out does that mean I would lose everything then because the battery died or is it saved somewhere in the system still?

 

For the 3DO, I have not had any internal battery issues with the 7 or so units I have had (FZ-1, FZ-10, Goldstar) units

 

I didn't realize anything about the Sega CD and if it has an internal battery, I was thinking to save anything you needed that backup RAM cart (which is like $100+ these days)

 

On the Dreamcast there is still an internal battery in there but I don;t think it does anything for the actual save function, that I guess saves to those VMU removable units. But one of my Dreamcast did have the annoying start up select date/time thing so I opened it and swapped in a new battery and that went away. I have also had the batteries in the VMU die out (pretty fast actually). But I am not sure if that deletes them if the battery dies or if they are still flashed in there somehow.

 

One that really pissed me off was the internal cart battery on one of my Virtual Boy games. The Virtual Boy doesnt have an internal memory or battery itself, some of the games have mini flat batteries inside of them. I guess with them being 20+ years old now, I had the battery on Wario Land die, which sucked as there are 14 levels and I was on level 11 in a 2 hour play through and had to turn it off to do something then came back to it the next morning and it was all wiped out. I cracked open the game and replaced the battery and it's fine now. But makes me worry about the other games I have like Galactic Pinball where I own every high score on all the tables! With the Virtual Boy example, if the battery dies you lose everything, so I guess it doesnt save it anywhere inside at all and the battery is what is powering the save feature. I bet that's probably the case for the Saturn and 3DO if they ever die out but again havent checked to confirm if replacing the battery deletes everything.

 

Word to the wise then, if in doubt and if you buy an old console just swap the battery out immediately so you wont have to worry for hopefully 20+ years.

[Taijigamer]

The battery on the 3DO maintains the on-board SRAM chip which holds the limited save space for games. I think an NVRAM add-on could be purchased to increase space. To swap the battery without losing saved games, u would need to supply an external 3V to the chip while u desolder and replace the existing battery.

[UHATEIT]

The battery on the 3DO maintains the on-board SRAM chip which holds the limited save space for games. I think an NVRAM add-on could be purchased to increase space. To swap the battery without losing saved games, u would need to supply an external 3V to the chip while u desolder and replace the existing battery.

That's too bad. I guess then the key would be to swap them as soon as you buy the consoles so they are good for 20+ years. By removing it then you'd lose everything if it's maintained by the battery.

[nd2003grad]

I've done the Dreamcast replacement and socket install--it's pretty easy and gets rid of the annoying date issue. On my Saturn I just place to copy everything to a save cart then replace the battery periodically. I am not hearing that people really have had issues with the 3DO battery, but I just wanted to make sure. I appreciate these responses. I just HATE losing major progress in things. Maybe I'll open it up and replace before getting too involved. I've thought of getting a Sega CD and see they have the same issue...and many more apparently. Very happy with my 3DO, but I think I got lucky and bought one untested that appears to be essentially never used.

[oakcitycomics]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:11 PM, nd2003grad said:

I've done the Dreamcast replacement and socket install--it's pretty easy and gets rid of the annoying date issue. On my Saturn I just place to copy everything to a save cart then replace the battery periodically. I am not hearing that people really have had issues with the 3DO battery, but I just wanted to make sure. I appreciate these responses. I just HATE losing major progress in things. Maybe I'll open it up and replace before getting too involved. I've thought of getting a Sega CD and see they have the same issue...and many more apparently. Very happy with my 3DO, but I think I got lucky and bought one untested that appears to be essentially never used.

The 3do FZ-1 and Goldstar all use a CR2450 these have higher capacity then a CR2032 but are reaching end of life now so its recommended to replace soon. The FZ-1 uses a CR2032 

 

The Sega Cd uses a ML2032 this is a rechargeable battery not a standard CR2032

[CatPix]

On 5/28/2019 at 5:14 PM, UHATEIT said:

On the Dreamcast there is still an internal battery in there but I don;t think it does anything for the actual save function, that I guess saves to those VMU removable units.

I can confirm - the battery in the DC is only for the clock. Everything is saved on the VMU, which use theyr batteries only for interactive/minigame functions, the saving part of the VMU is flash memory so you can even remove the batteries out of your unused/stored VMUs without losing saves.