Zelda LA

[NinjaWarrior]

I know why my Zelda GB Crat died on me..look

 

 

# 1- 4 is missing some part..any Cart Experts here

[Uzumaki]

You didn't mention which Zelda (original Link's Awakenings, DX, Oracle of Season or Ages)

 

I have Zelda DX and while the mapper chip is a bit different, the layo is the same.

Resistor at number 1 is R1, 103 (10k) It connects the positive terminal of the battery to pin 4 so I think the chip is the battery watchdog, one that switches on the battery to keep the 32kx8bit SRAM from losing data. It shouldn't affed the game overall.

 

 

Rest are capacitor, I'm guessing just to filter the noise. 0.1 uF is probably fine. The spot marked 3 on your picture, I also have an empty spot so it's probably not needed.

[NinjaWarrior]

Oh ok..Is it the reason my cart is dead..it boot's up like normal..but it just a white blanke on my GB..and it's the b/w Zelda

[JB]

Oh ok..Is it the reason my cart is dead..it boot's up like normal..but it just a white blanke on my GB..and it's the b/w Zelda

Does the Nintendo logo even appear?

I assume you've cleaned it already.

 

And what model of Gameboy are you using?

Edited December 5, 2006 by JB

[shadow460]

There's no way it could be missing parts if you've never opened it. Even if it's been dropped or something, anything that fell of would have been inside the case.

That same cartridge board is used for both DMG and Color Game Boy carts, so some of the markings on it might indicate that it was from a late production run, maybe around 2000. At that time, they'd have had the boards marked for Color gamboy titles, and whatever parts were not needed for Zelda would not have been installed.

Man. I used just a lot of words to say nothing.

 

Anyway, the first thing I'd do (after cleaning it) is check the battery voltage. If it's under 3.0, it needs to be replaced. The second thing I'd do is boot it up on a classic Game Boy. That's right, play it with a brick.

Batteries Plus, if there's one in your town, will install a new battery into your cart as long as you've got it apart for them. If there isn't, you should be able to get a replacement battery with solder tabs by mail order.

Those contacts could use some work. Get you a rag with some alcohol and scrub them senseless. Clean the entire board with alcohol while you're at it. If something got spilled into it, that could have killed the cart. I resurrected a Mario golf by removing soda pop from it. I had another cart, 5200 Centipede, which had ink spilled into it (don't ask how that happened). That one was dead and gone.

Who knows, maybe you got a Color Game Boy version inside a DMG cart shell. I've seen stuff like that happen before.

Edited December 5, 2006 by shadow460

[NinjaWarrior]

Ok I tryed it on all my Game Boy's including the Classic, Pocket, Color, SP, Super GB & Game Boy Player..nothing

 

When I boot it up on all the Systems..it goes to the Nintendo Logo then Blank...I cleaned it inside out..How did it just die on me, Pac-Man for the GBC did the same thing...it happened like 9 months ago. I didn't even bother with it til I got a new copy..but I just want to know what happened

 

Edit: Ok I took the battery out..Still dosn't work..How do I test on a Battery Tester...I have my tester on Lithium & it said fail..

Edited December 5, 2006 by NinjaWarrior

[Uzumaki]

OK dead battery and a dead Gameboy cart. Even with weak battery, the game should have booted anyway, just not able to save games.

 

Used Zelda on eBay can go from a couple dollars and up plus shipping so you got a choice of B&W or color DX version.

[NinjaWarrior]

I was messsing around with the Battery, I got it to work for a sceond..an it died again, I don't think the Cart is dead

[shadow460]

Well, if that's the case, it'll be the first time I've seen a surface mount board that needs reflowed.

I'd still check into getting a new battery. If it doesn't run the cart, you can save it for another battery backed cart like Major League Baseball with Ken Griffey Jr.

To test it, place the battery tester's red lead on the ouside ring of the battery and place the black lead on top of the battery. It should bet set to VDC, if not, set it there and try again.

Voltage should be between 3.1 and 3.4. If it reads -3.1 to -3.4, that's probably ok, too since you might have the leads crossed.

 

Not sure how similar the hardware is, but I've got FF Legend I, and it has the battery backed save, too. It's one of the Square copies, not the later Sunsoft release. Its battery read 3.15 or something even after 15 years of holding save files.

 

Just be glad it's not Pokemon. If you buy those for the classic Game Boy, you'll be changing save batteries faster than you can say "Blastoise".

 

My recommendation is to grab another cart and maybe a new battery. It doesn't matter what condition the new cart is in, just as long as it works.

Open the new cart and check its battery, replace if needed, and put the board into whichever shell you want.

Chalk another dead cart up on the list. Rings cracks and dead ROM chips are as certain as death and taxes.

Edited December 6, 2006 by shadow460

[LocalH]

If the Nintendo logo shows up, then at least part of the ROM is visible to the system (as that logo is actually stored in every cartridge, as a protection against unlicensed carts). Are the contacts intact? Do you see any broken traces on the PCB? Your best bet is just to give up the saved games on the cart (if you were messing with the battery, they're most likely already gone anyway) and pick up another one somewhere.

[Uzumaki]

cracked solder joints with the ROM chips could affect the game. You did say it worked briefly so it may be cracked something somewhere.

 

Beside cleaning the connector contact and replacing battery, I think it is still cheaper to get an used Zelda (dx or original) than it is to try and fix it.

 

(PS I have NES Zelda from when it first came out, the battery is still holding well after almost 20 years)

[Video]

I have a DMG copy of zelda that doesn't work either. It loads post the Nintendo screen and then it's a blank image. Though if I push start, I get a pic of Link that will move to one of the three save slots, so I assume the game's working still, but the graphics don't work. You can even start a game, just no BG graphics, just sprites show up.

 

Maybe I'll take my cart apart and look for cracks in it to see if that may have something to do with it.

 

BTW, a dead battery (or no battery for that matter) will have no affect on the game working. It should still work just fine, but will not save data without it.

[shadow460]

BTW, a dead battery (or no battery for that matter) will have no affect on the game working. It should still work just fine, but will not save data without it.

 

Theoretically that is true, however, I've seen dead save batteries wreak havoc on certain games. I't more a Sega problem than Nintendo, but it could happen.

 

(PS I have NES Zelda from when it first came out, the battery is still holding well after almost 20 years)

 

Got two of 'em myself, and the battries are fine. The gold cart's battery read 3.1 volts when I checked.

[NinjaWarrior]

the Zelda Game works if I don't moove it to much..But I can't get the Battery to save...I tryed taping it down(dosn't work..)

 

I got my GBC Pac-Man to work again all I need is a GB shell, I lost the Pac-Man Shell..I thought the game was dead at the time

[shadow460]

Battery's dead for sure then. Get that fixed and try again. If it doesn't work, carefully reflow the board and that shoudl solve your problem. If you're not sure about reflowing the board, just do the battery and if it doesn't work, save the new battery for when another save game goes dead (trust me, it will happen). The battery you get will be compatible with Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal, although it will be a different physical size. Those games almost always have dead save batteries when you get the nowdays since the game's internal clock runs them down.

 

If you want, send me the cart and I'll take a look at it. Replacement batteries cost $4 here. Add return shipping to that and you're looking at less than $10.

You can probably find a replacement cart that costs less than that, so I'd look for one before I sent the cart out to be fixed.

Edited December 9, 2006 by shadow460

[shadow460]

I've been troubleshooting a Link's Awakening DX cart of my own. The typical steps of cleaning and changing the battery did not fix the save feature, but the game does run normally.

Repair of your cartridge will require advanced soldering skills (read: it's dead). If you can get the game itself to play, use a Game Shark to save your progress instead of saving it to the cartridge like normal.

Discussion

That's the link to the thread I started. Scroll down a ways for the technical explanation if you're curious why your cart does not work.