Snes cartridge battery keeps draining. Game not keeping saves.
Hello all!
I have a SNS-MW-USA Super Mario World with a SHVC-1A1B-04 board that not keeping save games.
This is a cartridge that I have owned since it was new. I already replaced the battery a few years ago with the "tape trick" and it worked fine.
When I tried to play the game last month, the battery was dead. I replaced it with one from the dollar store but the saves kept erasing. If I leave the system powered on, the saves will still be there even if I hit the reset button. If I power down the SNES and turn it back on, the save is gone.
I checked the voltage on the new battery and it was dead. I thought I just had a bad battery from the dollar store and replaced it with another one. I checked the battery before replacing it and it was good. The same thing happened again. Not keeping saves and a dead battery.
So, I thought I'd just buy a battery with soldering tabs and do it the right way. Maybe there was a problem with the "tape" trick. I soldered the battery in there and checked for voltage on the pins once it was soldered. It had a nice 3V. I couldn't test the cartridge right away and waited for the next day to play the game. The same thing happened. The game won't keep the saves and the tabbed battery is now dead.
What could be draining the battery? Bad capacitors? broken diode? They all visually look fine. I don't think it's the SRAM since the save games will be there until I power down the SNES.
I included a circuit schematics of the SHVC-1A1B-06 that's the same thing as the 04 board but uses a larger SRAM form factor.
I have a SNS-MW-USA Super Mario World with a SHVC-1A1B-04 board that not keeping save games.
This is a cartridge that I have owned since it was new. I already replaced the battery a few years ago with the "tape trick" and it worked fine.
When I tried to play the game last month, the battery was dead. I replaced it with one from the dollar store but the saves kept erasing. If I leave the system powered on, the saves will still be there even if I hit the reset button. If I power down the SNES and turn it back on, the save is gone.
I checked the voltage on the new battery and it was dead. I thought I just had a bad battery from the dollar store and replaced it with another one. I checked the battery before replacing it and it was good. The same thing happened again. Not keeping saves and a dead battery.
So, I thought I'd just buy a battery with soldering tabs and do it the right way. Maybe there was a problem with the "tape" trick. I soldered the battery in there and checked for voltage on the pins once it was soldered. It had a nice 3V. I couldn't test the cartridge right away and waited for the next day to play the game. The same thing happened. The game won't keep the saves and the tabbed battery is now dead.
What could be draining the battery? Bad capacitors? broken diode? They all visually look fine. I don't think it's the SRAM since the save games will be there until I power down the SNES.
I included a circuit schematics of the SHVC-1A1B-06 that's the same thing as the 04 board but uses a larger SRAM form factor.
Comments
You could always also find a thin battery holder and solder it to it with some short wires, that way you can easily swap the batteries out if you ever need to.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8822. Something like this would fit in the case just fine. And there are also some you can find that you can solder directly to the board. That one i linked would need some short wires attached.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/6PCS-Plastic-Housing-CR2032-Button-Cell-Battery-Socket-Holder-Case-LW-/172365747107?hash=item2821cc93a3:g:Hm0AAOSwLnBX9grW
get these battery holders
http://www.ebay.com/itm/6PCS-Plas...
these are the ones that can fit onto the board without wires FYI, you just have to bend a couple tabs down to get it to fit. But if you're not great at soldering, it could certainly be easier to just to hook a couple wires to one and have it sit at the top of the cartride (most games i've seen have room at the top for a coin cell holder).
Buy a proper battery and solder it in place. The tape method is more trouble than its worth, and can too easily come undone or cause improper connections.
Sounds like he tried that.
...
So, I thought I'd just buy a battery with soldering tabs and do it the right way. Maybe there was a problem with the "tape" trick. I soldered the battery in there and checked for voltage on the pins once it was soldered. It had a nice 3V. I couldn't test the cartridge right away and waited for the next day to play the game. The same thing happened. The game won't keep the saves and the tabbed battery is now dead...
I'll concentrate on the diodes first D1 in particular.
If D1 is dead, the whole cartridge will be powered by the battery when not in use, possibly dropping the voltage too low for the SRAM to keep the saves and draining the battery fast.
If D2 is dead, the battery will fry at some point because 2V will be pushed in it.
It could be a leaking capacitor that lets some current pass in it continuously.
If a capacitor was 100% shorted, I guess the game wouldn't be playable at all because the 5V would be shorted to ground.
Hello carotman! How are you? Could you solve the problem of the draining battery? I have a Donkey Kong Country 3 with the same problem. I've already chequed de diodes but they are ok! It lasts 3 weeks and then it goes empty. Thanks for reading and sorry for my English, in from Argentina. Cheers!
He has not visited the website since may, I doubt you'll get his response.
The diode also tested OK but I decided to replace it anyway. I has a 5v1 zener diode hanging around and tried it in place of the old one.
Now the save games are kept.
The idea behind replacing diode D2 was that if the diode is bad, the battery will see a voltage of 5v instead of the actual 3v it has. Those small batteries probably can't withstand the higher voltage and they die.
The way a zener diode work is that it allows current to flow in one direction but not in the other, until a specified voltage is met. Then it will allow current to flow in that direction also, at a reduced voltage.
The diode test function on the multimeter puts out 2.8 V which is far below the threshold voltage of a 5v diode.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Cool story bro, but I'm calling BS on this one. It would be FAR cheaper for a dollar store just to bulk buy cheap batteries from China, rather than invest in an arcane machine that would somehow rebrand and repackage AA batteries, many of which would probably be mixed up different types, possibly damaged/leaking, and most of which would be rejected due to being used up anyway... Seriously, think about this for more than a second and it is ludicrous.
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Cool story bro, but I'm calling BS on this one. It would be FAR cheaper for a dollar store just to bulk buy cheap batteries from China, rather than invest in an arcane machine that would somehow rebrand and repackage AA batteries, many of which would probably be mixed up different types, possibly damaged/leaking, and most of which would be rejected due to being used up anyway... Seriously, think about this for more than a second and it is ludicrous.
Maybe.. Just relaying the message. I tend to believe his story though as he was a pretty distinguished guy. If this matter is really important to you, I’ll PM you his name and you can investigate.
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Cool story bro, but I'm calling BS on this one. It would be FAR cheaper for a dollar store just to bulk buy cheap batteries from China, rather than invest in an arcane machine that would somehow rebrand and repackage AA batteries, many of which would probably be mixed up different types, possibly damaged/leaking, and most of which would be rejected due to being used up anyway... Seriously, think about this for more than a second and it is ludicrous.
Maybe.. Just relaying the message. I tend to believe his story though as he was a pretty distinguished guy. If this matter is really important to you, I’ll PM you his name and you can investigate.
Yeah, I get that it was just what he said. Maybe he worked on an idea like that, but it never went through to implementation...
I don't know, I just think that would be an incredible amount of effort fraught with complications, for basically zero good reason when AA batteries from China are litterally a dollar a dozen... Doesn't add up.
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Holy crap, that can't possibly be legal!
Think of all the devices that would be ruined by leaking/exploding batteries...
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Holy crap, that can't possibly be legal!
Think of all the devices that would be ruined by leaking/exploding batteries...
Everything is legal until it’s made illegal
When I was in college, one of my electrical engineering professors told us a story about when he used to work in the electrical industry. He used to design automated systems using PLC's.
One time he designed a machine for a dollar store battery brand. Basically you would dump buckets full of recycled AA alkaline batteries into one end of the machine and they'd get loaded onto a conveyor belt in single file fashion. A set of whisker probes would come into contact both poles of each battery at some point in the system and if the voltage was measured below a certain voltage (either 1.25 1.3V, I can't remember) then an actuator would eject the battery into a scrap bin, otherwise it would get sent to a system that rebranded each battery to the dollar store brand before packaging it.
Basically, the moral of the story is that dollar store batteries are basically just old batteries that have already been used. I wouldn't trust that they haven't been abused or misused in their previous service.. Since then, I have not bought another dollar store battery.
Holy crap, that can't possibly be legal!
Think of all the devices that would be ruined by leaking/exploding batteries...
Everything is legal until it’s made illegal
Suppose the recycled batteries contained banned or hazardous chemicals which leaked into a device causing an epa contamination cleanup or made someone extremely sick. The recycler would 100% be held liable for the contaminated batteries. Also selling used batteries as new condition would be considered false advertising as well.