2nd Gen My internal battery just ran dry

Yup it just happened, my internal batter ran dry for both my pokemon gold and my brother's silver. I just turned it on and just like that the message came up. I've had those games since December of 2000 and have been playing the same save since day one and I just turned it on to play again and nothing.

How long have you had your games until their batteries ran dry?

Same here with both silver and gold! But my Blue, yellow and crystal are still going strong!! apart from that i know my ruby has also packed it in >.<

The only battery that ever died on me was a 3rd gen game xD, but I recently replaced the battery in my Red, and am ready for my Blue/Yellow/Gold/Crystal/Silver/Japanese Gold/Gold to run dry, and I have the materials to change them, should the need arise. :D

If you want to replace the battery, but don't know what you need or how to go about it, I have a guide on the last page of the Simple Question & Answer Thread stickied in this forum.

Jorgomli said:

If you want to replace the battery, but don't know what you need or how to go about it, I have a guide on the last page of the Simple Question & Answer Thread stickied in this forum.

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Sweet man I may just have to do that!

on a scale of one to ten how hard is it to open after you undo the screw? does it just pop open? or do you have to pry it open? I haven't done this with gb cartridges just with my xbox's and my computers if that gives you an idea on how much experience I have with this type of thing. Also sorry if that doesn't make sense I'm runnin on a dying battery with a horrible wifi connection so I'm trying to do this fast haha.

When the battery runs dry, the save file is completely gone, right? Replacing the battery won't bring it back, but will allow you to save a new game?

botface23 said:

on a scale of one to ten how hard is it to open after you undo the screw? does it just pop open? or do you have to pry it open?

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The cartridge is very easy to open when you unscrew it. It won't just come off, you have to slide the face down before it will come off though. *Slide down, pull bottom towards you.* So it's a solid 2. All you have to do is unscrew, slide down, pull off. Reverse to put it back on.

(Also, I'm inexperienced too, I have never opened my xbox, but I have opened my PC. I go to ITT Tech, and my first class was opening PCs and playing around with the stuff inside.)

Yoshiko75 said:

When the battery runs dry, the save file is completely gone, right? Replacing the battery won't bring it back, but will allow you to save a new game?

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Exactly, my friend! Your save is gone forever if your battery dies or is taken out. So no, replacing the battery will not bring it back. Whilst perusing the interwebs, I found that first and second gen games save to the cart's RAM. And if you know anything about RAM, you should know that anything stored to RAM gets erased AS SOON AS the power is cut off. What the batteries do in the carts is constantly power the RAM. Constantly. for YEARS. Most people will say that the average battery life of Gen I games is about 10-15 years. Gen II is roughly 5-7 years, based on the amount of times you save. Gen II is shorter because the battery has to power both the RAM and the (Crystal oscillator? Not sure of the name but what is does:) clock function. This means that the RAM and clock are constantly functioning, constantly sucking the battery dry from the time of the first save until the battery dies or is replaced.

HOWEVER. There is indeed a way to back-up your save(s) to your PC by purchasing a certain tool (hardware), but I won't go into that here. Any and everything you need to know is in the Simple Q&A Thread (Personally, I think if I added some photos to clarify, the post would be good enough to sticky, but that's just me ^-^)

Gen III and on USE batteries, but they only power the clock (except in FR/LG which have no clock). Apparently Gen III+ save your game to FLASH memory, which means it's pretty much indefinitely saved, unless something happens to the cart (Accidentally leaving it in your pants and washing it, etc.).

I'm whiting out the last paragraph as it pertains to Gen III+, highlight it if you want to read, but this is the Gen I and II forum, so I don't want to anger any of the mods, they seem to be a little sensitive about the content in their forums, and a little OCD ^-^

Jorgomli said:

Exactly, my friend! Your save is gone forever if your battery dies or is taken out. So no, replacing the battery will not bring it back. Whilst perusing the interwebs, I found that first and second gen games save to the cart's RAM. And if you know anything about RAM, you should know that anything stored to RAM gets erased AS SOON AS the power is cut off. What the batteries do in the carts is constantly power the RAM. Constantly. for YEARS. Most people will say that the average battery life of Gen I games is about 10-15 years. Gen II is roughly 5-7 years, based on the amount of times you save. Gen II is shorter because the battery has to power both the RAM and the (Crystal oscillator? Not sure of the name but what is does:) clock function. This means that the RAM and clock are constantly functioning, constantly sucking the battery dry from the time of the first save until the battery dies or is replaced.

HOWEVER. There is indeed a way to back-up your save(s) to your PC by purchasing a certain tool (hardware), but I won't go into that here. Any and everything you need to know is in the Simple Q&A Thread (Personally, I think if I added some photos to clarify, the post would be good enough to sticky, but that's just me ^-^)

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Thanks! I never knew that the save file was actually being saved to RAM, so now it makes much more sense to me. I might have to check into that tool to back-up my saves, or else it will be a very sad day when my battery runs dry...lol.

think i might actually replace mine in gold and silver. Do you actually know how much it is to buy a new battery for it??

Tee519 said:

Do you actually know how much it is to buy a new battery for it??

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I got the right battery for $0.99 USD on eBay. I heard you can get them from WalGreens or similar stores though, but I'm an introvert. I'd much rather do my shopping online than look stupid in a store not knowing what to get xD

But yeah, CR2025 for $0.99 from an eBay user named cavegamers.

Yoshiko75 said:

I might have to check into that tool to back-up my saves, or else it will be a very sad day when my battery runs dry...lol.

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Yeah, it's a bit pricey, though. About $25 USD. (Idk the currency here, so I'll just keep clarifying USD lol)

Also, I emailed the supposed seller about a month ago and I haven't gotten a reply, so Idk what's going on there. I would try to email them, but look for another seller as well.

Another thing about that, you need a serial port on your computer. Most older PCs have them, but very few newer ones do. It's easy to get a serial port - USB adapter, though. I would guess >$5 on eBay lol.

Sydian said:

Yeah, because people can't read what forum this is and they reply to topics about newer games and I want to punch them in the face, cause this forum could really use good activity. PS though, whiting out a line and then saying I'll get mad isn't the best way to go around it. If your post is mainly on topic, there's no big deal. Don't try to be sneaky, cause that will make me mad. js. ;)

Anyway, all six of my older games work. I don't know how long they have left, though and sometimes I'm too afraid to turn them on and find out how they're doing. :/

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Oh no, I completely understand why you would want to keep order, but I don't think that mentioning 3rd Gen games should warrant a locked thread, and I've seen a couple instances in different forums of this kinda thing happening. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, just some observations I've made.

In my opinion, there's a little too much organization on this site. I could see how trying to find the right forum to post about a certain subject would become very tedious for newer members (like myself) and it would turn them off of the site. I can see how anything related to any Pokemon game could go into Pokemon Gaming Central, but there are subforums for each gen, then one for spinoffs. Idk, it's a little too specific for my taste. I usually hang around in the gen I and II forum, and only go to others for a very specific question or concern I have.

And I wasn't necessarily trying to be "sneaky," just highlighting it so only the people who are interested in knowing about something that doesn't belong in this section will read it. People who don't care would move on, and wouldn't jump off-topic to the other gens I was discussing. Sorry if that angered you at all, it was most certainly not meant to. <3

And, back on topic. You should definitely try your old games, even if they don't work, you can replace the battery and relive the feelings you felt when you first started playing. My very first game, Blue, still works. :D

And if I haven't said it before, gen I batteries last ~10-15 years, and Gen II about half of that, so ~5-7 years (due to the clock).

It's a sad day when my batteries run dry. My favorite, Gold, ran dry recently, after replacing it 8 years ago. q; Oh well, I'll leave it like that. My Silver's still running strong, having never had its battery replaced. One day my RBY saves will disappear too, which stinks but they haven't died yet. Darn you, batteries, for deleting my memories.

Well, both of my Gold cartridges don't save files anymore haha, so they're pretty busted, and the clock of my Sapphire game has stopped, but other than that it works fine. And surprisingly, my Yellow which I've had for over 10 years now works perfectly.

My Gold version has run dry but my Blue still has some juice in it, which is weird given that I bought the games in chronological order. Maybe there's some weird voodoo going on in that Blastoise or something...

yeah my Cyrstal died recently, it was a very sad day that I lost my beloved Feraligater. Didn't know you could replace the battery though. I'm a little scared I'd end up ruining the game even more if I started unscrewing stuff though.

This is why I bought one of those special Gameboy/Gameboy Colour screwdrivers and a dozen replcement batteries so that I could replace the battery.

The depressing thing is whenever you need to change the battery means you've lost the game... It would be nice if you could back it up - I think there are devices that can do that but I haven't tried them.

arbok said:

yeah my Cyrstal died recently, it was a very sad day that I lost my beloved Feraligater. Didn't know you could replace the battery though. I'm a little scared I'd end up ruining the game even more if I started unscrewing stuff though.

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It's a pretty quick fix, and there's not much to mess up. Just make sure you don't cut or damage the circuit board, which when you open it it up, you should see this isn't easy to do lol.

fuz said:

This is why I bought one of those special Gameboy/Gameboy Colour screwdrivers and a dozen replcement batteries so that I could replace the battery.

The depressing thing is whenever you need to change the battery means you've lost the game... It would be nice if you could back it up - I think there are devices that can do that but I haven't tried them.

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The GB Transferrer II, but I emailed the (only?) seller of them, and they never emailed me back, so idk what's going on there. I wish I could get my hands on one.

Sorry to hear your battery died, man. I really hate that stuff. My Crystal version's battery was recently nearly dead, and thank God I have a classic link cable, or I would not have been able to back up my pokemon. I hope you can at least find the patience to open up the cartridge and replace the battery. I've had to do that quite a few times, and I'm surprised my Gold version hasnt died yet.

My Pokemon Gold could stopped hold a save yet my other Gold was just fine.
I decided to open it up and I found that somehow the solder had came off the battery... somehow. I really don't know how it could have disconnected but I soldiered it back on and it's good as new.