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[Other] How can I fix: The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed?

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    • Seen Jun 23, 2025
    Hello, as is common in Pokemon FireRed there is a problem with saving games:
    [PokeCommunity.com] How can I fix: The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed?
    Before, I was working on binary, I used a patch to solve this problem without having to modify settings in the emulator.

    Now I am working on Decomp, and I would like if it is possible to solve this problem by modifying the code?

    Thank you 💓
     
    I want to establish why you'd even think you need to "fix" this issue; standard FireRed data structures are designed for 1Mbit saves. You'd have to reorganise much of the saveblocks just to make it fit a different format without encountering save issues later down the track.
     
    Before, I was working on binary, I used a patch to solve this problem without having to modify settings in the emulator.

    You're talking about patching the game to use SRAM instead of flash memory for saving.

    SRAM has less space than the flash memory the game normally uses which means that an SRAM patch essentially discards a part of the save file. This can potentially result in your save getting corrupted, unless you were to modify the save data structure to take less space like Hiroshi Sotomura suggested.

    Historically SRAM patching was used to allow games to be played on primitive flashcarts and emulators which only supported SRAM saving. Modern flashcarts and emulators tend to support flash saves so there's little reason to use SRAM patches these days.

    If you really need to use an SRAM patch with a decomp hack, the easiest option is to just patch the compiled rom the same way you would patch any other GBA rom. If you have the option to just change a setting, you should do that instead or get an emulator that automatically detects the correct save type from the rom header like mGBA.
     
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