How to replace the battery in a pokemon gold/silver gameboy cart

Step 4: Your done!

Put it back together by repeating step 2 (except clockwise). Then put it in your gameboy and turn it on. Start a new game walk outside and save then turn off. Wait about 15 seconds, turn on and if your save is still there it worked.

Enjoy your game! :-)

Comments

[SafiyaSpaghetti]

Hey guys. It is possible to keep your saves whilst replacing the battery. You just have to leave the system on while replacing the battery. You should try to do it quickly, but still be careful.
http://hackaday.com/2012/05/02/simple-trick-for-replacing-game-boy-cart-batteries-while-retaining-game-saves/
(Link has a video.)

[fueledbyFOBx3]

i honestly just made an account so i could comment on this to thank you. it wasn't as easy as i expected to do this, but if a 17-year-old girl can do it sitting in her pajamas then anyone can. thank you sooooo much!! :D i can't wait to start playing! n_n

[MortiiMati]

Whoever you are, I love you. I was beyond upset when I dug up my Gameboy a few days ago and realized the game wouldn't save... I'm going to try this sometime today or tomorrow and post afterwards whether it worked or not (which, based on the comments so far, I'm sure it will). Thank you!

[frobles3]

could this work for pokemon yellow? and should i use the same battery that you used for your gold replacement

[tamaness]

Pokemon Yellow doesn't use a battery, as it doesn't track real time. It uses non-volatile memory to store your saved game, unlike Gold, Silver, and Crystal, which use volatile memory, which requires constant power. If your Yellow cart stops saving games, you may need to simply replace the cart (there are quite a few of these available from secondhand retailers).

[john henry]

tamaness where are you getting your facts from?

Pokemon yelloew does in FACT use a battery (im looking at it now)
Pokemon yellow uses a CR1616 battery for the constant power needed to store the memory.

[rbliss]

It is a battery problem. my red version got erased and stopped saving. my friend told me the coin battery died he replaced it for me and it works just as

[superfufu]

Where can I get these batteries haha mine JUST died today so lol ty

[tak123]

im gonna try this soon, i have 2 golds to try with lol, cause i got my neighbors cause neither save, funny how my yellow , older, is still good

[mjcdowling]

That's cos gold had the internal clock, this is what happens when nintendo have to make things complicated

[rbarrington]

Also did this, used small screwdriver to pry case apart, used electrical tape to hold battery in, also used cr2032 which only difference is it is slightly thicker, when finished used a phillips head screw rather than one nintendo provides so future replacement would be easier.

[weirdduck88]

Just a quick question: will this work on Pokemon Red/Blue or Crystal? I've yet to try it out but I kinda want to now!

[josh92176]

I haven't ever tried it, but i see no reason why it shouldn't :)

[justsomedude9593]

*bows* you sir are awesome! I spent $15 on a copy of gold, and i was about to throw it away until i found out that i could fix it. the battery might have cost $7 (two pack) but it was worth it ^_^

[tenderfoot480]

can you use the battery from red or blue? i took my blue version a part and they have the same battery

[josh92176]

Yes you can, but id recommend not using it! this is because pokemon blue was released before gold so the battery is likely to fail soon (also you've lost the ability to save on red/blue too). The type of batteries i used are very widely available, you could get them in any supermarket.

[tuddy666]

 I tried this method, due to lack of soldering equipment. I was, sadly, a little careless, and a small part of the bottom contact broke off (well, about half of the contact, but enough to attach to the battery). I initially thought all hope was lost, but tried anyway. I made sure I used a bit more electrical tape than initially planned, to ensure the battery would stay in place. So, to check that I hadn't killed my cartridge for good, I tested the cartridge prior to putting the screw back in. It worked perfectly.

The moral of the comment? You don't -have- to keep all of the contacts intact, but it's best if you do.

[chaoscode0]

thnx a lot for the walkthrough i used a battery from my old motherboard and the game works fine again i had to plau this game for years back then when i was 11 xD

[JoviGoo]

So, I had a question... Apparently, my battery has run out too... I had a save file from a long long time ago, so when I take out the old battery and put a new one in, would that delete my old save file? I had just started playing it again and was wondering why it wouldn't save... Would it also delete the save files I tried to make more recently when I replace the battery? Or is it when I put a new battery in, all the save files I made before will appear again?

[josh92176]

No, after this the game will be like new, i.e no saves at all. -josh

[JoviGoo]

Ah, ok. Thanks. Is there a way to tell when the battery inside the cartridge is running low, though? I don't want to have to start from scratch every time that little battery dies...

[josh92176]

No.... but the battery should last quite a long time. My gold lasted about 6-7 years before needing changing -josh

[orangewolf22]

OMG!!! my old silver one has been broken for YEARS and i didn't know how to fix it!!!! FINALLY!!! thank you thank you thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

[Danny P]

this is excellent! now i can crack out the old games and start playing! thank you!

[Silver.Griffin]

Thanks for the tip! I just fixed my Pokemon Silver that I got on ebay and now it works like a charm! You really posted a great guide there!!

[Bjp4Anime]

Thank you very much for the help. I have pokemon crystal which I got off ebay really cheap. Of course, there was something wrong with it, as the time in the game didn't run properly. Then the other day I turned it on and my whole save data was gone! I found from looking on various sites that the battery needed changing, so i went and got one, then followed your steps. It took ages to take the cover off, but I found my version is from the USA so I needed to turn clockwise first. I'm not sure if that is just for the new game or the country. Anyway, after my dad finally got the old battery off the solder (a real pain!), we put the new battery in and covered it with insulatory tape and put the case back on. Then I turned the game, saved and quit and turned it on again and it works! I wish I had know about this sooner, because then maybe I would have kept my pokemon silver! Oh well. Thanks again :-)

[josh92176]

No problem, I'm just glad that it helps people

[slightwhite]

lol i took apart the pokemon trading card game for the for the bat and it totally work thanks man now I got something to do cuz I just moved to a new town

[PokemonUser]

Dude, nice tutorial. I replaced mine with my old motherboard battery, saves, waited 15 seconds, and there is my saved game! Will this also work with Ruby, Sapphire, and the other Pokémon games except for the DS ones? Thanks for this wonderful tutorial.

[spasysheep]

Yes, it will work with any cartridge game (including NES, SNES, MEGADRIVE, N64, etc etc) however some of them have no battery (some of the newer ones used non-volatile memory or just don't save the game

[josh92176]

Umm, probably I haven't tried it but at a guess it would work and I'm glad to see that someone found use from my instructable. -josh