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Pokemon Emerald won't boot


Now get brutal

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The battery on that is only for those 2 pin cylinder you see in the top left, the real time clock.  The battery is a time keeper, the game saves to a chip.

Something worse has gone wrong if obsessive cleaning isn't cutting it.

 

Depending on your level of depth you can get into this with it you can either get abusively abrasive with the pins and really polish the hell out of it with something more abusive to downright resurfacing scratchy.  Or if you have a steady hand and good tools, heat up an iron and reflow each lead on each chip because maybe something is just cold so it's making it seem dead.

Edited by Tanooki
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5 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

The battery on that is only for those 2 pin cylinder you see in the top left, the real time clock.  The battery is a time keeper, the game saves to a chip.

Something worse has gone wrong if obsessive cleaning isn't cutting it.

 

Depending on your level of depth you can get into this with it you can either get abusively abrasive with the pins and really polish the hell out of it with something more abusive to downright resurfacing scratchy.  Or if you have a steady hand and good tools, heat up an iron and reflow each lead on each chip because maybe something is just cold so it's making it seem dead.

I'll spend a little more time polishing the pins and see if that helps. I have some nice soldering equipment at work I could borrow to reflow the solder points.

Thanks for the input!

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6 minutes ago, Now get brutal said:

I'll spend a little more time polishing the pins and see if that helps. I have some nice soldering equipment at work I could borrow to reflow the solder points.

Thanks for the input!

If IPA doesn’t work on the pins my last resort is the pencil eraser and then clean with IPA again. The pencil eraser is abrasive so don’t go hard 

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Seeing you can reflow I'd polish as he said non-abrasive.

Reflow #2

Magic eraser and IPA or 91% alcohol on that direct to the pins as #3

#4 well then you're getting into the crap that really scratches... brasso, 0000 steel wool, one of those sanding block squishy sponges.  The last resort before going in the trash stop on that stuff.  I've sanded a few duds that otherwise should have worked and they cam back but I felt bad about it... but shiny resurfaced pins are better than playing a game of trashketball.

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On 10/25/2021 at 9:39 PM, Now get brutal said:

Thanks for the advice guys! I'm sitting down now with some 91% IPA now 🤞

Updates to come

Edit: Polished up the pins and it boots!

Lucky SOB, good job.  It took me TWO copies of the game to get it to work.  I had an original one I came across which thankfully was a throw in basically because the shell was cracked and jacked up.  The game just wouldn't boot, it went into reflow territory so I tried everything short of that, because I can't do that.  The stuff I mentioned before I have done and in desperation got games working before so that's the only reason why.  The second copy indirectly cost me, nothing near retail at least, was something I got cheap a period before it, then a uniquely weird trade netted it in working order (along with LeafGreen and 2 mario adv games too.)  Can't complain either, excellent condition compared to the beater. 😄  Emerald is like peak pokemon for that system seeing my old favorite was(fire red) a remaster.

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13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Lucky SOB, good job.  It took me TWO copies of the game to get it to work.  I had an original one I came across which thankfully was a throw in basically because the shell was cracked and jacked up.  The game just wouldn't boot, it went into reflow territory so I tried everything short of that, because I can't do that.  The stuff I mentioned before I have done and in desperation got games working before so that's the only reason why.  The second copy indirectly cost me, nothing near retail at least, was something I got cheap a period before it, then a uniquely weird trade netted it in working order (along with LeafGreen and 2 mario adv games too.)  Can't complain either, excellent condition compared to the beater. 😄  Emerald is like peak pokemon for that system seeing my old favorite was(fire red) a remaster.

I have yet to play Emerald, so I was pretty disappointed when it wouldn't boot. I'm very thankful it's now working! Time to go throw some balls 😅

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14 hours ago, austin532 said:

They are a little bit stronger than erasers. It takes off a very thin layer of the gold plating.

That's really underestimating them, lol.  While they can be controlled easier, they're as abrasive, if not moreso, than sandpaper, which everyone should be familiar with.  They're a lot stronger than a simple eraser, which would generally be hard pressed to remove actual metal from the contacts, while that's precisely what using a fiberglass pen does from the first moment.

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1 hour ago, austin532 said:

Sandpaper is much worse IMO and should never be used. You don't need to use much force with fiberglass pens to clean the pins. Nylon pens (the green ones) however are stronger and can do as much damage as sandpaper if you use too much force. Only use them if nothing else seems to work.

I never said you should, I pointed out that a fiberglass pen is doing the exact same thing as sandpaper, just with more even and fine scratch lines on whatever you're scraping up.  I'm not saying you shouldn't use them if it becomes a necessity, but people should be well aware of what they are and what they're doing.  If you get a fine enough grit sandpaper, you can do an even finer job than a fiberglass pen, so "sandpaper" isn't always a universally dirty word unless you're talking about low grit numbers meant for smoothing things like stone, wood, etc.

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