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wise portal
Do you have continuity between both Red locations?
Do you have continuity between both Blue locations?
If you have continuity between those locations, What is the battery voltage between the Red & Blue locations in this image?
spiral relic
So there’s no way to test if the battery even has voltage? That’s troubleshooting 101.
In the interim, post a picture of the back of the board please.
Check with CE are the 2 arrows. One on the left of the memory bank controller and the label that I had as CE. Also, check to make sure that this circled area is just dirt. Please clean it. This is also the CE trace so if it's damaged that could be the reason why your game is not saving. It's hard to tell in the photo if it's dirt or if it's damage.
Yeah, looks like it was just dirt. You're going to need a multimeter at this point.
Just accept it. It's cosmetic.
Test all of the areas I highlighted in that photo. Step 1: does the battery even have voltage?
Step 2: is that voltage getting to VCC on the SRAM?
Step 3: is that voltage getting to CE on the SRAM?
Step 4: is that voltage getting to the memory bank controller?
Step 5: if all of that tests out, is the memory bank controller connecting to CE on the SRAM?
storm kindle
continuity mode is the diode symbol, just right from the 200 ohm resistance setting you've been using. sometimes they have a beeper but that multimeter looks pretty basic so it might just show the small amount of resistance, or just OL if there's no continuity
you should probably check the voltages (DCV 20 setting) that the 3v pins are getting, and then that CE 2.9v pin
okay, i'm not sure how the continuity mode on that multimeter should show lol
i'm not really sure why you are probing R1 in different spots? keep the black probe on GND/battery negative terminal and put the red probe on the three voltage pins indicated by the arrows
storm kindle
hmm, i'd say everything checks out in that area then? weird
for the red points, you only needed to check that there's continuity between the top solder joint of resistor R1 and the battery positive terminal.
and yeah, resistance is a fine way of checking continuity, some meters just have a beeper that'll tell you if there's continuity or very low resistance. ideally, there'd be very close to 0 ohms, but the meter leads might add that 0.6-0.7 as they're probably not the best quality
001 probably means there's continuity, anything else means there's no continuity lol
possibly a cold/cracked joint somewhere, prod all of the pins. probably best to start at the SRAM chip
no, poke them on the side with tweezers/small screwdriver/other rigid thin object haha, to see if they are loose
yes, the one marked "U3 RAM" on the PCB
since the problem only exists when trying to restore a save from a file (if i understood correctly?), i'm beginning to think it might be the save file or cartridge flasher rather than the cart itself. have you tried saving on the cart, backing it up, saving again in a different spot or erasing the save and then writing it back in?
storm kindle
which flasher is it? if it instantly corrupts the save file when just connecting, there's def something fishy going on. also, have you cleaned the contacts on the Crystal cart?
i also haven't used VBA in like 15 years, not sure how it handles RTC emulation, so not sure if it's relevant
haha, might have helped to know which flasher and what software/firmware versions you had... i think someone asked about the flasher earlier in the #gameboy channel too
but great that the mystery was solved!