GBA SP (AGS-001) can’t read gba saves

[river gazelle]

my gf bought a red gba sp that is able to read gba games but not their saves, which can be read on other consoles so it isn’t the cartridge battery or anything. it also couldn’t read any other gb or gbc games at all but after cleaning the switch the gbc game will occasionally show up with its save.

i attempted cleaning the cartridge contacts and any corrosion on them with ipa (didn’t work). after inspecting more i found there are some missing components on the front of the motherboard, i believe more might be missing than what is pictured on the third image.

what is the significance of the missing parts or what could i do further to try and fix this?

[onyx mural]

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[polar quiver]

I would start with tackling the issue with GB/C games
On GBA SP, the switch is on the side of the cart slot
First let's try some contact cleaner

As for missing components, you can compare to the boards you can find on gekkio's website
Be mindful of the sub version of the board to compare accordingly

[river gazelle]

ok after looking at this board off the website everything actually seems in order (no missing parts), so for the gba save issue should i just continue trying to clean game slot contacts? or is there a specific part that needs focus that would handle the save reading

[polar quiver]

Get back to my previous comment

[river gazelle]

just got some contact cleaner and attempted the fix, got it on the cartridge pins and gbc switch.
i think its reading gbc with more success, still kinda sensitive to freeze. pins are also looking better but still not reading save data for gba games (save for the gbc game i was testing with also vanished for some reason, consistent across consoles)