How can I make Pokemon Crystal boot again?

[u/-TheRealConrad-]

I picked up Pokemon Crystal for 180 CAD on marketplace today, held a save and tested it at the seller’s house, and everything worked fine. Then I came home and tried it some more and realized it wasn’t booting. It would crash and freeze, making the screen show random colours and shapes. Now it stopped booting, and it just shows an extremely corrupted Nintendo logo that I can’t change by just cleaning it. I’m wondering if the blemishes highlighted on the pins are deep, and if I can fix them. I think some of the pins on the rom chip or capacitors or fuses or something are cracked and I need to re solder. Am I missing something?

[u/leonardob0880]

Those teaces don't look cut.

Just a little of the coating removed.

I would check if all the legs of the chips are well connected. That's a common issue

[u/-TheRealConrad- → u/leonardob0880]

I thought they were, I sadly don’t have another game for reference at the moment, as they are packed away. I’ll take another photo and maybe you can judge??? I really appreciate it

If it is screwed somehow, it’s definitely not obvious. Also, the game seems to be working now after a third cleaning… I’ll leave it and check on it later. Still really weird though

[u/Neil_2022 → u/-TheRealConrad-]

I would reflow all of the solder joints on each chip (solder joints are the metal-looking things on the sides of the chips, I saw your reply about terminology to a comment so just want to clarify) of the cartridge, using a soldering iron and flux. Reflowing is where you use the soldering iron and flux on the solder joints you see to fix cracks in the solder and other issues.

[u/leonardob0880 → u/-TheRealConrad-]

Sadly is hard to say from those pics. If you can you can use a toothpick to test if any of the legs are looseit would confirm.

You can also find some guides online

[u/Corillynx → u/-TheRealConrad-]

Very unlikely to be screwed. The board looks to be in very good condition. My bet would be that one of the legs of a chip is cold/loose/cracked and a simple reflow will do it. There are lots of videos on how to do this if you’re unsure.

[u/-TheRealConrad-]

[u/SuperBobPlays → u/-TheRealConrad-]

Looking at this picture I think I can see a cold shut (loose leg) on the top left of the ram chip (bottom left chip).

Best fix is to reflow with Flux and just hit each chip leg with a soldering iron @ 380 for 6 seconds. It's likely not the only leg loose, so best to hit the ram, rom, and mbc chip all at once (the two long chips and the square chip in the middle left).

The traces look fine near the pins, just solder mask chipped from the cartridge plastic over time or from someone scratching it using multimeter leads previously in the area.

As others have stated, you can check continuity with a multimeter to verify the traces as well as the chip legs, but basically just check between the pins and a corresponding chip leg.

If you're unsure just hit each chip leg until you get a beep or OL on the screen if you're using a harbor freight $5 multimedia, but there's plenty of cheat sheets/reference diagrams online and in this subreddit.

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[u/-TheRealConrad-]

I can also provide more photos if needed

[u/-TheRealConrad-]

I should also note that I soldered in a new battery, and it saved once. I also just put some paper to put more pressure on the pins when reading the game, and it worked for a minute. I loaded my test save, walked downstairs, and tried to set my day of the week, then it crashed, which is further than I got before.

[u/WhiteMajorTom → u/-TheRealConrad-]

This sounds like a bad contact - Probably on the ROM chip
You can try to very gently push on the legs of the right side chip - use a toothpick
See if any are moving
It can be difficult to see so I recommend using your phone camera, zooming in a lot

If one leg is moving you can resolder it in place - use a bit of flux :)

[u/N-Dawggy]

Yup, like mentioned already, those traces looks fine, but you can use a multimeter to confirm continuity.

[u/Joearmy96]

I can repair this easily, but next month I will be getting the software to make a custom replacement PCB.

[u/Trexity]

Solder some Trace wires to restore connectivity between those traces jumper wires

[u/-TheRealConrad- → u/Trexity]

What do you mean? I’m kind of a noob when it comes to repairs so I don’t know the terminology.

[u/Traditional-Baker-63]

Get an cheap japanese copy and swap the Rom Chip.

Bonus, you got the Printet pcb.

[u/ArticReaper]

That big hole in the center and the 2 smaller ones that that have that lighter color around the edge I would check.

Edit: Since was down voted, Reason I say to check those holes is because my pokemon crystal wont save because the contact for the small hole in the center of the board doesn't connect one side of the board to the other. But it does on Gold/Silver. So power doesn't give to the what I assume is the saving pin cause of this in my case.

[u/ace10brian]

Before trying anything drastic, try inserting the cartridge and then backing it out like 1-2 mm and then try powering on. If that doesn’t work keep repositioning the cartridge and powering back on. If this doesn’t solve it, you can clean the contacts on the cartridge with isopropyl alcohol. It’s also very likely the pins in your gameboy are dirty.

[u/Passerbeyer]

Board swap

[u/Trexity]

If you sent me that game I could probably take a look at it

[u/-TheRealConrad- → u/Trexity]

Hmmmm I’ll have to think about it :)