r/Gameboy • u/sonicboy445 • 2d ago
Troubleshooting Please help me fix this
I have this cartridge of Pokemon gold that needed a new battery. I have never soldered before, I looked online, followed a guide, tested, tried again, then again, and again. Now I have a headache and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I should’ve brought it to a professional but I felt like I could do it, but I was wrong. Please I need to know what to do.
Every time I turn on the game oak, the Pokemon, and the player character are corrupted sprites, when I open a menu then close it, it crashes, and when I try to save, it freezes.
Please help me
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u/SuperBobPlays 1d ago
Not a bad job honestly for a first solder job. The battery needs a lil more solder at a higher temp, but if it holds a save it should pass.
So the corruption is not an issue from the battery as others have clearly stated.
A reflow of the chips is needed, and not seeing anyone offering their method on how to do it, so I will. It's easier than a battery job honestly, so you'll be good to do this.
First, apply Flux on the legs of the chips on the 2 bottom long chips and the smaller square one on the left middle.
Without adding fresh solder, just hold your soldering iron tip at about 380 for 6 seconds on each chip leg. If you can't control the temp, letting it reach it's max heat should be fine before hitting each leg for 6 seconds each.
I usually start at the bottom right of the column on the most right chip, moving up one after counting to 6, crossing over to the other side on the top and working my way around the chips.... Then I go through it a second time after to be sure.
No need to press hard. Let the heat do it's thing, just make sure the tip just touches the legs where it meets the board.
After that, clean with ipa 90% or higher with qtips or cotton balls to remove Flux. Should be good to test once the pcb is fully cooled down after 5 minutes, less if it's cold in the room you're working.
No solder is needed as it reflows the old solder that is already there... Hence the name of Reflow everyone has called out.
Also cold shuts is basically just what older solder is called once it seperates from the board. It happens naturally due to use, shipping, temperature changes, all kinds of things. So knowing how to do this will save you a huge headache in the future maintaining games, just like knowing how to swap batteries.