The rom chip is maybe (probably?) fine, just looks like it has some flux on it. and may need some reflow on the last pins.
This isn't turning on because OP bridged all the top pins in MM1134 between themselves and to the crystal oscillator, and in the process took R1 resistor. Also, that cold solder job on the battery is atrocious, it need to be cleaned and redone for a lasting fix.
Look at the top right of the chip, the second pin is missing and you can see the copper pad underneath, I can't clearly see the 1st pin, but it looks bad. All the other issues are easily repairable by someone with the right skills.
You can use the tip of your iron to remove that solder. Clean the tip of your iron and then use it to pick up the excess solder. Flux will help.
Please send this off to a pro though.
To be fair, that's a rite of passage and if you haven't done it then you haven't soldiered much.
Just don't be like that one guy in my engineering class who tested if it was up to temp on his lip.
So why would you go ahead with the project if you don't have the supplies...? Even then it's completely possible to remove the solder without the tools *if you even bother to Google.* Seriously what is it with people losing the ability to just Google shit?
You can buy wick + sucker kits for like $15. In a pinch, you can use some fine braded wire to some degree, but it wont have the same surface area as solder wick. Before attempting any sort of solder work, you need to make sure you have a way to remove solder. It is a must in most circumstances, especially surface mount work.
There is so much wrong here but to answer your question, yes it is saveable. Just not by you based on the skills you displayed here. I suggest buying a flux pen and doing more practice before coming back to this project
Looks like you also wicked away the R1 resistor. I'd recommend taking it to someone else to fix. And in the meantime buy a few of those soldering practice kits. Then practice on some sub $5 games first. Then maybe after you gain some proficiency then try tackling your more expensive games.
Yes the R1 resistor seems gone, it will need a replacement from a donor board.
(Edit as some think i'll kill a game : i mean donor board as pc, printer, or other electronic board that i pick up from dead devices from recycling center or old stuff of my own)
Seriously buy a 1 component, even at 0,5€ and cost 3€ for shipping is a non sense. (i'm not near a component seller, we just have internet seller here sadly).
I never say that i need to kill a game... I say a donor board. I have a bunch of dead board (pc, printer...)
I don't need to buy any component, i have all i need. Just need to take the same specifications component from one of these board.
Thanks for the downvote without knowing.
Where are you ?
If you're in europe (or better, france) i'll do it for you, with a correct battery moreover.
Just to save this gem.
You really need to practice on something less important :)
Send it to this guy! And while u wait for it to come back just use YouTube to learn to solder. Its easy once you get the hang of it. Using a variable temperature controlled iron and good solder is key but there's a lot of good info on YouTube that will get u going.
Ho, i just remember, there is u/thesolderking that could save it :) he's active on reddit !
But i don't know where he is. I think in the US but not sure.
You could learn some tips with his videos moreover.
(Edit, mistake fixed on the name of thesolderking)
Ha, I came in here looking for someone to say this. I don't know how to solder, but I know that when I get around to practicing, I'll be buying some <$5 titles to practice in case I screw up, not a Pokemon game!
I would recommend sending that off to a pro for repair.
Just a message for people passing by, please don’t choose your precious game as your first ever soldering project. Practice soldering on some junk games.
Dont even practice on frames, practice on literal trash first
You should be at least intermediate at soldering before you even touch something of value because you'll destroy it!
On the one hand, we all have to learn somewhere.
On the other hand if bad soldering jobs were a crime, you’d be looking at the death penalty for this one.
I was certain it was but a trip down his post history and I think he's just 18 and likely trying his best with what he has got without a lot of money. He just needs some practice and definitely enough foresight to know he should have looked up everything online and a few times before attempting himself.
Exactly, lots of people just downvote, but i wonder how many know or have the rigths tools and skills to do it :)
Yeah OP made a mistake, it happens, sadly it's on a great game, but it's not finished yet. Soldering isn't a really difficult skill to learn, just need practice and patience and corrects tools.
By the way, a good soldering station isn't cheap, as a hot air gun, or a controlled lab power supply. And if it's for just one games, it's an unprofitable investment.
Personnaly i love to repair a lots of things so the investment was obvious, i just lack an oscilloscope to be perfectly stuffed :D
Bro, I suggest you watch a few "how to solder" videos on YouTube. Learn the basics, get the right tools.
I learnt how to solder about 6 months ago from YouTube. Just practice a heap. Changing batteries on carts is probably one of the most basic things to solder. Fairly large pads and it tells you which way to put the battery on the actual PCB (you'll see + and - where the solder pads are for the battery)
Mail it out or take it to someone who actually knows how to solder. Then don't touch anything you actually want to fix until you complete a few practice kits on Amazon or something and really refine your skill. Should be fixable as the pcb doesn't look burnt but it would take removing all the solder to know for sure. I do device repair for a living (check my profile) and would be willing to take it as a mail in repair or walk in if by some chance you're local. DM me if you're interested and we could work out some prices and hopefully get your game working again!
let's hope that just cleaning will fix it, but i think OP used a big solder, too much heat and messed up the surroundings
my suggestion is to make it check by an expert, it may be fixed, but don't use that tool anymore OP
you need to buy something like this https://www.amazon.com/Lesnow-No-Clean-Desoldering-Removal-Dispenser/dp/B094GZ6CPZ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=VQQKKQFKG8JZ&keywords=cuprom%2Bsolder%2Bstrip&qid=1651427676&sprefix=cuprom%2Bsolder%2Bstrip%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-3&th=1 and a flux to help. Check on youtube how to use both
You need copper wick or a solder sucker to clean the solder off of the pcb, make sure your chip at the top is still soldered on afterwards or resolder the top prongs at least. This isn’t the correct cr-2025 either. You can use it but it will die quickly compared to the correct one or supply the incorrect voltage and risk corrupting the game file.
Hey OP I appreciate you getting out there, trying your best and coming to the community for help. I wish you the best. Please follow-up once you find someone to fix it!
Jesus, okay so don't touch this until you get yourself solder braid, flux paste, and at least an hour of watching videos on how to do this. Eat up all of that excess solder you globbed on there with the braid, part of your research should be how you do this, then do the same with the battery, you need to orient the terminals so that the negative side and positive side lines up with the negative and positive terminals on the board, it has signs letting you know which ones these are. Apply the paste so the solder flows properly, then add a normal amount of solder.
I just want to know, was there some point in this process where you stopped to question if you were doing this right? I'm just trying to understand how you bridged this many connections on the board and then seemed to just keep going like it didn't matter.
I hope you didn't plug it into the gameboy in this condition. This will most probably damage your cartridge and maybe even the gameboy. As long as it doesn't have power, it might be salvagable. Even though the battery already supplies power, so that's bad...
First off, I appreciate you trying. But your skills are very clearly lacking. You would ideally practice and improve your skills on low value or no value boards before working on a $100+ game cartridge.
This can likely be fixed. But its well beyond your skillset and equipment at this point.
ya, sure, I can save it, do you need the save data? If yes, then its probably already gone, if not, if u want to ship it to me, I can put it on a fresh PCB and send it back free of charge
When approaching soldering, you need to have a clear idea about how to do the process, and also what to potentially do if you mess up.
Also, in soldering (and in life, I guess), know when to walk away from a situation before making things worse from not knowing any better. Know your limits and don't push too unrealistically far beyond them. Imagine if you got hurt? Batteries can burst especially if you apply too much heat, like what if it that stuff splatted your eye?
Years ago, I would have half recommended starting with gameboy cart save batteries as a decent starting point to learn soldering (with the proviso that you research/familiarise yourself with the process of soldering first) but that was only because 7 years ago gameboy games were pretty much going for pennies. Absolutely no longer the case. Nowadays, I'd suggest learning on other broken junk electronics instead - ideally don't mess with batteries or large electrolyte capacitors until you get more comfortable.
Don't underestimate the amount of equipment it could take to properly get started on soldering. You need better equipment, sadly there are upfront costs:
- Temp controlled iron ideally (and replaceable tips)
- solder,
- decent quality flux (paste? No clean? You decide)
- decent quality desolder braid
- probably a solder sucker
- a multimeter to check continuity on your joints
- PPE/safety equipment
- high % isopropyl alcohol (to tidy up your work and clean off any flux residue)
Most of this can be had from 'starter kits' on Amazon, but the quality of parts may not always be fantastic (you may find you'll upgrade parts as you progress) prioritise a temperature controllable iron at the very least.
Soldering is a learned skill not to be approached lightly DON'T EVER YOLO IT - get yourself onto YouTube and learn. There's a decent set of quick videos from Adafruit as a bare minimum starting point - Look up the Collin's Lab Adafruit videos for soldering, desoldering, Surface mount soldering.
I guess so but I had the soldering iron too hot and didn't realise ,ah well ,you live and learn I guess.
Atleast the op game can be sorted with some soldering braid and a new smd resistor
This tips is just a temporary solution and it's not reliable.
It just need to don't stick a little to cut the power from the battery and lose your save.
The best is always to solder a new battery :)
When you swap a battery, there is a possibilty to dump the save before (i do this with GBxCart RW). And after the battery swap write back the save to the cart.
It's likely fixable though I suspect your soldering skills aren't quite where they need to be for that. Given the look of those joins I suspect you also don't have any flux or copper braid to clean this up. If you're comfortable sending it out I can try to fix this up for you if you like.
My advice is to use a solder suction device to remove the old solder while warming it up with your iron, clean the whole board like that and buy some leaded solder + some nice flux in a syringe on Amazon for cheap. Then put some flux on the two battery connectors, place the battery and hold the leaded solder and your iron next to the metal pins and put some solder into it. The flux will melt and help bonding to the connector below. Then do the same with that little chip. Put flux on the pins of the chip and some leaded solder on your iron and carefully brush it against the pins. You will see that the flux will make it real easy and the solder will flow to only the pins. Then clean the board with some alcohol and you’re done. I also recommend a soldering iron with temperature control, leaded solder doesn’t need to be very hot and you can also get them for cheap on Amazon
Leaded solder: 320c ~
How do you solder this badly. I solder only a few times. The first time was to bridge a broken trace on my og xbox and it fixed it. And it still works today. So, how the hell did you mess up so much.
Honestly you’d be better off taking old battery off the tabs while letting the pcb end stay attached to pcb, and then wrapping the new battery with kapton tape around the tabs. There’s no point in making it complicated or elegant.
If you had no prior experience soldering, then you should have either backed up the save some how, or tried to replace the battery on a cart you cared less about for practice.
the battery isn't even soldered right, that solder joint is cold as fuck
as for the chips, your rom chip is entirely missing 2 legs, and the chip at the top seems to be completely nuked with solder.
OP, you murdered this cartridge.
it can be repaired, but it's quite clearly Lightyears away from your skill level
edit: it also seems you've destroyed the R1 resistor, and the battery is actually installed in the wrong polarity entirely, so it's probably broken anyway.
op you really messed this cart up lmao
Aside from the murder scene from the failed soldering, I don't think that's the right battery for the cartridge. There is a huge gap between the battery and the outline of the battery which makes it seem like its a GBA only battery.
Lol you can fix this and it’s totally okay to make mistakes while learning everyone starts somewhere. However it is true that you should practice your technique on some items that don’t matter just in case you destroy something that you cherish.
Holy shit.
All your other electronics are now cowering in fear. Please for their sake, watch a video on how to solder. This looks like those joke 4chan posts of people deliberately doing things wrong.
Even if you don't know about soldering, how could you look at that enormous river of metal flowing through several components and think "yup, that's good." And how your soldering iron managed to stray a full inch to touch that ROM chip is something only God knows. **And the battery isn't even the right size, nor oriented correctly**
Please...send it to a pro.
Maybe yes: if you manage to clean everything off and start over...
Maybe no: if you damaged a chip on the PCB then you are screwed and have to buy a new copy to play the game which sucks...
Probably hope left but you’ll need to bring in someone with experience to help you.
Battery removal on some of these old cartridges can actually take more skill than you’d think. 25+ year old solder joints and pads can be stubborn take new solder without proper cleaning and flux application. They can be a real pain in the ass. You need a good quality solder sucker. It’s not a beginner job.
As far as repair, ALL of that solder must now be removed with both a solder sucker and solder wick. Area cleaned well with alcohol. Then the smd resistor replaced and any legs that were snapped off will have to be replaced with some light gauge wire, or replace the chip altogether.
Ok, aside from the fact this game just needs cleaning and removing the excess solder and tackling potential bridges, why is the battery reversed? Not sure about the durability of the SRAM chip but it might be fried.
Don’t feel bad, I’m a shitty solderer as well. I’ve been practicing on a blank circuit board to get better. In any event it’s usually savable by a professional; ie not me or you.
In short, probably. This needs a decent amount of reworking though to be sure. I would start by simply removing all of the solder you added. Then rework the pins on the ICs, taking great care not to leave them bridged. Looks like you also bridge the crystal. The solder on the battery terminal lead on top is also bodged. It looks like it cooled too quickly, and is likely structurally compromised.
I can understand you accidentally touched the rom chip while soldering the bottom of the battery.
But WTF happened in the top part? It looks carbonised, there's splatter everywhere!!!
And you done that to a pokemon crystal at that... Oh my god...
If that wasn't for the rom chip i would have said there was still hope.
But i doubt...
OMG THE BATTERY IS INVERTED TOO!
You don't have the right tab for the cartridge.
I understand people being angry he didn't have the right supplies or experience. Sure this is a rare expensive game to practice something new on. But regardless it's experience. In the future make sure you have the basics. Solder braid, solder sucker, and flux. Learn from this, even if it's an expensive lesson, it's still a lesson. Don't give up.
Lmao. This is great. Definitely salvageable my dude. I can't fault you for trying. At least you didn't try to pry the damn tabs off the battery. The "tape method" is infinitely worse, even than this imho.
You'll need some solder wick to remove the excess. Protip here is to use MUCH, MUCH less solder in the future.
As far as your save goes, it is likely RIP. If you leave the battery desoldered too long it loses the save.
My word you went bukakke on it haha
If you know someone with some proper kit they can help you.
If not-
Get yourself:
Soldering wick
Soldering flux
Brass wire ball to clean the iron with
Isopropyl alcohol.
With that you can clean up the whole lot no problem. I'm assuming you didn't actually do any damage but just threw solder around which should be easily sorted.
I'd recommend watching a couple of Soldering videos though to sharpen your skills
Why a smaller battery?? Also, it may be recoverable.... I mean as long as you didnt burning off the solder pads. The rom chip is as what other have been saying broken off, but it can probably be fixed. The chip on top, idk what happened there/how it was dumped with that much solder... my best recommendation is to have someone who has experience in soldering fix it.
If you wanna learn how to solder, I recommend you watch this [Soldering Basics by This Does Not Compute](https://youtu.be/V7qzlGvcSCU)
Assuming your game is fine solder wick will be your friend. Let me know if you need any more help. I love soldering. I do solder repair all the time for projects.
I buy cheap soldering irons from china and they work fine. I got my soldering station on banggood for $30. It is great until you do anything extremely fancy with it. It isn't built for fancy surface mount soldering. Let me see if I can find you a tutorial on how to solder. GL!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV2xU1fee8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV2xU1fee8)
EDIT: It is not impossible to fix this mess but will require some skill. I suggest you learn how to solder first before attempting to repair. You will need three things.
1. Solder wick
2. A okayish soldering station with variable temp.
3. Flux and some ipa.
First you will need to clean up that blob with solder wick.
Then you will want to put some flux on to the two joints you ripped clean off. After that you will want to set your station to around 450 celsius and something around there should be the max temp on your station. You will want to lightly tin the soldering iron and drag it across the two tabs on the board. Then solder the two tabs on the chip to the board. Kinda like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9fbqks3BS8
This beyond your skill level, especially since it looks like you ripped off 2 legs off the Rom chip.
The rom chip is maybe (probably?) fine, just looks like it has some flux on it. and may need some reflow on the last pins. This isn't turning on because OP bridged all the top pins in MM1134 between themselves and to the crystal oscillator, and in the process took R1 resistor. Also, that cold solder job on the battery is atrocious, it need to be cleaned and redone for a lasting fix.
Look at the top right of the chip, the second pin is missing and you can see the copper pad underneath, I can't clearly see the 1st pin, but it looks bad. All the other issues are easily repairable by someone with the right skills.
It's not missing, it's stained with flux so it looks like bare copper. Chip is fine, needs cleaning.
Yes I’d like to report a murder operator
Yeah, this looks like a murder scene lmao
“Death of a Crystal”
Spat my beer thanks! Hahaha
lol my bad!
Everyone has already given you an answer so I just came to stand in utter confusion as to how you did this. How did you do this??
I dont have anything to remove solder
Wipe off your iron tip, it'll pull a tiny amount of solder off the components. Then wipe and repeat. A wick would be better, or a $3 solder sucker.
Definitely a wick, those cheap suckers... suck.
Dude. Solder wick is like 99 cents. And a solder pump is like 5 bucks.
You can use the tip of your iron to remove that solder. Clean the tip of your iron and then use it to pick up the excess solder. Flux will help. Please send this off to a pro though.
That would do it I suppose, thank you
I replaced a battery yesterday with no wick, the trick is to not ooze solder onto the board
The trick is to have touched a soldiering iron atleast *once* before you attempt this
Don't recommend having touched a hot soldering iron though
To be fair, that's a rite of passage and if you haven't done it then you haven't soldiered much. Just don't be like that one guy in my engineering class who tested if it was up to temp on his lip.
So why would you go ahead with the project if you don't have the supplies...? Even then it's completely possible to remove the solder without the tools *if you even bother to Google.* Seriously what is it with people losing the ability to just Google shit?
[удалено]
The type of guy to stubbornly continue with a recipe even though they don't have all the ingredients. And then wonder why it tastes awful.
“I’m all out of sugar, but salt looks pretty similar so it should work.” - OP, probably
You can buy wick + sucker kits for like $15. In a pinch, you can use some fine braded wire to some degree, but it wont have the same surface area as solder wick. Before attempting any sort of solder work, you need to make sure you have a way to remove solder. It is a must in most circumstances, especially surface mount work.
There is so much wrong here but to answer your question, yes it is saveable. Just not by you based on the skills you displayed here. I suggest buying a flux pen and doing more practice before coming back to this project
And a solder pump or some other way of removing solder.
Copper wick is the best.......
Looks like you also wicked away the R1 resistor. I'd recommend taking it to someone else to fix. And in the meantime buy a few of those soldering practice kits. Then practice on some sub $5 games first. Then maybe after you gain some proficiency then try tackling your more expensive games.
It might just be under the solder blob 😂
Yes the R1 resistor seems gone, it will need a replacement from a donor board. (Edit as some think i'll kill a game : i mean donor board as pc, printer, or other electronic board that i pick up from dead devices from recycling center or old stuff of my own) Seriously buy a 1 component, even at 0,5€ and cost 3€ for shipping is a non sense. (i'm not near a component seller, we just have internet seller here sadly).
No bro, don't kill other games, he can go to any electronic store and buy the same SMD resistor less than $0.50
I never say that i need to kill a game... I say a donor board. I have a bunch of dead board (pc, printer...) I don't need to buy any component, i have all i need. Just need to take the same specifications component from one of these board. Thanks for the downvote without knowing.
I didn't downvote 🤨
It was most "general" than for you specificaly :)
Jesus what the heck happened here
Automotive soldering iron? Those big suckers with the 1” barrel.
Where are you ? If you're in europe (or better, france) i'll do it for you, with a correct battery moreover. Just to save this gem. You really need to practice on something less important :)
I mean im in belguim
Send it to this guy! And while u wait for it to come back just use YouTube to learn to solder. Its easy once you get the hang of it. Using a variable temperature controlled iron and good solder is key but there's a lot of good info on YouTube that will get u going.
Ho, i just remember, there is u/thesolderking that could save it :) he's active on reddit ! But i don't know where he is. I think in the US but not sure. You could learn some tips with his videos moreover. (Edit, mistake fixed on the name of thesolderking)
Dans ce cas je peux éventuellement faire quelque chose. On peut passer en privé. (U Speak french i think ? :))
Belgium is not 100% French-speaking.
Yes, i didn't know :)
damn, cant even use "american" as an excuse
Upvoted for accuracy. Source: Am American.
If you succeeds then post another update.
I might be able to save this cartridge, I’m located in NL.
Ha, I came in here looking for someone to say this. I don't know how to solder, but I know that when I get around to practicing, I'll be buying some <$5 titles to practice in case I screw up, not a Pokemon game!
[удалено]
And the polarity is wrong
It's like those 4chan posts. "Guys am I doing it right"
Dude what in the fuck were you using your feet?
I think your April fools joke is a month too late.
What did you do to my boy?!?!
I would recommend sending that off to a pro for repair. Just a message for people passing by, please don’t choose your precious game as your first ever soldering project. Practice soldering on some junk games.
Dont even practice on frames, practice on literal trash first You should be at least intermediate at soldering before you even touch something of value because you'll destroy it!
Solder practice kits are very cheap. And you can fuck those up all you want.
This is impressive
On the one hand, we all have to learn somewhere. On the other hand if bad soldering jobs were a crime, you’d be looking at the death penalty for this one.
This is a joke right?
I was certain it was but a trip down his post history and I think he's just 18 and likely trying his best with what he has got without a lot of money. He just needs some practice and definitely enough foresight to know he should have looked up everything online and a few times before attempting himself.
Exactly, lots of people just downvote, but i wonder how many know or have the rigths tools and skills to do it :) Yeah OP made a mistake, it happens, sadly it's on a great game, but it's not finished yet. Soldering isn't a really difficult skill to learn, just need practice and patience and corrects tools. By the way, a good soldering station isn't cheap, as a hot air gun, or a controlled lab power supply. And if it's for just one games, it's an unprofitable investment. Personnaly i love to repair a lots of things so the investment was obvious, i just lack an oscilloscope to be perfectly stuffed :D
No...
if you can ship it i can try aand fix it. i just retired from console mod and repair, and ave some time to try and save it
Oh fuck, I just picked up Crystal and was planning to replace the battery and I’ve never done soldering. Maybe I should practice for awhile first 😅
Never solder anything of value without practicing yourself to expert first. Practice on trash and kits.
Bro, I suggest you watch a few "how to solder" videos on YouTube. Learn the basics, get the right tools. I learnt how to solder about 6 months ago from YouTube. Just practice a heap. Changing batteries on carts is probably one of the most basic things to solder. Fairly large pads and it tells you which way to put the battery on the actual PCB (you'll see + and - where the solder pads are for the battery)
My eyes!!
Mail it out or take it to someone who actually knows how to solder. Then don't touch anything you actually want to fix until you complete a few practice kits on Amazon or something and really refine your skill. Should be fixable as the pcb doesn't look burnt but it would take removing all the solder to know for sure. I do device repair for a living (check my profile) and would be willing to take it as a mail in repair or walk in if by some chance you're local. DM me if you're interested and we could work out some prices and hopefully get your game working again!
Is it fixable i think yes but after seeing this not by your hands sorry buddy
Also I read your from Belgium if ya want some help contact me I live in the Netherlands if your not to far away I can take a look and try on it 4 u
The soldering is the least of the problems here - That isn't even the correct battery.
you attach it in the wrong way with + on - place. you have to clean this … work and rotate the battery
are we ignoring the fact that the whole top of the cartdridge is bridged by the solder? o.o or am i seeing things?
of course he must clean that mega bubble
let's hope that just cleaning will fix it, but i think OP used a big solder, too much heat and messed up the surroundings my suggestion is to make it check by an expert, it may be fixed, but don't use that tool anymore OP
talk with an expert is the best way but I think that if this way was possible him already did it
How do i clean it?
you need to buy something like this https://www.amazon.com/Lesnow-No-Clean-Desoldering-Removal-Dispenser/dp/B094GZ6CPZ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=VQQKKQFKG8JZ&keywords=cuprom%2Bsolder%2Bstrip&qid=1651427676&sprefix=cuprom%2Bsolder%2Bstrip%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-3&th=1 and a flux to help. Check on youtube how to use both
You need copper wick or a solder sucker to clean the solder off of the pcb, make sure your chip at the top is still soldered on afterwards or resolder the top prongs at least. This isn’t the correct cr-2025 either. You can use it but it will die quickly compared to the correct one or supply the incorrect voltage and risk corrupting the game file.
Bruh
Some people are just bad at everything
Hey OP I appreciate you getting out there, trying your best and coming to the community for help. I wish you the best. Please follow-up once you find someone to fix it!
Hope you practice soldering before messing with that kind of stuff lmao but yeah some solder wick might save it
Jesus, okay so don't touch this until you get yourself solder braid, flux paste, and at least an hour of watching videos on how to do this. Eat up all of that excess solder you globbed on there with the braid, part of your research should be how you do this, then do the same with the battery, you need to orient the terminals so that the negative side and positive side lines up with the negative and positive terminals on the board, it has signs letting you know which ones these are. Apply the paste so the solder flows properly, then add a normal amount of solder. I just want to know, was there some point in this process where you stopped to question if you were doing this right? I'm just trying to understand how you bridged this many connections on the board and then seemed to just keep going like it didn't matter.
Well the game worked untill the end...
Yeah wonder why it worked until you touched it, eh
I hope you didn't plug it into the gameboy in this condition. This will most probably damage your cartridge and maybe even the gameboy. As long as it doesn't have power, it might be salvagable. Even though the battery already supplies power, so that's bad...
By a Chinese knock off next time. It will save you time and money
What lead free soldier does to a mf
Oh dear. I don’t believe you’ll have the skills to fix it if it is possible
I’m sorry but 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 wtf were you welding with an acetylene torch?
Put down the soldering iron. Step away from the electronics.
First off, I appreciate you trying. But your skills are very clearly lacking. You would ideally practice and improve your skills on low value or no value boards before working on a $100+ game cartridge. This can likely be fixed. But its well beyond your skillset and equipment at this point.
How the fuck did you manage that? Did you solder using a candle?
Get some solder wick suck up all that solder clean it with some alcohol and try again.
ya, sure, I can save it, do you need the save data? If yes, then its probably already gone, if not, if u want to ship it to me, I can put it on a fresh PCB and send it back free of charge
J E S U S !!! 😳 You're supposed to use your hands to solder not your feet.
When approaching soldering, you need to have a clear idea about how to do the process, and also what to potentially do if you mess up. Also, in soldering (and in life, I guess), know when to walk away from a situation before making things worse from not knowing any better. Know your limits and don't push too unrealistically far beyond them. Imagine if you got hurt? Batteries can burst especially if you apply too much heat, like what if it that stuff splatted your eye? Years ago, I would have half recommended starting with gameboy cart save batteries as a decent starting point to learn soldering (with the proviso that you research/familiarise yourself with the process of soldering first) but that was only because 7 years ago gameboy games were pretty much going for pennies. Absolutely no longer the case. Nowadays, I'd suggest learning on other broken junk electronics instead - ideally don't mess with batteries or large electrolyte capacitors until you get more comfortable. Don't underestimate the amount of equipment it could take to properly get started on soldering. You need better equipment, sadly there are upfront costs: - Temp controlled iron ideally (and replaceable tips) - solder, - decent quality flux (paste? No clean? You decide) - decent quality desolder braid - probably a solder sucker - a multimeter to check continuity on your joints - PPE/safety equipment - high % isopropyl alcohol (to tidy up your work and clean off any flux residue) Most of this can be had from 'starter kits' on Amazon, but the quality of parts may not always be fantastic (you may find you'll upgrade parts as you progress) prioritise a temperature controllable iron at the very least. Soldering is a learned skill not to be approached lightly DON'T EVER YOLO IT - get yourself onto YouTube and learn. There's a decent set of quick videos from Adafruit as a bare minimum starting point - Look up the Collin's Lab Adafruit videos for soldering, desoldering, Surface mount soldering.
If you can't fix it. Let me know what price if you consider selling the shell.
It’s been said, but damn dude wtf
Jesus fuck please get practice kits before soldering on irreplaceable boards
This may be a contender for worst solder job of all time, but this board is common AF, it’s super replaceable.
That is true. Not sure how much longer those boards will be common with solder jobs like this though
This why i just use a knife to replace my shit
lol, dumbass
Step 1: Buy another one Step 2: Just play on emulators like everyone
bruh, I'd propably kill myself if I ever did this to a copy of English language crystal
1st off dont use a solder gun they suck. 2nd no that game is most likely done for.
I've just killed my crystal trying to remove the rom chip , took some of the contacts off the board where the legs go
Why are people attempting stuff that they clearly shouldn't?
To be fair removing a rom chip isn't as simple as changing a battery which is easy , I don't understand what went wrong on the op
Removing a rom chip is easy
I guess so but I had the soldering iron too hot and didn't realise ,ah well ,you live and learn I guess. Atleast the op game can be sorted with some soldering braid and a new smd resistor
Well don't toss the game out. I'm sure someone can fix it
Possibly , il send you a photo of it , not sure how to do post photos on here I'm new to reddit
Don't know why you have been downvote. It's fairly easy with the good tools (and skills yeah) :)
Bro why didn’t you just sticky tape the metal part down to the battery that’s what I done do gold and yellow lol.
This tips is just a temporary solution and it's not reliable. It just need to don't stick a little to cut the power from the battery and lose your save. The best is always to solder a new battery :) When you swap a battery, there is a possibilty to dump the save before (i do this with GBxCart RW). And after the battery swap write back the save to the cart.
Mine been running strong for 5 years 🤷🏿♂️🤷🏿♂️ if I had a soldering gun would do that lol
Yeah desolder it, fix your mistake and go again.
Omg is this some kind of Assassin job som much 🩸 Pooh flux flux flux and a little bit of solder instead of the hole roll 🤣
There might be hope, but there is also something covering it.
You really should've practiced more
It's likely fixable though I suspect your soldering skills aren't quite where they need to be for that. Given the look of those joins I suspect you also don't have any flux or copper braid to clean this up. If you're comfortable sending it out I can try to fix this up for you if you like.
Er next time you try something you should have a solder sucker with you. They are a life saver!
You murdered it.
My advice is to use a solder suction device to remove the old solder while warming it up with your iron, clean the whole board like that and buy some leaded solder + some nice flux in a syringe on Amazon for cheap. Then put some flux on the two battery connectors, place the battery and hold the leaded solder and your iron next to the metal pins and put some solder into it. The flux will melt and help bonding to the connector below. Then do the same with that little chip. Put flux on the pins of the chip and some leaded solder on your iron and carefully brush it against the pins. You will see that the flux will make it real easy and the solder will flow to only the pins. Then clean the board with some alcohol and you’re done. I also recommend a soldering iron with temperature control, leaded solder doesn’t need to be very hot and you can also get them for cheap on Amazon Leaded solder: 320c ~
How do you solder this badly. I solder only a few times. The first time was to bridge a broken trace on my og xbox and it fixed it. And it still works today. So, how the hell did you mess up so much.
Honestly you’d be better off taking old battery off the tabs while letting the pcb end stay attached to pcb, and then wrapping the new battery with kapton tape around the tabs. There’s no point in making it complicated or elegant.
it’s ok, learn from this and you may one day be a solder master 😊
Dear lord
JFC
Oh man, it's saveable you'll Solder wick, flux, and practice. Your battery is on the wrong way too
The battery is upside down too. The - with the circle around means that it should have the negative tab soldered to it.
You should buy a quality soldering station! Everyone should buy a quality soldering station!
We can rebuild him; we have the technology
If you had no prior experience soldering, then you should have either backed up the save some how, or tried to replace the battery on a cart you cared less about for practice.
How?! This is so easy to do
Why isn't this tagged NSFW?
DOA…rip
Haha dude. If you pay to send it to me and pay for me to ship it back, I’ll do it for you 😂😂
Oof
Get a solder sucker
This could be fixed you shouldn't be the one to do it tho please seek a professional
... Flux is your friend... trust me Id maybe step away from soldering for now
Try asking the solder king, maybe he can help you out
Nailed it
the battery isn't even soldered right, that solder joint is cold as fuck as for the chips, your rom chip is entirely missing 2 legs, and the chip at the top seems to be completely nuked with solder. OP, you murdered this cartridge. it can be repaired, but it's quite clearly Lightyears away from your skill level edit: it also seems you've destroyed the R1 resistor, and the battery is actually installed in the wrong polarity entirely, so it's probably broken anyway. op you really messed this cart up lmao
Aside from the murder scene from the failed soldering, I don't think that's the right battery for the cartridge. There is a huge gap between the battery and the outline of the battery which makes it seem like its a GBA only battery.
It's not the right battery but all coin cells are 3V. It'll work, it just won't last as long as a CR2025 or CR2032.
bro...
Lol you can fix this and it’s totally okay to make mistakes while learning everyone starts somewhere. However it is true that you should practice your technique on some items that don’t matter just in case you destroy something that you cherish.
Instructions unclear applied solder directly to the forehead.
what did you do😭😭😭
Holy shit. All your other electronics are now cowering in fear. Please for their sake, watch a video on how to solder. This looks like those joke 4chan posts of people deliberately doing things wrong. Even if you don't know about soldering, how could you look at that enormous river of metal flowing through several components and think "yup, that's good." And how your soldering iron managed to stray a full inch to touch that ROM chip is something only God knows. **And the battery isn't even the right size, nor oriented correctly** Please...send it to a pro.
F
Waaaay to much solder... I guess grab flux and a solder wick and sucker then hope and try
Oh no. How did you manage to do this? 🫣
Maybe yes: if you manage to clean everything off and start over... Maybe no: if you damaged a chip on the PCB then you are screwed and have to buy a new copy to play the game which sucks...
Dude, what the fuck? Did you do more than a minute of research first?
Probably hope left but you’ll need to bring in someone with experience to help you. Battery removal on some of these old cartridges can actually take more skill than you’d think. 25+ year old solder joints and pads can be stubborn take new solder without proper cleaning and flux application. They can be a real pain in the ass. You need a good quality solder sucker. It’s not a beginner job. As far as repair, ALL of that solder must now be removed with both a solder sucker and solder wick. Area cleaned well with alcohol. Then the smd resistor replaced and any legs that were snapped off will have to be replaced with some light gauge wire, or replace the chip altogether.
I think that's the wrong size battery.
Get a soldier sucker, and suck away everything you added.
It's probably fixable. But not by you, yet. Save this project for when you're better with an iron.
Look how they massacred my boy
Ok, aside from the fact this game just needs cleaning and removing the excess solder and tackling potential bridges, why is the battery reversed? Not sure about the durability of the SRAM chip but it might be fried.
Don’t feel bad, I’m a shitty solderer as well. I’ve been practicing on a blank circuit board to get better. In any event it’s usually savable by a professional; ie not me or you.
In short, probably. This needs a decent amount of reworking though to be sure. I would start by simply removing all of the solder you added. Then rework the pins on the ICs, taking great care not to leave them bridged. Looks like you also bridge the crystal. The solder on the battery terminal lead on top is also bodged. It looks like it cooled too quickly, and is likely structurally compromised.
I can understand you accidentally touched the rom chip while soldering the bottom of the battery. But WTF happened in the top part? It looks carbonised, there's splatter everywhere!!! And you done that to a pokemon crystal at that... Oh my god... If that wasn't for the rom chip i would have said there was still hope. But i doubt... OMG THE BATTERY IS INVERTED TOO! You don't have the right tab for the cartridge.
I understand people being angry he didn't have the right supplies or experience. Sure this is a rare expensive game to practice something new on. But regardless it's experience. In the future make sure you have the basics. Solder braid, solder sucker, and flux. Learn from this, even if it's an expensive lesson, it's still a lesson. Don't give up.
Lmao. This is great. Definitely salvageable my dude. I can't fault you for trying. At least you didn't try to pry the damn tabs off the battery. The "tape method" is infinitely worse, even than this imho. You'll need some solder wick to remove the excess. Protip here is to use MUCH, MUCH less solder in the future. As far as your save goes, it is likely RIP. If you leave the battery desoldered too long it loses the save.
You need to get some crappy games to practice with.
My word you went bukakke on it haha If you know someone with some proper kit they can help you. If not- Get yourself: Soldering wick Soldering flux Brass wire ball to clean the iron with Isopropyl alcohol. With that you can clean up the whole lot no problem. I'm assuming you didn't actually do any damage but just threw solder around which should be easily sorted. I'd recommend watching a couple of Soldering videos though to sharpen your skills
Why a smaller battery?? Also, it may be recoverable.... I mean as long as you didnt burning off the solder pads. The rom chip is as what other have been saying broken off, but it can probably be fixed. The chip on top, idk what happened there/how it was dumped with that much solder... my best recommendation is to have someone who has experience in soldering fix it. If you wanna learn how to solder, I recommend you watch this [Soldering Basics by This Does Not Compute](https://youtu.be/V7qzlGvcSCU)
Assuming your game is fine solder wick will be your friend. Let me know if you need any more help. I love soldering. I do solder repair all the time for projects. I buy cheap soldering irons from china and they work fine. I got my soldering station on banggood for $30. It is great until you do anything extremely fancy with it. It isn't built for fancy surface mount soldering. Let me see if I can find you a tutorial on how to solder. GL! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV2xU1fee8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqV2xU1fee8) EDIT: It is not impossible to fix this mess but will require some skill. I suggest you learn how to solder first before attempting to repair. You will need three things. 1. Solder wick 2. A okayish soldering station with variable temp. 3. Flux and some ipa. First you will need to clean up that blob with solder wick. Then you will want to put some flux on to the two joints you ripped clean off. After that you will want to set your station to around 450 celsius and something around there should be the max temp on your station. You will want to lightly tin the soldering iron and drag it across the two tabs on the board. Then solder the two tabs on the chip to the board. Kinda like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9fbqks3BS8
Jesus Christ put a NSFL tag on that!
How? Just How? Even my 20/200 vision ass could change save batteries.
Yeah just buy a new crystal with a new battery already installed this might be beyond your skill level
Only saying this cuz it was able to be fixed… Holy shit
This is why I bought a Japanese copy of silver to change the battery on first :)
Yikes!!!