Greetings!

I had just found out about this the other day through a Google search and I see you do great work. I'd like to sign up for your services once you get things up and running again! :-D

PM'd a big order

Can i get a bulk price on 12 games?

to anyone PM'ing me. Service will be available again soon. Long story short, my regular supplier has shipped me the wrong holders now after 3 RMAs. Continually they ship me the same items im returning. THe holders I need and the ones they are sending are 1 digit off on part no and they keep screwing it up. I have been sitting on 2 orders for going on 3 weeks now and it sucks to keep these members waiting for their games. I don't want to take new orders until I can be sure I can get this straightened out or find a new, reasonably priced supplier. I will update the main post when everything is kosher again.

and to those that simply PM'd me asking where I've been. I sincerely appreciate your concern and well wishes. Life threw a curve ball big time and they went thru a re-structure at work. I wasnt even 100% sure I was going to have a job secured. Things still aren't 100% there so when they ask to to work extra hours or take on extra projects I am just saying yes for the brownie points at this juncture. Hasn't allowed much time to talk to my NA family. Hope to be back in the swing of things real soon tho. Again, thanks everyone and I miss hangin with you all.....except scotty.

Damn, glad to hear you got things back on track, I'm glad I had you fix up my carts when I did!

Sorry to bump the therd but are you backk up?

This list might be of some use:

http://www.nintendoage.com/index....®ion_id=19&bshowexpanded=1&view=EV

Can you verify the accuracy of this list? i have a near complete collection and im thinking it might be about time this needs to be done.

Also, I opened up my Advanced dungeons and dragons games and noticed what i thought was some battery acid leakage. Are these games inevitably ruined?

JAmes I might need your services soon man and its gonna be a tall order ( around 20 carts possibly) but it can wait a while I hope everything is well .

Hey, how could I go about switch the battery of Pokemon Red?

Could I bother you For the Part# Off of, Or subsitute for 'Q1' on 'SNS-ZL-CAN' Cartridge Thats your first picture - Thanks!

havent bumped in awhile, just saw this.  Not sure what your asking me for?  sry.

Thought I would follow up because my replacement part came in and was a success.

The transistor  'Q1' on the 'SNS-ZL-CAN' build of cartridges - replacement is NTE2503. Having cross referanced the old Transistor to a NTE should be easy for anyone looking for a subsitute.

I ordered them through a regular supplier for our repair shop - globalsemi.com. Mouser Electronics also carries this NTE.

If you ever break off or find a broken Transistor (thats the thin 3 lead black semi-conductor) in some cartridges this NTE will work.

Free bump for a friend

Hey I'm new here. I saw the reviews and would like to try. I have two snes games that no longer save. If you are still doing these please contact me. I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much and have a happy new year!

James,

I just sent you a PM. Its been awhile since I've seen any posts on this thread.
Just wondering if you were still doing this service as I'd be interested.

Thanks,

Christian6809

Wow, two members with one post each reply 9 months apart with an identical question. Seems there is a demand for this service but no supply.

I bought some stock of the batteries and connectors in 2011 (for use in my own game carts), but I heard through the grapevine that the source for the low-profile connectors dried up.

Yeah, the battery holders that you get from places like Radio Shack will prevent the shell from closing completely. You can still force it closed, but it will no longer have a tight seal. The other alternative is to solder hookup wire to the connectors, so that the battery and holder will hang off of the circuit board and can stay in an empty part of the case, but for games like Super Mario Allstars and most of the Koei NES games that take up the ENTIRE case, that isn't even an option. I'd love to know where you are getting these low profile connectors from!

BTW, when replacing batteries I've had about a 25% success rate of the game holding the save for me. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which games survive and which don't, except that all games that I replace the batteries for have been loaded on a console within the last couple hours of the replacement. Does anyone know if there's a better way to improve these odds, or what causes it? I never got my Electrical Engineering degree so my know-how is a step above amateur......

Spare capacitance will allow the RAM circuits to hold a charge for a short period of time in the absence of a power source. This time period will range from 30 seconds up to a max of about 3 minutes. Most solder jobs aren't fast enough to reliably retain data, so you need to connect a reserve power source.

There's a couple of solder pads on the back of the PCB board which match the plus and minus terminals of the on-cart battery. Prior to surgery, solder hookup wire to these pads and run them to a reserve battery holder with a fresh button battery. Take care that the polarity is correct. It may be advantageous to use an inline resistor on the reserve battery to prevent a surge of reverse current into the old battery. 10k ought to do fine for this purpose. Now you can desolder and replace the old battery with a new one while the reserve battery keeps power to the game SRAM. Take care not to short the terminals at any time as this will result in a loss of save data. After surgery is complete, touch the soldering iron to the pads to remove the hookup wire. The reserve battery can be reused on many game carts.

That's a good plan. Although I've never completed a solder job in less than 3 minutes.....depending on how difficult the old battery wants to be with de-soldering, it usually takes me 5-10 minutes for each game. This is why I always replace the battery on a cartridge before I start playing the game, so I don't have anything I need to worry about losing (and in some games, I purposely want a fresh save, so that I don't have some stranger's high scores or unlockables). Now, when the time comes in another 20 years that I want to play the game again (and knowing me, I'll still be 8/16 bit gaming when I'm in my 50s!), I can do a 10 second swap into the battery holder, which should be enough time to preserve my old saves.

The weirdest was for Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 - when I replaced the battery and started the game, I got a message saying "SAVE DATA HAS BEEN LOST" right after the title screen, but then the custom teams that my used copy came with were still there.

I have a 5 screw Zelda 1 with a battery stamped 1987 on it which still works. But the Zelda I had as a kid which I got new in 1988 had a dead battery by 1994, so you never really know how long those old batteries are gonna last.....

If its taking you that long to de solder and solder in a new battery couple things come to mind... What kind of soldering iron are you using? Is it of poor quality, or doesn't stay consistently hot? What kind of braid are you using?
I can remove the old solder and put in a new battery in less than 30 seconds 99% of the time.

I found I had similar problems as you when I had some crappy soldering Iron from The Source or wherever it came from. I switched to a still cheap, but much better quality Weller soldering iron and it was a night and day difference. I wish I spent the extra $25 the first time.

All Radio Shack parts. I recently replaced my soldering iron and the new one (30W) is working better.

Are you the Chuck Norris of soldering? If so, please do a YouTube video of your handiwork. Somehow I'm skeptical. Also, faster jobs tends to be sloppier. Best to take your time and do it right.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to brag or anything. The first dozen or so games with a crappy soldering iron it took me several minutes a game too.
After you switch to a decent on though..It's night and day. You can lay the game on its side, get some decently wide braid and suck all the old solder off in 1 shot off each pin. Lift the game up and the old battery falls right out. Stick new battery in, bend tabs. I try to apply the same or slightly less solder than what was there before and always make sure to smooth it out over the tab and cover the whole contact.

I've done about 40-50 games in a 3 month period, maybe just have a good rhythm going. Now that I've redone all my games I'm sure any new games I get will take me slightly longer due to lack of practice.

I made a video showing how to do this. Actually really easy. Includes links to the battery holder you need.