Earthbound Official Cart Not Working.. (please help me)

Everything you need to know is in the attached video below.

I can take high res pictures of the cart if needed.

It's definately an official cartrige...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqo-TYV-ISM

 

So you soldered a new battery into the cart and now the savegames are broken? I would say that is pretty normal, just delete the garbage saves.

If you can't delete the saves from within the game use something like a Super Ufo Pro8 to erase the faulty SRAM data. With the Super Ufo Pro 8 you can also test the SRAM to see if maybe it's faulty.

Also be sure to clean the gold contacts of the game. A bad connection between the cart slot and the cart due to oxidation can cause many wierd glitches.

 

look at the end of the video, i cant delete the saves as it says "new game"

EDIT: I just tried the cart again and it came up with a copyright notice saying its illegal to pirate games....

wow..
i'll upload pictures within the day.

 

Remove the battery, wait a couple minutes to make sure all the SRAM data is gone then install the battery again.

 

i'll wait an hour just to make sure.

im really paranoid about shit like this

 

ive waited so long, like an hour, and its still corrupted

 

Strange. I have had cartridges with corrupt SRAM and leaving out the battery for a couple minutes always erased all data.

There might be something wrong with that SRAM chip. Are you sure all connections are good? The piracy message you mentioned should only appear if there is more than 8 kilobytes of SRAM.

 

The connections are all good. There is a bit of black rust on one of the lines, and some dusty white rust on 2 of the connectors but i got rid of all of that.

The SRAM chip for earthbound was definately 64kb. (it says so on the cart)

 

64 kbit = 8kbyte. The piracy warning should only show up on copiers, the real cartridge can never have more than 8 kilobytes of SRAM unless someone modified it or maybe when it's broken. I would trace each pin from the SRAM chip to the cartridge connector or MAD-1 to make sure there are no broken traces or bad connections. In the worse case you'll have to replace the chip.

 

Its definately still scrambled even without the battery.

Im gutted.

The seller is being really unco-operative too.

So where do i go now?
I have to repleace the SRAM? can anyone on ASSEMbler replace my SRAM for me?

 

The connections are all adequate, say there is a bad line connection, how would i fix it?
use conductive pain to carefully connect it or what

 

A conductive pen could work. I usually solder a wire directly onto the chip and completely bypass the broken trace.

 

If you bought something from me, opened it up and was soldering inside it - id be uncooperative too.

 

This is the cartridge connecter that appears to be damaged.




That being said, its most likely a damaged SRAM

 

Actually, if those are related to sram address lines, it could easily be the cause of the problem.

Check them out with a multimeter.

 

Whats a multimeter, and yes they are related to the SRAM address lines i think. they come out of the SRAM chip.

Fam, all i did was change the battery.
He told me that the battery was dead.
Ive done it so many times before and ive had no problems.

 

Yes, but you are making repairs. No company would honor a warranty if you are soldering inside a purchase, same with an ebay seller. It doesnt matter you have done it before, the fact you dont know what a multimeter is, just shows you shouldnt be soldering inside anything.

 

By multimeter he means an electrical testing tool which can be used to test things such as conductivity between two points. You would be using it to see if those traces are on board are broken.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but I wouldn't assume your problem is those traces, but it is possible. You need to test to be sure.

I don't think the content of the SRAM is causing your problems. Games usually detect corrupt save data and automatically deal with it. Whatever you do, be careful not to cause any permanent damage. And I do agree, I wouldn't be cooperative with someone that bought something from me and opened it up. You may only be changing a battery, but anytime someone opens something like that up they can cause damage to it. And why should it fall on the person that sold you it if you broke something?

The good news is in the proper hands your Earthbound cartridge can be fixed.

 

Why do you have to be so uppity all the time man? can we not just converse?

Do you know who i can pay to reinstall a fresh battery and SRAM chip for me, or at least where i can buy one.?