Saturn is save/RTC battery agnostic

Recently shipped off a modded Saturn (region free BIOS, modchip) to EarthAD and upon receiving it he found two things:

1)The clock settings never stick (even with a fresh battery)
2)Resident Evil thinks saving at this time isn't possible

I've never seen the RTC go bad and it was working when I had it so I assume the cold between here and New York could've broken a loose trace or moved a solder joint around. Anyone have any ideas or will this Saturn just be annoying the rest of it's life?

 

x

 

That would be nice, bit of tinfoil would bridge the gap and allow for testing.