Hey, does anyone know if it’s possible to get the battery in an N64 game repaired somehow? I doubt it cause they’re so old, but it never hurts to ask.
I think it would be cheaper to just replace the cart itself.
Unless it is a really rare game.
Yeah, but the only place to get N64 games nowadays is pawn shops and those creep me out.
Well, I know you can change the batteries in a NES game, a while back I found a webpage on how to do it. I’m sure if you keep looking you can find a tutorial on how to change the batteries in an n64 game. You probably just need one of those small flat batteries and a special screwdriver.
Mr Saturn can answer this. I know that he HAS. I just don’t know what the procedure is in detail. It involves sending it over to Nintendo.
Oh, all right, maybe I’ll wait for Sat then. Doing it myself isn’t too great an idea since I’m horrible with precise little things like that.
Not having opened a 64 cart myself, i can’t say this and be 100% sure, but its most likely just a watch battery clipped onto the board. If you open the cartridge (which is a challenge in itself, i think they use triface screws or securitorx), you should be able to pop the battery out with a jewler’s screwdriver and put a new one in. The voltage and stuff will be marked on the top of the battery, so you can just buy a new one at the grocery store.
Removing the battery might delete your save though, maybe.
It is just a watch battery clipped onto the board. Nintendo doesn’t do it anymore, for NES, SNES, GBC, or N64 (they may for GBA, I’m not certain). Removing the battery obviously erases your save files, but if you need to replace your battery, you don’t have any save files anyway. On all post-NES systems (besides GBC), the batteries should recharge every time they’re used. This doesn’t always work, obviously, or people would never have to do this.
GameFAQs has a pretty good FAQ about replacing batteries in NES carts (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/game/916386.html, “Solderless Battery Replacement FAQ”). That should be enough to walk you through replacing a battery in an N64 cart. As Dev said, opening the cart is the bigger task at hand.
All of my 64 carts appear to use an External TORX screw. Something close to it at least. So any bit you use to unscrew it will look more like socket bit rather than a screw bit.
And how long does that take?
When I got a Lufia 1 cart off ebay years ago, I would leave it in the system even as I played. Yet the SRAM would still delete like every other day. Of course, being off ebay, can’t speak for cart’s condition with the prior owner(s).
But if it isn’t a bad battery, I still find it odd that it would work, but still delete every couple days.
Leaving it in for any period of time should work. If it’s keeping saves for a day or two, that means the battery is getting power from the system, but probably not enough to keep data for more than a short period of time. I’d suggest replacing that battery.