Ruby & Sapphire won't save.

[LightShadow]

I was wondering if anybody could help me? I have Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, but when I save the game, turn it off and turn it back on it says the game has been deleted! They played perfectly for a few years then this started. I would appreciate any help.

 

[$aturn¥oshi]

Perhaps the internal battery died? I hear this happened to GSC as well.

 

[LightShadow]

That might be it. But I also have Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions that are older, but they still work perfectly. What are the other side affects of the internal battery dieing?

 

[TTEchidna]

My RBY are older than GSC and they work, but Gen II's dead. It's just the luck of the draw.

 

[Trainer'sInsomnia]

That might be it. But I also have Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions that are older, but they still work perfectly. What are the other side affects of the internal battery dieing?

Hax. It corrupted some game of blue that I found to the point where it can't even be played.

 

[LightShadow]

It could be a hack, my Ruby is messed up pretty bad. What happens is that during the start, these gray lines appear across the screen and the GameBoy Advance emits a high-pitched squealing noise.

 

[Elementary Penguin]

Happens to my Friend.

Justa let you know this happens to my friend, so you aren't alone.

 

[Hyasynth]

Have you been using any hacks/Gameshark/AR?
They might have screwed your game over.
This happened to my emulated Sapphire game after imputing one too many bad AR codes and the bad eggs were all over the place.

 

[LightShadow]

No, I've never hacked any of my games. I did get these games off eBay.

 

[Hyasynth]

So they were used? They may have been hacked by the previous owner.
If they weren't, then the problem may be the internal battery. I've never heard of that causing the game to emit the bugged out screeches though.

 

[GuitarHero]

I would just replace the battery and see what happens. I've done this with my silver and yellow, its really simple and cheap so you wouldn't waste a lot of money if it doesn't work. All you need is some pliers or tweezers, tape (electric tape preferably), exacto knife or some thin blade, some paper and a replacement battery (the model number you need will be listed on the old battery).

How to go about replacing the battery...

Spoiler

*Get some needle-nose pliers or tweezers to unscrew the single metal screw on the cart, this is the hardest part of the whole process.

*Open the cart, the older GBC games actually slide open but I can't remember if GBA games do the same or not. Now the second hardest part, getting the old battery out. You need to unattach the two metal tabs on either side of the battery without damaging them too badly. I used an exacto knife to peel the tabs off. You can use your pliers (assuming they don't have teeth) to flatten the tabs back out afterward.

*Now that you have taken the old battery out, you can run down to your local Walgreens or whatever and get one of the same kind, refer to the number on the battery, it will be something like cr2032, 2025... those are just examples. Just get the same thing as on the battery.

*Now put your new battery on the bottom tab make sure you have the negative and positives aligned correctly and tape the bottom tab (-) to the bottom of the battery, you will have to bend the tab slightly to do this. Now push the battery in place and tape the top tab (+) to the top of the battery. Now you need to make sure the battery stays in place, so you need to place something between the cart and the battery to keep it snug. So slide either some paper, carboard or keep adding layers of tape until the cart has a ever so slight buldge were the battery is, this helps make sure it won't come out of place. I've even heard of people wrapping tape around the whole board and the battery but I don't recommend this...

*Screw the single screw down tight again, and turn on your game and hope for the best. I had to do this whole process twice for my silver because the first time I didn't have enough pressure in between the battery and cart, so don't skimp out on that.

Also, if your game displays the "Internal battery has run dry" message, I think this has something to do with the berry glitch, I remember Nintendo having a patch for this at Gamestops some time ago.

 

[The Power of Pika]

This is kind of weird considering Nintendo themselves say if the battery died in RS that the game save should be fine since it only controls the clock.

To put it simply I read that Nintendo only used save batteries in their first few years of GBA games and then scrapped it all together and went with other methods of save.

Though with RS I wouldn't know if there was a batch that actually ran a battery off a save. Though I always thought that all RS batteries ran clock only and the actual save ran off flash.

I'm confused now.

The fact you got it off ebay may be a problem. There's alot of fakes on ebay and those do run off save batteries.

Someone posted this around on a few forums I'm on so I suggest looking at this.
http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/akadewboy/GBA Save Types/

Here's a closer look.
http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b...Types/?action=view&current=FLASHwithclock.jpg

Compare the inside of your cart to these.

You know part of me thinks that flash saves can die over time aswell.

I'm not familiar with flash however.

So yeah compare the insides to the pictures up and see whether they're legit. Change the battery to see if that works. If all that fails then you may need to buy new copies I'm afraid.

Sorry if I'm no help.

 

[Avegaille]

One question: What's the color of the cartridges?

Cause if they're not blue or red, then, you've got yourself a pirated version.

 

[LightShadow]

One question: What's the color of the cartridges?

Cause if they're not blue or red, then, you've got yourself a pirated version.

Oh shoot, you're right. The cartridges are gray. Well, thanks. At least now I know what's wrong with them.

 

[Rappak]

One other thing to check to is does the label have the Nintendo Seal? I bought a Ruby that did this and it looked completely legit but didn't have the Nintendo Seal. I think I outted that seller but I don't remember.

 

[LightShadow]

Yes it does have the Nintendo seal. But the weird thing is that on the Sapphire data chip it has E7 P stamped on the back, while Ruby someone wrote in ink E7 and then a letter I can't read, it looks like a backwards J with a line through the middle.

 

[Pika25]

Also, if your game displays the "Internal battery has run dry" message, I think this has something to do with the berry glitch, I remember Nintendo having a patch for this at Gamestops some time ago.

Or, the Colosseum prerelease Jirachi comes with the patch as well.
That is, if you were lucky enough to get the prerelease disc (I was).

Yes it does have the Nintendo seal. But the weird thing is that on the Sapphire data chip it has E7 P stamped on the back, while Ruby someone wrote in ink E7 and then a letter I can't read, it looks like a backwards J with a line through the middle.

That may have been an E or something.

 

[LightShadow]

No, it almost looks like a q, but without part of the circle.

 

[The Power of Pika]

Oh shoot, you're right. The cartridges are gray. Well, thanks. At least now I know what's wrong with them.

Yep they're definately bootleg. All Pokemon GBA games are coloured. So that's your problem.

It's a pity that this has happened to you.

 

[GuitarHero]

It is really sad there tend to be more bootleg NES and Gameboy games on eBay than there are legit ones. Particularly for the popular titles like Pokemon. I just got ripped off myself on some bootleg dvds. I guess you just can't trust anyone nowadays... or just make sure you examine the pictures the best you can and hope for the best =/

But that is eBay, your either getting a great deal or your getting screwed.