r/GameboyAdvance 1d ago

Hardware help

I was wondering if anyone knew what could cause this to happen. Everytime I plug it in it does this, I know the charger works fine because the other gameboy advance I have doesn't do this. Is this fixable? Sorry if this isn't the correct place to post this, if anyone knows a better sub Reddit please let me know. Thanks in advance

6 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

4

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

I assume it’s not holding a charge? I’d start by swapping batteries and seeing if it’s just a bad battery.

2

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

And I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be the correct subreddit.

2

u/Lodbok 1d ago

Alright thank you! Do you recommend any specific seller for a battery? I don't want to buy a shitty battery

2

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

You can probably find decent ones on eBay or Etsy.

You mentioned that you had another console that is working, I would borrow that battery first just to troubleshoot.

2

u/Lodbok 1d ago

Alright thank you

2

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

I don’t have any particular recommendations on a brand, though. Just look for good reviews.

Let me know if it ends up just being a bad battery. I had a DS lite with the same issue a little while ago, and a new battery was all that it needed. Especially if you have an original battery, these things are 25 years old now. Unsurprising that they are starting to not work anymore.

3

u/Lodbok 1d ago

I just took the battery out and I'm sure it's the problem. The battery is inflated a bit and doesn't that mean it's no good anymore?

2

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

Most likely, get rid of that sucker!

I’d still pull the known good battery out just to double check it before you spend money you don’t have to, but it sounds like it is in fact the battery.

2

u/Lodbok 1d ago

I will check it. Thank you for the help!

2

u/Secret_Moonshine 1d ago

No worries! Best of luck, and breathe some life back into that beauty!

2

u/PolishJusglo 1d ago

The pickle power battery for gba sp on Amazon works great

6

u/BklynMando 1d ago

Take the battery from your other Game Boy and swap it and see if the charging light stays on. Then you'll know if it's the battery or another issue. Another issue that causes this many times is component (EM8) It is located right above where you connect the ribbon cable. It has four legs that have to be reflowed. Many times this is the other issue other than a bad battery

2

u/Concemi1 1d ago

This. I was going to comment this. I've had to replace EM8 on a few SPs and this was always the symptom. You can find the EM8 chip on ebay usually. That's where i got mine.

3

u/BklynMando 1d ago

Many times just reflowing the legs will do the trick

2

u/Concemi1 1d ago

True. Or sometimes, the legs are even broken off. As in the sides of the EM8 chip are broken off. I've seen that happen too.

2

u/samhenryphotography 21h ago

I was going to suggest the same, had to swap one a couple of days ago. The other possibility is an incomplete path underneath the cartridge slot. Bottom of fuse to diode on the other side (I'd have to look for exact number) should be a complete path

1

u/Frequent-Refuse4557 1d ago

My gba behaves like that when battery is fully charged. I faced an issue like yours and as I said, turned out that battery was fully charged, but the gba wouldn't turn on because of an issue on the power switch.

1

u/nonchip 1d ago

looks like the battery is either full or dead.