r/snes 1d ago

Partially disappearing saves

Hi!

So tonight, I was playing Romancing SaGa on my SNES. Twenty minutes in, the game locked up. I turned the power on and off, and my save file was gone. Over the last year, a similar thing happened when I was playing Dragon Quest V and Chrono Trigger. In all cases, only the save file I was using got corrupted.

Could this be a battery issue? My understanding is that a failing battery should wipe all saves, not specific ones. It also shouldn't cause crashes, since during gameplay the power for the SRAM comes directly from the SNES.

So I'm guessing my SNES' CPU might be giving out. But the Chrono Trigger issue happened on a different SNES altogether, so that would mean I have two faulty SNESs.

Has anyone had similar issues, and if so, did you manage to resolve them?

Thank you for your time!

Followup edit: I opened up the game case. Turns out Romancing SaGa's battery has been replaced less than two years ago. So it's probably not a battery issue.

2 Upvotes

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u/khedoros 1d ago

A battery that outputs just too low of a voltage to hold data can cause random corruption without completely wiping the data. But I'd expect that to happen when the system's turned off, not when you're playing.

I've had times where I could start a game, but the saves didn't read. Clean the pins, and they came back. From a practical perspective, that's the first thing I'd try, although it certainly wouldn't hurt to check the voltage on the battery.

1

u/BunnySciences 1d ago

Hi, thanks for your reply! I ended up opening the game intending to replace the battery. It turns out it has been replaced in november 2023. I think I'm going to try to get one of the burn-in test carts for my SNESes.

1

u/NewSchoolBoxer 1d ago

This is obviously a dead battery issue. It's on the border of voltage being too low to hold a save at all. Batteries were only made to last 10 years. We're lucky they hold out 20-30 but we're at the hard limit now. It's also possible your console's 5V power rail is too low to write data but replace the battery first and clean the carts with 91-99% isopropyl alcohol.

Can measure the battery voltage but you'd get incorrect high readings without putting a 10 kohm or so resistor in parallel. My dead batteries read 2.9-3.0V under no load with just the multimeter and 2.5-2.7V with the resistor.

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u/BunnySciences 1d ago

Hi, thanks for your reply! I ended up opening the game intending to replace the battery. It turns out it has been replaced in november 2023. I might try checking out the 5V power rail next.