Topic: Help with Broken Pokemon Blue Cartridge

Hi guys,

I've pulled out my Pokemon games recently to check them over for save battery issues, only to find out my pokemon blue cartridge won't load.

I'm hoping it's not a chip issue but I can seem to find any trace or contact issues with the board itself.

I was hoping any keen eyed eagles out there might be able to spot any obvious issues with the photos below or point me towards a place that may be able to help

https://i.postimg.cc/RqrhDW6R/20200706-160116.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/N0byjGSs/20200706-155929.jpg

The first obvious question: did you wipe the connector pins first?
(such as with window cleaner and a cotton swab)

Hi KingMike,

Yeah I should have included what I have already tried

Yes, Cleaned the pins with alcohol and also used the erased method with no luck.

I then tried cleaning the entire board with alcohol, and let dry, with no luck

Eventually I used my phone camera to get a close look and noticed there where some strange dark marks on the board and on a couple pins.

They were stubborn but eventually cleaned up really nice and worked in my GBA.

Unfortunately I switched it off, put the cartridge in my GBC to retest and no luck, didn't work in that or my GBA either.

Another cleaning round resulted in a win and the game seems to be fine. Gonna try it for a few days to see if it works but looks like a win, chips must be fine or they wouldn't have booted at all

Thanks for the reply

Have you tried cleaning the GBC? it sounds suspicious since it worked on the GBA, but after putting it in the GBC it stopped working. Good to see that it is working now, but if it stops in the future that would be my suggestion. Another suggestion, if it stops again, is to check the solder joints. They can go bad over time, and result in intermittent issues.