GBA Zelda link to the past corrupted files

[BigLou9886]

Hey guys and gals,
I decided to replay Zelda LttP on GBA and when I booted the cart up all three saved games were wiped and  it said file one is corrupted file two is corrupted and so forth. When I attempt to create a new file it says can't save file is corrupt. I've never had this issue before with any game looking for some insight on a solution. Do you think the battery is dead? Or is this cart dead ? Any info is greatly appreciated

[JDavis]

Probably the battery.

[Kriegspire]

I dont believe save files are lost if GBA games' batteries die. Look at pokemon, only the internal clock dies out.

I'd have to guess it's probably a faulty cartridge, dirt/grime on the connectors, or some piece of the circuitry burned out.

Not 100% on that though.

[BigLou9886]

I believe it is the cartridge that is bad    its a sad day when a zelda game doesn't work anymore

[wiggy]

I bet either the GBA, the cart, or both have dirty contacts. Start there as far as diagnosis goes as it's free and easy.

[Ozzy_98]

GBA games can use sRAM (a cr2016 battery), EEPROM, Flash RAM (form of EEPROM, fewer writes), FRAM (Ferroelectric RAM).  I'm not sure what kind of save LttP uses, but If there is a battery in it, then it would be SRAM most likely.  Pokémon games on GBA do not use SRAM, but they do still have batteries for the clocks. If a game has no real-time clock functions, and uses a battery, it's most likely SRAM.

That said, most SRAM games keep power while the system is on, without a battery.  The other types only go bad with static\physical damage, or a few thousand saves.  If you saved it ten times a day, every day, average SRAM would last 2-20 years.  If you saved daily, 365 days a year, it'd take 20+ years to wear it out.  So yea, I vote dirty contacts.  If not, then lose connection on the game maybe.