GBA system won't play a certain game...

[palmer6strings]

Ok everyone. Lets put your mind to the test.

Before you say, "Clean the system and game." I already have, Many times.

Now here is the deal.

I have a game that used to work in my current go to GBA system. I turned it on the other day to play this game. I got to the Load a save screen and while it was loading it glitched. I turned it off and on many times and to no avail, I could not get it to work. I suspected the cartridge died. Just to make sure, I tried a different game and it worked perfectly fine every time.

Well today I decided to put that same cart that "was not working" into a different system and to my surprise it worked perfectly every time. (though the save I previously tried to load corrupted from the glitch). I also tired other games and they all worked in both systems.

Now my question, why would 1 game not work in just 1 system? 

[Desolis]

I'm not sure I've ever heard of this happening... How strange.

Was the second system you used to test the game of the same model as the first one?

[ThoseWeirdGames]

Exact same thing is happening to me. Originally I thought it was due to it being a Game Boy Color cart, but this is not the case. I can only get it to work when I very particularly slot it in. It definitely works, but most of the time gets scrambled on the load up screen. Wish I could help ya!

[monjici]

On the software development angle, maybe that game accesses a specific address of one chip that others game do not, and you host system has an issue with that chip.
Also, have you retried the game in the faulty system after overwriting the saved games?

[Ozzy_98]

Wouldn't be 100% applicable in your case, but this side story should get you thinking.  Years ago has a card that wasn't being read by a router correctly, but other cards could, so bad card.  But it worked in another router.  The issue was both the card and router; the card was a bit worn and had a spot that wouldn't make good contact.  That same pin was bent on the bad router.  With good cards, it could still make contact, but it was warn just enough with the bent pin it couldn't make contact.  Unbent the pins a bit and it worked fine.

Might be a bad pin on that Gameboy.  Could be a combo of cart and gba, or if the cart uses something the other carts don't, then it'd be like monjici was saying.  When the program tries to access the chip over the bus, he has a poor connection and dies.

[palmer6strings]

I'm not sure I've ever heard of this happening... How strange.

Was the second system you used to test the game of the same model as the first one?

It was the same model yes.

On the software development angle, maybe that game accesses a specific address of one chip that others game do not, and you host system has an issue with that chip.
Also, have you retried the game in the faulty system after overwriting the saved games?

That I have also tried.

Wouldn't be 100% applicable in your case, but this side story should get you thinking.  Years ago has a card that wasn't being read by a router correctly, but other cards could, so bad card.  But it worked in another router.  The issue was both the card and router; the card was a bit worn and had a spot that wouldn't make good contact.  That same pin was bent on the bad router.  With good cards, it could still make contact, but it was warn just enough with the bent pin it couldn't make contact.  Unbent the pins a bit and it worked fine.

Might be a bad pin on that Gameboy.  Could be a combo of cart and gba, or if the cart uses something the other carts don't, then it'd be like monjici was saying.  When the program tries to access the chip over the bus, he has a poor connection and dies.

I may have to try bending some pins.

[Doom]

You seriously didn't write the name of the game anywhere in your post?

[palmer6strings]

I really didn't think it would matter that much considering that every other game I have tested works in it. But if it's needed to know, the cart is mother 3

[Doom]

I really didn't think it would matter that much considering that every other game I have tested works in it. But if it's needed to know, the cart is mother 3

See, that's super significant! If it's a reproduction cart (English patched), then there are a million things that could be wrong with it that a retail, official cart never has to worry about! In particular, the saving mechanism for most repro carts are different than a real cart.

[palmer6strings]

This I do understand.  That illegitimate games can and most likely will have problems.
But it's not the cart. It's the system.
Why would the system reject a game all the sudden but another system it works fine.