How to Replace the Internal Battery in Pokémon Gold and Silver

There's nothing worse than turning on your Gameboy to find that your beloved and hard-fought Pokémon collection has been erased. In the second generation Pokémon Gameboy games, an internal clock has been added to the infrastructure of the game. This feature introduced the availability of Pokémon at various times of the day, such as Hoothoot at night and Pidgey in the afternoon. Due to the game mechanics suddenly keeping real time, as well as days of the week, the internal battery inside the cartridge has an average of a seven year lifespan. The first generation Pokémon Gameboy games have a fourteen year battery life, compared to the decreased lifespan of the second generation games. After the battery has given up, the save file will be permanently deleted, and it will be impossible to save a new game. This is a major bummer, to say the least.

Fortunately, there is a solution, albeit a technically difficult one. The internal battery can be replaced, and we'll show you how we did it.


To replace the internal battery, you will need:

• Precision screwdriver
• Xacto blade (use with supervision if you're a young'in!)
• Coin-shaped lithium cell CR2025 battery (works with Gold and Silver)
• Scotch tape, or as I used, electrical tape (to keep the battery in place, very important)
• Small pliers
• In-grown hair tweezers

For this tutorial, we'll be replacing the battery on my sister's Gold version. I also replaced the battery in Silver, and there are virtually no differences.

To begin, the back cover of the game must be removed. This little six-sided screw is best removed in a delicate twisting manner with a pair of tweezers like these. We tried using the precision screwdriver for this part as we've read in other tutorials, but it wasn't nearly as effective. We didn't strip the screw this way.

The inside of the cartridge looks like this. The yellow button-looking object in the upper right is the battery. The metal arm on the battery is the battery tab, and it's been soldered on in a few places. The number of soldering points varies. In this cartridge, it was four, but in the other cartridge it was two. It's the same procedure regardless, although the tabs with two points are much easier to handle.

The way to remove the tab without breaking it off the circuit board is to shove a sharp object between the dots to lift the arm in the middle (taking care not to break it). Be cautious not to damage the other circuitry, or the game may not work anymore after replacing the battery.

Be careful not to break the battery tab. Try wiggling the precision screwdriver or Xacto blade between the soldering points to loosen the tab. There is another tab on the bottom of the battery that will need to be removed in the same way. Don't puncture the battery, that would be very bad.

Here's the first tab detached from the battery. Be careful not to dislodge the tab from the circuit board. The second tab is next.

Take the Xacto blade and like on the first tab, wiggle it under the tab and between the soldering points. Being careful not to rip the tab from the circuit board, remove the bottom tab from the battery. This may take some time. If it does, don't worry, just be careful not to damage the tab or circuit board.

I removed the yellow plastic wrap from the old battery by making a slit in the side and taped it onto the new one. Dunno if this does anything besides being cosmetic, but I did it anyway. If the battery tab gets warped during the removal, it's okay, just flatten it out with a pair of small pliers.

Make sure the tabs are as flat as you can get them. This is an important part! If they don't have proper electrical contact with the battery, your new save file will be erased as a result of loss of power.

Place the new battery into the tabs as before. The bottom tab goes below, and the top tab above. Tape the new battery onto the circuit board, and make it as secure as possible. If the battery slips while the cartridge is closed, your data will be permanently erased. So be sure to secure the battery very well.

The volume of the tape in the cartridge will help secure the new battery in place. Now you'll need to close the cartridge and put the screw back in.

And there you have it! Your game cartridge should be fully functional again. Once the cartridge is closed up, it should be good to go. The start up screen should allow you to create a new game file and then let you continue it indefinitely. This battery should last for at least seven more years if replaced properly, so you can enjoy your game again and go on a new adventure. Good luck!