Internal RAM wiped again...

[solbadguy]

So, my Saturn has always been bad with keeping saves in the internal RAM. A new battery maybe keeps it saved for month. After about a week the clock will start to reset randomly. This battery was no exception. This is probably the third week with the new one in before it was all wiped clean. I play my Saturn about every two days, so that shouldn't be the problem. Any advice? I've seen this similar problem before on other forums, but no resolution.

[sych]

Get yourself an Action Replay and back up all your saves to the AR then you'll never loose a thing. Other than that I have no idea why the memory is wiping.

[barryburton]

Or just a normal memory card if you don't want the other AR functions. Sounds like there is some form of electrical fault in the console that causes the battery to drain a lot quicker. But I wouldn't have any idea how to rectify that, sorry.

[buckoa51]

Every Saturn I've ever owned has done this, I thought I was the only one.

[solbadguy]

I'm presently rocking my new Action Replay and also have the Sega memory cart. My problem with the action replay is that i have only been able to use it as a memory bank and am unable access it during gameplay. I am playing imports right now and am only able to save to the internal memory due to the cartage slot being taken by the AR. I wonder if sending it off to be repaired would cover this? I wonder what the average life span is for a regular Saturn player?

[zyrobs]

Jun 1, 2016 1:37:23 GMT solbadguy said:

I'm presently rocking my new Action Replay and also have the Sega memory cart. My problem with the action replay is that i have only been able to use it as a memory bank and am unable access it during gameplay. I am playing imports right now and am only able to save to the internal memory due to the cartage slot being taken by the AR. I wonder if sending it off to be repaired would cover this? I wonder what the average life span is for a regular Saturn player?

A normal battery lasts for 2-3 years on my end. But I've heard of a lot of people claiming that the batteries die in a week; while I've also heard claims of 5 years.

I'd really like to examine one of those machines that clears the memory in a week. Just to see what exactly makes them different.

[buckoa51]

I do sometimes go months without using my Saturn though, while other times I'll use it 2-3 times a week.

[MIK]

Maybe some bad resistor, if I remember correct some prevent power going in two directions but when these fail the power can then go down a line where it was not supposed too, causing a leak...

[buckoa51]

My Dreamcast seems to do this too though, I had the battery replaced with another (proper rechargeable, not CR2032) and it still never holds the time, even if I'm using it every week or so. My VMU batteries last about 3 minutes too, I just have some sort of bad magic touch I guess... at least my GBAs still hold charge after all these years.

[caseh]

Jun 1, 2016 1:37:23 GMT solbadguy said:

I'm presently rocking my new Action Replay and also have the Sega memory cart. My problem with the action replay is that i have only been able to use it as a memory bank and am unable access it during gameplay. I am playing imports right now and am only able to save to the internal memory due to the cartage slot being taken by the AR. I wonder if sending it off to be repaired would cover this? I wonder what the average life span is for a regular Saturn player?

If i'm not mistaken you can only save directly to official memory carts. With the AR you need to save to internal, then transfer to the cart from the system menu before powering off if you have no internal battery. If there is a workaround to this, it's not something I've seen discussed lately.

[sych]

I don't think there is a way around it. Its not really that much of an inconvenience, one quickly gets used to saving games this way.

[buckoa51]

Yeah, you quickly learn not to forget to do it

[solbadguy]

Thank you for all the advice everyone. My Saturn has been keeping the saves for a few weeks, until today. I played Panzer Dragoon Saga last night and saved before I shut it off, but today I got the #$%*ing language select screen upon start up... Luckily I backed up to my Action Replay day before yesterday thank god. I only lost about an hour or so of game play of mostly talking in town. The thought of doing the Uru labyrinth for a third time makes me feel ill...

So, when you guys are saving your progress to your action replay after each session (this is assuming your internal battery is dead/inop) are you saving to internal hard drive during game play, hit the reset button (so it retains the save), and then copying memory to the AR?

I would love to pinpoint the main problem and repair it. I think this would be great for our community. I know someone else is having this problem and has been searching google for a fix. I wish I could show you my system Zyrobs, but I am sure you are probably located in Europe. I do have a fluke multimeter, so I can get some values if anyone is feeling ballsy !

[zyrobs]

Jun 1, 2016 11:23:38 GMT buckoa51 said:

My Dreamcast seems to do this too though, I had the battery replaced with another (proper rechargeable, not CR2032) and it still never holds the time, even if I'm using it every week or so. My VMU batteries last about 3 minutes too, I just have some sort of bad magic touch I guess... at least my GBAs still hold charge after all these years.

I don't think rechargeable batteries would work in this case, since the machine was not designed to use them, it only sucks power from them but never "charges" them.

Supercapacitors on the other hand can be used for that; people have modded their Sega CDs that way, so they recharge when you play and act as a battery when you don't. As I recall they had the machine retaining saves after months at a time.

Jul 2, 2016 22:52:00 GMT solbadguy said:

So, when you guys are saving your progress to your action replay after each session (this is assuming your internal battery is dead/inop) are you saving to internal hard drive during game play, hit the reset button (so it retains the save), and then copying memory to the AR?

I would love to pinpoint the main problem and repair it. I think this would be great for our community. I know someone else is having this problem and has been searching google for a fix. I wish I could show you my system Zyrobs, but I am sure you are probably located in Europe. I do have a fluke multimeter, so I can get some values if anyone is feeling ballsy !

Pretty sure that playing and then resetting is correct when using the AR, but you can't pull that off with Panzer Dragoon Saga since it doesn't work with the AR.

I too would like to pinpoint this issue. None of my Saturns do it, at least the ones I tested with a battery... hm, it may be time to buy a dozen or so batteries, put one in each of my units, then check a month later to see which one is still saving.

[buckoa51]

I don't think rechargeable batteries would work in this case

For the Saturn no, but the Dreamcast came with a rechargeable battery. Still loses the date/time after a spell of not using it though, at least for me.