GBA running slow!

[ThonMayonnaise]

Hi all, I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some great advice/help. I’ve found loads of info here, the net and YouTube on various mods and fixes for the GBA but i’m running in a situation where I can’t seem to find any reliable info/fixes for my problem.

Bought this broken GBA on eBay as a fun little project and test my capabilities at fixing electronics.

First no power. So I went on to replace the power switch. And success the GBA is alive and running games.

Then crap crackly sound. So I replaced the speaker. Sound has improved but I still get a hiss out of it. Still bad compared to how my GBC sounds.

After further inspection the GBA is also running slow!! To the point things start to look like slow motion. You can hear the sounds slowly slowing down and movement on the screen becoming slow. It’s like if you play a YouTube video and decrease the playback speed.

Any tips on where to look at? The sound I guess I can try and replace capacitors and/or the volume wheel.

But the slow speed at which the gameboy is running is where I’m really struggling to find a solution to it.

I want to get the GBA in good running condition before I start spending money on a laminated ITA screen, new shells, buttons,…

 

[orangy57]

This is a complete shot in the dark, but maybe the crystal oscillator is messed up? That's what controls the clock speeds on the GBA and they're pretty easy to replace if you know how to solder. It'd explain the crackly sound too since all sound output is done in software on the GBA's cpu. Pretty sure the oscillator is 4.194MHz, replacements are cheap

EDIT: on second thought, it seems a bit harder than it looks. Someone will probably have a better answer before you try this anyway

Spoiler

 

[JuanMena]

Orangy is right.
It's very, very likely the crystal oscillator has gone bad.

Replace it, but make sure it has the same frequency than the original.

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

Cheers I had a feeling it would be clock related. But had no idea which component would be the most likely problematic.

Can the crystal oscillator be soldered using an soldering iron? From a quick glance it seems that the pad are beneath the crystal. I’m a total novice when it comes to soldering but happy to make mistake and learn.

Otherwise I’ve just spot this GBAccelerator mod. Bit more pricey than a crystal, but appears much easier to solder in place and gives the option to speed up things in naturally slow games.

Will update once I’ve decided which route to take and received the parts.

 

[JuanMena]

Cheers I had a feeling it would be clock related. But had no idea which component would be the most likely problematic.

Can the crystal oscillator be soldered using an soldering iron? From a quick glance it seems that the pad are beneath the crystal. I’m a total novice when it comes to soldering but happy to make mistake and learn.

Otherwise I’ve just spot this GBAccelerator mod. Bit more pricey than a crystal, but appears much easier to solder in place and gives the option to speed up things in naturally slow games.

Will update once I’ve decided which route to take and received the parts.

There are different kinds of oscillators.
Some even looks like mosfets, others has legs, some kind of resembles Christmas lights.

If you're not confident, you could always "bridge" the soldering points with tiny pieces of wire or metal. But I'm assuming a GBA's isn't surface mounted.
A quick search brought this picture though, so that's relatively easier to solder than surface mounted components.

 

[FAST6191]

Never seen a clock crystal break on a GBA before. Been known on many things though and we are getting into the long tail point where all sorts of oddities happen, and similarly if it is not contacts, obvious corrosion, fuses, screen or charge circuit most people would probably junk it.

I doubt you will have anything to sensibly measure it (some older electronics clocks are at the point where a poor man's oscilloscope , aka sliced up headphone wire into the line in port on a computer, are low enough but eh for this).
What I am more here to say is do check the paths from the little switch inside the cartridge slot -- normally it will manifest as a shrunken screen like you are trying to boot in GB/GBC mode but as part of that will necessarily mess with the multiplier.

On hissing then might be worth checking some capacitors. Normally it is a thing for the Gameboy world rather than GBA but again this many years on is when the fun stuff happens.

Soldering clock crystals is potentially a fun one but they do better than some of the classic ones that broke almost if you waved a hair dryer near them never mind hot air soldering options. You can probably desolder, clean and tack down with a decent normal soldering iron but hot air is good stuff when playing with this sort of thing. If you wanted to deadbug* a through hole crystal then that is not the worst plan.

*turn a chip, or crystal in this case, on its back, glue that down maybe and solder wires to the legs/pins. Old school method of prototyping, fixing when you don't have pin compatible chips and certain modifications but does work. I don't like it as much for signals purposes (though this is not really fast enough that it really starts to trouble noise and integrity) and you want to make sure nothing is going to short out on the case/shielding if there is any but I am not going to say no.

 

[Urbanshadow]

Hi all, I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some great advice/help. I’ve found loads of info here, the net and YouTube on various mods and fixes for the GBA but i’m running in a situation where I can’t seem to find any reliable info/fixes for my problem.

Bought this broken GBA on eBay as a fun little project and test my capabilities at fixing electronics.

First no power. So I went on to replace the power switch. And success the GBA is alive and running games.

Then crap crackly sound. So I replaced the speaker. Sound has improved but I still get a hiss out of it. Still bad compared to how my GBC sounds.

After further inspection the GBA is also running slow!! To the point things start to look like slow motion. You can hear the sounds slowly slowing down and movement on the screen becoming slow. It’s like if you play a YouTube video and decrease the playback speed.

Any tips on where to look at? The sound I guess I can try and replace capacitors and/or the volume wheel.

But the slow speed at which the gameboy is running is where I’m really struggling to find a solution to it.

I want to get the GBA in good running condition before I start spending money on a laminated ITA screen, new shells, buttons,…

Hiss on sound is produced by bad capacitors. Locate and replace sound filter SMD capacitors.

Slow framerate is normal when using a generic flashcard. If you are testing with an everdrive or an original cartridge and it slows down I don't know. Check for broken traces on CPU pins or general defects in the logic sections.

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

Ah well I’ve managed to desolder the crystal. It is surface mounted. Wasn’t that hard actually, just stuck the iron on one side of the crystal, and after a few seconds all four pads got loose. No damage. Happy days. Now it’s off, might as well fit a new one, even if it turns out to not be the problem. Process of elimination. Just need to order one and it’s 4.194 MHz indeed.

I’ll check the other points like the switch in the cartridge slot and traces too.

By the way I’ve been testing the GBA with one of my GBC cartridges. I don’t have any GBA carts at the moment, planning on getting an everdrive or omega once I get gameboy running as it should.

 

[FAST6191]

There are various GB games with slowdown, Mario 6 Golden coins being one people tend to encounter early on
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3784/ being a hack to fix it.
https://www.romhacking.net/?page=ha...e=20&order=&dir=&title=&author=&hacksearch=Go for the game in general.

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

Update: It appears that it was the crystal indeed. Could only find a crystal rated at 4.9152Mhz locally, figured i'd get one at the price it cost for diagnosis purposes. Game runs faster as expected from the higher clock, but no slow downs anymore and sound is back to the expected quality.

Now need to source a suitable 4.194Mhz crystal. Actually after much browsing last night, I think it is a ceramic resonator rather than quartz crystal oscillator. Also the height is critical, the original crystal is only 2.5mm tall and the screen sits right above it. I don't think there is much room for taller crystals (anything taller than 4mm i think won't fit, not even sure if 4mm would fit). Any leads on where to source such a slim surface mounted crystal would be appreciated. All the ones I could find are from wholesale shops with high minimum quantities or high shipping costs. Might be that I'll have to get one of the through holes crystals and relocate it somewhere else in the GBA shell, but I'd rather keep it as close to the original if possible.

For info, below a picture of the original 4.194Mhz crystal and the higher clocked one installed for testing purposes.

 

[FAST6191]

I am shocked. One to add to the ever increasing list of things to check.

I would almost consider finding a junk GBA but days of finding those at car boot sales for a fiver are long gone, some also pondered the slight differences in clocks between things claiming to be a GBA.

You can scan the junk piles of people if they have one, if there is a university near you teaching electrical engineering, likewise a firm doing repairs (do also include CB radios and such in this) then you might be able to buy one from stores there.

Mostly searching for SMD versions then at time of writing these all appear to have a bunch available as singles and allow you to select by physical dimensions as well, though you will probably face minimum cost orders or be stung for shipping (go have a word with said firm if they do a monthly order and you can get one that way).

https://www.mouser.co.uk/c/passive-...cy-control-timing-devices/crystals|~Frequency
https://uk.farnell.com/w/c/crystals-oscillators/crystals?frequency-nom=4.1943mhz|4.194304mhz
https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/produc...HSCACqg-mwDyqQ7nRsAFdeXHEJEEkNJF4AT2w2LGwmMSA
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crystal-oscillators/1110721
https://www.jprelec.co.uk/categorie...uct/argo-hc-49sma-smd-crystal/310-165~310-165

 

[JuanMena]

crystal. It is surface mounted. Wasn’t that hard actually, just stuck the iron on one side of the crystal, and after a few seconds all four pads got loose.

Sidenote on this part... one of the best ways (ironically) ro prevent damage to the board when retiring old surface mounted parts, is by literally destroy them.
Grab the part with whatever pliers you're comfortable holding, and gently (but firmly) twist the part to each side.

Update: It appears that it was the crystal indeed. Could only find a crystal rated at 4.9152Mhz locally, figured i'd get one at the price it cost for diagnosis purposes. Game runs faster as expected from the higher clock, but no slow downs anymore and sound is back to the expected quality.

Now need to source a suitable 4.194Mhz crystal. Actually after much browsing last night, I think it is a ceramic resonator rather than quartz crystal oscillator. Also the height is critical, the original crystal is only 2.5mm tall and the screen sits right above it. I don't think there is much room for taller crystals (anything taller than 4mm i think won't fit, not even sure if 4mm would fit). Any leads on where to source such a slim surface mounted crystal would be appreciated. All the ones I could find are from wholesale shops with high minimum quantities or high shipping costs. Might be that I'll have to get one of the through holes crystals and relocate it somewhere else in the GBA shell, but I'd rather keep it as close to the original if possible.

For info, below a picture of the original 4.194Mhz crystal and the higher clocked one installed for testing purposes.

View attachment 358236

Glad you were able to fix it

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

I am shocked. One to add to the ever increasing list of things to check.

I would almost consider finding a junk GBA but days of finding those at car boot sales for a fiver are long gone, some also pondered the slight differences in clocks between things claiming to be a GBA.

You can scan the junk piles of people if they have one, if there is a university near you teaching electrical engineering, likewise a firm doing repairs (do also include CB radios and such in this) then you might be able to buy one from stores there.

Mostly searching for SMD versions then at time of writing these all appear to have a bunch available as singles and allow you to select by physical dimensions as well, though you will probably face minimum cost orders or be stung for shipping (go have a word with said firm if they do a monthly order and you can get one that way).

https://www.mouser.co.uk/c/passive-components/frequency-control-timing-devices/crystals/?frequency=4.19 MHz~~4.1984 MHz&rp=passive-components/frequency-control-timing-devices/crystals|~Frequency
https://uk.farnell.com/w/c/crystals-oscillators/crystals?frequency-nom=4.1943mhz|4.194304mhz
https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/produc...HSCACqg-mwDyqQ7nRsAFdeXHEJEEkNJF4AT2w2LGwmMSA
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crystal-oscillators/1110721
https://www.jprelec.co.uk/categorie...uct/argo-hc-49sma-smd-crystal/310-165~310-165

I've gone through all these sites already and no good for an individual. Buy one get £20 shipping or get free shipping but minimum orders of like 1000s which is overkill. Could make a business out if I suppose.

I've given up on getting a SMD versions that would fit. I'm going to just get some wire, insulated tape and relocate the damn thing where there's space for it.

Unless, can a three pin resonator be used as a two pin, by not soldering the third pin (ground)? If that can work, there may be some viable options out there then.

 

[FAST6191]

Nothing or ebay or amazon? People that did take the pain of above might well act as resellers on such sites (though you will be paying £2 if not more plus shipping where the above are 50p). For some other console components you will also find people that buy in dead ones and strip them for parts, though as mentioned above this is not a common failure mode on the GBA so that might be more tricky. Could be worth a message to said same though to see if a harvested board might still contain one.

Back on the big boy vendors then such sites also sell nice tools and other things so I can usually manage to get over the limit but yeah single components are tricky and always have been really. If you live near where one is based they often have walk in/call ahead options.

 

[Ozito]

Here's a 4.1943Mhz SMD type. 10 pcs for a dollah and reasonable shipping.

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

Here's a 4.1943Mhz SMD type. 10 pcs for a dollah and reasonable shipping.

These are to tall unfortunately. It will hit the screen above.

I need something similar to that: ceramic resonator. These are the perfect height, and looks near identical to the original. Most have a built in capacitor and are three pin. The third pin being usually just ground. I'm still debating if I want to try a three pin and put some kapton tape on the ground pin or not.

 

[ThonMayonnaise]

Final update on the matter, as now all is solved and this may be useful for others that may run into the same issue.

As discussed previously my gameboy was running slow, and was getting slower and slower as I played on it with audio artifacts. Following advices given it turned out the problem was the crystal itself after testing the idea with a through hole crystal.

After days of searching an exact crystal replica I could not find one and those through holes crystal are to big to fit where it needs to be and will put pressure on the screen. So if going with a through hole crystal, you will need to relocate it somewhere with enough space in the shell using thin wires.

I was not happy with the through hole option, I wanted to have the crystal in its original position to keep the looks nice and tidy. Which meant going with a SMD crystal. I decided to take the plunge and try a 3pin ceramic resonator. My understanding of the original setup, the crystal has a frequency of 4.194304Mhz and adjacent to it, a circuit in series is added including a two capacitor (one rated at 270pF and the other 330pF) that are there to help the crystal oscillate. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff.

The 3pin ceramic resonator is different from the original 2pin one. The original 2pin is a simple crystal, the 3pin includes capacitors inside so it is all self contained, removing the need of external capacitors in series. (Again correct me if I'm wrong)

The 3pin ceramic resonator was the closest thing i could find to the original crystal that would fit in the correct location. Looking at the product datasheet, the 3pin ceramic resonator is fitted with a 4.1943Mhz ceramic crystal with two capacitor in series totalling 33pF. The third pin is ground. Thinking 33pF of extra capacitance won't make a huge difference to the existing 270+330pF capacitor (5% extra capacitance), I went and tried it.

Results: It's working all fine! And have now been enjoying my GBA for several days without any issues. The 2 pins attached to the crystal are soldered to relevant pad on the board, and I have left out the third ground pin (not soldered to the board).

Below a photo of the original crystal (in black), and the new ceramic resistor that i have fitted. The new one is much smaller, but the pin layout is identical to the original one and fits perfectly on the board pads.

Thanks everyone for your help it was a fun little project to learn new skills.

 

[timidIntensegirl]

Final update on the matter, as now all is solved and this may be useful for others that may run into the same issue.

As discussed previously my gameboy was running slow, and was getting slower and slower as I played on it with audio artifacts. Following advices given it turned out the problem was the crystal itself after testing the idea with a through hole crystal.

After days of searching an exact crystal replica I could not find one and those through holes crystal are to big to fit where it needs to be and will put pressure on the screen. So if going with a through hole crystal, you will need to relocate it somewhere with enough space in the shell using thin wires.

I was not happy with the through hole option, I wanted to have the crystal in its original position to keep the looks nice and tidy. Which meant going with a SMD crystal. I decided to take the plunge and try a 3pin ceramic resonator. My understanding of the original setup, the crystal has a frequency of 4.194304Mhz and adjacent to it, a circuit in series is added including a two capacitor (one rated at 270pF and the other 330pF) that are there to help the crystal oscillate. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff.

The 3pin ceramic resonator is different from the original 2pin one. The original 2pin is a simple crystal, the 3pin includes capacitors inside so it is all self contained, removing the need of external capacitors in series. (Again correct me if I'm wrong)

The 3pin ceramic resonator was the closest thing i could find to the original crystal that would fit in the correct location. Looking at the product datasheet, the 3pin ceramic resonator is fitted with a 4.1943Mhz ceramic crystal with two capacitor in series totalling 33pF. The third pin is ground. Thinking 33pF of extra capacitance won't make a huge difference to the existing 270+330pF capacitor (5% extra capacitance), I went and tried it.

Results: It's working all fine! And have now been enjoying my GBA for several days without any issues. The 2 pins attached to the crystal are soldered to relevant pad on the board, and I have left out the third ground pin (not soldered to the board).

Below a photo of the original crystal (in black), and the new ceramic resistor that i have fitted. The new one is much smaller, but the pin layout is identical to the original one and fits perfectly on the board pads.

Thanks everyone for your help it was a fun little project to learn new skills.

View attachment 362868

Thanks for the follow up; that’s super useful! Glad it worked out.