Gaming Pokemon Sapphire PCB help

[Soulboogie]

I bought a GBA SP motherboard in non-working condition that came with a free broken copy of pokemon sapphire. Apparently this copy of Sapphire "fried" the SP motherboard. I got the SP board working (it had blown the F2 fuse). I am new to all this so for the sake of learning I wanted to see if I could get this Sapphire working.

When I got the game it looked like someone previously lost a solder pad when removing the battery, and during the repair created a solder bridge on the sram chip. (View image "Original State")

I removed the bridge and repaired two broken traces. This fixed the shorting out issue and the SP will boot up with cartridge inserted but the cartridge is not recognize. ( See repairs on image "Trace Repair")

I noticed this pin on the SRAM chip. It looks like it doesn't go anywhere but any input would be nice. (View image "SRAM close up")

I know the issue could be anything, maybe bad chip, whatever, but I'm here to learn so anything input is appreciated, advice, theory, criticism, anything is useful. Thanks

 

[FAST6191]

Nice repair. Can't find a datasheet in a quick search (don't know if it was custom or what) and the similar numbers stuff does not tend to use the same package. Having similar trouble with the small chip stuff.

That said looks like it is not connected.


https://www.instructables.com/Pokemon-Sapphire-Battery-Replacement/
yields the attached image, and another that is adjusted such that it should overlay with yours so you can change the transparency and see differences.
R7 looks a bit toasty in one of those so might be bad. For not recognised though I am more likely to look at the top right of the cart next to the negative battery terminal. Potentially lots more trace repair needed there it seems.

 

[Soulboogie]

I finally got around to looking at it again and still can't find the fault. It looks like the traces go in and out of the small holes in the PCB. (The holes next to silkscreen text "C1" and "U3"). It makes it very hard to trace. I lose sight and I'm not sure where to test for continuity, be nice to have a working version on hand lol. I have put it away for now, but I might pick it up again just to double check all the caps, maybe one is shorted and I missed it.

Also amazing reply thank you so much.

Edit: Also R7 is fine, just looks toasty

 

[Soulboogie]

I got it!!!

Thanks for the help. I knew it had to be a short, and after literally tracing the entire board I found it. I looked at everything so I decided I'd retrace my steps and bingo. I had the smallest solder bridge next to my trace repair. It's now a fully functioning Pokemon Sapphire. What a feeling!!