Game Boy Advance Software or cartridge reader problem?

[Bromptom]

This one is a tricky one.

Years ago, back in 2010, I was playing an old Tetris cartridge for the original GB my friend found in her house. Everything was normal, until the game froze. By the time I took this picture of the screen: Photo0283

(sorry about the poor quality, back on that time the phone’s cameras wasn’t good)

After I turned the device off and on, the screen was showing the Game Boy logo and the Nintendo logo all cracked up. Whats-App-Image-2020-01-08-at-02-30-33-1

When I try a regular GBA cartridge, I only get the Game Boy logo. Whats-App-Image-2020-01-08-at-02-30-33

10 years later I found my old GBASP, and now I’m trying to fix it.

Can someone help me with this problem?

Thanks.

 

[NewPhilmZ]

Those metal cartridge connectors strips on the inside of the GBA slot are probly dirty. Get a q-tip, put some rubbing alcohol on it, and rub those metal strips up and down. Be careful not to get the q-tip's cotton stuck on anything.

 

[nescubewii3ds]

@Brompton you get dust in the cartrigde port and in the cartrigde slot, get a hairdryer set it to cold but not to cold an blow the dust out. that could be your problem

 

[SneakyFoxxo]

Looks like a contact issue to me. Assuning those games do work in other systems, What you can do is clean the contacts of a game that you dont necessarily care about very well with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol, and reinsert the cartridge a bunch of times to effectively try to clean the cartridge port with the game. Sometimes that can fix the issue. After you do that, I would try out a variety of different games if that is an option.

If that doesn't work at this point, you may have to open the system up. I would only recommend doing this if you feel comfortable doing so and have the proper tools. I would also recommend looking up a repair guide on the internet or YouTube.

Remove the battery, and carefully open up the shell after removing all of the screws from the bottom casing. The display is connected by a relatively fragile display cable, so keep that in mind. Once you can see into the cartridge port easily, you can spot whether or not there is any stuck debris or corrosion around or on the cartridge pins. Cleaning that off likely will help, but if the corrosion is bad enough, you may have to repair or replace the cart slot or mother board. Don't worry though, that kind of stuff only really happens with water damage.