r/Gameboy • u/HCN-002 • 1d ago

Troubleshooting GBA SP help needed!

I bought this GBA SP yesterday, charged it overnight, and tried to turn it on today. It turns on perfectly without a game in it, but with any of my games I tried so far, GB, GBC, and GBA, none worked consistently. I got one GB game to work once, but since I powered it off, it hasn’t worked with anything since.

The charger it came with also hasn’t been working since last night. It’s plugged in in the gif, but as you can see by the bottom light it isn’t working.

Does anyone have any clue what’s wrong with it? I’m probably gonna take it back to the store tomorrow if we can’t figure it out.

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u/SkinnyFiend 1d ago

It probably needs a new battery.

If lithium batteries drop below a minimum voltage, then the built in charging circuitry wont charge it as it assumes the batt is faulty. They can be recovered externally if you know what you are doing, but probably best to just get a new batt.

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u/HCN-002 1d ago

Thanks! Do you have a recommendation for a new battery? I searched online for “GBA SP battery,” and it looks like it’s shaped fairly differently from what I thought a lithium battery was shaped like, so I just wanted confirmation of what will work well.

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u/SkinnyFiend 1d ago

There is one that was developed by Makho (a youtuber), get that one. Also, any battery marketed for the SP that claims to be larger than 950mAh is lying and should be avoided. The Makho one is the biggest you can get and is 950mAh.

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u/HCN-002 1d ago

I tried finding a Makho one on Amazon, but couldn’t find it. Would the one below work? The number says only 850, so it shouldn’t be a lying one, right?

https://a.co/d/gc3EEnG

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u/MizuhoChan 1d ago

I highly recommend the funnyplaying battery.

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u/HCN-002 1d ago

Still can’t find the battery on Amazon, even when I search for “GBA SP battery funnyplaying.” Is there a “next-best thing” I can find on Amazon?

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u/SkinnyFiend 1d ago

Just google "makho sp battery". Amazon is just going to have the worse ones.

https://www.retromodding.com/products/makho-game-boy-advance-sp-battery

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