Pok?mon Sapphire - battery woes

[quirky]

I switched on my Pok?mon Sapphire yesterday and when I went to load the game, it said "The internal battery has run dry. You can still play the game, but timed events will no longer occur"

Gutted!

I've only had the game a couple of weeks and put in about 20 hours, so why has the battery run out already? Has anyone had this problem with other internal clock games? Not that there's many, but it's worth a shot... I can still save, btw, it just means berries don't grow and some day/night events will not all take place.

Oh, I tried asking on GameFAQs (I know, I know...) - with the "helpful" answer being "send it back to the shop you got it from" Hopefully someone on here has a bit more of a clue, as I don't fancy posting it back to Tronix.

[MD]

The battery could be flat, you could be unlucky and have a faulty on. Lithium batteries (the ones used in most battery backed up memory devices) give a stable and steady voltage over time but when they run out the voltage drops a lot. Therefore unlike a lot of other batteries where you can see the voltage drop over time, lithium batteries don't so you can't see how 'dead' the batteries are.

You could open the cart up and replace the battery, it's soldered in with tags so you will need to be fairly good with a soldering iron. That's probably your best bet, next to returning it....

Pity as it's the best Pokemon game to date. Well next to Pokemon Yellow.

[quirky]

Bizarrely, the problem stopped yesterday. As in, it didn't show the warning message when I loaded the game. But there were a few strange glitches with the berries, all the ones I had diligently planted had disappeared! Dunno if anything else will be screwed up later too.

I don't really fancy opening the cart up - those triwings are a bitch to unscrew and refasten - and it seems (?) as though maybe the battery is rechargeable or something. Anyone know if that was the case with Silver/Gold/Crystal?

[yashiro]

Take it back or buy a new one, swap the carts, and take that one back for a refund the next day.

Don't bother opening the cart its not worth the hassle.