Super Nintendo - How to Replace a SNES Game Battery

SNES Game Battery Swap Walkthrough

1. Clean your hands thoroughly first.

2. With your SNES cart lying face-side up on a table, you’ll see the two hexagon bolts on the bottom two corners. Use your 3.8 mm security bit to remove these bolts.

3. Lift the cart’s front cover by pulling up, toward you. You’ll see thebackside of the game’s board. Lift the board out. Try not to touch anythingbut the edges any more than you have to.

4. On the other side of the board, you’ll see the battery on the top left corner, a silver circle about the size of a nickel. The battery is soldered onto connectors above and below, at two points on each connector. The next step is to break these solder points (carefully!) (Edit: I have found that my copy of Final Fantasy 3 has 4 solder points on each side, but all my Nintendo made games have only 2. YMMV.)

5. Either solder the New A SNES game battery back on if you know how or tape it into place with your electrical tape. To tape it, take a 2 inch piece of tape and place it under the bottom connector. Place the battery in between the two connectors and wrap the tape around it as tight as possible. You can even double up the tape, to make sure the battery won’t go any where.

6. Turn the board back over (battery-side down) replace it into the back cover of the cart. The slots it fits into are arranged so you won’t be able to re-insert it upside down, so if you’re having trouble putting it back in, turn it over!

7. Place the front cover of the cart over this. Remember the hooks that slide into the back cover? They make it so you have to angle the back cover down & away from yourself. Replace the 2 hexagon bolts. If the board still rattles, you might need to tighten the bolts down a bit more. If you taped the battery in, it’ll probably be a snug fit.

8. Pop the game into your SNES, play long enough to save. Turn the machine off, take the game out. Tap it on a table but don’t break it! This is just to test how secure your battery is in there. If you plug it back in and still have your save, congrats. Chances are, your battery is secure for the next 10 years.