A question for GBA SP owners

[Mindeffects]

Recently, I bought a used GBA SP through an auctions site, without a charger. A week later I also bought a new third-party charger only to find out my new–old handheld doesn't work. When I plug it in, the red led gives only a flash and when I turn on the system it works for a second and dies. If I remove the battery and play it only with the charger (now this is really wierd) it gives me about 30 seconds of play time (at first it gave me almost 2 minutes) and then dies. It doesn't work again unless I let it sleep for few hours (without the battery only) and then 30 secs again.

What could be the culprit of this? Is it the battery, the charger or the whole system? The owner actually says I must get a first-party charger in order for everything to function properly. Is that true or is he just messing with me?

[Gollgagh]

Well, first party chargers are more likely to work properly since the first party generally has closer tolerances for the quality of the charger, but that doesn't necessarily preclude third party chargers from working at all.


As for the 30 seconds thing, I really have no idea, sorry.

[Kitashi]

I'd assume that a first party charger would help, but sounds like a bad battery to me. I'm no tech expert though.

[Gollgagh]

I'd assume that a first party charger would help, but sounds like a bad battery to me. I'm no tech expert though.

he says that it's only giving him the 30 seconds thing with no battery and only the charger

[Mindeffects]

OK, this is really wierd. It just gave me 15 mins of play. I pressed the light button in the middle of the play and it immediately died. :?:

[Millipede]

I pressed the light button in the middle of the play and it immediately died. The backlight consumes a lot of power.

The fact that the gameboy either works fine or not at all pretty much rules out any problems with the gameboy itself. The charger could have a bad connection somewhere that cuts the power whenever it gets moved around too much. This happened with one of my old gameboy colour adaptors. If you moved around too much while the gameboy was only running with the adaptor, the power would cut out. I don't imagine it's too uncommon since gameboys get moved around a lot more than other consoles, and the wires tend to get worn out. You're probably best off getting a legitimate nintendo charger, new if possible.

[Mindeffects]

The backlight consumes a lot of power.

The fact that the gameboy either works fine or not at all pretty much rules out any problems with the gameboy itself. The charger could have a bad connection somewhere that cuts the power whenever it gets moved around too much. This happened with one of my old gameboy colour adaptors. If you moved around too much while the gameboy was only running with the adaptor, the power would cut out. I don't imagine it's too uncommon since gameboys get moved around a lot more than other consoles, and the wires tend to get worn out. You're probably best off getting a legitimate nintendo charger, new if possible.

Thank you for sharing this. I'm so sick of this, I'll probably be getting a new system since I can't get a first-party charger otherwise. :tomatoface:

Micro and SP share the same type of charger/battery, true?

[The Coop]

Sounds like the GBA has something loose/broken/fried inside it. Get your money back from the seller, and either go to someplace like GameStop or GameCrazy and buy one there (where you can test it firsthand), or just grab a new one.

[Mindeffects]

Yeah, I got my money back, returned it to the owner, and apparently it WAS the charger. It works fine. :?

[Overflow]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm so sick of this, I'll probably be getting a new system since I can't get a first-party charger otherwise. :tomatoface:

Micro and SP share the same type of charger/battery, true?

Noooooo, they do not. A DS Phat charger will work, though.