Replacing a battery on a CPS2 board - Gigawing

[drboom]

Hey - gonna be picking up a board soon and will probably need to put a new battery in - is there someone stateside who does this?

If its fairly simple, I have a buddy who is a soldier wiz, repairs a lot of his own boards. I just assume this is a suicide board and not sure what the hell to do!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If your pal can mod your CPS2 Gigawing with a Keystone battery mod, it's easy as pie to replace the battery afterwards four to five years later down the road.

http://www.jammaparts.com/keystonemod.htm

I've had two of my Japanese region CPS2 games of Progear No Arashi & Mars Matrix modded with a Keystone battery mod -- they were done by fellow shmupper oxtsu. The Keystone mod works like a charm and haven't had any issues with it over four years later.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[drunkninja24]

I replaced my own CPS2 Gigawing battery when I got my board about a year and a half ago. Super-easy to do as long as you have the proper tools. All it takes is desoldering the old points, and resoldering the new points (obviously making sure you reinsert the battery at the correct polarity). Nothing to stress over.

[drboom]

That sounds easy enough. Is it possible to 'suicide' the board when you do this? Any special precautions? That kit looks like the way to go!

[drunkninja24]

It is possible to suicide the board(general idea is that you have about 15 minutes to finish the mod before the eproms lose their data), but as long as you have everything available and don't leave the board without a battery attached for an extended period of time, you'll be alright. I feel ya, I was nervous about doing it myself (Gigawing was my first CPS2 board), but after you do it, you'll see just how easy of a process it is. They keystone mod would be good too I suppose, but I just trust a directly soldered battery more.

[AeroCityMayor]

For the sake of adding a few extra minutes to the procedure, I'd highly recommend using a helper battery. Whilst only a very, very small percentage of these boards die during this procedure, that's little consolation if it's your board that dies.

HTH

Cheers,

Ralph.

[drboom]

Thanks guys - I think we'll give this a shot!

[idc]

Personally, I'd advise against the Keystone battery mod. The contacts on these holders can oxidise and this causes a poor connection with the battery. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what a poor connection with the battery can result in.