Berry Glitch in Emerald?

[Waterboy]

So I've got my new copy of Emerald, and I replant every berry I can because I figure I'll want them later. I water them all the time. My game clock is inching towards 40 hours now, and yet none have sprouted. I thought they fixed the berry glitch for Emerald, and my cartridge is not old enough for the glitch to start, anyway. Any ideas?

 

[Turtle Tamer Kammy]

I'm trying to remember the details of that whole glitch. I thought there was a patch through fr/lg... I'd check Bulbapedia. Welcome to the forums, by the way!

 

[Zhen Lin]

Emerald contains a patch for it. There may be a problem with the battery.

 

[Waterboy]

Emerald contains a patch for it. There may be a problem with the battery.

That's the thing that puzzles me. The only things that I've ever heard of stalling time like that are the berry bug and a bad internal battery. And I know Emerald has that patch, because I've actually used it to fix my younger brother's copy of Ruby. But if the internal battery was having problems, wouldn't I lose my save every time I turn it off?

Could it have something to do with the fact that I usually play it on a DS instead of a GBA? Some sort of compatibility conflict?

 

[Zhen Lin]

Indeed. There is the possibility that the cartridge is counterfeit...

 

[Te-em]

It's strange that the save file does not disappear when the battery runs dry. And when you clone in Emerald, every time you start the game it will say the battery has run dry and time based events will not work. I asked someone, who had been cloning and had this text appear when he started, if his berries were growing. He said it worked. So the cloning glicth makes the game say your battery has run dry, but it hasn't really?

 

[Waterboy]

There is the possibility that the cartridge is counterfeit...

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. I did order it from a seller on Amazon.com, so I guess it's possible. If it's a bootleg, it's a good one. The outside plastic is the proper see-through green color, and the sticker is correct (ESRB and Nintendo Seal in the right places, etc.). How else can I tell?