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"The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed" Help!!!

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Dr. GM

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Ok I just got a FireRed from a friend today. It looked perfect and ran smoothly. But when I tried to save, there was a saving error and the game crashed. When I restarted it, it said "The 1M sub-circuit board is not installed." So I played a new game until I was able to save, and then it just said "Error. Please install backup memory" or something like that. Keep in mind that this is a cartige and not an emulator.

Help!!!
 
Very strange... if it were an emulator, I'd say the program was trying to emulate the wrong type of save area for the game (Gen III Pokemon saves are 1M aka 1Mbit aka 128 kilobytes, and use a type of non-volatile Flash storage). As it isn't an emulator, I'd say there are two possibilities.

1. The cartridge could be a bootleg using a clean ROM dump of FireRed, but without the proper hardware for saving to function properly. Most bootlegs that actually work use SRAM for the save data (the type that needs a battery, which older Gen I and II cartridges used)... but in order for the game to know to use SRAM instead of Flash, the ROM needs to be patched. If it's a really cheap copy, then it's possible the pirates who made it just used a clean ROM.

2. The cartridge is legit, but the Flash memory area used to save (or the connection to it) has been damaged, rendering it invisible to the rest of the cartridge.
 
Last edited:
Game Maker said:
...so in lamens terms, "I'm screwed"?
Click to expand...

Possibly... but as Gligar suggested, try cleaning every one of the cartridge's contacts (at least one of them is responsible for giving the GBA access to the save memory area. It's possible it could just be extremely dirty, or some corrosion is halting accesss to the save data.
 
...well, I've checked and it's the real deal, no bootleg appearantly.

...any tips on cleaning? Q-tip, perhaps?
 
Thank you guys. And now that people have helped, I hope this helps some other chap out there with trouble.

...I just hope that chap doesn't have a serious technical problem...
 
Fire Red question

First, I apologize if this is the wrong area for me to type this question. If it is, please just point me to the right direction. Any who, about a month ago my brother gave me his Fire Red game. Just recently, I popped it in my game boy and a message came up at the beginning. It said something like '1mb sub board not installed'. I did a little research online, and it said this occurs on a lot of FR emulators, but this message appeared on my actual cartridge game. From what I'm reading, it says this will only happen if the game is counterfeit. But as I remember it, we bought this and Leaf Green when they first came out, so I don't see how that's possible. Any idea as to why this would happen?
 
Merged this with an existing topic on the same issue. I'll quote what I said earlier in the thread:

TM2-Megatron said:
1. The cartridge could be a bootleg using a clean ROM dump of FireRed, but without the proper hardware for saving to function properly. Most bootlegs that actually work use SRAM for the save data (the type that needs a battery, which older Gen I and II cartridges used)... but in order for the game to know to use SRAM instead of Flash, the ROM needs to be patched. If it's a really cheap copy, then it's possible the pirates who made it just used a clean ROM.

2. The cartridge is legit, but the Flash memory area used to save (or the connection to it) has been damaged, rendering it invisible to the rest of the cartridge.
Click to expand...

If you're absolutely sure your game is legit... you bought it from a reputable retail outlet back when the game launched... it's possible your problem is something like option #2. It could be some kind of damage to the internals of the cartridge, preventing the game from accessing its save area.
 
Yes, I just read the links provided. The game cartridge looks to be in perfect shape, so I guess it's just from dust or slight damage internally. Thank you for your help :)
 
Ok so I have a legitimate copy of LG and it gives me this message and I tried cleaning it but it still doesn't work
 
Please note: The thread is from 11 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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