Neo Geo:Battery Replacement

The original battery in a Neo Geo MVS is a rechargeable coin-cell battery that is soldered in. Over time, these degrade and leak onto the board. You have the option to replace the battery stand and holder with one that can be swapped by hand. Note that you can either replace the battery with a modern rechargeable one, such as an LIR2032 or ML2032, or (with some extra desoldering work) replace it with a non-rechargeable one.

Replacing the battery likely will wipe your backup RAM and all stored hiscores. You may wish to back these up to a memory card or supply 3V to BATVCC to retain this memory.

Replacing the Battery Holder

This guide assumes your battery holder replacement kit is a small PCB, a metal battery holder, and L-shaped metal pins.

1. Check underneath the board in the battery area to see if there is a foam pad there. If so, remove enough of the pad that the bottom-side of the three battery pads are visible.
2. Desolder the existing battery. It is easiest to first heat the middle pin and bend the battery so the middle pin is freed, then heat both of the other legs. Fully remove the solder from the three holes.
3. Clean up the area and the same area underneath the board with isopropyl alcohol in case the battery leaked.
4. Add just enough solder to cover the middle pad of the PCB. This will ensure a good connection with the battery.
5. Solder the battery holder onto the PCB. The "+" sign should be closest to the square part of the PCB.
6. Insert the L-shaped pins into the PCB and carefully lower the PCB onto the board so that the pins insert into the holes.
7. Solder the three pins and clip off the excess.
8. If using a rechargeable battery, insert it into the new battery holder, positive side toward the "+" sign on the metal battery holder. If using non-rechargeable batteries, follow the steps in the next section.

Disabling the Recharging Circuit

This process is only applicable if you are using non-rechargeable batteries.

Instructions for each model provided on the Jamma Nation X website.