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How old is your CPS2 battery?

XtraSmiley

XtraSmiley

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Today I was playing some games and realized I have 2 Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara (Japanese: ダンジョンズ&ドラゴンズ シャドーオーバーミスタラ, Hepburn: Danjonzu & Doragonzu Shadō ōbā Misutara) Instead of one of each game Tower of Doom and SoM, d'oh! On top of that, my notes say I bought them years ago and they were on battery! Oh crap I thought, I need to check this out. Well, both games loaded, although the A board had no sound (quick fix, hold down the "down" button on A boards while booting, then go into menu and adjust sound) this fixed it. Then I said, aw crap, even though I don't have a way to revive them, I need to pull the batteries. Despite them fully working. Check out these codes. If these are dates, one was 28 years old and still working, while the other was 29 years old, and yup, still working!

https://ibb.co/VL1gWLY

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Do you see any indication that someone changed the batteries before? When I replaced my batteries I could see that it was already done at some point before me. I plan on changing my batteries every 5 years to be extra safe.
 
Thomas said:
Do you see any indication that someone changed the batteries before? When I replaced my batteries I could see that it was already done at some point before me. I plan on changing my batteries every 5 years to be extra safe.
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Yeah, the newer one was changed, but not the older one. Still, batteries that are 30 years old, still working?...
 
My Super Street Fighter 2 was on factory battery with the security bolt still in when I bought it - battery has since been replaced with infinikey, but 28 years is pretty good going :-)
 
Considering how easy it is to inject keys, I don't see a reason why you should change them every five years. Seems a bit wasteful. If you keep your boards in normal room temperature, the chance of them leaking is also very small.
 
nem said:
Considering how easy it is to inject keys, I don't see a reason why you should change them every five years. Seems a bit wasteful. If you keep your boards in normal room temperature, the chance of them leaking is also very small.
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I didn't change mine, I just removed them and now the boards are dead. Temp is OK in my basement, but why take the risk? Out they come until I can get some infinikeys!

I'm slowly double checking all my boards and removing batteries.
 
nem said:
Considering how easy it is to inject keys, I don't see a reason why you should change them every five years. Seems a bit wasteful. If you keep your boards in normal room temperature, the chance of them leaking is also very small.
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I haven't seen an official battery replacement schedule so I thought 5 years seemed like a good plan even though I wouldn't be surprised to see one last 10 or 15 years (or 29?). And the chance of leaking may be small but it's still possible. I'm trying to keep everything original. I haven't investigated the battery-free options but I just now checked the Undamned Infinikey and I might go that route in the future.
 
evan1 said:
It bothers me when I see B Boards being listed, still on their original Maxell battery. It may end up leaking everywhere in transit, or in the duration of when it is listed. A huge risk, especially with how scarce this hardware is getting.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT9CWbK-2HU
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Yeap, there are not many left “in the wild” any more, most of them that have not been maintained will be getting ready to leak by now. I did pick up a pristine MSH A+B on original battery the other day in perfect working condition. Made sure to transport it home upside down just in case..
 
hatmoose said:
Yeap, there are not many left “in the wild” any more, most of them that have not been maintained will be getting ready to leak by now. I did pick up a pristine MSH A+B on original battery the other day in perfect working condition. Made sure to transport it home upside down just in case..
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The community for arcade stuff here seems almost nonexistent. Mostly people just making mame cabs, but outside of that, there doesn't seem to be a lot of people into this stuff where I'm at.

I had a XVSSF listed locally for almost a month, and there was very little interest. I had it priced good as well.
 
hatmoose said:
Yeap, there are not many left “in the wild” any more, most of them that have not been maintained will be getting ready to leak by now. I did pick up a pristine MSH A+B on original battery the other day in perfect working condition. Made sure to transport it home upside down just in case..
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Old post I know, but I've bought 6 cps2 boards so far this year, all 6 had the original batteries in 4 Maxell and I have 2 with silver Toshiba batteries that are from 96 / 97, USA Xmen Vs street fighter and Brazil Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha I think capcom also used Tosh batteries as I've had a couple with these batteries on in the past.
 
XtraSmiley said:
Hey, an oldie but still a goodie! Pictures of those old batteries would be cool too!
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Yup this is some of the ones I saved, I used to chuck the old ones away but I bag them up like a sad git and keep them now this is the Toshiba battery I was on about, interestingly you can still buy these tosh ones new, even Maxell ones on axel leads.

I've noticed these tosh batteries seem to be more on the Brazil and Hispanic versions.
IMG_20240801_113818327.jpgIMG_20240801_113915393_HDR.jpgIMG_20240801_113927214.jpgIMG_20240801_113939288.jpgIMG_20240801_113951214_HDR.jpg
 
Are you sure those batteries have never been changed? Batteries can have a long shelf life and the date stamp is only the date of manufacture. Those 1996 batteries could have been installed in 2006. I recently pulled 2 batteries out of CPS2 games, one dated '94 and the other '97. Both measured slightly above 3.6V, even higher than the new batteries I just bought from Digikey. I would expect at least some voltage drop. Maybe these types of batteries don't degrade like that. I don't know. And all of my CPS2 games were definitely opened before me, which doesn't necessarily mean the batteries were replaced but it's a possible indicator. I haven't seen a definitive battery life expectancy and it would be good to know for sure if these old Maxells that I pull out are originals.
 
Thomas said:
Are you sure those batteries have never been changed? Batteries can have a long shelf life and the date stamp is only the date of manufacture. Those 1996 batteries could have been installed in 2006. I recently pulled 2 batteries out of CPS2 games, one dated '94 and the other '97. Both measured slightly above 3.6V, even higher than the new batteries I just bought from Digikey. I would expect at least some voltage drop. Maybe these types of batteries don't degrade like that. I don't know. And all of my CPS2 games were definitely opened before me, which doesn't necessarily mean the batteries were replaced but it's a possible indicator. I haven't seen a definitive battery life expectancy and it would be good to know for sure if these old Maxells that I pull out are originals.
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I think Maxell rates a 10 year lifespan on those batteries, which is probably a conservative figure.
 
evan1 said:
I think Maxell rates a 10 year lifespan on those batteries, which is probably a conservative figure.
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By life expectancy I mean how long they will last installed in a CPS2 game. The battery manufacturer can only provide an estimate of how many years the battery will hold a charge before being installed in something.
 
These lithium batteries will maintain their charge around 3.6 generally until they pop.
Unfortunately theres no real measurable way to know when they will explode besides age.
I recognize open key/infini key isnt the same as factory but it is much safer especially with them in storage and the batteries trickle draining.
 
I just got an AvP and popped it open to check it out, here is the battery. Can anyone tell the date from the code?


IMG_8686.jpeg
 
New update, man still finding US CPS2 games in the wild with original batteries. Just grabbed an X:COTA and Darkstalkers and the DS hasn't even been opened yet. Both still on battery. Wow.


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