I’ve had my GameShell for a few years now, I was wondering if I should buy a replacement battery or if it’s a different issue. All of the connections are secure, I’m running the latest version of the 0.5+D.E.O.T. firmware, and I’ve had success playing everything from Mupen64 to Drastic to Shadow Warrior and Duke 3d. heck, even playing FBA Bubble Bobble causes it to shut off after 3-5 minutes of play.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!
How old is your gameshell, and how much have you used it?
Battery wear overtime, and the more cycle of charge they have, the more likely to fail they become.
A full cycle is roughly a 100% discharge and 100% charge. And it is cumulative. You discharge by 50% then recharge by 25% then discharge by 50%, and charge by 75% (so it is now at 100%) you have a 100% discharge and 75% charge.
Also a full discharge (using it until it shutdown) is never good for lithium battery.
Another thing lithium battery hate: heat.
Lithium battery performance lower with really cold temperature, as for heat, but cold do not damage them, heat does.
If you have used or left your GS in the sun for a long time for exemple, the battery may have been damaged.
The good thing is that the battery used in them is (still) fairly easy to find, just buy a good quality one.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply.
I think I got the Gameshell in January/February 2019.
I’ve definitely been guilty of charging it when not fully drained a lot.
I think it’s the BL-5C Battery, right? I can get one on Amazon pretty cheaply.
EDIT:
I turned on the Battery monitor. It dropped from 71% to 53% in about 10 minutes, then it just immediately sut off. All I did was play 2 mp3s and a few PICO-8 games. Do you think this is a battery issue?
1 Like
my first guess is the batt. id replace it, asap. unless you have another one, like it you can test with
I think you may have misunderstood me, full drain on a lithium battery is a bad thing, they don’t like to be fully discharged.
There could be other reason for a fast discharge, like your GS consuming too much, but 53% to full shutdown, it is most likely a battery issue.
Yes the batteries are BL-5C from memory, but careful to buy a quality one, not a cheap Nokia knockoff.
It is a bit complicated with these batteries as there were really only one official supplier: Nokia, and they no longer make that type of battery.