Visual Boy Advance: How To Fix Internal Battery Run Dry Error

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If you are using the VisualBoyAdvance emulator to play your favorite Game Boy Advance Pokemon, you might encounter this strange error saying, “The internal battery has run dry. The game can be played; However, clock-based events will no longer occur“.

Fixing vba internal battery run dry error

This problem is frustrating; you’re very excited to play your favorite GBA game or Pokemon ROM hack, and all you got is this error, but don’t get discouraged because there’s a quick fix for this.

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Why and How this error happen?

This error usually occurs when you load a Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald game. I have no idea why it happens, but I believe it is a programming code related issue or whatever tech-related thing.

This internal battery run dry error can also happen with Pokemon Emerald or Ruby based ROM hacks. However, it won’t affect your game’s save file or the whole gameplay itself in any way, so no need to panic.

Other known VBA issues and the fixes:

How To Fix Internal Battery Run Dry Error on VBA

Creating vba-over.ini File

Surprisingly, the fix is simple; you need a few lines of code to solve the problem. Here are the steps;

Step 1: Head over to your Visual Boy Advance download folder

Step 2: Right-click and create a new text document, name it to vba-over and save the file.

Step 3: Click on the newly created text document, find the appropriate code for your game, and paste it into the file.
for Emerald
[BPEE]
rtcEnabled=1
flashSize=131072

For Ruby
[AXVE]
rtcEnabled=1
flashSize=131072

Fix run dry error for emerald
Vba-over. Ini file

For Sapphire
[AXPE]
rtcEnabled=1
flashSize=131072

The image above shows the code for fixing run dry error for Pokemon emerald or any Pokemon emerald-based rom hacks.
Step 4: Click file -> Save As.. and name it vba-over.ini and finally hit save.

Delete vba over

Step 5: Delete the file vba-over.txt as you no longer need it (not the vba-over.ini) and load the game once again.

Alternative Solution (Enabling Real Time Clock)

This solution may or may not work for you but give this a try;
Step 1: Open Visual Boy Advance emulator

Step 2: Go to “Options”.

Step 3: Choose “Emulator”.

Step 4: Finally, click on “Real Time Clock”.

Closing

The internal battery has run dry error should now be fixed this time and will no longer appear as you loaded your game.

Does any of the solutions above fix your problem? Let me know which solution works for you.

If the error still occurs and it seems nothing happens after doing the steps above. Feel free to leave your comments below and allow me to help you solve your problem.


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Worked like a charm! Thank you for the help!

Can someone learn me how to find the downloadfolder?

It’s the same folder that contains the ROMS folder, COPYING file and the vba configuration file. Basically, wherever you saved the emulator.

Hi I wish to do the the opposite of this and make it say that, is there a way to do that?

2nd option works, thank U very much! Now i can get infinite berries for my harcore nuzlockes runs 🙂

hello, i tried the two methods you suggested to get my emerald pokemon game to work (i have the french version) but neither of them worked, can you help me?

Can you give a code for fire red rom hacks too.
Because of the game red chapter its still need real time clock to trigger some events.

Thank you sooooo much mate i’ve been wanting to play pokemon on gba since forever !!

hey i tried this but it just keeps looping back to the start screen whenever i hit new game, any ideas?

I had to turn on ‘real time clock’ and use your .ini file. Thank you! The berries I planted never germinated, and it was obvious that the battery/clock problem was the reason. I turned on the real time clock, and when I reloaded the game the next day, the planted berries were all gone. I tried replanting… failed. Reloading and retrying an older saved game… failed. So I tried your .ini file. I did not do an exhaustive test, but the first couple variations also failed. I finally had success when I turned on real time clock, used your .ini… Read more »

could you help me figure out how to fix it for Pokemon platinum light? it doesn’t seems to be online anywhere.

Worked perfectly, thanks a lot for sharing this!