How Long Will a Console Hold Its Memory When Unplugged?

For Legacy Consoles (pre-hard drive): The console should hold its memory for up to 4 weeks after being unplugged. The of course depends on how long it was plugged in. We use a capacitor as opposed to a battery to retain power to the memory section of the processor board. For this capacitor to fully charge, the console needs to be plugged in and running for at least 24 hours. The capacitor will not charge if the console is not turned on. If you are finding that the console is losing memory, it is possible that the capacitor is going (or has gone) bad or has not dully charged. We have rarely seen capacitors fail (even on very old consoles), if the console has been allowed to charge fully and is still not retaining memory, it is most likely a problem with another component in the charging circuit and not the capacitor.