Is my Pokemon Gold cartridge dying?

Question

Today while playing Gold and Silver, while soft resetting for a shiny Eevee, I noticed that all the sudden, my Gold version's clock was off by a whole day!

I started both games at the same time about a year ago, so they both should say Monday, but Gold says it's Sunday, and it's a complete half hour ahead of Silver's clock. (Silver has the correct time)

I tried to reset the clock using the password I was given, but it wouldn't read or accept it. I'm very concerned about this, I have some shiny Pokemon I don't want to lose on here! At least not yet...

EDIT: I made a video concerning my problems with Gold Version. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/K1E-bTddPAE

EDIT AGAIN: It turns out that the password to reset the clock wasn't working because I had too much money on the game... the time and date are set back to normal, but that doesn't explain the random change in the time, or the random freezing...

Comments

I've traded all the shinnies I have on Gold version onto Silver version. I'm safe... for now.

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Well that's strange. Do you do something more on Gold than on Silver? (e.g. you said you were soft resetting on Gold and you said you had lots of shinies; do you that more on Gold than on Silver?)
You could also try and state your credentials on Gold to see if we can generate a password ourselves if it isn't working for you. You might have spent a few dollars accidentally or something.

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I actually have about 9 hours more playtime on Silver than I do on Gold (105 hours on Silver, 96 on Gold). Overall, I've done more soft resets on Silver as well, as getting shiny Ho-Oh on Gold only took 107 soft resets, while Lugia on Silver took 12,000+ soft resets. While I was hunting Lugia, I didn't use Gold at all. Finally, I've been using both games at the same time to hatch shinnies from eggs, that's where around 3/5 of the playtime in my games are invested in. Both games have all 16 badges, I still gotta fight Red though.

Gold's ID: 04735
OT: GOLD
Money: 72461

With this info (I just now double checked, so it's correct),  I get the generated password 00731. I try to enter this password, and it doesn't accept it. I have all of my shinnies on Silver right now, so if I lose Gold now I'll be fine, but I don't understand why it's dying so soon, batteries should last 5 or so years...

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did you try rebooting

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Well...
http://www.psypokes.com/gsc/timechange.php says 00731.
http://www.filb.de/pwf/ says 00732.
http://pkmn.net/?action=content&page=viewpage&id=130# says 00645.
http://www.oocities.org/thelegendarydogs/faqs/gsc/time/timereset.htm says 00812.

Something of note: the latter link explains the formula and says that, since the formula only uses the name's first five characters, empty characters in four-character names simply add 80 to the resulting password. That site demonstrates this as 00812 - 80 = 00732, so I would trust that one is probably correct. Considering the game's age, I'm not surprised that there's so much ambiguity surrounding the formula. This all being said, I don't know how to fix your game's time lag. It might have just a minor glitchfest one day and fixing the time should fix it permanently until it has another glitchfest.

I didn't expect it would, but if this answers your question I'll post it as an answer.

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You may post as an answer :)

Answer 1

I'm answering hooray

So...
http://www.psypokes.com/gsc/timechange.php says 00731.
http://www.filb.de/pwf/ says 00732.
http://pkmn.net/?action=content&page=viewpage&id=130# says 00645.
http://www.oocities.org/thelegendarydogs/faqs/gsc/time/timereset.htm says 00812.

The latter link explains the formula in-depth and says the password is only generated based off the first five characters of the trainer name, with empty characters being worth a value of 80. This is interesting because 00812 - 80 = 00732, which was the resulting password of the first two password generators. Considering the game's age, I'm not surprised that there's so much ambiguity surrounding the formula.

How to fix your game permanently? It might have just had a huge glitchfest one day. Fixing the time might fix it permanently until it has another glitchfest. If it continues lagging behind after multiple time changes, a permanent solution would be to change the battery, although that procedure requires a lot of caution, so I think you should only do it if it becomes a real inconvenience.

Hope I helped. :)
Sources: Above links and experience