Why have Pokemon X/Y copies recently started crashing when trying to render certain models?

Question

Booted up X (North American) the other day to do some chain fishing, was poking around in my boxes when my game crashed as I was moving over an Alakazam. After resetting the game, I went back to the PC and tried to hover on Alakazam again. The game crashed. This really freaked, (and continues to freak), me out. Through Pokemon Bank I released the Alakazam, (who did have a different OT but had no criteria that would fit a presumably hacked Pokemon). I haven't tried looking at it on the Pokedex in fear of crashing again, and I haven't noticed it with other models. I have never used a cheating device and this cartridge is old; it's the first Pokemon game I ever bought, back in 2016.

After searching around on the internet, I found this two-year-old Gamefaqs article about someone whose legit copy is crashing immediately after entering the 4th Gym. More importantly, I found this Reddit post from 2024 where someone has the exact same situation as I do, (and even shares a video). What intrigues me is that his copy of the game is digital, which probably rules out the possibility of it being a cartridge issue. Due to the time frame of all of these situations, it seems to be something that's started happening somewhat recently.

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I am concerned about multiple things. 1: I really don't want to lose this save file; not only is it my first, but it has a 100% complete National Pokedex and Shiny Charm, and I've caught over a dozen shinies on it. I would absolutely hate if it corrupted. 2: Does this have anything to do with the infinite-free-trial of Pokemon Bank? The number on the screen reflecting how many days are left has always been glitched, (for everyone), and I wonder if there are other glitchy aspects of the server/code now that are somehow affecting the games it connects to.

I understand this may be a 3DS hardware issue, but I find this to be extremely relevant to a certain crowd in the Pokemon community, and answers/solutions would be nice. As a side note, are these cartridges meant to last? Like, in all likelihood, will these X/Y/USUM cartridges still work 30 years from now?

Thanks for reading all that!

Comments

I just did a PokeRadar hunt and found the shiny in like fifteen minutes. I switched to Barbaracle to False Swipe, the Pokemon goes for Psych Up and the game crashes. What can I do about this???? This has never happened before to me!

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Rip to the shiny. Honestly sometimes the games just crash randomly too; my gen 5 games are incredibly prone to random crashing and freezes. If it’s not consistent, try not to worry about it. Make sure the contacts on the back of the cartridge are clean. Try not to move around while playing, too. Helps prevent it. What type of crash was it this time? Did the game freeze, or did it say an error occurred and closed the game?

I’m not too sure if I understand your Bank question. It should be fine even if it had an illegal Pokemon in there.

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I’m looking at a few threads, and each are suggesting random crashes could be also an SD card error. Maybe buy a new SD card and see if that improves? Your save data isn’t tied to the SD card, so you don’t need to worry. Maybe see if that helps

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It's possible, my SD card is 8 years old and has never been taken out of my 3DS . What kind of stuff would be tied to the SD card, like digital games?

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Yes, the data for the games and also save file for digital games are on the SD card. I’m not too fluent with the 3DS system settings, but I’m pretty sure you can move the data from the SD card onto the console memory itself, and redownload titles from the Eshop. Might want to verify that from another source other than me, though
Photos would also be saved to the SD card