Hello, and thanks for reading.

I just bould a used cartidge for this game on eBay, (now thinking I should have purchased a new one), and after completeing a circuit, or after quiting a Time Trial, I get a message saying the game is saving data.  Then it beeps, and tells me "Data could not be saved!"

Is my cartridge broken?  Am I doing something wrong?

Please help if you can, I've spent about an hour on Google and Ask.com trying to find out what to do.

Thanks, Mark.

Nope, I'm talking about after a Mushroom Cup.   You get first place, see the fish fly over and drop the golden trophy, then it says the race results are being saved, please wait.  Then it says "Data could not be saved."

I won't be able to open the secret levels because every time I play it's like the game is brand new.

The post you linked to was for a time trial that has an error and can not show a ghost.

Do you know if perhaps these cartridges have batteries that can be replaced?  Like small watch batteries?

Lesson learned: never buy your game cartridges on Ebay. I bought a copy of Super Mario All-Stars via Ebay once, and it was kind of messed up as well. The save feature worked, but the controls are stuck on Type B. Even when I switch to Type A, it still operates under Type B controls.

To Marke522, is there a store in your area that sells old video games, like Video Game Swappers or Video Game Exchange or or any other such store? Maybe you can buy a new copy there.

As they say...hindsight is 20/20.  

I've purchased a lot of PS2 games and some PC games on eBay before, never had any troubles.   But those are cd's.

We have a GameStop real close, actually 2 or 3 of them.  But they wanted so much money for the game.  I thought I would try to save a bit and get one on eBay, but it looks like rather than saving money, I'll end up spending even more.  :'(

Darn it all.