VisualBoyAdvance-M

for some reason i can't get my final fantasy tactics advance rom to save, or to load downloaded savegames either. you can only save by saving the state. This is problematic because u cant engage the storyline late in the game without saving. When i try to save i get an ingame message (not a vba message) saying something like error in backup memory. Is this a bad rom or is there something wrong with vba settings or directories?

i expect its the rom as Tactics doesn't have any specific requirements for the backup memory.