Broken megadrive carts with no visible damage

I repair arcade machines for a living. I've fixed game consoles and computers since the 1980s. I used to work in a second hand games shop. I've seen a LOT of ROM deaths. We had piles of dead game cartridges in the shop. And piles of dead arcade boards - often with ROM errors.

Your analogy about arcade machines being kept in sheds is ignorant. Arcade machines die in arcades, the very environment in which they're designed to stay. And I'm not talking about wear and tear, I'm talking about chip failure. It happens.... in arcades, in someone's house.

In theory, anything made by man can be fixed by man. However, the knowledge to do so is lost, equipment is destroyed and it becomes uneconomical, anyway.

I fail to see why you'd accept that electronics like televisions die all the time - LCD panels break down, capacitors die on PSUs... but you can't accept that a chip can die.... at least not in a game cartridge. They're often static sensitive devices. They have an operating temperature range. They store millions of 1s and 0s... it only takes one of those getting corrupted to make it not work. Where in the code that corruption occurs will determine what error you get - it might be a colour is changed, it could be an initialization command that means the system won't boot. The only difference with an arcade board, other than the actual computer being on the board, is that there are a lot more ROM chips (so more to go wrong).

THAT is why I asked you to be specific. Technically, you didn't say "dead" in your first post... I might possibly have assumed you got nothing if you did. You said "broken" and "non working". This could be described as "broken" and "non working":



Therefore, it is important to describe what you are getting, and what you have tried. You wouldn't phone a garage and say "my car is not working properly, what do you think the problem is?" Always describe the problem in detail... mention the basics. Likewise, we would assume you've done the basics (unless you say otherwise).

As for people not mentioning the issue, err... what?!

Faulty Genesis cartridge: About 422,000 results
Faulty Mega Drive cartridge: About 148,000 results

The repair process for a cartridge is effectively:

• Clean contacts
• Check for corrosion
• Check for dry joints / track breaks
• Blame the ROM - replace (either ROM or cartridge, often cheaper)

Obviously, you could do a quick visual check for corrosion first, but that means opening the cartridge. It's often easy enough to use a can of contact cleaner with a nozzle and a cotton bud to clean contacts without picking up a screwdriver.

 

I was not really asking for repair options I was just asking about people who have experienced these kinds of things with clean looking cardridges .and maybe some reasoning what causes can be just out of curiousity that's why I made the thread.

Repair options I have seen for sure I appreciate that people talk about repair but I was actually asking for causes. i've repaired some consoles and I'm pretty sure I can repair carts when I want to invest the time into it, if it is worth it in my eyes. It usually however takes quite some effort and time wich i usually just let go off since I am not in the retrogaming hobby to repair stuff that's a whole different part of the hobby at least in my eyes. Fortunately it is a rare thing if your looking for nice condition stuff. I have seen plenty of others who repair tons off stuff since they go for allot more in worse occasionally pretty rough shape wich I would personally never pick up or in general lots with such items don't have the cib stuff that I need in nice condition.

Also i am not denying that items never break down I was just saying that supposedly carts are more reliable than discs not that things never break down. Or maybe it seemed that way but believe me I'm not ignoring the fact that game carts can die everything breaks at some point.

as far as search listings go with actual causes the actual results that i needed are pretty minimal I've done plenty of searching for that matter, found some things but not much wich is why wanted to see if others here might have some thought on the matter.

Bit rot is indeed an interesting one but I personally saw that issue only with bad condition items or as an experation date when the majority of the carts would fail. than again I know little wich is why I asked for the opinions of others.

Anyways thank you guys all for the help thread can be closed.

 

With the right tools, you can change a rom in under 10 minutes.

 

if you can grab some Deoxit Red and Gold in a bottle , i find it cleans better than IPA. Just leave a layer of Red on the Cart Pins for 30 mins then remove with IPA , after that use Gold for 30 mins and then rub off with a tissue. I fixed my Neo Drift Out MVS Cart with this method and i did use IPA and Pencil Eraser method first to no avail , Deoxit should be in everyone's toolbox.

and yes as others have mentioned if you have a Programmer desolder the Rom and check it.

 

I got a lot of Genesis games that included the original golden axe not working. I cleaned it to amazing and still no. I had a matching new capacitor to the the one on the board and said why not and switched it out. Fired right up! Same lot had a sonic 3 non working, different setup on the pcb... can not get it working.

 

Sword Dude, I have a SNES that I've owned since 1994. I got it brand new. It was never "left in a barn" or anything like that. It was never mistreated. It was working just fine one month. I think I played some Actraiser on it. When I was done, maybe a few weeks went by and I decided to play something. But I noticed weird graphical glitches. I made sure the cartridge was clean but every game was affected and on closer inspection it became obvious that one of the two PPU chips had failed internally. Every sprite had a vertical line going through each sprite cell a if one bit of each sprite was always set. It was after this that I found out the SNES is somewhat notorious for failing chips. Usually the CPU, sometimes the PPUs.

You'll never know why exactly they failed. Something happened when it was manufactured maybe that eventually lead to its early demise. Who knows.