I have 3 NESeses (PAL, if that makes any difference), and a friend has one two in varying states of crappiness, all because of one thing - the cartridge slot!! :angry I don't know if the pins are just bent from having cart's in them too long, or they're just dirty, or both, but it's a pain in the ass to get anything working on them without shaking the cart around a lot and resetting A LOT, which can't be good for the 15-20 year-old cap's! So... anyone know how to fix these properly? I managed to remove the cartridge slot from one of them, and managed to bend the pins back and attempted cleaning them with cotton buds and/or Sterets (isopropyl alcohol swabs), but it didn't make it that much better. Anyone have any good 'techniques' to this?
Just open up your NES, spray the contacts with contact spray and give a gentle brush with a small toothbrush that should take care if the corrosion and you should be good for another 6 months of daily use. Been using that trick on mine for a few years now and it never fails to load a single cart.
I've heard that you can get new cartridge connectors for inside the system. Also possibly try cleaning the contacts on the carts?
My Sonic and Knuckles cartridge didn't work until I ran a Q-tip (wetted with either hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol) on the cart contacts (right term?). There was black stuff on the Q-tip when I was done. After I did this a few times my Sonic and Knuckles cart works fine. I don't know if you can apply that to the system itself, but I wish you the best of luck .
It just so happens that I have a perfectly working (hmm, maybe) NES MoBo right next to me! And I've just realised that the cart socket unplugs from the MoBo. It looks in damn good clean condition, you want? I gutted the NES case to put my GentooXbox in.
Nah, it's OK - I'm sure I'll get at least one of my three working eventually! the_steadster and Taemos: I did clean all my carts too with similar stuff. There weren't actually too bad anyway. SilverBolt: Er, "contact spray"? What's that exactly, and where can you get it from? Didn't think about using a toothbrush - sounds like a plan!
I have the official Nintendo cleaning cart & give it some Mr.Muscle Orange Action spray & that shit works miracles But most of the time for me it's the carts that are the problem. Next time you have the top off you should do the simple region lock-out mod so you can play foreign & unlicensed games.
Are the cart connectors on the original Famicom as dodgy as NES ones then? Or is it just Disksystems that seem to break?
If cleaning doesn't work just pick up a new 72 pin connector (around $6 on ebay). Replacing takes a good 10min. -starslight
Ah yes sorry i thought that was a general term. What i mean is those special spray cans they sell at electronics stores they are used to remove corrosion from electronic parts without harming them
Yeah, I replaced the 72 pin connector on my NES, and now it works like a charm. All you need is a screwdriver to take off the shielding and it snaps right in. Of course, if you don't want to spend $10 all you have to do is open up the system, take out the connector, and carefully bend the pins back into position. But keep in mind that eventually they will al bend out again (after years of use.) The 72 pin connectors you get on ebay are made out of better materials and won't warp over time, so I reccomend just buying one. The guy I bought mine from even directed me to a page with instructions and photos, it was a piece of cake.
Contact spray is your friend! :happyhap: Zilog, if you can't find it I would be happy to throw in a can with the SIMMs/Megadrive, it's like 3 euros here. Worked miraculously on my NES. Here's what I did: -take the top off the NES -spray a good deal of inside the cartridge connector thru a straw -sprayed some on a PCB from a SMB cartridge (which is very small thus easy to handle). Inserted the PCB into the cart slot and wiggled it up and down a few times, as well as removing and inserting -let it dry for 15 minutes and now it works perfectly!
I'll see if I can find some of that stuff. Thanks for the help everyone! I wish my local hardware shops weren't so shitty... :smt067
