I got an old front loading NES for $5 at a thrift store a long time ago, and I only recently got an AC adaptor for it. I decided to try powering it up before I drop some cash on a controller and some games, and it gives me a flashing power light. I read that this could be due to faulty contacts or something. The screen also flashes black and green, if that makes any difference. My question is this - does the fact that the light is flashing necessarily mean there's something wrong with my NES? I've yet to try a game in it, so it could be that this is what it is supposed to do when there's no game inserted. Also, if there is indeed something wrong with it, what can I do?
The NES always flashes. If you turn it on without a cart, it'll always flash. Now, if you do have a game... Very likely, it's bad connectors. Are your connectors clean? Does it do this with all games?
usually it's a problem of the cart's connector if it makes so with all the carts..... to bad for you it's the system
Change the pin connector. easy repair $5 off ebay no special screw heads needed (just phillips!) can be repaired in about ten minutes.
Karsten & Cyantist: he hadn't put a cartridge in. La-Li: A flashing red light just means it can't read the game - as you didn't put a cartridge in, a flashing light is a good thing. When you plug it into a TV, the screen will also flash grey. As for testing with an actual game, make sure you blow on the connectors of the cartridge before you insert it - NESes do not like dusty edge connectors
Doesn't blowing on cart connectors just help the metal oxidize faster? As for the blinking, isn't that a result of the lockout chip not working? Be it due to bad contacts or whatever? I've experienced the same thing before with pirate carts. Because they don't defeat the lockout protection reliably, sometimes the NES resets uncontrolably.
Well, I got a game, and it appears to work just fine... well, except that sometimes the screen goes black when you insert a cartridge, or it'll come up but there are lots of artifacts. So far, I've always been able to fix this by ejecting and then reinserting the cartridge several times. If it gets worse, or if I can no longer fix it, what should I do? Would it be better to open up the case and try to clean/bend the pins back to their original position, or would it be better to just replace the whole cartridge connector?
It probably will get worse becasue each time you enter a game it bends back the pins slightly until one day it won't make much contact at all. I'd recommend just replacing it becasue the replacement is more resilient and won't bend out of shape as easily. Replacing the connector is real cake, I did it in like 15 minutes and haven't had a problem since.
Some guy at a game store told me you need some sort of special tool to replace it. I thought that you basically just yank the thing off and plug in the new one. Is it more complicated than that? If so, do you know where I can find instructions?
Before you go doing that, try cleaning your NES cartridges. You probably don't need to replace the connector at all. There is alot of misinformation around about all this. It's probably in part so that certain people can sell more connectors to make a profit. You can probably get your games working every time with nothing more than a pencil eraser and a security bit. You open up the cartridge, use the eraser to rub off the dirt and grime that builds up on the cartridge contacts and then wipe off any left over dust or eraser bits. It works very well, it's easy to do too. Plus it's cheaper. For example awhile back I wanted to dump/copy Killer Instinct with my backup device and it kept thinking the game was only 3 megabytes big which was wrong. I took it apart, cleaned it with the eraser, tried again, no problems. I also had to clean my Super Mario World to get it to work again. The same is true with NES games and any other cartridge game. It's just dirt and grime that basically clogs the connection. Changing the console connector can help you play dirty games but by doing that you are just going to slowly transfer dirt from the dirty games into the new connector and you'll be right back where you started. There really probably isn't anything wrong with the NES connector design. It's just that people don't expect to have to clean their games. I guess they think it's magic. Those Nintendo dust sleeves can help some but you still can't avoid cleaning them even then.
You dont need special tools at all the pin connector is £5 no special screws needed. Also to make it easier to boot the games cut the Nes10 chip. there a tuts of exactly which one to cut on youtube
