Repaired Secret of Mana cartridge pins

I bought Secret of Mana on eBay from a seller. The picture showed a bit of liquid damage to the label (I only have a picture of the cartridge, after I cleaned the outside), but it was sold as working and it was cheap so it didn't bother me very much. When I received the game it didn't work, so I popped open the cartridge and was met with 3 pins, that had some serious corrosion damage.

I decided to clean the pins, first using a q-tip and some denatured alcohol. This removed quite a bit of the corrosion (remember to rub down the pins and not across). Afterwards I applied some Brasso using a q-tip to the pins and rubbed each of the pins with it, then I cleaned them using some fresh q-tips and some more denatured alcohol (make sure not to touch the pins after this point, unless wearing gloves). Finally I used some WD-40 on a q-tip and applied it to the pins plus the surrounding area (this should help against any further corrosion). This cleaned up the pins very nicely.

The game still didn't work and honestly I wouldn't want to use it in a console (the pins being in the condition that they were), so I decided to try and fix them as best as I could. I ordered some copper tape that was conductive on both sides (very important! check the tape with a multimeter regardless to be sure) and cut it into strips, that were about the size of the pins. I applied each of the small strips to the pins (using a pair of tweezers), making sure it was firmly secured and then using a small piece of plastic to rub the tape against the surface. I did this to make sure that the tape was safely secured to the pins (the adhesive is not the best, because it still needs to be conductive), since shorting out my console or the game would be bad. The result was not the prettiest but it worked great! I removed and inserted the game a few times into the console, checking the pins each time, just to be sure that the tape didn't come loose.

I used these instructions, for most of the cleaning and the idea of using some conductive copper tape, came from some site that I can't recall. I wanted to make this post as a small success story and a shitty guide on how to fix a similar problem for any other people that might end up finding themselves in a similar situation. Hopefully this saves someone a headache or at least gives you some hope!

Ps. if this is in the wrong sub forum, please to tell me, also here is a link to the full album.

 

I dont know others but what I do is cover the exposed copper with solder and it works for all of the carts I found in that condition.