Repairing SNES Cartridge

So, after a long time i bought a multimeter and started to check the traces of an old SNES cartridge (stopped working maybe 8 years ago)... i noticed that some traces are in fact broken, but the most part of them ar close to a kinda big spherical-shaped piece of black plastic (it's not an original cartridge). I'd like to know if it is possible by any mean to remove this plastic without damaging anything in order of trying to repair the traces.

 

Hi mate,

can you post some pics so we know what you're referring to?

also, im going to HIGHLY recommend you buy yourself a silver conductive pen to repair the traces. its like conductive paint. it has saved me soooo many times.

 

It's a pirate cart?

That's epoxy on a chip-on-board. No, don't remove it - it protects the die.

 

Can you repair the traces without removing the glob-top chip.

 

Hey,. Here aree the pics to the guy who asked for... but since i can't remove it there isn't much to do...
.

About the silver conductive pen, does it worth the price... cause i have traces to repair in an Xbox 360 Mobo too (fail atemp to RGH), if it works well i'll buy one .




Edit----

I probably wont be abble to repair without removing the epoxy like vince sugested....

 

Try jumpering the broken trace with a piece of thin wire, poke the wire through the corresponding hole and just tape it down. Now see if it boots up.

 

I thought about jumpering... but since there are traces that are showing hard to know where they go after the epoxy an traces that could be broken behind the epoxy, i dont know wich traces i have to jump. That's goig to make the work kinda hard, but since this is the only cartridge that survived from that time, except by a Super Mario World, that i forgot in a friends house and ended up with receiving another cartridge back (same game but the one i received isn't original), I'll give it a try on the weekend.

 

I see what you mean. Good luck with that. I had a few super mario world and some star wing carts with the glob top.

 

Any luck ?

 

That epoxy is evil. I hate when I'm taking something apart and come across that.
I would do this, try jumping the broken traces. If it works, awesome! You fixed it.

If that doesn't work, go ahead and try to remove the epoxy. It might work, it might not.
But hey, the cart is already broken. So what do you have to lose?

 

No, tried to use a multimeter to figure out the most of the traces and haven't found any broken after removing de oxidation from a trace close to the epoxy, that showed up to have enough cooper to keep the trace working.

The problem seems to be the Diode bellow the epoxy, or broken traces there. I'll try 2 remove it later, like gs37 i don't have much to lose.

 

the problem with these pirates is that flexing the board cause the bonding wires (from silicon die to PCB) to break. And you can't repair that I am afraid.

 

Well... at least i had a lot of fun playing that cartridge with my brother...




P.S= Não esperava ver um brasileiro por aqui =D

 

Tem mais da gente poraqui... E so procurar direito ...

 

Tenho que dar uma olhada... participo muito pouco por aqui (percebe-se)...

 

Which is why glop tops suck. It's not surprising that pirates would do it, but Nintendo used them themselves in some carts. Those I haven't heard much about broken SMB / Duck Hunt carts or broken Star Fox carts. Pretty sure both those have glops in them.

 

My Original SMB Cartridge (Europe) has Epoxy on the PCB... =/

 

Good glops from Sharp. Almost indestructible stuff...

 

I suppose the manufacturer of it must make a big difference.