I used to swear by compressed air and cotton swabs for cartridge contacts. That worked okay for a while, but I kept having to re-clean the same games every few months. Then last Saturday I grabbed this old brass wire brush set at a flea market in Denver for $7, one of the ones with the fine bristles. I finally tried it on a nasty copy of Mega Man 2 that wouldn't boot, and one gentle pass fixed it instantly. Now I use the brush first, then a dry q-tip to sweep off any loose debris, and I haven't needed contact cleaner since. Does anyone else have a weird tool that beat the standard methods for them?
So yesterday I tried to stack my Game Genie with Super Mario World to test if it still worked, and the thing got stuck so bad I thought I broke the console. Took me 20 minutes of wiggling and using metal tweezers to fish it out, but now the cart slot feels looser than before. Any tips for tightening those pins without replacing the whole connector?
I picked up a Genesis model 1 at a flea market in Akron for $15, but it wouldn't read half my games at first. After I cleaned the cartridge slot with some 91% isopropyl and a cut up credit card wrapped in a cloth, it went from booting 3 out of 10 games to running every single one on the first try. That was about two months ago and it's still working perfect. Has anyone else seen such a big jump just from cleaning the slot?
I had this Zelda cartridge that would only boot up about 1 in 10 tries no matter how much I cleaned the pins. Tried the usual isopropyl alcohol and even the eraser trick but nothing stuck. Finally tried bending the pins just a tiny bit back toward the center with a toothpick after reading some old forum post from 2005. Got it to boot on the first try and it's been solid for three days now. Anyone else have luck with bending pins or is there a better method out there?
I spent 2 years scrubbing contacts with alcohol and a toothbrush for my copy of Mega Man 2, but it kept freezing on the first level. Finally tried the boil method after I saw a guy on YouTube do it with a 1987 Zelda cart from a garage sale in Ohio. Has anyone else had a cartridge come back to life after this that felt like a lost cause?
I was at a garage sale in Dayton last weekend and grabbed a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for $2, but it booted to a gray screen. After a quick swipe of the pin connector with 91% alcohol on a cotton swab (the key is letting it dry fully), the game loaded up perfect. Has anyone else had luck with this trick on a particularly stubborn cartridge?
So I saw this comment on a restoration video from some guy named RetroDave92 who swore boiling your SNES cart pins in distilled water for 10 minutes fixes corrosion. I had a copy of Super Mario World that was dead, black screen every time. I figured what the heck, I've tried rubbing alcohol and erasers already. I boiled it for exactly 10 minutes, let it dry for 2 days in front of a fan. It worked! Booted right up and saved fine. Has anyone else tried this or am I just lucky it didn't fry the board?
I always used 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean my SNES carts but after spending 20 minutes scrubbing a copy of Super Mario World with no luck I tried Deoxit D5 on a whim. One spray and a quick wipe and the game booted up first try with no flickering colors. Has anyone else had better results with Deoxit over alcohol for stubborn Nintendo carts?
Tried the alcohol swab method for months on my copy of Sonic 2, then my buddy at a retro shop in St. Paul showed me a quick blast of air in the slot. Totally cleaned up the garbled sprites without me having to open anything. Has anyone else found a simple fix that beat the standard advice?
I used to scrub my game pins with alcohol and a q-tip until they were SPARKLING. Then a guy at a retro game store told me I was stripping off the protective coating. Now I just blow on them and do a LIGHT wipe if they're grimy. Has anyone else gotten bad advice that messed up their games before someone set them straight?
I tried boiling a beat up Mega Man 2 cart that wouldn't boot after scrubbing with alcohol and a toothbrush did nothing. The boiling trick got it working again on first try but I've heard it can warp the plastic or mess up the labels over time. Anybody else swear by one method over the other for really stubborn games?
I keep seeing folks boil their 72-pin connector or bend the pins way out of shape to fix their NES. Had a friend from Toledo do that to his system last spring and it actually made the gray screen worse after 2 weeks. What usually works better is just cleaning the connector with 91% isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush, then adjusting the pins maybe 10 degrees at a time with a small flathead. Has anyone else found that the boiling method does more harm than good in the long run?
I spent 2 hours last night trying to get a copy of Mega Man 2 to boot on my NES and nothing worked until I just used a pink pencil eraser on the contacts, not the 91% isopropyl I usually reach for. Now I'm wondering if I've been overcomplicating this whole cleaning process for years since the eraser trick worked on the first try. Do you guys always hit the pins with a good scrub from an eraser before you even pull out the alcohol or is that a recipe for residue problems down the line?
I used to swear by that stuff for cleaning old NES carts, but after it ate the label off my pristine copy of Contra last December, I switched to just using a white eraser on the contacts. Turns out the abrasive eraser gets the gunk off way better without wrecking anything, at least for the grime I deal with around here. Has anyone else had a label peel up from alcohol, or was I just unlucky?
So I watched this popular retro repair channel and they said to clean cartridge pins with 91% isopropyl alcohol. I did that on like 20 of my NES games and let them dry for 2 hours. Problem is, some of the labels started peeling off at the corners because I soaked them too much. Now I only use a q-tip with MINIMAL alcohol and I dab, not rub. Has anyone else ruined a label this way?
I had a copy of Super Mario Bros that wouldn't load past the title screen, so I dabbed a little Pepsodent on a cotton swab and scrubbed the pins. After rinsing with rubbing alcohol and letting it dry for 20 minutes, it fired right up. Has anyone else tried something weird that actually worked?
Finally grabbed 91% instead of 70% and the games I thought were dead booted up first try, anyone else been running the wrong percent this whole time?
I got an original Zelda cart last month and the save kept wiping after 10 minutes. I used electrical tape to hold a new CR2032 in place like some forums say, but a buddy swears soldering is the only way to get a solid connection for more than a few months. Which method holds up better for the long haul, anyone have failures with one over the other?
I used to scrub contacts with alcohol and a toothpick for 20 minutes a pop, but after trying boiling for 5 seconds on a crusty Mega Man 2 cart last month, it booted first try. Has anyone else noticed older cartridges with battery corrosion respond way better to heat than to scraping?
Bought a cheap universal adapter off eBay cause I lost the original, plugged it in and the console just smoked. Lost $30 on the adapter and another $50 for a replacement Genesis on FB Marketplace.
I bought one of those UV light and peroxide kits from a seller on eBay thinking it would save my yellowed Super Nintendo. After 6 hours under the light, the plastic came out blotchy and brittle, with a crack near the cartridge slot. Has anyone had better luck with just hydrogen peroxide and sunlight on sunny days?