TIL boiling a dirty NES cartridge in distilled water actually works, I thought people were trolling

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?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna51911d ago

Have you actually tried the boil method yourself though? I've seen way too many horror stories of people warping their cartridge shells or ruining the label to ever risk it.

davis.casey8d ago

Boiled dozens of cartridges over the years and never had a single issue. You gotta keep the water at a gentle simmer, not a rolling boil, and never drop them in dry - always put them in a bag first. The people who wreck their stuff are usually blasting the heat too high or leaving them in too long. Cartridge plastic is tougher than people think, it can handle a few minutes in hot water. Labels get ruined when people don't dry them off fast enough or rub the wet paper. Just use common sense and it works fine every time.