NES frustration

[bbond007]

Here's the ultimate solution. I NES that was designed correctly in the first place.

yeah, I know... or run the emulator

Just this NES was mine from when I was a kid and it was traded for something or another now its finally comes back to me 25 years later. It picked up a bunch of controllers, extra power brick, games, and various other peripherals along the way.  gold zelda cartridge too

its the same unit though, same huge scratch in the top. Now that I think about it, it always like to do the power thing when from when I first got it - second hand from hillbilllies.

amazingly durable, this stuff was not packed at all and just thrown in a box all loose and shipped to me UPS. There was an protective holding case(for your units, carts and whatnot) as well, but it was shattered.

[LoadWB]

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[spaceman88]

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Yes, blowing in the cart. was so common that Nintendo supplied us with orange stickers warning people not to blow in the cart. that we had to put on every deck we repaired. They also sold cleaning kits for the games, but if the kid had been blowing too long the corrosion would be too bad. In that case the game had to come apart and be cleaned with chrome polish.

[koaftder]

Terrible design, the original NES. Though I guess the compression finger design saved a lot of mechanical wear on the cart edge connectors. I don't recall having ever seen worn out contacts on NES carts, though I've seen quite a few Genesis carts with the plating worn right off.

[LoadWB]

Yes, blowing in the cart. was so common that Nintendo supplied us with orange stickers warning people not to blow in the cart. that we had to put on every deck we repaired. They also sold cleaning kits for the games, but if the kid had been blowing too long the corrosion would be too bad. In that case the game had to come apart and be cleaned with chrome polish.

I used to get so incensed with my friends for blowing on the cartridges.  Try though I might, I simply could not convince them that 1) re-seating the cartridge was what made their motion effective, and 2) they were ruining their cartridges at the same time.  And of course having a number of gamer magazines at the time recommend the blowing technique didn't help.  I remember similar problems with the Atari 2600, though not as prevalent, and with the dust covers built into those cartridges you couldn't blow on them so re-seating was the only real option available (excluding, of course, third party cartridges which did not have covers over the boards.)

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Grey screen or flashing power happened all too often when I was a kid. When it happened, I just took the game out and blew in the cartridge. Most often it was all it took to get it to work.

From what I know now, it was probably a bad idea to blow at the connector in the cartridge with your mouth; warm moist air, perfect for corroding metal. I think it would be better to clean the connector with isopropyl alcohol. If you have changed the cartridge connector in the console, I recommend you to clean the connectors on the game.

Using contact spray and compressed air is what I use. Works like magic.

[bbond007]

I went through all my tools and did not have the correct one to open the NES cartridges. I ordered one off Ebay so now i wait...

[bbond007]

My screwdrivers came in and the NES one was pretty poorly made but I was able to open about 8 cartridges with it before what little teeth the tool had were gone.

I ended up using a dremil tool with buffing wheel with goo-be-gone. I only have been using the ones I cleaned in the NES now.

I am having better success but sometimes the NES still gets the white screen or corruption. I'm definitely getting closer.

I'm going to look for an appropriate bit for my rechargeable screwdriver because that screwdriver I bought was ridiculous. Its like it was not cut deep enough to fit over the head of the screw.

I need to try out those RF game controllers

[CritAnime]

If it is the black bit then they are crap. I got a silver bit and it's still going strong 30 carts later. The trick is also to put a fair bit of pressure on the screwes, but obviously not enough tp break the cart this is to ensure that the bit has a good hold of it. I also made sure i set the electric screwdriver to it's lowest torque setting. However there are some older carts that have a weired screw to them. Kind of like a philips screw but smaller.

[_ThEcRoW]

The original japanese famicom didn't have that problem. It was because the Americans wanted a different look on the system that gave the end users in usa as well in europe with that ****ty design. Their claim was that the japanese model appeal as a toy.