So I pulled my old NES out of the closet the other day, and started playing the two best games of all time (in my opinion that is), Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and Techmo football. It made me remember undergrad, and of course when I was a little kid, having to do the magical blowing into the cartridge to make it work. The question is was that my imagination, or did it actually work. Well, most likely when you blow on the cartridge, you are also blowing a small amount of saliva, which is an ionic fluid. That means it will conduct electricity, and therefore connect all of the pins for a small amount of time, and make the game work. That is until it dries up right as you are about to beat Mike Tyson, and you throw the NES across the room. The problem with the old NES systems was how they accepted the cartridges. You have to push the cartridge in, and the press it down to make contact with the pins. There are 72 pins, and if one of them does not make contact, or if it the pins on the cartridge are dirty, then your game does crazy things.
I got sick of this one day, and decided to do a quick fix for it. I took apart my nintendo, and found the 72 pin connector. I took my smallest flat head screw-driver and pried every pin up a little. Over time, they had lost their springiness (I don’t know if that is a word, but it describes what I am talking about). This is a pretty good fix. It may not be the best, but it works.
Another thing to help out is to clean the pins of your old cartridge. You can take a wooden pencil with the red eraser, and rub it on the pins of the cartridge. Make sure you get all of the eraser off of the cartridge. You can see the picture below. You don’t have to take the cartridge apart, but just stick the eraser inside the opening, and run on the side that has the traces.
You can also replace a 72 pin connector. You can buy a new connector here.
This is one of the most common problem that I have run across with an old NES. Lots of times they will be sold at garage sales, or given away as broken, and this is all that is wrong with them.
11 Responses to “Fix your old NES”
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hi, I just took apart my NES in hopes of fixing it. I blew all over it and stuff…my NES’s power
buttonn blinks on and off like it isnt making a connection…can you help me out? Will doing the
screw driver thing make it work…?
i have 2 nes, but.. i don`t know about the problem. whwn i turn on the nes and i connect to the TV i just see white blank screen. do you know what`s problem that ?
thank`s regard
OH… Man “Springiness” that’s awesome you had me laughing for a while. good stuff. I’ll keep that
in mind also for when i feel like playing my NES also. Thanks.
Thank you for the lead, I tricked my son (9) he had been beging me for a P2 (his broke) or other such system when I realised I had my old NES and 20+ games to pasify him. But in passing it down I had to give him the “trick” on how to get it to work…LOL
Today him and two other boys could not have been more intertained playing doubble dragon.
Next the old atari may have to make a apperance.
Agin thank you for the help!
wetbikebabe
the flashing problem is caused by the nes lockout chip
just google disabling nes lockout chip
and that should fix your problem
i gave my nes a bath in soapy water dried it and it worked like new hehe
Take the nes compleatly apart to were all u have in your hand is the circuit board run soapy hot water in a dish bucket dip the board in the water and let sit for 4 or 5 hours then take the board out of the water after it is cold rinse it in semi hot water whle cleaning the contacts with a sponge being careful not to bend the resistor clean the grounded metal plates and dry the board with a womans hair dryer once compleatly dry get a cloth and dip it in rubbing alcohol and clean the contact again then dry with cloth. once compleatly dry put the board back in place and put the nes back together. Now we move to the games. Take the games you have apart till all u have is the boards and repeat the same steps above that u did with the nes board and all will go well have fun and i hope this fix your like it did mine.
Next the old atari may have to make a apperance.
Agin thank you for the help!
wetbikebabe
Thanks for sharing
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