Is my NES busted

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:23 pm

Its plugged in and everything but when I turn it on the lite led flashes. The screen also flashes. It turns black then purple, black then purple and so on. It's an original NES. Its it busted or is it an easy fix? If not anyone want it?

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:27 pm

Very easy fix. The cart connector is dirty, or old and worn. You can get a new one on e-Bay for around $3. It's a matter of opening up the NES, taking out the mobo, sliding the old one off, and the new one on. You may also need to clean where it goes onto the mobo, but it's all very easy.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:07 pm

It's already apart. Could you maybe explain what exactly a mobo is?

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:20 pm

Mobo=Motherboard.

Do you have all the metal shielding off? Once that's off, unscrew and remove the black plastic cartridge holder. I think it's six screws total. That will lift off, leaving a piece of black plastic with a bunch of pins in it on one end of the board. That piece slides on and off the board.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:35 pm

alright I've got that done. Now which part should I clean/repair? The black NES 72pin? I've got the green mother board with the black 72 pin on it.

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:37 pm

If you have a can of spray electronics cleaner, slide the black thing with the pins off and spray that down. If you don't slide it off and clean where it goes on really well. After you do that, let it dry for at least half an hour before you try to put it back together.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed May 07, 2008 7:58 pm

The black pin doesn't come off the mother board. Would I damage the mother board if That got sprsyed? and Yes I have an electronic cleaner.

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:01 pm

As long as it's a regular electronics cleaner and you let it dry very thoroughly, it should be okay. Just try to aim for the cartridge connector as best you can.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:05 pm

ok I'll clean it off sometime tommorow. Thanks for the help. I'll let you know if it fixed it.

Post by **bicostp** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:57 pm

This is the most common problem with original NES consoles. (The tilt-loading cartridge system, which was designed to make the NES feel more like a VCR than a game console because consoles were in a slump back then, wears the connectors out pretty quickly.

If the cartridges still don't work after cleaning, take a safety pin or an unbent paper clip and carefully bend the springy metal contacts on the connector up a bit. They'll bend back to where they were, so bend them farther than you want them. They should stick up from the plastic a little and all be in line. This lets the cartridge make better contact with the system and will work for a while.

Apparently the "Blinking Screen of Death" can also be caused by the lockout chip Nintendo put in the console to <s>piss Tengen off</s> keep unauthorized games from working. (An influx of unlicensed, garbage titles for the 2600 helped cause the crash of '83; ET couldn't do it all by himself, you know.) Ben has a good writeup on how to disable it on the "Super" Nintendo page.

Tibia · Post by **Tibia** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:04 pm

bicostp wrote:If the cartridges still don't work after cleaning, take a safety pin or an unbent paper clip and carefully bend the springy metal contacts on the connector up a bit. They'll bend back to where they were, so bend them farther than you want them. They should stick up from the plastic a little and all be in line. This lets the cartridge make better contact with the system and will work for a while.

I've heard mixed reports about this fix. Some say it's great, others say it wears your carts out. Have you done this yourself? What kind of results did you get?

Post by **bicostp** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:19 pm

I did it to mine and it worked for a couple years. As long as you don't bend the pins up too much, they don't put excessive wear on the cart edge.

Besides, the pins bend again when you put the cartridge in so it's not that rough on them.

The idea is to bend them up to about where they were when the NES was new, or equivalent to a new connector. The only thing you're losing with taht fix vs a new connector is longevity. (The old pins will have most liley lost some elasticity over time and wear.)

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:13 pm

Might not get around to cleaning it today but what I think I'm going to do is spray it with the electronic spray, and sand the 72 pin. Get whatever kind of rust out of it.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Sat May 10, 2008 2:21 pm

It still didn't work. Did the same thing. I Think it has water damage or something. I Cleaned the pin, switch and all the plugs. Maybe I'll sell it as-is non working.