N64 crashing? [&& other help]

[Falco]

My N64 stops working after running for a while. It runs fine, and then there are what I can only describe as electronic whale sounds and scratching noises, and the picture/game freezes. I don't know if it's something with the cartridge relocation that's going wrong, or maybe my hot glue is melting and shorting things, or if it just shouldn't run without all the metal plates over the heatsinks. It doesn't start back up after crashing like this, and I usually have to resolder a lot of wires and wait for hours to make it work again.

Is this a problem anyone else ever has, or did I do something really wrong? I hope someone can help, because I'm to the point of almost just getting a new board and starting over.

[budnespid]

Are you heatsinking it properly?

[Falco]

I'm using the regular heatsinks.

[marshallh]

Power supply, or not using thick enough wire the the pwoer

[Falco]

Sorry, I should have clarified- I haven't done any mods to the board except for the cartridge slot relocation. Official power supply, normal A/V jack even if it's wired separately now, no memory expansion relocation.

I think it's most likely my cartridge relocation, since even after troubleshooting it and gluing everything in place, the system is crashing when I jiggle the wiring around. I may desolder all my connections and redo the whole thing, and hope it's not another problem elsewhere.

[budnespid]

I would check all of my connections first before I got crazy with the desoldering iron.

[tsukasa]

The 'normal' heatsink is the entire aluminum fixture, not just the little metal blocks that were attached to the chips.
Use some old gpu heatsinks or northbridge heatsinks.

[Falco]

Well, I spent two weeks checking connections, so I disconnected the whole thing already, I'm just going to take my time wiring the cartridge right this time.

I need to buy some heatsinks, but I also need to make sure that they aren't too much higher than the current blocks, so they fit in my case.

[Haunted360]

Yea, it sounds like you have some wires crossing and it has shorted out.

You can get some Heatsinks from me if you like. Check out my store if you like...


And as usual. Moderators. I am not advertising. I am helping someone with a portable. Thanks...

[lucidPerspective]

or you could be helpfull..

you need 1.5 (so 2) packs of these: RAM Heat Sinks on ebay

4 for each of the big chips, and another 4 for the ram. 12 total, each pack has 8 in it.

Total cost including international postage from ebay: $8.76USD

Total cost from haunted's store: $39

[mako321]

Heating shouldn't be the issue, I thought a n64 could easily stay on with vigorous use without any heating issues. It would get hot, but nothing would happen. (daftmike tested it a while back, ran a 4 player bot match of perfect dark for 4 hours with no problems)

[budnespid]

I played mine once caseless with all of the heatsinks removed. It overheated.

[lucidPerspective]

It might depend on the revision of the board? but the general idea is that if it's out in the open it shouldn't over heat without heatsinks. but of course if you have a really hot climate things could get ugly

Over heating sounds like it could be an issue, as it all works fine when he turns it on, but it dies after it's been on for a while ..so potentially.. I'm going with heat, or incorrect wires used for power, or incorrect soldering. It's got to be one of those so fix em all! sometimes it's easier to just start again though if your feeling lazy and have abundant N64's available

[Falco]

This is my 2nd N64 I've worked on, and I wanted to keep one fully functional home system (one more left), so I'm going to try to see if it was just my wiring before I get rid of this one too.

Thanks for the heatsinks link. Will the adhesive work fine, or shall I also get some Arctic Silver?

[lucidPerspective]

they come with a thin adhesive layer on the bottom, it's not enough to keep them in place (if you were to shack your portable) so you'll need to stretch some wire (with it's shielding still on) over top of the heatsinks, and hot glue the wire to the board.

the adhesive layer on the bottom of the heatsinks is fine for absorbing the heat though, arctic silver isn't necessary.

I would recommend one of these though: tiny 5v fan