Bending the springs, not working....

[Insert_Name_Here]

My NES has the dreaded "flashy screen" problem. I looked up how to fix this and i bent up all the connector springs, but its still giving me flashing and blank screens. Does anyone have any clue as to what this may be?

[jgibson]

My NES has the dreaded "flashy screen" problem. I looked up how to fix this and i bent up all the connector springs, but its still giving me flashing and blank screens. Does anyone have any clue as to what this may be?

Have you tried cleaning the cart connector and your games. I used a Q-tip with a little water and cleaned my games. I used the edge of a PCB with a small piece of cloth on it to clean the connector as well. They were truely nasty. Dirt and oxidation build up can prevent your games from making a connection with the connector even if all of the pins are bent up. After cleaning, my games as well as my nes work great.

[bicostp]

I used q-tips and rubbing alcohol. A couple were very bad, so I carefully cleaned them with a pencil eraser. As a last resort, I used an insanely fine sandpaper to scour the oxidation away. (Don't be too vigorous, or else you'll have to coat the contacts again, as I did with Pitfall II for the 2600. Just some radioshack stick-on traces re-enforced with solder, no biggie!)

[goodie]

Bending the contacts will wear down the pins on the cartridge. Just get a new connector off ebay. They're higher quality than the official connector, so it will get a much better connection.
Or you can call Nintendo and tell them that your NES won't play the cartridges anymore, and that you heard that a new 72-pin connector would fix it. Ask if they could send you a new connector. They will ask you if you know how to put it in. Say yes. Then they will send you a connector for free. Sure, it's the exact same kind of connector that was originally in the NES, but it will be brand new.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if Nintendo is still doing this. I read it on some other message board a while back.

Hehe, disclaimers are fun to write.

[Nes Man]

Yeah, they sent me one a year ago.

[soundwave]

Wow, no expense? Thats pretty awesome.