Restoring Old Game Cartridges...

[King Kool]

I don't know if there's a thread for this, so... I'll start one!

I bought two used N64 cartridges that wouldn't load. For the first time, I took some rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and wiped away some of the grime from the contacts. Now they both work! Yaaay. The games are pretty lousy, but it doesn't matter.

My friend, who has restored some games before, said I shouldn't use rubbing alcohol, but I should use Oxguard, an antioxidant compound. It's apparently at Ace's Hardware, but I haven't found it at any competitors (they're just closer. I'm not racist against Ace's Hardware or something).

Have you guys ever restored an old cartridge or console? How did it go? What do you recommend?

[ndance]

i buy crappy cartridges at thrift stores, clean them, and sell them on ebay. i use rubbing alcohol on every surface but the contacts. if dirty contacts are the problem, i will try to clean them with just a dry q-tip. most of the time that is enough to knock the dirt and grime away. if there is a little bit of corrosion, i use a white plastic eraser. hear me out - you open the cartridge, and then rub the white plastic eraser on the contacts. the friction clears away the grime and corrosion. the white plastic erasers don't leave behind the residue that standard pink erasers do so you aren't just changing the kind of gunk that is on your cartridge. don't scrub terribly hard. it should come clean with just a little bit of effort.

[empath]

This is actually totally legit - our deep fryer at work was giving a weird error code (usually it just blocks the display with the code and won't work, but this was flashing between the timer and the error code, and the fryer would still work).

When the repairman came in and was checking all manner of things, he tracked it down to the ribbon cable leading from a bus into the control box - the contacts were dirty and worn; he went and got an eraser to clean the contacts, but sadly there was too much wear and even clean, they wouldn't close the circuits and now we're waiting for replacements to be shipped from the manufacturer...

Kinda trippy that I've never encountered this troubleshooting trick before now, and now I see it twice just a few days apart.

[King Kool]

I actually did just today get in my GameBit special bits for disassembling Nintendo cartridges and consoles... I don't really want to disassemble every cartridge I come across, but I'll try it on the three ones that didn't respond well to the alcohol.

I just dusted the inside of my N64 and put it back together without it breaking! It still works! But boy, that thing gets kinda hot, even after just a bit of play. Not super hot, but I used to stow my N64 away in the freezer to cool it down when it wouldn't boot on hot days or after long play sessions.

[poopintheairtonight]

This is actually totally legit - our deep fryer at work was giving a weird error code (usually it just blocks the display with the code and won't work, but this was flashing between the timer and the error code, and the fryer would still work).

When the repairman came in and was checking all manner of things, he tracked it down to the ribbon cable leading from a bus into the control box - the contacts were dirty and worn; he went and got an eraser to clean the contacts, but sadly there was too much wear and even clean, they wouldn't close the circuits and now we're waiting for replacements to be shipped from the manufacturer...

Kinda trippy that I've never encountered this troubleshooting trick before now, and now I see it twice just a few days apart.

We used to do this when I was a kid, the cable guy showed us while hooking up something and our sega games weren't working. I wish I knew where he learned it. Seeing that other people do it is like (Woohoo we're not weirdos that take bad advice!) but a decade too late.

I actually did just today get in my GameBit special bits for disassembling Nintendo cartridges and consoles... I don't really want to disassemble every cartridge I come across, but I'll try it on the three ones that didn't respond well to the alcohol.

I just dusted the inside of my N64 and put it back together without it breaking! It still works! But boy, that thing gets kinda hot, even after just a bit of play. Not super hot, but I used to stow my N64 away in the freezer to cool it down when it wouldn't boot on hot days or after long play sessions.

I used to play n64 games when the room was too cold. I'd just play with a small fan pointing at it and after a while the room would be warm enough to be comfortable! I can't decide whether it was more economical than turning the heat on or not though.
Do you have any special tools for opening Nintendo cartridges and systems? Any advice on finding said tools?

[BlueChloroplast]

I know the ds lite and Gameboy advance need a triangular screwdriver. And to get such tools, look online.

[King Kool]

I searched for "Gamebit" on Amazon and found them. They're in 3.8mm and 4.5mm sizes, and they work on most Nintendo stuff.

I actually tried the eraser on my nonworking copy of CyberTiger and... it worked! It cleaned it up. It's kind of a pain to take the thing apart, but it worked on that one and a Madden cart that didn't work even after alcohol.