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Finally, A Working NES!
vandel405 writes "We've seen the NES PC Conversion, and we've all lusted over the top-loading NES. But, top-loading NES's aren't something you're going to pick up at a garage sale. How can you resurrect your 8 bit console hero? Easy, with this news guide from ArsTechnica! Now you can make your 8Bit NES as reliable as your linux kernel. No more Blow and Pray!"
...And the one pointing to the article is labelled "arstechnica". This is confusing.
I propose a standard system whereby the name of the article be a very long link, such as what I just made, so that it can be easily identified, and that it include the word "article". I propose doing away with the word "here" as a link, because it just makes you scan the rest of the sentence for the context.
Finally, I propose that homepages be included in parentheses, such as those of Arstechnica (home) -- there are few times that we are interested in the homepage of the company where the article is to be found.
Thank you.
Before you dig out your soldering iron, try this first. Clean all your cartriges with your favorite cartrige cleaner and some isopropol alcohol. Then take your Nintendo apart, and clean that motherboard connector the same way. Now clean all the pins in that big, strange looking black connector with something flat, slightly abrasive, lint-free, and some more isopropol alcohol. Use some really fine grit sandpaper if you have to.
Now put the whole thing back together and forget about solder. Usually the insides just need to be cleaned, as the copper oxidizes slowly over time.
I turned an almost useless Nintendo into one that worked perfectly in under an hour at no cost.
warranties dont last forever...
Help me become Immortal!!!
Yeah. It scares me a bit that most of it is a quick "how to solder" primer - if you can't solder, you're going to kill your NES and burn the fuck out of your hands *looong* before you ever get it working.
Meh, I have a better idea. First lets skip the step of going to your webpage and registering to *borrow* files from you. Next step, go to a page that has nes roms (you can't feel that bad about downloading them, they are old =), download them, and have the ability to play anytime you want, online or not =P
Thanks to a good cleaning. The edge connector on the motherboard is mostly to blame, it gets corroded over time. The actual pin connector that makes contact with the cart is actually very durable, none of my pins have bent to the point of no connection despite this unit being 15 years old.
Some suggestions to get your unit working:
1. USE AN ERASER. YOU MUST, -MUST- DO THIS.
Smirk if you will, but erasers have been the #1 most effective way I've found for getting corrosion off conductive surfaces. When you open the NES to clean the edge connector, use these before you use any chemicals.
Even better, you can use erasers to clean up your cart pins just by running the side of a pencil eraser along your cart's pins. You can use the pencil to reach down in there, so you don't even have to remove the plastic case.
2. Still having games with flashing green screens at boot? Use the friction between the pin connector and the cartridge to your advantage. Since this is a metal-on-metal connection, you can use the two connectors to cut through the grime.
Insert the cartridge so that it's not quite seated in the back and push it down so it locks in and the pins bite down on it. Now, if you push hard, you can still move the cartridge forward just a little. Without removing it, carefully push it forward. It should move all of a few millimeters, but that much friction between the two will cut through corrosion on both the cart and the pin connectors.
You should be able to make games work more often on the first try with this trick, although admittedly it may not be good for the long-term life of the connectors.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.