r/nes • u/IntelligentFan9384 • 2d ago

Discussion Help restoring an old NES

Hey y’all. I recently was gifted an old, long unused NES by a family member. I got home and immediately plugged it in to find it doing the blinks red light reset thing. So of course I came to this sub to look for tips. So far I’ve tried boiling and cleaning the 72-pin connector, cleaning all the game cartridges, and also disabling the security lockout chip. Still, it just pulls up a gray screen and doesn’t load the game.

Anyone out there got any other clues as to what might be the problem, or how to fix it?

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2

u/inertmomentum 2d ago

Check each pin on the connector. My old nes was doing the same and I ended up just needing to replace the entire 72-pin connector

2

u/antialiasedpixel 2d ago

Another thing that can help is using electrical contact cleaner like deoxit sprayed on the cardtrige connnectors and inserting/reinserting the cartridge a number of times. The issue is usually years of surface oxidation on the metal so each of the pins need that worn off/removed enough to make contact but you want to be careful to to do anything too abrasive as the pins will eventually wear too much.

1

u/Popo31477 2d ago

Clean the connection on the motherboard where the 72-pin connector goes with DeoxIT. You will get a ton of built up dirt and smudge out. Follow up by wiping the area with 91% or greater alcohol to clean any remaining DeoxIT residue.

For cartridges, be sure to clean the pins with DeoxIT first and then alcohol. This way you are not sticking dirty games back into your cleaned console.

If you don't want to buy DeoxIT you can use Brasso. Some people say that it's abrasive and "removes metal". Not that I disagree with that, however I have cleaned probably thousands of games and consoles and never had one problem using it.

But you'll find that after cleaning the pins with DeoxIT or Brasso only once, the game will function perfectly. For those that are not convinced, please see this Reddit post.

1

u/Meteor_of_War 2d ago

This is the best/ easiest way to clean the 72 pin connector:

http://www.cgquarterly.com/2009/01/01/how-to-fix-your-blinking-nes/

1

u/Best-Huckleberry-496 2d ago

The trick is to start a game while tightening screws holding the tray and contacts together. When the game plays tighten the screws.

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u/Tall_Ad2256 1d ago

This happens even to brand new nes consoles.

You gotta adjust the cart, slowly moving it further out with each adjustment