NES Problems

Having problems with my NES. I can play it for about a half hour till it freezes up and doesn't work. Anyone know if this can be fixed?

Take it apart and give the thing a good cleaning along with all of your games (you dont have to take the games apart) Just clean all of the inner connectors with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol.

OR

you can get a new 72 pin connector and replace the current one. Try the cleaning before you spend your money though.

Yes, at first try cleaning it. When it doesn't work, well then try the thing with a new pin connector.
Shouldn't it work after that... ask again here.

NESHQ has a good straightforward guide on how to clean your NES:

That's a good description. But I'd like it more when they had pictures in it.

Thankz, will do.

an above poster mentioned using rubbing alcohol, but i prefer using windex, it always seems to work much better for me

Windex includes alcohol, right?

Good tip, though.

Well, I have a bottle of generic window cleaner sitting in front of me here. Not actually Windex, but they generally have the same ingredients.

Ingredients: Water, surfactants, ammonia, modifiers, and dye.

what are "surfactants"?

I looked up the windex homepage and there the safety sheet of windex kitchen cleaner.
The ingredients are glycol ether (0.5-1.5%), isopropanol (alcohol) 3.5% and 96.25% water.

Haha! I have no clue, either! Oh well, I'm sure maybe there's going to be some amount of alcohol in most cleaners... not to be consumed, of course!

I heard of people who drink cleaning alcohol (98% ethanol!!).
What I don't know is whether those people are still alive and have their full eyesight.

...

Jesus dude! Do you study chemicals or something?

Yes, thanks for informing us. (We could of course have looked it up somewhere... but we have people here who know it anyway )

I just cleaned it today but I think I will have to get that new 72 pin. I had some dust on the right of the motherboard, it was hard to clean because when I brought the Q-tip with the rubbing alcohol over the grean board, their were some of the pointy connectors that would scrap off some of the cotten from the Q-Tip. I cleaned the cartridge thingy too.

I have a main problem that when I turn on the Nintendo, it turns on and off in a pattern, on,off,on,off. To negate this I just hold the reset button down for about 5 secs. I can get my games to work for about a minute before everything disturts and it freezes. I tryed Renigade and it worked for about 5 secs, baddudes just showed a green screen, and Tennis worked the best, about 3 mins, then I magically got a partner wheile playing and everything distorted

sounds to me like you need to get a Game Genie, that's what I used for all of my games, works like a charm. just don't use it after replacing the connector if you do, it'll bend the pins back down

The Game Genie has a thicker PCB connector, so it makes contact even on bad connectors. My Hacked up NES doesn't work at all without it, but with it, it works beautifully almost every time.

The connector is thicker?
Then I might get an NES especially for using with a Game Genie, when I buy one.
I don't want to mess my good old NES up.

k well.. i think my nes is totally screwed cuz i havent played it in years.. but ne ways.. wen i turn the game on it blinks and all but also it doesnt show the game.. the game is in and the machines on. but it shows a greeny black screen with a little square moving around.. im assuming this square is supposed to be mario cuz if i press A a few times i can actually move it around... can anyone tell me how i can fix this? or if it is totalled

hmmm, not to be rude, but READ THE THREAD!!!! in the time it took to type that you would have read through THIS VERY THREAD and seen the suggested solutions to your exact problems.

i did read it all.. but i assumed that was all if the nintendo didnt work at all, and i tried takeing it apart.. but im f*ckin brain dead lmfao and i ended up with 4 extra screws.. dam that machine.. and it still doents work

4 extra screws?! That sounds like one of my botch jobs! The adVice in this thread is useful for a NES that is misbehaving in any way, shape of form. If after trying it all you're still having problems it may be time to head out for a replacement

hgaha alrite thanx.. haha.. wenever i try and play it it just flashes a blue screen...

if it flashes, it works, it's just not making contact with the carts properly, take it apart (but try to remember where the screws came from this time ) and take a toothbrush and some alcohol, and clean the connector (this will require you to remove the cart "caddy")

you may also want to scrape at the pins with a tiny screwdriver. then, take that same tiny screwdriver or razor and gently pry the pins upward slightly so they make better contact with the cart pins. then, reassemble the NES.

before inserting a cart be sure to clean them with Q-Tips and the same rubbing alcohol you used to chean the connector, use one end of the q-tip dipped in alcohol and clean both sides of the PCB inside the cart, and use the other to dry it. I usually allow them about 5 minutes to air dry as well, just to be sure.

Then pop 'em in and hope for the best. You may need to wiggle the carts back and forth inside the NES, which will be more difficult than before due to the pins making a tighter connection. If that doesn't work, get a Game Genie, and if THAT doesn't work... your NES is dead, as uncommon as that is.

dont laugh at this but... wuts the conncetor haha...

Yikes... if you lift the door on the NES and look inside when there is no cart inserted you can see shining metal in there, that's the connector, and likely the source of all of your problems.

haha alrite than yeah so much man

now onto my next question.. haha sorry but.. how would i go about bending these up? it makes no sense to me

hahah and do i haf to take the hole darn thing apart? or just enuf to get the connector seperated

well, if you've got so much money to throw around...

as for Captain Caps-Lock, don't post garbage like that again...

Yes, you have to completely disassemble the console to gain access to the connector. no, it's not complex of difficult, relax and use some common sense and you'll be fine. remember where the screws came from, even though all but two screws in the console can be put back anywhere.

is a nice guide about repairing the connector. It contains images explaining how to get the console apart, and how to do the actual procedure, follow it and you'll be fine.

yo sorry bout stupid caps thing lmfao... i fixed it, well kinda, im still reassebling it,which is harder then i thought lmfao.. but thanx 4 all the help!

well, if you've got so much money to throw around...

as for Captain Caps-Lock, don't post garbage like that again...

Yes, you have to completely disassemble the console to gain access to the connector. no, it's not complex of difficult, relax and use some common sense and you'll be fine. remember where the screws came from, even though all but two screws in the console can be put back anywhere.

I was pretty much joken, I wish I had money, for my birth day I am saving up for mybe a new old NES

The easiest thing you can do would be to get a new connector. For less than $10.00 all your troubles will be over!! Just clean each game well before using it and you'll be set.

I hadn't played my Nintendo for about fifteen years. When my son turned three I presented my Nintendo and all sixty games to him on his birthday. Much to my dismay, however, most of the games wouldn't work and if they did only for about twenty minutes.

I stumbled upon these forums todays in a search for "NES Problems" and based upon insights on this particular thread my son and I cleaned our Nintendo and some games. Well, its been working for about 1 hour now and I believe it will continue to do so. My son is knee deep in the sewers with the Teenage Ninga Turtles. I will clean the rest of the games when my son goes to sleep tonight.

Thank you for putting a smile on my son's face and for preventing my impending anyeurysm.

We appreciate it.

It's nice to see these forums are of help to people.
BTW, greetings to you and your son, Malbus.

Yea, these fourms have helped me a lot too. I posted a question before, and some people recomended game genie, and I bought it, and it worked! I love this place .