Game Cart Contact Cleaning Guide - Atari Sega Famicom NES

[CRTGAMER]

Updated the OP
I picked up a Nintendo Cleaning Kit NES-30. Actually works very well.

[sonic2041]

I'm a little curious, why do you have what looks like diodes bridging pins of the lockout chip on the adaptor board?

[CRTGAMER]

I'm a little curious, why do you have what looks like diodes bridging pins of the lockout chip on the adaptor board?

The Gyromite Import Adapter PCB came out of the game cart like that. It is strange since some do not have the diodes. Same with the Captain Comic cart in the OP, that is the way I bought it. There is even a connector built inside for maybe an expansion?

[CRTGAMER]

Updated the OP with Sega Genesis game cart cleaning.

Sega Genesis Cart PCB - 4.5mm Game Bit.JPG (237.03 KiB) Viewed 8080 times

[CRTGAMER]

Updated the OP with Famicom game cart cleaning.
Tricky to take apart without breaking; easy to mod for future cleanings.

Take a guess what a Pink Cart Famicom title might be and no this is not Hello Kitty!

Famicom Cart Latch Inside.jpg (253.74 KiB) Viewed 7662 times

Famicom Cart Latch Outside.jpg (197.01 KiB) Viewed 7662 times

[Purkeynator]

Wow, I'd never seen this before. Very comprehensive!

[Sarge]

If no one has mentioned it, I've had really good luck with using Brasso on carts with pretty corroded pins. Had a copy of Ristar that was slightly sketchy, and it brought it up to completely reliable. I really should try a few other things in here, I've never done the eraser bit. Definitely used rubbing alcohol, though.

[CRTGAMER]

If no one has mentioned it, I've had really good luck with using Brasso on carts with pretty corroded pins. Had a copy of Ristar that was slightly sketchy, and it brought it up to completely reliable. I really should try a few other things in here, I've never done the eraser bit. Definitely used rubbing alcohol, though.

Brasso can really clean up the contacts but tends to leave a polish coating (even after wiping off) on the metal. Follow up with alcohol to remove any residue so none gets transfered to the console contacts. Try the non chemical pencil eraser method first, this works well once you take the cart shells apart.

[Sarge]

Brasso can really clean up the contacts but tends to leave a polish coating (even after wiping off) on the metal. Follow up with alcohol to remove any residue so none gets transfered to the console contacts. Try the non chemical pencil eraser method first, this works well once you take the cart shells apart.

Will definitely keep that in mind. Most of the time I tend to follow up with alcohol anyway, just to make sure I got it all off. A few times I just cotton swab the heck out of it to make sure I'm not leaving much behind.

Agreed about taking the non-chemical route first, although I tend to resort to alcohol right off the bat for general cleaning.

[Soldier Blue]

So I wonder if there is any way to actually clean the PCBs of the carts themselves? I have one GBC cart in particular that I can't get to work even after cleaning the contacts. The PCB seems to have some sort of dirt on it.

It also is missing some of the little circular gold plated (chip contacts?) that I believe would make it "function". One in particular seems to have rubbed off next to the ROM, by the game battery and some of the ones on the back have rubbed off. Hope I worded that right