bringing back to life dead genesis carts

[final fight cd]

i have never come across a nes or snes game that will not play. gensis carts are a different story though. i don't know what it is, but it seems like 1 out of every 15-20 genesis carts i buy just will not power on. if i buy them at my local retro stores i'll just return them. but games bought at thrift stores, flee markets, etc normally enforce a no return policy. i have no experience in electronics, but i always take off the casing off the game and examine the innards, just hoping to see something obviously wrong. but nothing. the dead games look just like the working games.

there has got to be a way to fix these, right?

and yes, i do clean the contact points.

[Hobie-wan]

I have a dead MK3 and Golden Axe II myself. I don't have a capacitance tester to check that, but both of my carts are minty and a contact cleaning didn't help either.

[Ziggy]

That's weird, I've never had a cart (of any kind) that I couldn't get working.

Genesis carts are quite simple. A cart with no save function is just a mask ROM, a resistor and a capacitor. Unless the cart was powered on under water or something, or struck by lightening, the mask ROM should be fine. That just leaves the capacitor and resistor. Caps are usually pretty easy to see if they're bad, the tops bubble outward and can become corroded. But anyways, the caps and resistors can easily be replaced.

The carts that don't work, how do the pins look? I know you said you cleaned them, but do they look worn out? Maybe a pin (or a few) are just worn so bad that they aren't making good contact.

Other than that, there's only one thing I would try. Are you good with soldering? I would remove the mask ROM from a cart that doesn't work and put it on a known good working cart. If it doesn't work, than something's wrong with the mask ROM. I don't think this will be the case, mask ROM's are suppose to last forever. I'm not sure if it's possible to find an EPROM or EEPROM on a Genesis cart, but if that exists, it's possible that the EPROM has succum to bit rot. If that be the case (this is just a what-if) it could just be reprogrammed... but this is a tangent now, I don't think there's any officially released Genesis carts with anything other than a mask ROM... but I guess anything's possible (maybe a short run or something).

So anyway, if you pop the mask ROM on another cart and it works, that means there's something wrong with the rest of it which just leaves the pins and the resisitor and capacitor. Replacing the resistor and capacitor is a 5 minute job which includes waiting for your iron to heat up.

edit: @ Hobie-wan: That's strange. For sure two major releases like that wouldn't have an EPROM on it. I've never heard of Genesis carts dying like this before, strange. Maybe you can swap the mask ROMs onto a known working cart to see if that'll work.

[final fight cd]

so on the game board i have in front of me i see a small pink cylindrical thingy with a C2 next to it and a larger black cylindrical thingy with a C1 next to it. do the "C"s mean capacitor? would it be possible to change these out and replace with "C"s from working carts? if so, it would probably be a pain in the arse and for most games all the work would not be justified. but, there has been a few times i reluctantly had to return a diesel game because the SOB wouldn't fire up.

besides trying to get games to work again, i think it would be a fun project to learn/do. a good way to kill some time.

[final fight cd]

wow ziggy. you lost me with mask ROM. but def thanks for the input. i'll have to brush up on my electronic terminology and then re-read your post.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I say, learn to fix the caps and resistors. It's an invaluable skill for the retro enthusiast to have for hardware maintenance.

Also, like they said above, really really check the pins for even the smallest bits of corrosion. Even a spot the size of a pen point can wreck a game's playability.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

wow ziggy. you lost me with mask ROM. but def thanks for the input. i'll have to brush up on my electronic terminology and then re-read your post.

The Mask ROM is the big chip in the middle of the cart and actually contains all of the game data.

Also wash your hands and get them completely dry (Literally not a speck of dirt, sweat, oil or moisture!) before you handle the insides of a cartridge!

[final fight cd]

for most carts i buy i normally take the casing off, which makes it easier to clean the contact points and the dust and shit that has built up on the game case itself. i usually just toss the game board on the ground while doing all this cleaning that i do. i never wash my hands before handling a game board. i don't even wash my hands after going number 2.

[Betamax001]

i don't even wash my hands after going number 2.

Gee...thanks for sharing...

[final fight cd]

im just kidding. i wash my hands after going number 2. nobody worry.