NES plays without pushing cart down

[kenshin-dono]

I repaired one of my NES's several months back. I gave it a good cleaning and swaped out the 72 pin connector. Everything seemed great. I havent used it for a while and went to go play it today and something was very weird. I kept getting the solid color screen when playing a game, or a pixelated mess. I couldnt' figure out what was up since it was working fine after i fixed it (started every time)

then i tried just hitting power without pushing the game down. Perfect start.

I tried putting 5 or 6 games in and they all started perfectly from just sliding the game in and NOT pressing it down. Pressing it down caused it to screw up

wtf? Any idea what gives? Did something come loose? Anyone have any idea what i should do to get it working right again? I dont know if using it without pushing the cart down will cause problems, or why it sudenly started doing this

[Hobie-wan]

Assuming you got the tray lip under the board and aren't having any weirdness with popping it up and down otherwise, it's probably just because the new connector is that tight.

[Dylan]

I've had the exact same thing with my NES happen. Hobie's correct, it's because the new connector is tight enough to play the games without needing to be depressed. Ironically, this causes it to not function while it is depressed. It's nothing to worry about, in time it will likely loosen up and function normally.

[slowslow325]

Mine does the same thing. It's from having a new connector. I still don't understand how having tight pins would make it not work when depressed, but whatever.

[Chris Leach]

If you are installing new pin connectors..the secret to the job at hand is to not screw the connector directly to the board...leave a space between the top of the screw and the board about the size of a quarter thickness....
this allows the tray to aline with the cart as it is pressed in....

Good luck...

[kenshin-dono]

hmm i dont think i want to mess with spacing out the connetors

It sounds like this should be normal. I'm 99.9% sure i put the toaster clip under the board right. I was aware of that when i set it up and payed attention to it. Besides if i didn't, it wouldn't have sat down and closed properly would it? It also seemed to work fine with it depressed untill i let it sit for a month which is whats weird

I actually emailed the place i got the connector from; nintendorepairhut.com and they sugested i may have not cliped the toaster in properly. They seemed to think it might have been a problem playing it standing up. Do you guys think its an issue or should i just let it ride as is? I just dont want to hurt the pins/cart

I guess i could open it and look at the toaster but thats kinda a hassle

[Hobie-wan]

Just play it unpopped for now and be extra careful with any battery save games since the blink can wipe your saves.

[alienjesus]

mine does this too, but plays equally well pushed down. The connectors are really tight though, its quite an effort getting the carts out of the NES sometimes.

[KDub]

This happens because most new connectors are like the ones used in the NES 2 and not a true part replacement for what was used in the original toaster NES.
The connectors are made to handle the game standing and don't have the space or give that was put into the first connectors that made them contact the cart's pins when pushed down. So pushing down is not only not needed but for most of them bad for the new pins.