My N64 game won't save

[Flake]

I fucking love how MacGuyver you guys are. THIS stuff is why I keep logging in.

[WESTOLEABALLOON]

I got some 91% and cleaned both my console and game. The game still has some stubborn corrosion on it. Should I get a brush after it?

However, my game now saves perfectly. (In fact, one of my earlier save files was resurrected.) Thank you all for your help!

[WESTOLEABALLOON]

Okay, now I took a brush (and the tip of my gamebit as one website suggests that I do) and the corrosion still won't come off. Even worse, I think the corrosion ate away a bit of a pin. What should I do now? Should I send it to a professional?

[Ziggy]

Could you post a picture of the pins so we can get an idea what you're looking at?

I've had some heavily corroded pins in the past. If the tooth brush isn't working, you're gonna need something more abrasive. But at this point, you really wanna be careful with what you're doing. A tooth brush isn't gonna damage anything on the PCB, but if you start attacking it with sand paper or something, you might fuck up the PCB. The pins are fairly strong, but the rest of the PCB is kinda fragile. What ever you do, make sure you stay on the pins and don't slip off to the rest of the PCB, you could easily break something.

You can try some fine sand paper to try and file the corrosion off. I've heard of others doing this with success. I've used a flat head screw driver in the past. If you have a flat head screwdriver that's as wide as one pin, you can scrape each individual pin to try and file the corrosion off. I've done this with one cart that was pretty bad, and it worked out great.

Again, if you're scraping the pins with a screwdriver, be VERY careful not to slip. One slip with the screw driver could easily damage the PCB.

Of course, whatever you do, afterwards you're gonna wanna clean it again with the rubbing alcohol.

If the corrosion really started to ruin the metal of a few pins, it's still fixable. After all the corrosion is cleaned off, you can tin them with solder. However, if you're unable to solder, then I would suggest sending it in to some one that can do this for you.

PS, how does the rest of the PCB look? No corrosion any where else on it, just the pins?

I fucking love how MacGuyver you guys are. THIS stuff is why I keep logging in.

LOL This reminds me, pretty funny, just the other day, I was doing some thing bizarre in front of my brother. I was re-screening a few windows that day, so I took some scrap screen and threw some charcoal in the middle of it. Pulled the screen up around the charcoal to make it into a sack then tied a chord around it and threw it in the back of my dad's car. My brother was like, "What the hell are you doing? What are you, MacGuyver or something?" I guess that would look really strange if you didn't know what I was doing.

[WESTOLEABALLOON]

They're blurry but I think you'll see the corrosion.





Other than that, the PCB is excellent.

EDIT: Resized photos.

[CRTGAMER]

They're blurry but I think you'll see the corrosion.

Other than that, the PCB is excellent.

Your camera is too close. Maybe take the time to crop the pic to 700 wide for an easier read.

You could tin the contacts with some solder, but may introduce other problems. The soft metal of the solder could be scrapped off by the N64 contacts. If the cart is working okay now, maybe best not to remove any more metal.

[WESTOLEABALLOON]

So I need to do nothing else?

[CRTGAMER]

So I need to do nothing else?

Just go with ziggy's advice, be sure there is still metal when you are done.

[WESTOLEABALLOON]

I don't know how to solder stuff.

I found that my cartridge can save as long as it isn't inserted all the way.