NES 72 Pin Connector - Boil vs. Clean vs. Bending Pins

[Hobie-wan]

I'd bend the pins, yes. You can get any contact cleaner that evaporates clean, it doesn't have to be deoxit.

[Teh Lurv]

I personally don't care for bending the pins on the NES connector. I tried it once while working with a friend to revive his NES as it had been stored with an inserted game depressing the pins. Bending them produced a death grip hold on his carts that we had to correct with counter-bending. I didn't see any improvement in his NES's ability to read games. In addition, you'll never bend each pin the same amount by hand. I'd be concerned about uneven contact of the pins on the cart.

[mamejay]

Always ensure that you clean the contacts of your carts also. The amount of carts I get that will not work is amazing. Years of people blowing on the carts and leaving their saliva on them has caused issues I suspect.

[Duke.Togo]

I boil the pin connector and bend the pins up slightly when I refurb them, along with disabling the lock out chip. Often after the games will play fine in the up position, but the connector won't have a death grip. After some use it goes back to working normally in the down position.

As mentioned before, clean all games.

[Mechblue]

One thing I usually do is actually soak the pins in denatured alcohol. Should remove anything or oils that have built up on it. I've had pretty good luck getting non-working systems to function again.

Always ensure that you clean the contacts of your carts also. The amount of carts I get that will not work is amazing. Years of people blowing on the carts and leaving their saliva on them has caused issues I suspect.

I agree with this. I'd say 90% of the time the reason a game doesn't work is because of the game not the system. Most cart game pins are filthy. I go as far as taking the game apart with a game bit and cleaning the pins with an eraser before it even goes in my systems. Works perfectly every time.