Modded US SNES misbehaves with a SFC game...

[damejro]

If something got into the cart like soda that could eat at the metal and damage it

OMG I hope not...
Now I just have to check it.

[Hobie-wan]

OMG I hope not...
Now I just have to check it.

If someone had spilled soda on it you'd probably be able to tell as there would likely be residue in the grooves where the shell halves come together.

[damejro]

Well, I checked the PCB - looks fine, nothing cracked etc. It surely is an original release and not a bootleg. The contacts have been cleaned in the cart and the console itself but that didn't help Every now and then it crashes at random points - any other suggestions what to do? Oh, btw - I haven't tried to play it on different machine because I have no access to them - but I don't know if there is any point in getting another SNES/SFC and trying it out...
Can the chip itself be corrupted or something? I don't know I know that US versions of Grind Stormer for Genesis had some poorely mad PCBs which made the game freeze/crash. Can it be the issue here? The things I see on the screen sure look like connection problem - picture stops for a fraction of second (sometimes with messed up graphics) and becomes black, the sound becomes static and plays the very last tune constantly...

EDIT:
One more thing - I've notticed that (although it happens very rarely) sometimes in the beginning of stage 3 and 7 (the first space-shooter stage and the stage with big red demon skull) the ship...explodes! Out of nowhere! It just explodes regardles even of having the maxed out shield! It happens only in the first few seconds after starting those stages and it's still very rare thing to see...but sometimes it happens! The funniest thing is that I've also experienced such thing when playing R2 on an emulator! Once I also saw that when accessing the boss of stage 4 (the big orange monkey-ish robot with huge nose) the music of the stage didn't change into boss music.
Does this mean that the code of the game is faulty or what? I have no other R2 cartridge to test it and see if it's a common problem among them or just the problem with my cart...
Final thing: to all R2 owners on this forum - did You ever have such problems with Your copies?

[Hobie-wan]

Well, as noted before, if it's a Japanese game in a US SNES, the tabs are the only difference so it isn't that. If you've cleaned the cart slot thouroughly as well it might be the cart. As you mentioned there are the Grind Stormer carts with issues. I myself have had mine lock up once or twice on me. I'd really try to test it on another system even if you ask and take the cart to a store that sells retro stuff to try on one of theirs if possible. That will really suck if it is the cart though since it's so pricey. The seller might work with you or they might say it's because you're not using a Japanese system.

[damejro]

I guess I might check it on a genuine Super Famicom but first have to buy one...
And as for the cart itself - I've had it for about a year and it was ok until few months ago it started to act weird. I don't recall anything that could cause it - no accident of any kind...

[Ziggy]

I guess I might check it on a genuine Super Famicom but first have to buy one...

There's no point. If you did test it on a SFC and it DID work with no problem, then your NTSC-U SNES is faulty one way or the other.

[damejro]

I didn't check it on a SFC, all the time I had the cart I played it on my modded US SNES - and just like I said everything was ok and then out of nowhere the problems started

[Hobie-wan]

I didn't check it on a SFC, all the time I had the cart I played it on my modded US SNES - and just like I said everything was ok and then out of nowhere the problems started

Somehow I missed that it was working before. If your other games work ok then that pretty much puts it at the cart being the problem if it's been cleaned. Do you live somewhere dry? Maybe it got static zapped.

[damejro]

I live in central-eastern Europe, it's not very dry here. I really don't know what to do next, I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed everytime I start R2 on my SNES.
Thank You for advice everybody and for sharing Your thoughts with me on this topic.