Final Fantasy III/VI problem

[Myollnir]

I wasn't sure whether or not to put this in tech help or here, but anyway it's something that's been bugging me tonight. I've finally got my hands on a SNES copy of FFIII (VI). Of course I couldn't wait to play it, but I quickly noticed something very odd (I'm using my PAL snes with a converter by the way). Certain parts of the menu (item, skill, equip and relic) were appearing as a completely black (or should that just be plain blank) background with white text on it (no cursor or anything else was visible). I reset the first time, and when I loaded the game again the menu was back to normal, but slipped back into the blank screen with text thing then sorted itself out a little later.

I've had a search around and can't seem to find anything about it, so I was wondering if anyone here has any idea what's causing it? Is it a bug/glitch, something to do with v.1.0/1.1 or just a defect? Thanks to anyone who can help!

[Ack]

First instinct, have you cleaned the contacts? Might not be a bad idea.

[MrPopo]

The first thing I'd worry about is whether or not your cart is legit. If you have a game bit open it up and check it out. If you see wires snaking around then its definitely not an original cart.

The only other thing I can think of is that it might be a problem with the converter.

[Myollnir]

Yeah, I had worries about its legitimacy at first but it looks genuine as far as I can tell (was boxed with everything but that doesn't necessarily prove it...). I don't have the means to open it up right now but I'll see if I can try it out tomorrow. I gave it a quick clean before I tried it first time, but I'll get the buds (q-tips) out one more time. Cheers guys.

[Ziggy]

If you manage to open it up, if you're able to, post a picture of the front and back of the PCB.

Definitely try cleaning not only the cart, but everything. Dirty contacts can definitely lead to distorted/garbled graphics. Clean the cart, the adapter, and the system.

[Flake]

Do you think it might have something to do with playing it through a converter? Also, as I recall, SNES era Square games were never the most stable games in the world. Secret of Mana definitely comes to mind...