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I picked up these NES, it was a little rough but I decided to take a gamble on it since it was only $4. I tested it out and couldn't get anything to play, black screen and a solid power light.
I cleaned up all the contacts, replaced the 72pin connector, all of that and now it works maybe 75%. I can get all my carts to work but they have to be inserted pretty precisely, otherwise I get the same issue.

Any ideas on what I can do to get the console running more consistently?

Let it take a nap

Car rides sometimes help.

Failing that, are the carts clean?

Hobie-wan wrote:Car rides sometimes help.

Failing that, are the carts clean?

my carts are all pretty clean but it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I'm testing really worn out games vs. newer ones. Maybe I got a bad 72pin connector?

I had this issue when a 72pin was not fully connected, it was slighty off. Try disconnecting the 72pin, cleaning the contact for the connector, and reconnecting.

I've read that those replacement 72-pin connectors can be unreliable, depending on who manufactured them.