help with my NES

[bartre]

well, I recently dug out my old NES system to play a game that wouldn't work on my retro duo(those things are amazing!).
and all was going well, until suddenly, the system froze.
I thought "hmm, maybe it's just the game"
so I whipped out castlevania
Same thing, about 15 minutes into the game.
so i tried every game I have.
same thing, always after about 15 minutes, sometimes less.
so now I think it's the system itself.
so i opened it, and gave it a good cleaning, and made sure the cartridge connector was in good shape.
everything seemed to be in order.
and i put it back together, and tried it again
still no luck.
I don't see anything obviously wrong with the board, and everything works perfectly until the game freezes, does anyone have a clue as to what's wrong, or how I can fix it?

[Ed_McCarron]

Is the power light flashing when it freezes?

[bartre]

Is the power light flashing when it freezes?

no, and for what it's worth, i don't get any sound once it's frozen, either.

[Ed_McCarron]

Knowing the NES's track record, I'd wager its the 72 pin connector.  $10 bucks-ish at a million places online.

If you haven't replaced it yet, its time.

[bartre]

Yeah, that's what I figured.
just thought I'd ask around first.

[ChadTower]

Is there a way to convert a front loader to a top loader?  Seems like you could just dremel out a hole in the top of the case.  I mean, if you're gonna make all those solder connections anyway...

What solder connections?

You couldn't convert to a top loader without totally modding the original connector.  It's not just a socket swap, it's an adapter onto a motherboard edge connector.  And the edge connector faces the back of the console.  You'd have to cut half the connector off and do some really hacktacular stuff.  Really not worth it given the cost of an actual toploader.

Another thing to look into here is the lockout chip.  Disabling that does more good than replacing the connector most of the time.  Blinks aren't caused by a bad connector - that's a failing lockout chip.  It's a simple thing to pull one pin of the lockout and run a jumper to ground.

[Ed_McCarron]

Blinks aren't caused by a bad connector - that's a failing lockout chip.

Or a dodgy connector not allowing the lockout chip to do its thing.

I'd do both, personally.

[ChadTower]

Actually, they might have been.  That's what the better console hackers of the day were saying. 

Once I had the skills to do the lockout mod I usually did both, like Ed said.  I never saw a new connector totally fix the problem, and I never saw a lockout mod totally fix it, but the combination would get them closer than either one separately.