my broken nes :(

[mo1e]

Hello all i recently bought a nes console from ebay, its boxed and in excellent condition and it worked for 2 days. Then all of a sudden i get the blinking red light and flashing screen when i turn the console on. i have opened up the nes and cleaned the 72 pin connector and also bent the pins for a firmer connection. I closed her up but now it seems i have to hold the game cart down past the biting point for it to work and also the game starts in colour but then goes black and white after about 1 second.

Any help will be much appreciated.

EDIT: the nes works fine now even if i dont hold the  games down but the console still only displays in black and white?

[ChadTower]

Blinking is a bad security chip on the motherboard.  A mod can be done to eliminate that.

[Howard_Casto]

Not necessarily.  I've seen that happen just from a poorly aligned connector/cart.  Basically the pins that go to the chip aren't lined up or are getting a poor connection. 

There should be some "wiggle room" from left to right.  Slide the cart slightly to the left and try it.  If that doesn't work, reset and slide slightly to the right.  If you see an improvement, then it's the connector. 

[knohbody]

Hello all i recently bought a nes console from ebay, its boxed and in excellent condition and it worked for 2 days. Then all of a sudden i get the blinking red light and flashing screen when i turn the console on. i have opened up the nes and cleaned the 72 pin connector and also bent the pins for a firmer connection. I closed her up but now it seems i have to hold the game cart down past the biting point for it to work and also the game starts in colour but then goes black and white after about 1 second.

Any help will be much appreciated.

EDIT: the nes works fine now even if i dont hold the  games down but the console still only displays in black and white?

How do you have it hooked to the tv? RF switch? A/V cable? Try both to see if it's a problem with the cabling/connection, or with the NES itself.

[ChadTower]

Not necessarily.  I've seen that happen just from a poorly aligned connector/cart.  Basically the pins that go to the chip aren't lined up or are getting a poor connection. 

That's not the nes10 blinking, then.  The blinking is a reset of the system by design.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm really not sure what you are referring to but poor connection to the chip behaves the same as a faulty chip.  I can pop a cart in my nes right now and if it's too far to the right when I hit the power, the nes will reset and the screen will flash.  That's because I put the connector slightly out of alignment. 

Seeing as how there is absolutely no way for the user to tell which it is, it only makes sense to check your connections first.

[ChadTower]

Now that I think about it this might vary by the tolerances on the connector.  I have done quite a lot of NES over the years.  Some new connector batches are definitely better than others.  I have seen some that work really well and others that barely improve a thing.  I could see some other batches having narrower pins and being easier to misalign.


I just did two last week that actually got worse with thew new connectors.  I tried every connector in the batch on both systems and both got worse until I put the OEM connectors back.  That's $50 down the drain (the whole bag of new connectors is crap).

[marioxb]

Well it seems the OP didn't replace the 72 pin, just cleaned it. I was under the impression that cleaning was no good and replacement was the only way to go on these bad boys. I mean the connectors are only like 8 bucks I think, so why not?

[Slippyblade]

I've also had luck with the blinky reset problem by clipping the pin off the security chip, thereby bypassing the whole thing.

[matsadona]

I replaced the connector and disabled the security chip, which turned the situation from 10% working games to 90%. It's a 10 minute fix doing both and can't find any reason not to (assuming you find a good quality connector).
Still some games refuse to boot, but I assume that is because of eroded/dirty/worn connectors at the cartridge.

[ChadTower]

I replaced the connector and disabled the security chip, which turned the situation from 10% working games to 90%.

Nice.  I would say 90% is about the best I ever got an NES as refurb.  Never did get one back to 100%.

I do wish I had splurged on a top loader years ago.  I was super stubborn about the toasters.

[DLinkOZ]

Hitting the carts with some alcohol on a q-tip cleared up those of mine that still refused to play after the aforementioned repairs.

[rCadeGaming]

The security chip can have just as big an effect as the pin connector.  I got my console back to about 100% start-up by replacing the connector and disconnecting the chip.

Get your games clean with alcohol and a q-tip, and never put a dirty game into the system. 

NEVER EVER blow on the cartridges either, it just causes corrosion from your spit.  The reason it makes the games work sometimes is mostly because you've taken the game out and reseated in the pin connector.  If you think it's dusty, get a q-tip.

[matsadona]

What is this q-tip you are talking about? We probably have something similar over here but with another name...

[DLinkOZ]

Brand name for a cotton swab.

[rCadeGaming]

Yup.  Oh, and the higher the concentration of alcohol, the better it will evaporate without leaving anything behind.

[dextercf]

Misalignment and security chip triggering is the same thing guys.
When cart is not aligned perfect, the nes10 goes off cos not verifying cart as authentic..

[ChadTower]

Misalignment and security chip triggering is the same thing guys.
When cart is not aligned perfect, the nes10 goes off cos not verifying cart as authentic..

IF the nes10 is perfectly functional.  Few of them are anymore.  They are varying degrees of crappy now and have been getting worse for the last ten years.  Take a crappy nes10 on the motherboard, and a crappy nes10 on the cartridge, and your odds of getting both to work on the same try are pretty bad.