Disabled NES lockout chip and only certain games play SOLVED

[MottZilla]

By moving or angling your cartridge in the slot the pins in the connector can touch different areas of the cartridge edge pins that are not as dirty or worn and make better electrical contact allowing them to function. Ofcourse again cleaning the cartridges is preferable.

[MattB]

Just got a refurbished NES with a brand new 72 pin connector (as advertised by the Ebay seller) last week. The system included Mario 1-3, all cleaned. They played fine for the first couple of days. I went by a local gaming shop and bought Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, played fine when I brought it back. In the last couple of days though, when I load a cartridge into the system, I get this orange-red color displayed on the tv screen. It doesn't happen on all of the games, just some. I've tried taking the cartridge out and putting it back into the system, which occasionally works but I'm still experiencing the same problem. Could it be a hardware issue with the system itself? I have a small window of opportunity if I want to return the system back to the Ebay seller. Expedient advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Edit* When I temporarily blow into the cartridges, it alleviates the problem sometimes. Still stumped though. The games look clean. So it either has to be the cartridges or the system.

[qbradq]

The Punchout! cart you got probably had some corrosion on it, which has now transferred to the edge connector in your NES making it less reliable. When using vintage hardware be sure you clean all cart edges thoroughly before insertion. The resale shops never bother to.

Personally this is why I prefer the clone systems. The YoBo system I bought for $20 years ago is still kicking and very rarely has a power-on bus issue, and I throw every nasty cart I come across in that thing. If there were such a thing as NES cart VD, she'd be dead by now

[MattB]

Thanks for the response. What should I do about the corrosion issue now? Just clean it?

[qbradq]

I'm no expert on cleaning NES connectors. There's a lot of folks who are who are sure to chime in though. My personal advise is to buy a cheap NoAC clone

[lidnariq]

I vaguely think I remember seeing people suggesting wrapping a cartridge's contacts with paper and inserting into the NES until it comes out clean?
But, yeah, also not an expert.

[SnoopKatt]

They may look clean just from peeking at the contacts under the cartridge, but if you open them and get a good look, you can sometimes see garbage on the contacts. Rubbing alcohol works for light cases, but if that's a no-go, try some contact cleaner. I've brought some really nasty-looking games back to life with that.

[MattB]

Hypothetically, even if corrosion somehow transferred from the game to the edge connector; why would I only have this orange screen on some carts, but not others? If the edge connector really is dirty, wouldn't it affect all of the games that are loaded, instead of some of them?

Maybe it is the individual carts. Going to open up the two carts I've been having this problem with and thoroughly clean them. I'll see what happens...

[SnoopKatt]

Chances are the connector is only partially corroded, otherwise it wouldn't work at all. That's why sometimes wiggling the game makes it work, since moving the contacts a tiny bit can move it from a corroded/dirty spot to a cleaner spot. It's all pretty relative though as far as the cause of the issue is, since it could either be the console, game, or both. Either way, cleaning the games thoroughly will only help.