Repairing SNES Games?

[Stg-Flame]

I dug out my old SNES and NES games a few weeks ago and finally found time to sit back and play some of my older games. To my surprise, a lot of them no longer work. I have kept them in their cases and kept the plastic cover on them at all times, so I am unsure how they could have gotten damaged.

Chrono Trigger loops the pendulum scene without ever starting. Sim City 1/10 times will produce wavy-flickering numbers across the screen, the other nine times will be a blank screen. Secret of Mana makes a weird noise and won't start. And the most troubling one is my copy of FF3/6 will get all the way through where you gain control of Vicks and Wedge, then restart the game.

Does anyone know of a safe way to repair SNES games without risking damaging them beyond repair?

 

[JohnAn2112]

Are you sure it's not the SNES console itself that's not working?

 

[nakedfrog]

That would be my question. Maybe this is caused by a failure of the security?

 

[RagingBITCH]

I'd assume it's the SNES

 

[Yreka]

You gotta blow into the cartridges, duh

 

[Xcobra]

Originally posted by: Yreka
You gotta blow into the cartridges, duh

LOL...so friggin true...good ol' days

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I remember years ago a friend of mine had an official SNES cleaning kit. It had a cartridge to insert into the console a few times, and it actually worked pretty well.

Assuming the games need repairing, search the web for a procedure for cleaning the cartridge contacts with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol. Apparently works quite well.

Failing all of that (assuming your SNES is actually broken, and not the cartridges), I believe Nintendo has a program where you can send in your console and receive a refurbished console for $30-40.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Failing all of that (assuming your SNES is actually broken, and not the cartridges), I believe Nintendo has a program where you can send in your console and receive a refurbished console for $30-40.

Or ThinkGeek has this but I haven't heard much about it yet.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
I believe Nintendo has a program where you can send in your console and receive a refurbished console for $30-40.

They have a program for an 18-year-old product? :Q

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
I dug out my old SNES and NES games a few weeks ago and finally found time to sit back and play some of my older games. To my surprise, a lot of them no longer work. I have kept them in their cases and kept the plastic cover on them at all times, so I am unsure how they could have gotten damaged.

Chrono Trigger loops the pendulum scene without ever starting. Sim City 1/10 times will produce wavy-flickering numbers across the screen, the other nine times will be a blank screen. Secret of Mana makes a weird noise and won't start. And the most troubling one is my copy of FF3/6 will get all the way through where you gain control of Vicks and Wedge, then restart the game.

Does anyone know of a safe way to repair SNES games without risking damaging them beyond repair?

All of your games are malfunctioning, so you think it each individual game broke & that your SNES is fine?

Your analytical skills = fail

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Originally posted by: R Nilla

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
I believe Nintendo has a program where you can send in your console and receive a refurbished console for $30-40.

They have a program for an 18-year-old product? :Q

Well, I was a Nintendo Power subscriber until about 2002, and I know they offered the program for NES consoles, which would have been 17 years old at the time. It's possible.

 

[gorcorps]

Lowest common denominator buddy. If you're constantly having problems and one piece of the puzzle is always the same, why would you assume the problem is with the one thing that you're always changing?

 

[Stg-Flame]

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
I dug out my old SNES and NES games a few weeks ago and finally found time to sit back and play some of my older games. To my surprise, a lot of them no longer work. I have kept them in their cases and kept the plastic cover on them at all times, so I am unsure how they could have gotten damaged.

Chrono Trigger loops the pendulum scene without ever starting. Sim City 1/10 times will produce wavy-flickering numbers across the screen, the other nine times will be a blank screen. Secret of Mana makes a weird noise and won't start. And the most troubling one is my copy of FF3/6 will get all the way through where you gain control of Vicks and Wedge, then restart the game.

Does anyone know of a safe way to repair SNES games without risking damaging them beyond repair?

All of your games are malfunctioning, so you think it each individual game broke & that your SNES is fine?

Your analytical skills = fail

Your common sense = fail.

Do you honestly believe that I only own four SNES games? I listed the ONLY ones that are malfunctioning.

As for the helpful posters, I knew about blowing into the cartridge and Isopropyl Alcohol + Cotton Swab years ago - it's the only way I was able to play most of my games when I was younger (especially with NES games, they were the worst).

I have heard that there are methods of dismantling the cartridge itself and cleaning certain components inside to make the game work. The problem is, I used my friend's destroyed copy of Populace as practice to see if I could take the game apart without destroying it, and I was unsuccessful. Give me anything electronic and I can usually take it apart and repair it to some degree, but I cannot get the plastic case off the cartridge without breaking something. It feels like they are screwed together after being super-glued.

Anyways, now that the clarification is done and over with, maybe some other suggestions can come my way.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
I dug out my old SNES and NES games a few weeks ago and finally found time to sit back and play some of my older games. To my surprise, a lot of them no longer work. I have kept them in their cases and kept the plastic cover on them at all times, so I am unsure how they could have gotten damaged.

Chrono Trigger loops the pendulum scene without ever starting. Sim City 1/10 times will produce wavy-flickering numbers across the screen, the other nine times will be a blank screen. Secret of Mana makes a weird noise and won't start. And the most troubling one is my copy of FF3/6 will get all the way through where you gain control of Vicks and Wedge, then restart the game.

Does anyone know of a safe way to repair SNES games without risking damaging them beyond repair?

All of your games are malfunctioning, so you think it each individual game broke & that your SNES is fine?

Your analytical skills = fail

Your common sense = fail.

Do you honestly believe that I only own four SNES games? I listed the ONLY ones that are malfunctioning.

As for the helpful posters, I knew about blowing into the cartridge and Isopropyl Alcohol + Cotton Swab years ago - it's the only way I was able to play most of my games when I was younger (especially with NES games, they were the worst).

I have heard that there are methods of dismantling the cartridge itself and cleaning certain components inside to make the game work. The problem is, I used my friend's destroyed copy of Populace as practice to see if I could take the game apart without destroying it, and I was unsuccessful. Give me anything electronic and I can usually take it apart and repair it to some degree, but I cannot get the plastic case off the cartridge without breaking something. It feels like they are screwed together after being super-glued.

Anyways, now that the clarification is done and over with, maybe some other suggestions can come my way.

I can't believe you didn't notice the screws on the carts.

cleaning carts

DIY gamebit

 

[RaiderJ]

The best tool I've found for cleaning contacts is a good old pink eraser like you find on standard #2 pencils. Seems to be just the right mix of abrasiveness that cleans without damaging contacts. Try that. Also, some games have batteries.... but I think that would just stop games from saving properly.

I would still check the SNES. Different games use different internal parts of the SNES. Could be a bad IC or something on the inside.

 

[Oyeve]

Clean one cart using an erasure or other method, make sure snes is off. insert and remove cart from snes about 50 times as fast as you can. slot in snes should be clean now. Sometimes the slot itself get dust and/or corrosion and needs to be cleaned. Good thing I still have my nes/snes cart and slot cleaner.

 

[MrPickins]

Could it be the battery in the cartridge (for saving games) going bad?

Replacement is possible with a little caution:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro...game-save-battery.html

 

[Stg-Flame]

I had figured it was the battery, but that is something I do not know how to replace it. I will check out that link and see what I can do. The problem is, three of the games that are malfunctioning won't even start and Chrono Trigger just loops the intro. Not entirely sure what would cause that, but I am willing to attempt to change the battery with Sim City to see if it works. If I lose that game completely, no big loss, but I don't want to lose my copies of FF3, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana.

 

[akugami]

I don't know how the games are programmed but batteries usually only affect the saves (meaning it doesn't save any) but it's entirely possible that much like older PC's the games won't function without a working battery. Just like older PC's I believe the cartridges usually have the batteries soldered on so you'll have to use a little elbow grease and carefully pry the battery off after you unscrew the cartridge.

 

[NoWhereM]

The battery will only affect the save games, you would just lose your save as soon as you turn the power off.

Blowing on the cartridge contacts is the absolute worst thing you can do. What you are doing in putting moisture on the contacts which helps get them running for a while but after a time it will cause the contacts to corrode and make the games not work at all. I think someone posted a link to the security bit you need above, and an eraser does work very well. Remember to clean the contacts after using the eraser with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol to get any eraser residue off of the contacts. If a pencil eraser doesn't work try an ink eraser.

Replacing the batteries is not easy to do. They are soldered into place, and if you aren't careful you can melt the board, short it out, or even make the battery explode. I haven't looked in a long time but I recall someone offering to replace them for a price online. If it was me, I would look for some battery sockets and if I could find some that will fit inside the cartridge I would just solder one of those in and then just change the battery as needed.

The other thing you should do is either clean the cartridge connector inside your SNES or replace it. I haven't looked in a while but several sites were selling replacements. As long as you've got the security bit to open the system it isn't that hard to take it apart and swap it out. I used to buy and sell systems and games at a local flea market. You would be surprised at how durable those old systems really are. Most of the ones I purchased as non-working ended up being sold after a good cleaning and resoldering a contact here or there.

Edit to add if you have access to newsgroups try rec.games.video.classic. I don't have access to a news server with my current ISP but that forum always used to have a lot of helpful, friendly people who love those older systems. They should be able to answer just about any question you might have.

 

[KLin]

emulator FTW.

 

[hans030390]

http://www.nintendorepairshop.com/default.asp

 

[BD2003]

There's absolutely nothing inside the carts themselves that need to be cleaned to cure a malfunction. These are chips, not disks. The only thing worth attempting to clean is the contacts on the outside. And if thats not good enough, honestly, you're probably SOL.

If it is the battery, that could possibly be replaced if you open up the cart, but a failing battery is more like to just result in the loss of game saves than an actual malfunction.

I'm still more inclined to believe it's the SNES itself, even though its just a few games. They all access the hardware in different ways at different times. What you'd really need to know for sure is two copies of the same game - if they both malfunction in the same spot in the same way, it's the snes.