Can cartridges just fail? Can they be repaired?

[mogul345]

I recently acquired a Sunnyvale 4 Switcher from a flea market, and it came with 5 or so games. But when I tried to play some them, they didn't seem to work.

 

So I just spent today troubleshooting. I cleaned every single one of my cartridges and the cartridge slot with alcohol, and tested my entire library in the console (which I've since AV modded). Here are the results.

 

Sure enough even after cleaning, 2 of the 5 games that came with the 4 switcher still didn't work (these are the entries in the spreadsheet with an asterisk after the name). But what was even crazier is that Chopper Command, a game I've had since I was a child, also doesn't work. It's been cared for pretty much my entire life - my game collection has been sitting in a cardboard box in my closet or on a bookshelf on display for the last decade or so.

 

I've heard of bit rot. Can this happen to Atari cartridges? I guess I can understand games from a flea market being broken. But that Chopper Command has been taken care of its entire life (well, at least since I got old enough to care for them).

[Keatah]

Yes they can and do fail. There's a body of research on semiconductor failures spanning more than 50-years.

[mogul345]

Is there any way to test if the carts are dead?

[Keatah]

Try a different console. Inspect the solder joints in the cart. Examine and continuity trace the pathways in the cart. Just have to work through the steps.

[maiki]

It could be the console and its cartridge connector as well couldn't it? I think Atari 2600 has far less cartridge failures compared to other consoles. My Sega Mega Drive has frequent problems - I need to blow the cartridges often. And I have at leadt one cartridge that is dead. Not sure what the cause is, but it might be well the poor life of ROM chips themselves? I don't know, but I would not expect all those chips to hold electric data for very long periods. The same applies to SSDs. Not good for archives in my opinion.

[fiddlepaddle]

Over many years with thousands of cartridges, I'd estimate that maybe 1 out of 1000 were bad, when it comes to 2600 games. Activision games seem to need more thorough and frequent cleaning, and probably some manufacturers tend to be more failure-prone than others. Try using a pencil eraser on the connectors of the stubborn carts and/or DeOxit.

Edited May 21, 2017 by fiddlepaddle

[Keatah]

Blowing on cartridges makes a thin film of moisture and contaminants that can temporarily form a connection. But it collects residue and promotes the formation of a thin film of corrosion, only a few thousands of atoms thick. And the next time you use the cart you have to do it again and again and again. Contact cleaner and lube stops that cycle of events and allows the cart to work normally again.

 

Most Atari carts are masked roms - meaning the presence or absence of a part/diode in the chip represents a bit. It's all hard wired and should have a 200+ year lifespan as long as the silicon isn't damaged by static electricity or anything. It's the next best thing to printing.

 

However. SSD can lose data after 2 months unless they receive power so the controller chip can refresh them. SSD has a projected lifespan of 4 years or so for the cheap TLC (and up) chips. MLC is better. SLC is best, and can last 20 or more years with millions of writes.

 

There is also electron migration and leakage (2 different things), think of a drop of ink in water. It doesn't stay that way for long. It spreads out and diffuses. And flash chips do the same thing. And at the small geometries of modern flash, it doesn't last very long indeed.

 

Like I say there's really a whole body of science dealing with this.

[maiki]

Hardwired? What do you mean by hardwired? Plus you say "next best thing to printing". Static electricity is everywhere any time. You say chips are here to save data for centuries...?

Edited May 21, 2017 by maiki

[simbalion]

If I can recall correctly, the mask ROM chips Atari used for the 2600 carts are literally 'welded' in place. The bits are locked in there permanently and it can take quite a bit to kill one. I don't have the link handy, but there is (or was) a site where an Atari fan put a Combat cart through all sorts of torture to try and kill it. It was only a final blow to the chip with a hammer, splitting it in half, that finally killed it. Bit rot seems to be more associated with EPROM and EEPROMs than mask ROMs. That's because those ROMs were designed to be rewritten, which is odd that they loved to use them in arcade games. Even with that, as long as the little window is covered, I've seen those ROMs last a long time too. There's always as certain percentage of failure rate with anything out there, but it seems that Atari's cartridges are some of the most rugged data storage devices made. I think I have only run into two dead carts my whole life, one being a Berserk cart that never worked.

[Osgeld]

Use contact cleaner, iso just removes surface stuff, contact cleaner has a cocktail of solvents to remove corrosion

[simbalion]

As tonight proved with my Pacman cart, sometimes it can take a lot of cleaning to make a cart work. I've used it before, but it had sat a while and I am using a different 2600 than I had the last time I used a that cart. Thought I would never get it working! Some 2600's can be fussier than others...

[maiki]

It seems that Atari's cartridges are some of the most rugged data storage devices made. I think I have only run into two dead carts my whole life, one being a Berserk cart that never worked.

 

Well, it may be well truth. I have only experienced troubles with Sega Mega Drive cartridges, not Atari 2600. I still want to warn that in my opinion it is all similar technology which might be quite sensitive to various electrical magnetic episodes coming up... Back up your data before it's too late :-)

[Osgeld]

its all the same technology, rom on card edge connector PCB, 2600 carts (well official ones) have a added dust protector on them, which 9 out of 10 times I have more trouble with that thing getting stuck than any other issuse

 

otherwise its just storage conditions, the system I have the most issues with is game gear, its gold plating on the fingers is thin , followed by SNES, those jokers you can rub off the plating with an eraser

 

contact cleaner and a qtip for the cart side, flood both and scrub, you will see a lot of interesting green stuff come out, for the slot I take a junker cart board and wrap some thin but sturdy paper that wont ball up or rip when wet soak both and let er rip (also I have had some good luck with a q tip squashed flat in a vice)

Edited May 22, 2017 by Osgeld

[Keatah]

Use contact cleaner, iso just removes surface stuff, contact cleaner has a cocktail of solvents to remove corrosion

 

Some of which don't evaporate and leave a protective/lubricating coating behind. Which is what you want.

 

[mogul345]

Small update. I pulled out my childhood Atari (Sears Video Arcade 2) and got it hooked up via RF to the same TV to rule out composite mod issues w/ the 4 switcher. I tested my entire library again, and sure enough, the same 3 carts failed to work. I guess I just have bum luck - when I was randomly testing carts after I completed the mod I picked the 2 out of the 5 that didn't work from the flea market batch, and when I dug out my childhood carts, of the 3 I randomly picked out of the box I had another dud, causing me to think I had larger problems to solve.

 

So I guess I'm going to crack open the dead carts and see if I notice anything peculiar with them, like broken solder joints or something. But I think I'm about to rule them dead. Crazy since everyone says they're super reliable.

[enoofu]

I heard that Activision games for the Atari were made very cheaply in Taiwan and Hong Kong

[jhd]

I once had a 2600 Inmagic game (Dragon Fire) that would not work, despite a through cleaning. I also had a Coco cartridge that eventually stopped working.

[Torr]

I've got 5 or 6 games out of a hundred or so in my collection I can't get to work... Gonna try getting some of this "contact cleaner" and give em another go.

 

Off hand I can remember:

Air-Sea Battle (pic label)

Ice Hockey (activision)

Dragster (activision)

Unknown (looks like an Atari shell)

 

Plus I have a weird Midnight Magic cart.

 

When I play it on my lighter-sixer it play fine... until the ball falls down to the lower third of the screen at which point the game RESETs.

I've tried launching the ball with varying degrees of power; sometimes it falls straight down instantly triggering a RESET, other time it bounces around bumpers and drop flags earning me some points, before finally falling to the bottom of the screen triggering the RESET. I can practically pinpoint the line on my TV screen that, when crossed, causes the RESET.

 

When I play it on my Vader, it plays fine.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Torr

[+DrVenkman]

Plus I have a weird Midnight Magic cart.

 

When I play it on my lighter-sixer it play fine... until the ball falls down to the lower third of the screen at which point the game RESETs.

I've tried launching the ball with varying degrees of power; sometimes it falls straight down instantly triggering a RESET, other time it bounces around bumpers and drop flags earning me some points, before finally falling to the bottom of the screen triggering the RESET. I can practically pinpoint the line on my TV screen that, when crossed, causes the RESET.

 

When I play it on my Vader, it plays fine.

 

That to me is more likely to be an issue with the TIA or 6532 on your Light Sixer than an issue with the cart. I lean towards TIA since it provides the system memory used to maintain variable, status flags, etc. used to play a game. Anyway, just my two cents.

 

I have exactly one dead cart out of nearly 200 - it has a broken "finger" contact at the PCB card edge. The contact is flat-out gone. I suspect some moron (aka "clueless prior owner") used abrasive cleaners on it and managed to work it right off the board. One other one I thought was dead came back to life this past weekend when I finally got around to giving it several good blasts of CRC (a brand of electrical contact cleaner). Obviously, your mileage may vary.

[DickNixonArisen]

Wasn't there a thread way back detailing that a fair amount of 2600 carts were (to the surprise of the commenters) EEproms? Mostly third party stuff?

[Keatah]

It had to be. 3rd party manufacturers couldn't afford to make custom long-lived masked ROMS. Instead they had to buy temporary-use-only EEPROMS and the comparatively low-cost programmers to put the data in them. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual programming of the chips wasn't done in a basement or garage for a lot of these.

[Keatah]

For the record, I had a couple of Coleco and ColecoVision carts go bad. 1 or 2 M-Network. And one or two Activision and 1 or 2 Atari.. That out of about 700 or so. And all less than 5 years old at the time.

 

The ColecoVision hardware was the worst and crappiest built system, especially compared to the VCS. So no surprise there.

[simbalion]

Hmm, interesting to hear some companies did use EEPROMs in their carts. Of course, wrapped in a black cart, they are fairly well protected from UV rays that cause bit rot.

I have to agree about Coleco. I have two systems and neither one works 100%. The only good working Coleco system I have worked with has been my Adam computer, but that is a heck of a beast to set up. (Should check it out again soon.)

Yes, carts can go bad, but with Atari it seems to be more an exception than the rule.

[DickNixonArisen]

ugh CV's are wusses for sure. I've had two DOA and one glitchy. Sad!

[RamrodHare]

I say try the contact cleaner before taking the carts apart.

 

Since I got back into collecting, I have only ran into one bad cart and it was Circus Atari. I tried everything short of taking it apart. It just wasn't going to work. I cleaned all the 60+ carts I have and they all work fine. I've also heard the contact cleaner will bring the paddle controllers back to life. I didn't try it on mine, I disassembled the pots and cleaned them by hand. If they ever get jittery again, I'll try the contact cleaner and if it doesn't do the trick, I'll buy new pots.

Edited May 27, 2017 by RamrodHare