Broken NES - any ideas?

[+McCallister]

So, this past weekend a friend gave me his NES to fix. When he gave it to me, he was only getting a blue screen. No problem, I thought, probably needs the 72 pin cleaned up, carts dusted off, etc, as all of this had been sitting in a box for a good decade. Did all that and still got the blue screen. Kept trying different carts and eventually got just a black screen. No sound, no pop, just straight black. Kept trying and now the light does not come on.

 

The unit still gets power, but nothing seems to function. Before I give up on it, I wanted to see if anyone else has had these sorts of problems. I am suspecting that several traces have broken or gone bad, but at this point, it could be a chip, too. Anyone got any ideas?

[icemanxp300]

I would suggest a new pin connector as compared to trying to clean and old one.

[godslabrat]

Might as well disable the 10NES too. Normally, it's not my first solution, but if you're a step away from dumpstering it now, might as well.

[AtariLeaf]

Have you tried a different PSU to rule out a bad power supply? If you are replacing the 72 pin connector try one of the Blinking Light Win replacements. I love mine. No problems after about a year of having it.

[Tanooki]

I'd clean the entire board with 91% isopropyl alcohol or whatever you feel is equally appropriate. Remove the 72pin and boil it (5min in), then use cart cleaner in-out 10x, and repeat until the cleaner is clean and not gray/mucky. I'd disable the 10NES in case it has aged to the point it just hates games (clip PIN4.)

If that fails you're really well getting into replacing major parts which requires spares and soldering skill and likely not worth it.

[SignGuy81]

One thing I would check since you have no power indicator(but then say it is getting power so I'm a little confused) is to check the input voltage at the voltage regulator, and if that is good check the output voltage as well. Input voltage is the first pin and output is the last pin. After doing this check come back with results. If you don't have voltage on the input then more than likely the problem is in the RF board and I have a spare but it can be a pain to remove with limited skills.

 

PS:

Once power problem is fixed though you still have the other issue to deal with so as mentioned before it may not be worth all the trouble

Edited January 17, 2018 by SignGuy81

[+McCallister]

Just wanted to chime in again and thank everyone for the good advice! After ruling out a bad power supply and determining the pin connector was good, I ended up getting a junker nes and swapping out the board. Just took the old pin connector and cart mechanism and put them on the junker board and everything worked great.

 

In regards to the above PS, the front light would not turn on, but the system was still sending a signal to the television. So, if you were just looking for the light, you would think the system wasn't getting power.

 

Still not sure if it's a bad chip or bad traces or what, but probably not worth the time to figure out.

[DJ Clae]

Not sure why the power light would have stopped coming on. I would have replaced the 72-pin connector from the outset, since it generally needs to be done for most regardless.