why do cartridges go dead after time?

[MRAtari]

hi all

 

maybe someone can answer this for me please

 

basically i have a VCS and 4 of the carts i have will not work - i've tried cleaning the contacts till they are bright but nothing

 

while other cartridges work fine so i guess they are just dead after all these years

 

can anyone tell me why this happens or what causes it?

 

thanks

[shadow460]

Several reasons (in the order I see them).

 

1. You already got this, but the contacts get dirty. This causes 99% of all "bad" cartridges, which really only need a cleaning.

 

2. The boards give out. Over the years of hot and cold, being moved around from place to place in the attic, years of general use, and who knows what other conditions, the connections on the board flex and finally break. I've seen this in carts that are only seven years old, and I've seen it in carts that are 30 years old.

 

3. Board components die. The ROM IC's can die from static electricity or age. RAM chips soldered onto the boards can also die to static--this applies to newer system's carts that have save slots for your game progress. You don't see it in Atari 2600 carts, but many games NES and up have batteries in them that die after a number of years. I've got one cart that's been going strong since 1987, another since 1989, and I've got several that killed their internal cells in less than five years. RAM chips can be replaced, batteries can be replaced, and even the board itself could be replaced. The only really irreplaceable part is the ROM or EPROM IC itself.

 

4. The cases die. Years of use can wear at the parts of the case that hold the cartridge board in place. This is easy to fix with adhesives, screws, and cardboard. Alternately, you can swap the game into a better case.

 

5. The media degrades through use. Similar to #4 above, but this applies to cassette or floppy disk based games. Each time, say, Rabbit Transit, loads, the cassette stretches a very tiny bit. After enough loads (even less in a value brand player), the tape stretches enough to distort the audio signals so that they cannot be loaded into the game system.

 

Open the dead carts and re heat all the solder joints with a pencil iron. While you're in there, make sure none of the plastic is cracked or broken. This will revive some, if not all, of your dead carts.

Edited April 25, 2007 by shadow460

[Albert]

It's pretty unusual for 2600 carts to outright "die", at least if they are stored away from the elements. In my travels and experiences with thousands of carts, it's very rare that I encounter one that is outright dead. This seems to happen more with carts produced by third-party companies than carts Atari manufactured.

 

Cleaning the contacts will usually resurrect a dead cartridge, and you may also need to clean the contacts of the cartridge slot on the 2600 itself (although this is a bit trickier). If the carts were kept in a humid area for a while, it's possible that there has been corrosion and/or rust that is affecting them.

 

I opened one dead cart once (since cleaning it had no effect and I was surprised to find an actual dead cart) to find that one of the traces had actually cracked. Don't see that too often.

 

..Al

[MRAtari]

thanks for your replies

 

well i have 4 of them dead! i have cleaned the contacts till they gleam! and even tried them on another console i have and they are still dead

 

funnily enough they were all kept together so maybe that has something to do with it - i bought them from someone so i have no idea of their life though others are ok

 

i did also check the solders on each cart where the chip is soldered in and checked all the tracks and they all looked fine

 

anyway enough is enough sad to say they are in the bin now

[Albert]

thanks for your replies

 

well i have 4 of them dead! i have cleaned the contacts till they gleam! and even tried them on another console i have and they are still dead

 

funnily enough they were all kept together so maybe that has something to do with it - i bought them from someone so i have no idea of their life though others are ok

 

i did also check the solders on each cart where the chip is soldered in and checked all the tracks and they all looked fine

 

anyway enough is enough sad to say they are in the bin now

What games were they?

 

..Al

[Bill Brasky]

I've had more of a problem with dead Genesis carts than any other system. I assume it's because there's so many beat-up ex-rentals out there.

[thomasholzer]

Obviously, they need recharging

[Scumdogg]

thanks for your replies

 

well i have 4 of them dead! i have cleaned the contacts till they gleam! and even tried them on another console i have and they are still dead

 

funnily enough they were all kept together so maybe that has something to do with it - i bought them from someone so i have no idea of their life though others are ok

 

i did also check the solders on each cart where the chip is soldered in and checked all the tracks and they all looked fine

 

anyway enough is enough sad to say they are in the bin now

What games were they?

 

..Al

 

 

I'm almost scared to hear the answer to that.

[A.J. Franzman]

i did also check the solders on each cart where the chip is soldered in and checked all the tracks and they all looked fine

 

anyway enough is enough sad to say they are in the bin now

Too bad you tossed them, as it's often impossible to detect a cold solder joint or ring crack by looking at it with the naked eye. You really should have reflowed all the solder joints (adding fresh rosin flux core solder, or just some liquid or paste flux) before giving up on them.

 

Having said that, I know that mask ROM carts do sometimes die. I've had two of them myself that did not respond to cleaning or reflowing, and I even filled the vias while I was there (a "via" is a hole through the board with no wire or component lead in it, that is copper-plated on the inside to make a connection in a circuit track from one side of the board to the other). One of the carts was Super Breakout, very common so no great loss; but the other was Tapper, so I was a bit upset about that one.

 

Also, a few games were produced partly or entirely using EPROMS, which are known to lose their data after a few decades. These are usually chips with windows in them, though there are also some known as OTP PROMS (OTP = One Time Programmable) that do not have windows. I do not know if any games were produced using OTP chips. If you happen to have a working game with a chip that has a window in it, COVER THE WINDOW WITH SOMETHING OPAQUE! Most of the time, just being in a cartridge shell will protect the chip from erasure; but obviously, if you see the window, it is not protected at that moment. However, it usually takes a lot of UV to erase an EPRPOM chip enough to make it fail -- equivalent to a few weeks of sunlight. So don't waste your time opening carts just to look for the windows, but if you happen to have a board with no shell, or you open one for some other reason (and it still works), and you see a windowed chip, cover it.

Edited April 28, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[Bruce Tomlin]

I've had more of a problem with dead Genesis carts than any other system. I assume it's because there's so many beat-up ex-rentals out there.

I once got a stack of SEVENTEEN dead Sonic 1 cart boards that some guy had gotten from ex-rentals, like an auction or something.

 

Anyhow, while truly dead 2600 carts are rare, the games that are dead are usually common, just because of averages. I think the rarest dead cart I had was a Lost Luggage. I even have a dead Keith Courage HuCard for the TG16.

[shadow460]

My rarest dead cart is either Alien or Eggomania. I got Eggomania free from an AA member who told me it was dead. I also got a TMPW from the same person that I was able to repair.

 

My Submarine Commander was full of rust when I got it. I fixed that easily.

 

My most valuable cartridge I've had to fix is Alien Brigade for the 7800.

[+Zeptari]

I took my 2600 games out the other day and out of 100+ games I only found 2 dead carts.

 

One that I knew of.. i think it was a sega game.. Tac Scan.... Hope i got that name right.

but my latest dead game is Pitfall! how sad.. it was my only copy.

 

-Rick

 

 

BTW.. both of my ST machines died last week that's why i'm back into the 2600 scene.

 

FUN STUFF!!

[Segataritensoftii]

I've got a dead Sonic 3 cart. Those ones are hard to find in good condition! I got a replacement from Goodwill once, but that had a dead save battery. I don't know where that one is anymore. I think my genesis copy of Sonic 3D Blast might be on It's way out as well. Good thing I have the Saturn version.

Edited April 28, 2007 by Segataritensoftii

[* Alternative Reality *]

Great thread topic, as i can relate!

 

I have some dead carts that i really miss playing....and the interesting thing is that they are ALL 80's Activision games.

 

Here they are:

 

Megamaina

Stampede

Barnstorming

Freeway

 

All four of these have not worked for over 10 years now......but to date i have had no problems with any of my other Atari carts.

 

So is it more common for Activision ones to go belly up?

 

I miss these games a LOT and will consider trying my hand at fixing them up with some of the tips mentioned here.

 

One question: What is the best way to OPEN a cart without damaging the plastic shell, or the sticker label(s)??

 

Thanks in advance for any tips!

Edited May 1, 2007 by * Alternative Reality *

[A.J. Franzman]

So is it more common for Activision ones to go belly up?

 

I miss these games a LOT and will consider trying my hand at fixing them up with some of the tips mentioned here.

 

One question: What is the best way to OPEN a cart without damaging the plastic shell, or the sticker label(s)??

It's more common for Activision carts to not work when their contacts are dirty, or if the cartridge port in the console is dirty or has weak contact pressure, than for most other brands. This is due to Activision's use of slightly thinner circuit boards.

 

Most cartridges are held together by one or two screws, as well as several plastic hook tabs. To remove the labels without damage, use a heat gun (paint stripper type) on low heat, or a hair dryer on high heat to soften the adhesive (use it again when re-applying the labels if the adhesive is fairly good, otherwise use a glue stick). Once you have the screw(s) out, side pressure on one of the shell halves should get the hooks to release. Sometimes you can look in the open end to discover which way the hooks are oriented.

 

I took a chance not too long ago when buying a large lot of mostly common carts, and added several Activision carts that the seller said did not work on his system. Every single one of them worked on my system either immediately or after a cleaning.

[* Alternative Reality *]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the tips!!

 

There is still hope then! Woo hoo!!

 

 

I will definately have a better look at them, and will report back if i have made any progress!

 

Thanks again!

 

[Zwackery]

I've come across a few dead carts in the hundreds and hundreds (sweet fancy moses, it's probably in the thousands by now) I've handled. For the Atari 2600, it has been several Pac-Man, a couple Asteroids, a few Combat, 1 Coleco Donkey Kong, 1 Big Bird's Egg Catch, a few Activision Ice Hockey. I personally fried a Fantastic Voyage back in the day, and my original Colecovision Star Wars: TAG got zapped with a heavy static discharge and bit the dust. Those are the ones I can remember.

 

Okay, here's a question for the better technical people on AA:

 

How long is the (projected) lifespan of an Atari 2600 cart?

(i.e., with regard to the storage medium itself, given optimal conditions)

[* Alternative Reality *]

Excellent question....

 

I would like to know the general answer to that one myself........

[A.J. Franzman]

How long is the (projected) lifespan of an Atari 2600 cart?

(i.e., with regard to the storage medium itself, given optimal conditions)

This sounds familiar, like it's a topic I've posted to before, but all I can find is a topic about console longevity.

 

I believe that for the general case of glass-passivated, plastic-packaged integrated circuits in typical storage and operating environments, the jury's still out but the general consensus is that mean time to failure from moisture intrusion leading to corrosion is expected to be something like 50-100 years. So the fanatics who keep their cartridges in plastic baggies with desiccant packets might actually be onto something good. Background and cosmic radiation may be another source of failure, but because of the large size of the structures forming mask ROMs of Atari 2600 vintage (compared to those of processes in use making ICs today), I'll guess it's many times less detrimental than the moisture issue for most environments.

Edited May 5, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[shadow460]

For what it's worth, most of the dead carts I have are 20th Century Fox. They have some kind of Intel ROM IC in there that I have yet to see in any other cart.

[Foxsolo2000]

I've only ever had three dead carts in all the years I have collected 2600 games. The first was Ssssnake which refused to work from brand new. The second was Encounter at L5 which died after a few months from new and the third was a Real Sports Football that I got from Europe. Apart from those three I have had long years of realibility