Nintendo 64 freezing randomly?

[moodorf]

I've got a "glitch gremlin" in my N64 that's so bad, for a while today I was convinced my N64 was dead--every game I played froze either on startup or within 2-3 minutes of gameplay. It would freeze and get all scrambled. Sort of like a NES game.

 

Now to be completely honest....I might have caused or exacerbated this issue....

 

Earlier today, I took out my expansion pack, cleaned it with rubbing alcohol, and put it back in (this was in an attempt to fix a different unrelated issue) then, the above-mentioned crashing started to happen. After a while I came to the conclusion that my over-use of only 70-ish% pure rubbing alcohol maybe have caused some moisture to get into the console to cause this new problem.

 

Soooo.... I gave the N64 a while for the alcohol to evaporate and played it just now. For the first 20-25 minutes of gameplay it seemed fine, like the alcohol and whatever made up that unaccounted-for 30 something % had evaporated and the freezing was gone. Then it froze/crashed again

 

Right now I'm letting the N64 sit there, on but with no one playing it. It hasn't crashed but then again the glitch might have something to do with high CPU use, or whatever that equivalent is in console gaming (don't know the right terminology)

 

Anyone had a similar problem? I really need help here.....

Edited March 28, 2015 by moodorf

[Rick Dangerous]

Is your expansion pack third party? I don't bother with them, every single one I've ever had (admittedly only 2-3) has caused my n64 to freeze or crash regularly (mostly freeze.) Go first party and only first party and you will have far less problems. Clean everything. Even then the games with the expansion pak feature are less stable in hi-res mode and are slightly prone to the occasional crash (some-more third party games.) If there is an option go for medium high res over super (as in Vigilante 8.)

 

If you clean things with alcohol/distilled water mix allow 6 hours to dry, or otherwise yes you will have problems. Everything should work fine once dry.

Edited March 28, 2015 by travistouchdown

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Hmm maybe if taken apart and there might be loads of dust inside, causing it to overheat? Although there is a large heatsink, you never know and I'm sure it could use a cleaning either way. Clean all contacts and carts with 90% rubbing alcohol, the strongest you can find.. not the 70% type.

A first party expansion pak would a be a plus but other wise there could be a chip starting to fail.. its hard to tell. Do the easy steps first (cleaning) and then go from there.

[moodorf]

Thanks for all the input guys, but my N64 miraculously resurrected itself sort of. I really do believe now that it was just excessive moisture caused by the rubbing alcohol I used to clean it. I'm going to be buying the 90% stuff from now on.