Changed my 72 pin connector on my NES today

[+cvga]

I know it's not the biggest accomplishment in the world but all of my carts are working on the first attempt and I feel pretty good about it

 

The carts sure do fit snugly now!

[AtariBrian]

What do you think about getting the Blinking Light Win ?

[+cvga]

What do you think about getting the Blinking Light Win ?

I didn't know what that was so I just looked it up. It was pretty easy and inexpensive (for me $10) to swap out the connector so I'd probably do that again.

[godslabrat]

New connectors seem to be a mixed bag. Mine didn't help much. :-(

[Tanooki]

You know in most if not nearly all cases unless the pins are actually damaged on the original NES connector they are repairable and far more reliable than the cheap garbage sold today. The modern ones are made out of cheap brittle metals and don't hold up over the years and you'll be suffering from more blinking hell sooner than later.

 

This will sound stupid, but keep in mind a stock Nintendo connector is aluminum and won't rust, so follow this.

 

-- Get a pot, lay cloth in bottom, and fill with water.

-- Boil the water

-- Throw in 72pin connector and let it stew for 5min

-- Remove, use a NES cleaning kit pad (or a glasses wipe around a credit card), and in-out it like 10-20x

-- Did it come away with some rank looking gray gooey funk? Dip it again for another 5min

-- Dip, rub, repeat until your 'pad' comes away clean

 

Bonus to this...the boiling heat reacts to the pins like it's a memory metal, it will pop back into position like it was back in the 80s and be very tight. Odds are 50/50 so tight the games will work both in the locked down and left up position.

 

I've done this on the last few NES systems I've had in my hands (along with killing the security lockout chip) and they've been bulletproof fantastic. All that nasty gray funk is basically dust and we know what dust is made up of and man it looks nasty in that wet form.

[+jeremiahjt]

I have tried boiling the connector before and it only improved functionality marginally. The first replacement connector I installed was junk, but the second one I tried works like a champ. Almost all games work first or second time with this one. I also never push the game down so the pins do not get bent down.

[0078265317]

I did this many years ago. Works great. Now for some reason games don't works when push down. Too much game genie perhaps. But with a genie works great. And also surprisingly works without a game genie if I leave the games in and don't push down on the game/connector. No blinking light win. Just the normal connector. I know its weird.

[+cvga]

You know in most if not nearly all cases unless the pins are actually damaged on the original NES connector they are repairable and far more reliable than the cheap garbage sold today. The modern ones are made out of cheap brittle metals and don't hold up over the years and you'll be suffering from more blinking hell sooner than later.

Is there a way to tell if the replacement was an original or a knock off? It looks exactly like the original one I took out of the NES.

[Tanooki]

I'm not sure. I guess if you can tell the difference of aluminum and some other cheaper polished metal I suppose. I've never touched the things as I've avoided them entirely. Before I knew of that trick I'd actually go in and still pop it out and clean it as such, but before that I would use a safety pin and go one at a time and pull them back towards center to tighten the grip. Even that way would last a few years before doing it again and this was on the system I had from 1985 up through around 2010 when I sold it to a father and his little kid looking for a system. They had come over for a few games, but were still looking and as I had a top loader and a sharp nes tv at the time I let it go.

[+GoldenWheels]

If you're not cleaning the games themselves, you're only fixing 25% of the issue. And then you could be putting that crap back on your new clean connector.

 

My replacement connector has lasted for years since I only put clean games in it (and I don't blow on them!!!!)

[thecrypticodor]

Sometimes cleaning with rubbing alcohol and q-tips isn’t enough. Some carts pins are so dirty and tarnished you need to open the cart and use a pink eraser to properly clean them. I replaced my 72 pin with a after market one six years back and when fed a properly cleaned cart it will work mostly on the first try. At worst never needing more than a little side to side wiggle of the cart.

[+GoldenWheels]

Sometimes cleaning with rubbing alcohol and q-tips isn’t enough. Some carts pins are so dirty and tarnished you need to open the cart and use a pink eraser to properly clean them. I replaced my 72 pin with a after market one six years back and when fed a properly cleaned cart it will work mostly on the first try. At worst never needing more than a little side to side wiggle of the cart.

Very true, and I should have been more clear.....I use the eraser on ANY carts that come into my house, and never half ass it with just rubbing alcohol+q-tips. That basically does nothing other than take light surface dust off. With the eraser I've brought rusty carts (like literally bubbling, 3d rust on the connectors) back to functionality.

[Andromeda Stardust]

just get a blinking light win and forget it. After going through 3 aftermarket connectors in 5 years, blw basically made my front-loader into a sideways top-loader, without the janky rf.

[Punisher5.0]

New connectors seem to be a mixed bag. Mine didn't help much. :-(

Same here. Marginal at best

[keepdreamin]

just get a blinking light win and forget it. After going through 3 aftermarket connectors in 5 years, blw basically made my front-loader into a sideways top-loader, without the janky rf.

 

This, this, this, and this. There's a reason pretty much every other cart system didn't use the NES style. Blinking light win will convert it over to a normal cartridge slot.

[0078265317]

Game genie works every time. Just cut the A off and leave it in there.

[Dripfree]

I've posted this before and received mixed responses, but I feel it's worth saying again. I have never replaced a connector I have removed and deep cleaned and boiled once. This is good but I firmly believe it is only necessary maybe once every 10 years.... If you keep your games clean. This has been the case for about 10 systems I have owned throughout the years. I'm sure there are situations where replacement is necessary, but after that is done be ocd with your cleaning. After buying a game it never goes into my nes without a deep cleaning. If it's a game I haven't played in a while I clean it before it goes in. I get a blinking light with a blue screen maybe 1 out of 100 tries. Its very rare. I really believe thmethod is a must for any nes owner. I will admit the front loader is a flawed design. I do also believe it gets a bad rap. In my experience a little love from time to time goes a very long way.

[Tanooki]

^Agreed and it's what I've done all these years. The boilings I've done are second hand systems I've come across, never had to do it on my long term keeper from back in the 80s. The cleaning kit from Nintendo doused in 91% alcohol on the wands or the deck cleaner always got the job done. I have a security bit and have had that for 7-8 years now, and after owning that I'll unscrew and clean any game. And yes I use the alcohol but I fold over some paper towel into a thick strip, wet it and put the thumb to it and it works and keep going until the paper towel bit stays white and not any shade of gray. Sometimes you get a bad second games that have gone fairly gray, black, or worse some form of corrosion (green) or rust. A little alcohol on a magic eraser I find does the job beautifully. I don't use erasers, never have other than a couple failed attempts and found zero merit in them. Perhaps they work for maintenance on something already clean, but when dirty people do dirty stuff to used goods, especially flea market based ones, it has been a lost cause.

 

The most abusive I ever got was one time I picked up a Battletoads game for a couple dollars and it had serious rot even the magic eraser couldn't fit. This will make any collector cringe, but I felt it was better than trashing it. I got very fine grit sandpaper, held the board in my hand, wet it and went to town. Shaved it almost entirely clean except for a light stain or two and despite having shiny horizontal lines across the entire set of pins it lived! I used that one for years as it was far better than the $20 asking rate at that time 5-6 years ago as it was.

[icemanxp300]

I've done the boil an bake method on probably 50 systems over the past 8 years or so. They all do not work worth a damn unless you brasso the board pins. I have since this year just went new 72 pin route and I find the results much better personally. I purchased Culsams pin connectors which are suppose to be some of the best you can buy.

 

As far as the metal going back to where they were back when new in the 80's that's a pile of horse shit. If that metal changes at all it is minimal. All the pins I boil and baked not one did the edges move at all and that is where the problems lie in those connectors.

 

As far as telling a new from an original pin, yes it can be done. Original pins has a circle but it's like a star circle on the edge.

 

 

...

 

 

[AtariLeaf]

just get a blinking light win and forget it. After going through 3 aftermarket connectors in 5 years, blw basically made my front-loader into a sideways top-loader, without the janky rf.

 

I've had one since last summer and my games work the first time, every time. Best retro gaming purchase I've made in a while.

[Tanooki]

Yeah culsam for years has been noted to have the best knockoff pins.

 

As for bullshit, hardly... I may only be 3 for 3 but it worked. Also personally I wouldn't put brasso anywhere near a Nintendo pin set in a system or a cart as it's an abrasive, plus it leaves a flim which you then have to deal with removing entirely as well.. Not a fan of the stuff in the least bit.

[icemanxp300]

Also personally I wouldn't put brasso anywhere near a Nintendo pin set in a system or a cart as it's an abrasive, plus it leaves a flim which you then have to deal with removing entirely as well.. Not a fan of the stuff in the least bit.

 

We all have different views, however unless you are using a deathgrip new pin that scrapes it's way through 30 years of oxidation you are not going to achieve the best results.

 

I used brasso, cleaned w/alcohol, and sprayed w/deoxit gold. The deoxit acts just as the original plating did. If you are going to clean the old pin you better clean where it connects as well. Just my opinion.

[Andromeda Stardust]

^^I tried the boil thing on the stock connector and it did nothing. Perhaps adding some distilled vinegar in the bath would do better as acetic acid, being an organic acid, attacks oxidation and corrosion without attacking the metal itself like inorganic acids do.

 

Game genie works every time. Just cut the A off and leave it in there.

For a long time, Game Genie was the only thing that made my NES work reliably. Then I went through a phase with a Yobo clone for a couple years, 2005-2007, to avoid further degradation of my original NES, then in 2007-2013 era I kept swapping out the pin connectors, which always inevitably went to junk after about 50-60 repeat insertions, then finally I got an AV Famicom for imports and just started using the pin adapter to play NES games because it was less trouble than dealing with the original. GAmes worked first time, every time. I backed the blw on Kickstarter and it worked wonders!!! No endless reseating of the carts and cram a CD jewel case above the cart tray to keep it half mast and pray to the Lord that it doesn't glitch up sometime while playing. And yes, you can use it with a Genie, by cutting off part of the tongue.

[0078265317]

But game genie works everytime. So no need for BLW. The genies need cleaning every now and then but otherwise its all good.

[Andromeda Stardust]

But game genie works everytime. So no need for BLW. The genies need cleaning every now and then but otherwise its all good.

See my above post. Best of both worlds!