Corrosion on cartridge pin - how to repair?

[cleoo]

I hadn’t played several of my cartridges in years until recently and discovered this on the Rampage cartridge. So it’s unplayable... Any suggestions on how to get to get it back into playable condition?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Is that pin also floating off the board as well? It looks like it is. But to answer your question, it would require careful use of alcohol and de-ox-it or something similar. I usually use the alcohol first to get most of it off. Then use the de-ox-it or similar type stuff and then use alcohol to remove the excess from the de-ox-it. Then finally use a pink pearl brand eraser to go at the pin some more if it really needs it. Use alcohol again to remove the eraser residue.

 

But you have to be careful because the alcohol will bleach the label on the lynx cart.

 

[cleoo]

The pin is not floating off the board. It's flat on it. Though, I did some initial cleaning to get the corrosion off, a bit of the gold flaked off. So, I'm not sure if there is still a good connection or is the copper-looking subsurface of the pin still suitable? I inserted it and it did not work. I had used some alcohol as gently as I could and the picture is what was left to deal with.

[Bratwurst]

From the corrosion gathered around the edge of the label, it's possible that a trace directly underneath is shot. You'll have to peel the sticker back and get a better look at the PCB then.

[rj1307]

I would do it like this: he peeled off part of the sticker, cleaned the pad with a fiberglass brush (FIBERPEN) to the copper itself, then tinned. However, if the damage was too great, the only solution would be to remove the old pad and stick the new one.

[cleoo]

Thank you. I will try all the suggestions offered. I need to get a fiber pen too. I’ll report back...

[+Stephen Moss]

On 3/8/2020 at 9:49 PM, cleoo said:

he pin is not floating off the board. It's flat on it. Though, I did some initial cleaning to get the corrosion off, a bit of the gold flaked off.

That does not surprise me as the corrosion looks a lot like verdigris cause by some of the gold plating already having been removed  exposing the copper track underneath.

If you do get it clean there are conductive pens like this you can get for PCB repair, I would suggest getting one and going over the copper finger with it to aide conduction and prevent re-oxidisation.

[cleoo]

Thank you for the suggestion Stephen, I'll have to acquire some of these tools and see how it goes. Hopefully, the cost to fix my cartridge is cheaper than finding a used cartridge. Luckily, I don't have any other cartridges with this kind of corrosion.