NES What did you do when your NES would not work?

[PrideKidd]

Ok Gamers, those of us who remember the Nintendo very fondly also remember the frustration of trying to games to work when their machines wouldn't work. What were some of things you did to make it work again. Examples are blowing in it, snapping the cartridge down... What seemed to work for you?

 

[JoanMcWench]

Personally, I'm a little more familiar than the normal gamer. I would take it apart & extensively clean the pins. Honestly this is usually your problem when dealing with a NES. It's set in a way where if you are not using it regularly you are collecting an immense amount of dust.

 

[pandabear1991]

Sounds risky but worked for me:
The gold showing part of the game board in the game itself gets this green buildup on it. I would dip q-tip a in rubbing alcohol, and gently clean the cartridge (may require lots of q-tips depending on build up). Try to soak up any excess rubbing alcohol with either extra q-tips or a cotton ball (be gentle and careful not to leave cotton strands on cartridge, could cause fire). Allow to dry for a good 30 minutes and you should be good to go.

My game could use some cleaning but just wanted to show the gold game board I was referring to.

 

[joshposh]

I would take the cartridge out and blow into the opening of the cartridge, then you would put it in to the pop up tray and not fully insert it. You would pull it slightly out and pop it down. Sometimes the would work.