A step-by-step tutorial on how to clean oxidized pin sets on old video game cartridges. Please take note, this method is for EXTREME cases for carts that are beyond the help of normal cleaning methods, and is not recommended otherwise.
Thanks so much for posting this! I just bought a copy of Megaman 2 at a convention and even managed to get it autographed by the dude who did the cover art for the North American releases of the NES Megaman games, only to bring it home and find that one of the pins was corroded to hell. None of my usual tricks worked, but Brasso brought it back to life. You saved me a lot of heartache!
thanks for the vid, Im watching and clicking ads for you bc you are small, I hope you get $$$ from that and not nasty youtube. I appreciate you sharing your techniques. There are way to many clean, overview, basic fix videos for fixing pcbs, and not nearly enough that go into depth like right here. Subbed homie. You giving out trade secrets hahaha. I'm a fellow fixer btw, I love it.
@PixelPerspective - WOW! That cartridge looks like its been out in a humid barn for a few years. Great video! PS I love the intro to your video, as it sounds like you're placing a cartridge inside an NES/SNES/N64.
To answer the guy that asked about vinegar... Vinegar, like any other liquid that is not alcohol, will of course corrode the board IF you let it stand. A great technique is to apply baking soda and vinegar which causes a nice chemical reaction, and it burns off some corrosion and grime. You just have to be sure to use rubbing alcohol right after. A great technique for cleaning pin connectors is to soak them in hot water, baking soda, and then add vinegar and let it soak for a few minutes. Then you douse it in rubbing alcohol and use a hair dryer to make sure no moisture remains. But, that is with a pin connector. With a game cartridge and a circuit board I would avoid using any vinegar (I have but we are talking a super tiny amount with baking soda immediately followed by rubbing alcohol). First clean the connector as best you can with rubbing alcohol. You will be surprised that some carts will still launch with some corrosion. Best to use rubbing alcohol until the Qtip is clear and test it. Then go to brasso. If the brasso does not work, then you use 330 grade sand paper, the problem with sand paper is you could easily end up accidentally breaking a trace. It is okay if a trace is exposed, but if it gets cut, you have to repair it which is a pain in the ass. So, you have to be careful. 99 percent of games can be fixed. But there is always that one percent that are just so bad there is nothing you can do. This cart in the video is not nearly the worst I have seen lol. It is bad but not that bad. You should see some of the carts I restored, cockroach feces, oxidation, rust, all of it. Blew my frikin mind. People store your shit in a nice cool dry place. I never understood how people could treat their shit so badly and ignorantly. Good video. Also, if you are having problem with games playing always be sure to check the pin connector as well. I have found corrosion on those even on the 72 pin connector on a NES both on the connector and on the edge connector on the board. I would put a game in and it would come on but would not work because of the corrosion on the edge connector on the board where the pin connector makes contact.
Hello, can you help me with my nintendo switch cartridges? Ive noticed some oxidation on the pin connector. I live in Malaysia which is the air is humid i believe. How to clean it?
@@syahirfahim6717 Switch Carts are rough. Not going to lie. Try cleaning them externally first with rubbing alcohol. If that doesn't work, you have to use a small flat head screw driver to pry them open to get directly to the edge connector, then you can clean them with brasso and rubbing alcohol. Try the rubbing alcohol first though, and just be thorough. That usually works.
do you think brasso would work equally as well as contact cleaner/electric cleaner? I am trying to save 2 gameboy advance cartridges that have had soap which dried onto the pins over a long period of time. The screwdriver to take the cartridge comes in two days and I am hoping to get a deeper clean once I can open it. Thanks in advance!
@@ohweezuschrist The brasso will work perfectly. Use that, clean it thoroughly, and then follow up clean with rubbing alcohol. The games will work after that assuming there are no cut traces.
I got a copy of Pilotwings from an antique place a week ago and it won’t boot up. After cleaning it with alcohol multiple times, even going as far as opening it up to get to the circuit board, I came to the conclusion that the buildup of corrosion on the outer pins is the source of the problem. Perhaps I’ll have to try this out.
have you ever replaced/soldered any new resistors etc inside of the game carts? I have a few that seem to have been rusted out a bit and a resistor connection was broken due to it.. would like to know that replacing this has been done?
I posted this as a response further down but will post it again as it's own comment. At first you can attempt to gently scrape off corroded pins with a paint scraper / razor. After an initial cleaning of the game pins I will use a SNES dust cover and fill it with just enough vinegar to soak the cartridge pins. I'll let them sit for 30 - 45 mins depending on how bad they are. After that, I'll remove them and dry the pins. After drying, I'll drum some baking soda on the pins and boards (I'll hear a little fizzle as the remaining vinegar is neutralized). After that I'll clean everything down with rubbing alcohol. Then I'll go over the pins with baking soda / water once again. I'll finally clean everything off with rubbing alcohol again. I usually dry everything well with compressed air. Small dings will remain where the neutralized / removed corrosion used to be, but the pins will otherwise retain their golden luster.
I may be way off the mark, but is there not some type of copper paint to recoat exposed pins and prevent further oxidation while retaining conductivity after this type of cleaning? A clean and restore if you will ;)
Straight up vinegar on a Qtip removes the corrosion. Then you use alcohol on a clean Qtip and wipe away what your cleaned. Been using this technique for 35 years. Works perfectly. In some cases where the corrosion is not removed, toothpaste WITH baking soda solves that and shines up the pins as well. 120 grade sandpaper in an up&down manner can help in extreme cases. But they always work afterwards...
@@PureConsoleGamers When using the vinegar, it removes the corrosion efficiently and you DO have to clean it off... Its not a simple wipe/saturate and go method..
just got a pretty rare game for cheap but the pins were completely oxidized, i blew off visible amounts of rusted copper, do you think i should return it and get my money back while i can? it was the worst shape ive ever seen pins in, i think it oxidized in transit due to the cold and lack of layers against the elements
What’s that little handheld deal??? I got a n64 game off of eBay and it is pretty bad... need a special tool to take it apart but the game store said they would clean it for a couple dollars.
excuse me my good sir i used rubingalcohol for my N64 games. they werent corroded (Infact only 1 came i have is actually very corroded) back then i stopped playing my n64 for about 5 years and then the cartridges became black on the contacts.it was only dirt. no corrosion. so i used rubbing alcohol on it to remove the dirt the q tips became black. this is safe right? i only used it on the dirt. there was no oxidation or rust it was just dirty. now it shines now and works beautifully after letting them dry for an hour or two i did a good days work right? the main reason i asked as i was worried that the contacts were golden instead of silver as i thought silver meant the game is clean. So its SUPPOSED to be golden? i guess i did do a good job cleaning didnt i?
@@ZyferWarriorPrime well I leave them in a plastic container, don't know how airtight it is but it seems alright. I couldn't get it off with alcohol anyways, I had to use vinegar.
@@anonymousidea9119 If it works, it isn't a big deal about it looking pretty. Baking soda paste works surprisingly well for those last case desperation ones. I used brasso to clean off the internal NES connectors though. Avoiding liquids and humidity is the best thing too. These cartridges have taken a lot of abuses over the years being in garages and ending up in yard sales and flea markets. What you have done is better than nothing, but there are better options. I would take extra precautions for your more rare and expensive ones in the least.
@@ZyferWarriorPrime For sure. And don't worry, it was just Super Bowling. The "rarest" game I could break is Super Mario All Stars + World as of now, and i'm not putting steel wool or brasso on any rare games I may end up with. and I'll definitely say I've seen my fair share of permanent marker and sticker gunk and other stuff on cartridges that just drives me mad.
@@anonymousidea9119 Well, the cartridge backs are easy to swap but ya. Alcohol is good for even getting off permanent marker, but won't help you on the labels. Funny part about Mario World + All-Stars is that it was not sold separately. If you want it in its original box, it would have to be a console box. Some games are surprisingly rare though. Super Bowling for SNES is cheap, Super Bowling 64 is like a couple hundred for the cartridge alone, while the Japanese Super Bowling 64 is dirt cheap in comparison.
I found an old Street of Rage 2 for the Genesis and it was heavily corroded. Way worse than this. It literally has "rocks" "living" on the gold pins lmao. I honestly thought the game was done for. I went ahead and cleaned it all up, but the corrosion was just too much no amount of 99.9% IPA would get it off. What I ended up doing was getting a fine grit sand paper. I literally just went to town on the pins and literally sanded off all of the corrosion. Now all the pins looked a bit scratched, but they look super clean now. They all have a silverish color to them. A few of them have a brown/coper color to them. I went in pretty deep on those since those had the deeper corrosion. Anyways, the pins don't look perfect (obviously) but all corrosion is gone. The game also works perfectly. I beat the entire thing on a model 2 Genesis haha. I'm amazed at how durable these old cartridges are. The game literally works perfectly.
Contacts are gold-coated copper. Pure copper is not good for contacts because oxidizes pretty fast. You are removing the gold exposing the copper. Before doing that, first I would use 99º rubbing alcohol. If alcohol is not enough, electrical contact cleaner will do it and you dont have to clean nothing after. I have recover some games using contact cleaner. Also when I am cleaning o repairing a carthidge console, I like to spray the contacts with cleaner, and insert a game several times to clean the contacts on the console. This also works with RAM sticks, graphic cards and slots on computer. Spray some cleaner in the slot, insert a RAM or GPU several times and the contacts in both, the slot and card will be clean
