Game cartridge PIN cleaning

[Pasky]

So I was going through my games and had a SMB2 cart that just wouldnt boot. Cleaned the pins with alcohol, still wouldn't boot. Took it apart and there was a lot of black crud on the pinouts:





So I got some aluminum polish I bought from autozone a few years ago:





And with a dremel buffer (you can do this by hand easily with a cloth, just dont get the stuff on your hands):



EDIT:

And half of my Iron Sword cart done:





Boots every time now.

Just thought I'd throw this tip out there. Try to avoid rubbing it on the chips and clean it all off with alcohol. You wanna rub the polish on until it gets black in a circular motion, then take a clean cloth and take it off. Wipe down with alcohol and you're good to go.

edit:

half of my iron sword done to show the clean up:



Don't suggest doing this unless you have a cart that isn't working very well as you're removing the gold coating.

[Einzelherz]

I've done this with Brasso but I don't think I'd use a dremel. Q-tips and a back and forth motion (longways along the pin) seems to work just fine for me. I'm paranoid about wearing away the contact metal so I'm crazy gentle with it.

[Pasky]

Ya, like I said. Wouldn't recommend it except as a last resort as you're removing the original gold plating. But if it's already ruined and your game won't start even after a good cleaning, might as well.

[Ed Oscuro]

U of M has some thoughts on antique brass cleaning here. I think also that simple brass contact cleaner might get what you want, and is formulated with the idea of preserving brass and not including a whole raft of other ingredients to attack other tarnishes, so it's more likely to play well with PCBs and the brass. Personally, I think that buying a contact cleaner is likely best. Always use a specialized formula instead of an overly aggressive household or generic product when you can. That being said, I haven't tried contact cleaner on anything.

If going the standard metal polish route, the least abrasive cleaner is the best. Unfortunately I don't see any obvious guide to this. Noxon and Flitz both have a reputation as being less abrasive as other cleaners, but that's amongst automotive polishes - and I've no idea how those heavy ones stack up to Brasso or Blue Magic.

Still, less is more. From the picture it looks as if the tarnish is only in a few spots. Without criticizing based on one picture alone, I'd just recommend that use of cleaners be limited to problem pins.

[Pasky]

I'd agree with that.

[Ed Oscuro]

Edited my post with a bit of information about contact cleaner vs. generic polishes. Unfortunately, a lot of speculation here. I'd like to get some contact cleaner and see how it works. If it does work it could be assumed that it should do less harm than the regular metal polishes.

Edit: This old article might not be up-to-date with new forumulas, but I doubt it's enough to be irrelevant. Some good bits in here. Some good contact cleaners have an oxidation inhibitor, which is probably what you want to prevent repeat cleanings.

This looks even closer to what we want, since the guy's talking about reliability of electrical contacts specifically.

[cools]

I use brasso and a rag exclusively for cleaning contacts, after wasting time and effort with other less effective methods.

Also I'm pretty sure carts don't have gold plating, its simply oxidised copper making them that colour.

[Pasky]

I use brasso and a rag exclusively for cleaning contacts, after wasting time and effort with other less effective methods.

Also I'm pretty sure carts don't have gold plating, its simply oxidised copper making them that colour.

Pretty sure the copper on NES carts were hard electroplated copper (gold deposit)