What to do about glitchy carts

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:37 am

So I'm wondering: for a CD, you can just apply toothpaste, or boil, or worst case scenario take it to a resurfacing machine and it'll either work or not. Now what can you do if a cart is glitchy? You clean the contacts with alcohol but no go. So then you open the case up. What can you do at that point? Try to clean connectors to the chips?

In this particular case, I have a Battle Tycoon SFC cart that semi-randomly flashes a glitchy screen and have no clue whether it's just fubar. It happens most often while performing attacks or after a match ends, never while standing still or outside of a match. I'm using an Action Replay in between but I don't think that would cause any issues since games seem to either work or don't work at all with it on.

In the past, I've seen carts that just didn't boot up period. What are your options at that point?

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:57 pm

A chip in the cart (or anything on the circuit board) could have a cold solder joint (microscopic crack going around between a pin and it's solder blob). A touch with a soldering iron would rebond it.

by "microscopic", I mean sometimes you can see them-- the blob to the pin should be a smooth shiny slope. If you can see any line or devision between the two, it might be a crack.

Erinu · Post by **Erinu** » Sat May 31, 2008 2:45 pm

I remember trying that toothpaste shit on a ruined Marvel vs. Capcom 2 disc. It didn't work.

Whatever the japanese use for resurfacing discs must be really high tech, otherwise I probably would not be sitting on a flawless copy of ICO right now.

What the hell is "boil"? Please don't tell me you stick it in a pot.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sat May 31, 2008 3:25 pm

Theres a lot of good CD repair services out there. putting tooth paste on a CD/DVD is fucking mental

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat May 31, 2008 3:30 pm

Quickly for the game - clean the cartridge contacts (both sides for NES, should be same for SNES) with a q-tip smothered in 99% isopropyl alcohol, then you can try the same for the SNES itself. I've never tried this, however, and if your SNES plays other games flawlessly (as it should), it's probably the game.

I recall that some DVDs packed with game magazined had to be boiled - no joke - to get them to work. Result of some mishap in the manufacturing process.

I naturally wouldn't try that with just any ol' CD...

I would never put toothpaste on a disc despite reports of it "working" because I don't need that shit flying off a disc at 4000+ RPM into the depths of my console.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:07 pm

Erinu wrote:What the hell is "boil"? Please don't tell me you stick it in a pot.

They're both proven methods. Boiling is more effective in my tests, and cleaner at that. Search the net for info (in fact, I've already mentioned it here); please refrain from commenting unless you're willing to try out yourself.

So back onto why this topic was created, is there anything else? It's apparent that the game itself is the issue and that alcohol has been applied to the contacts. dpful is right on the money in making sure all the chips are fully soldered next. But if it's something as minor as flashing only in specific circumstances, is it most likely a loose solder connected to a particular graphics chip or are there any other possibilities?

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:36 pm

I think I have Battle Tycoon myself...and a Game Genie and the second model (S-Video-less) of SNES. I should try this out and see if I get the same problems you're reporting.

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:15 pm

Old electrolytic capacitors often go bad (in the sense that they lose their capacitance), and are sometimes used for supply bypass in carts. Apart from that, the ROM itself could be bad (broken connection to the package or defects on the chip itself). Mask ROM is pretty reliable, but failures are not unheard of. Actually, I used to have a Golden Axe cart that was completely fine except for part of the spinning animation for Death Bringer's axe...