N64 resetting inexplicably.. but then it stopped ...

[tappybot]

I recently moved the game room into the bedroom and vice versa.  Haven't spent much time in the new game room, but I did today, challenging Beetle Adventure Racing, which is notorious with me for having extremely long races..  6 to 9 minutes for some races.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of the pro circuit, and suddenly the screen goes blank and it's back at the start up memory card screen..
It did this repeatedly in succession.. at one point, there wasn't anything for a good couple seconds. The system wasn't being touched at all, and despite giving the wire a good wiggle, including the power strip wire, etc, it didn't seem to occur from messing with the wire, or even the power block in the back of the system.

Now, I'm not asking what's wrong so much as I'm asking if this sounds like a familiar problem to anyone.

The red light on the system was on all the while...  It happened again when it seemed to recover and I started playing again.. maybe 10 or so minutes later.
To test to make sure it was actually the system and not the power line, I booted up an SNES game and got into a level simultaneously, so if there was an issue with the N64, I could quickly switch to the SNES and see if that also reset...  but the issue didn't come up again.

Let's say the issue was in the wall (we can hear animals crawling around on the roof often..) .. Would the television be able to sustain an image while the N64 would be reset, if say, a tenth of a second power loss by something stirring the wire in the wall?  I thought I heard the critters moving when this happened, but can't be positive.. Also, I have difficulty in suspecting the television would be able to stay on... but if the power loss was short enough that even the N64 light wasn't turning off, I suppose it's possible....

The other theory is that although the wire wiggling, touching the cartridge, lifting and moving the console didn't cause the issue to start again, there may be some faulty thing in the machine causing it to quickly lose power..... though again, the light didn't actually go off.. I was staring at the light while this was happening, so either the power loss and recovery was such a short amount of time that the light (and the television) wouldn't turn off... or....   could it somehow be the cartridge, even though wiggling it a bit and touching it didn't replicate the issue later?

Any of this sound familiar to anyone?  Just wondering if I'm in for a repair somewhere.


Bonus Question: I've got all my game systems hooked into the same (nice) power strip..  But even the systems that aren't turned on, their power adapters get hot.  Should I just unplug these if I'm not using them?
Is that the most sensible thing to do?  Thanks fellas 

[P]

My first thought is to try another AC adapter, but then you say that you have all your systems plugged in at the same time! First try plugging out the game systems you are not using and see if that helps. What do you mean by wiggling? Wiggling the wires shouldn't do anything unless there's a loose connection somewhere. If they are gnawing on the cables it's a problem.

Bonus Question: I've got all my game systems hooked into the same (nice) power strip..  But even the systems that aren't turned on, their power adapters get hot.  Should I just unplug these if I'm not using them?

Yes, all the power adapters are drawing power even if the game systems are not on. Don't draw more power than you need, I never have more than two consoles plugged in at the same time.

[tappybot]

Thanks for your reply.

I took your advice. I unplugged everything except the television, game system and speakers. Those were the only things going into the specific outlet. (The air condition is going into an outlet halfway up the wall from there)

I also cleaned the game well, which I had done previously, but I thought I'd give another shot.

I had been playing for 30 - 40 minutes, and it just suddenly happened again.  No sign that the television lost any power though.. I'd really like to rule that out.


Here are the facts:

I'm playing a Japanese N64 w/ Japanese powersupply on American voltage.
I've never had this issue before, but since moving to the new room, it's happened quite a bit just today.

The air condition is in this room.  And it suddenly turned on just about the same time the game reset.

Is it possible the sudden use of the Air conditioner somehow affected the power going to the console?

Is it okay to use the US power supply for the Japanese system? When I was talking about wiggling the wire before, I meant to see if there may have been a weak connection in the wire somewhere, but that didn't seem the case.. even wiggled where the powersupply goes into the system and it didn't have the effect..    

I guess the next best step would be to play some other games for awhile.. If it happens again, then maybe I'll try the US power supply (heard it was okay for N64s). If that doesn't work, maybe bust out the US system (modded the Japanese one for US games, so that's why I'm using that one now)?   And if that doesn't work, then it has to be a power surge (or lack of power for a split second when it turns on?) or something from the Air conditioner, although the devices are plugged into a surge protector right now so...    Buh.    




edit:

Alrighty. I just played Kirby 64 for over an hour and no resets..  I'm inclined to think it's the game now, but I can't be positive..  and I'm not sure how it could be the game.  I've cleaned it 3 times with isopropyl. Not a single speck of dirt is left.  I also cleaned out the pins on the system itself earlier, before the reset, though it looked perfectly clean with no dirt at all coming off.  What could cause a game to do that?  It's not rattling inside so I want to say it's probably not damaged within.

[zmaster18]

I think it may be the game. I had a similar experience once, where I was playing Paper Mario and the game suddenly crashed. All was fine until the screen went black with some white numbers on it. I really don't know the cause and it was only a one-time thing.

[fredJ]

replace jumper pak.

[P]

Yeah I guess the jumper pak pins could be corroded.
I've heard of some N64 games that works only when using a Jumper Pak, so if you are using a RAM pak try the Jumper Pak.

Is it okay to use the US power supply for the Japanese system?

Yes, the only difference is the input power (120v AC instead of 100v AC I guess). The output should be the same on both (12v DC). I'm using an European Nintendo 64 AC adapter on my Japanese 64. Maybe that game draws more power or something.