Hi,
After having owned my 're-belted' used FDS for several months now, I went to go play it tonight and it started playing with noticeable graphical/color glitches. Should I be worried? Is the belt going out?
What should I look for/how would I go about diagnosing this?
Thanks in advance,
Mike
The belt takes several years to melt. What kind of graphical glitches? Maybe you can take a picture.
It is common to have to clean the RAM adapter connector like you would with a normal cart.
Quote from: fredJ on August 02, 2014, 03:55:28 pm
It is common to have to clean the RAM adapter connector like you would with a normal cart.
Bingo! Did the ol' 'blow into the connection pins' trick and it worked flawlessly.
Whew! Was concerned for a sec. =p
Thanks for the feedback,
Mike
Quote from: TaskenLander on August 05, 2014, 09:00:22 pm
Quote from: fredJ on August 02, 2014, 03:55:28 pm
It is common to have to clean the RAM adapter connector like you would with a normal cart.
Bingo! Did the ol' 'blow into the connection pins' trick and it worked flawlessly.
Whew! Was concerned for a sec. =p
Thanks for the feedback,
Mike
Basically, blowing the pins is not a good idea. For more info, refer to http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?117240-DP-MYTHBUSTERS-Blowing-in-NES-Cartridges (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?117240-DP-MYTHBUSTERS-Blowing-in-NES-Cartridges) .
Yes that article has been shared across the internet, but I am not convinced that it proves that blowing a cart itself will damage it.
Most FC games (and NES of course) still work after 30 years, despite a lot of the this blowing going on earlier...
Like this guy said: http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?117240-DP-MYTHBUSTERS-Blowing-in-NES-Cartridges&p=1933840&viewfull=1#post1933840
Blowing a cart creates a slight moist on the surface. This will help the game make contact, and if inserted and removed enough will clean it slightly. But it is very time consuming.... If you put a little bit of water on a q-tip, and clean the cart, it will have the same effect, but much better.
Blowing on a cart repeatedly will create bacterias and possible rust if you do it all the time and leave it in the open. But in a real environment, the cart is inserted and removed so the bacterias won't form, and the moist is removed also from the insertion.
Even if bacteries are created, they can be cleaned off and are only on the surface (most likely).
But I do think that the buildup of moist, bacterias, and then whatever dirt that sticks to it, can cause corrosion after some time.
Blowing a cart isn't an effective way of cleaning it anyways. You have to do the blowing again and again. Even a dry q-tip usually works better. With a q-tip and some cleaning substance (even a little of water works) one can do a better cleaning. Rubbing Alcohol or some other alcohol based substance is safe too, even if it isn't the most effective at cleaning away dirt.
I never blow in carts anymore. Once the contact pins are clean, it will work everytime... Except maybe NES games because of the NES connector.
I don't know why people blow on carts. I clean all my cartridge based systems cart slots with a little alcohol. I use a non raised credit card warped in a paper towel with alcohol on it. To clean my cart connectors I use ether an eraser or a q-tip with alcohol. By doing this my game and system are always clean and never need to be blown. Also none of my new games and or friends games get put in my systems before cleaning it. I am also more O.C.D. about my video games than most. Even with all the people blowing on them though I have only seen like three games I couldn't clean and they were damaged worse then just a little blowing.
People obviously blow on carts to get rid of dust (that's why I used to do it as a kid anyway) and that's also the only legitimate reason to do it (but only if there really are visible dust in there). Blowing to get moist on the pins to get them more conductive is only a temporal solution that will just speed up oxidation of the pins. I guess that's basically what FredJ was saying.