Cleaning the cartridge port of a Famicom AV

[gamer888]

Hi all,

I know it is a common topic but I can't find answer to the following.

I suspect my famicom AV to need some cleaning...most games play throught but sometimes a grey screen appears desite having cleaned the cartridge.

I would like then to clean up the cartridge port. The problem is I don't have the appropriate screwdriver to take the famicom apart making things a bit tedious. I heard if I take a credit card (or a student ID card) and put some 90° alcohol, it might do the trick......is it true??I don't much things to work with for this cleaning.


Thanks!

[zmaster18]

I heard if I take a credit card (or a student ID card) and put some 90° alcohol, it might do the trick......is it true??I don't much things to work with for this cleaning.

Do this but drape a little piece of cloth over the credit card and dampen it with alcohol. This is the best way to clean cartridge slots 

[gamer888]

I did and it works a bit better. One game of mine just doesn't want to load despite cleaning the cartridge...I wil give another try on the system.

Thanks!!

Cheers.

[Nesmaniac]

Another thing I use to clean connectors is metal glo. It's a polishing paste for knives, jewelry, anything metal really. I use a qtip and place the paste on a game cart connector edge & place it in the slot pulling it in and out a few times cleaning the edge with a qtip each pass (qtip comes out black each time) and it's amazing what all comes off. Sometimes I cut a piece of heavy card stock and fold it over and place the bend side in with metal glo and pull it out and you will see black come out on cardstock at each pin. You can keep cutting cardstock off and repeating it over and over and it will keep coming out black til you are blue in the face. Then, use rubbing alcohol to clean any remaining metal glo residue out of the connector and the game. If a dirty cart connector is the problem this fixes it everytime.

[gamer888]

Thanks for the additional info!