![]() ![]() Some game cartridges such as the NES and SNES Zelda included a way to save your game. I understand that blowing into the cart is part of our learned wisdom for getting these things to work, but it's really selection bias at work. The rest of us should stick with non-destructive or minimally destructive techniques.Īnd, yes: moist air from your mouth is not great for metals. If your carts are this fouled, you are already into Retrounaut Archeology, in which case you are sort of on your own. Under few circumstances would oxide be so crufty that it needs grit to remove (and grit causes scratches, which encourages and promotes further harder to handle oxide). This would be a mistake, and should not even be considered a last resort. I've also seen people recommend sandpaper for stubborn oxide. These compounds often have gritty lapping material in them, which is all sorts of bad. And I'll have to disagree with anyone who suggests that paste metal cleaners from the store are useful for anything but the grungiest, filthiest carts, and even then I wouldn't recommend it. In a shop I worked at, you'd be read the riot act if you rubbed contacts with anything. This eventually removes the gold or copper cladding on the contact fingers. The outsides of the cartridges should be treated the same way they told you in the original packaging material: at most use a damp cloth with regular water (and maybe a little vinegar if you want to freshen them up) and allow to dry.ĭon't use a rubber eraser. But, as I say earlier, if cruft is causing what might be an electrical short, causing dodgy behaviour, cleaning the circuit board carefully with the right stuff is fine. Electrically, everything inside the cart has a good connection (or did at the factory) and cleaning will not help improve that. Maybe if they have been moldering in basement for years and you want to get rid of unsightly splotches or visible dirt. However, unless you really have to, you probably don't need to clean out the inside of the carts. ![]() to be wetted with contact cleaner, but try not to soak it. ![]() Especially older chiclet style keyboards. In this case, you can either disassemble the cartridge and clean it gently with rubbing alcohol, or (if the cart is hard to split without breaking it) you can use the contact cleaner to spray inside the cart, letting the liquid run and "boil" (it has a very low boiling point, which is why it works as it does) clear out the cracks in the cart.īonus: Good for cleaning keyboards, too. This solution is also good for cleaning out really crufty carts, where the circuit board may be dirty enough to cause an electrical problem. Ideal for telephones, PCs, relays, edge connectors, tape heads, bussīars, circuits, contacts, printed circuit boards, switches and circuit When in doubt, read the datasheet for the product. This stuff is made for cleaning sensitive electronics and metal connectors. We want the quick drying, stable variety that doesn't leave a residue. Make sure you don't get the type used for lubricating potentiometers. There is also fancy contact cleaner used in the electronics industry that works quite nice and is very stable. Try to keep the alcohol from the plastics use it sparingly. Cotton swabs and isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol should do the trick. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |