Repairing Worn-Down Pins On Snes Cartridges?


dnlgreenwood

I'LL END YOU!!!
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Jul 17, 2010
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Well, after having my progress in Super Mario World erased twice, and crashed because I simply nudged the system, or gently tugged on the controller cord, or moved the SNES an inch to the right, I think it's time I repaired Super Mario World. I don't have this problem with other games. I thoroughly cleaned the contacts on the game cartridge, and the pins on the SNES are already in perfect shape. I noticed that the copper layer of the pins is worn down and I can see the silver-coloured layer below. I'll post a picture in the morning or at lunch tomorrow.

I was wondering how I could fix this problem. I think tinning the pins might work (coating them with a little bit of solder,) but what do you think?

Let me explain the crashes:
The first time it happened, I turned on the system and I heard the music from a dungeon level, and saw random characters, textures, and sprites all over the screen. Naturally, this frightened me, so immediately reset the system, my heart racing. I wasn't too surprised when all my progress was erased. It happened again, and heard some over-world music this time. My progress wasn't erased. It also happened a few other times when I was already playing, but those times my overall progress did not suffer erasure, though I was brought back at the last save point. As I said before, I didn't have this problem with any other game... wait, now that I think of it, I borrowed a few games from a friend and this happened to a few of them. Of course, they were extremely dirty and worn out. I cleaned them all up and they worked <strike>fine</strike> better.
 
I know there exists a conductive silver paint that you can literally just brush on. I fixed the controls of my Intellivision with this. Unfortunately I have no idea what it's called or where to get it. Given the nature of what you do with cartridges, I imagine it would wear away again eventually, but it was fairly cheap as I recall.
 
WizardStan said:
I know there exists a conductive silver paint that you can literally just brush on. I fixed the controls of my Intellivision with this. Unfortunately I have no idea what it's called or where to get it. Given the nature of what you do with cartridges, I imagine it would wear away again eventually, but it was fairly cheap as I recall.

Well, since I only have one game right now, I won't count on it wearing down again soon. I hope you remember...

anyway, I'm going to try putting on some solder tomorrow...
 
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Googling conductive silver paint led me here- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270305463400
 
Goity said:
Perhaps you ought to replace the SRAM battery too.

Great idea, I'll test out the battery with my handy battery tester.

Edit: the SRAM battery is at about 1/3... it's pretty close to dieing, (maybe a few years) but it should still work.
 
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Com64 said:
Goity said:
Perhaps you ought to replace the SRAM battery too.

Great idea, I'll test out the battery with my handy battery tester.

Edit: the SRAM battery is at about 1/3... it's pretty close to dieing, (maybe a few years) but it should still work.
It's probably worth replacing while you don't have any saves on there though.
 
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Goity said:
Com64 said:
Goity said:
Perhaps you ought to replace the SRAM battery too.

Great idea, I'll test out the battery with my handy battery tester.

Edit: the SRAM battery is at about 1/3... it's pretty close to dieing, (maybe a few years) but it should still work.
It's probably worth replacing while you don't have any saves on there though.

Well, not anymore. It just erased itself again, this time probably because I put the cart in backwards because both the cartridge and the system were out of the casing. I just opened up my cartridge again and glued it in place so it won't wobble as much. I remember a friend of mine telling me that you have to hold the reset button while turning on your cartridge-based systems when you are using a game that supports saved progress because that will help prevent data erasure or something like that. I think I'll try that. The pins really aren't that worn down.
 
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Did you ever find a solution? I have a few games like this, ones that I bump and they reset where other games do not do this so I know it is not the system(NES and SNES).

I did notice the only games that do this are those that I used the Game Genie on, the contacts are worn down but they are still there, it is not like they are worn all the way though. Opening my NES and bending the contacts doesn't help either. The funny thing is, for the NES at least, if I always put the game in the Game Genie then it works fine. It is like the GG grabs it in a different spot or something. Unfortunately I don't have the Game Genie for my SNES anymore (the same jerk that 'borrowed' my Super Game Boy in Junior High still has it) so I can't test this on my SNES.
 
second exodous said:
Did you ever find a solution? I have a few games like this, ones that I bump and they reset where other games do not do this so I know it is not the system(NES and SNES).

I did notice the only games that do this are those that I used the Game Genie on, the contacts are worn down but they are still there, it is not like they are worn all the way though. Opening my NES and bending the contacts doesn't help either. The funny thing is, for the NES at least, if I always put the game in the Game Genie then it works fine. It is like the GG grabs it in a different spot or something. Unfortunately I don't have the Game Genie for my SNES anymore (the same jerk that 'borrowed' my Super Game Boy in Junior High still has it) so I can't test this on my SNES.

Well, I don't know for sure, Ive been to busy to test it out. A friend advised me to hold the reset switch while powering off, so I'm going to try doing that and see if it makes any difference.
 
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