Just realized my dad was right about cleaning cartridge slots

I was complaining to my dad about my old NES blinking red, and he said 'Son, you're probably just jamming the games in dirty.' He told me to use a cotton swab with a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol, not the canned air I always grab. I did it his way and my copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 booted up first try after three years. Anyone have a better method for cleaning the 72-pin connector itself?

3 comments

3 Comments

linda_clark1mo ago

Funny how the old ways often work best for simple fixes. It's like we overcomplicate things by looking for a high-tech solution first. Sometimes the answer is just a cotton swab and some patience.

diana_flores251mo ago

What's the simplest old-school fix you've seen work when everyone else was trying something complicated? I watched my grandpa fix a noisy fan with a drop of sewing machine oil after my dad bought a whole new motor.

mason_ward24d ago

What specific kind of cotton swab though? Because I tried cleaning a keyboard with the standard bathroom Q-tips once and just ended up with fuzzy little fibers stuck between the keys that made everything worse. Did her grandpa use the wooden stick ones with the pointed ends or the regular kind? Seems like the type of swab probably matters just as much as having the patience not to rush it.