Temperamental NES, suggestions?

[Lexi_177]

So my Nes has recently been freaking out on me. The 72 pin connector shouldn't be the problem since it was replaced a month ago, and it shouldn't have gotten dirty because the contacts on all my games are ridiculously clean. I can still get my games to play, but it takes a lot of effort and doesn't always work. What happens is I insert any nes game and i immediately get the blinking red light, so then i turn off the system take out the game and re-load it. After i've done this I get a blank white screen and sometimes music. Then if i play around with it for another 10-40 minutes i can usually get the game to start. Is there a way i can just get it to work from the beginning? I never used to have this problem.

[Arseen]

Blinking red light is the region lock out thinking your using games from wrong region.

[Quazimoto]

I actually had this same problem recently with a console I custom painted and installed a new pin connector in it.  Works sometimes.  Sometimes takes a good deal of fanagaling.  Sometimes won't work at all.  I have no idea what's wrong with it.  It's not the game as I know I'm using the correct region games and it does the same thing with any game.  I think I'll probably just get a new motherboard for it (Lexi_177:  feel free to PM me if you'd like to know where to get them - don't want to advertise the site here, not sure if that's cool or not and admitedly toolazy to look it up and find out right now).

It's possible that something in the motherboard just plain died of old age.  NESs are durable, but no electroinc device lasts forever.  Could have been that the jostling around from replacing the pin connector just knocked something the wrong way and it finally fizzled out.  They are 25 ears old afterall.

[xaostic]

Probably causes-
1. Faulty region lock chip - prone to failure after the age of the unit. If the chip doesn't make a good connection and can't identify then it goes into its designed fail safe which is the flashing red light. The lock out chip can be disabled which solves some of the connectivity issues.

2. Improper 72 pin install. If the contacts on the actual motherboard were dirty or if the new 72 pin connector wasn't properly seated this could also cause the issues you are describing,

Did you refurbish this unit yourself?

[Quazimoto]

Yes, I did refurbish the unit myself.  Have actually done about 19 of them in recent months and have only had a problem with the one.  I thought for sure I probably just put the 72 pin or cart tray in wrong, but after check and recheck, they're both in correctly.  But, it's still termpermental.  Oddly enough though, the first few times I tried it out after installing the new pin connector (and cleaning the contacts on the motherboard) it worked great.  Booted up first try and played beautifully.  Then, I put it away and had it listed on eBay.  Sold it and when testing it before shipping, discovered that it was being really troublesome.  It literally, just sat in a box for a week between working great and now not working so great, so I have no idea why it suddenly wacked out on me.  Needless to say, I did not send that and contacted the buyer ASAP about the issue.  Trying to figure things out before relisting as the buyer chose not to purchase knowing the issues.

[xaostic]

Sounds like a failing lock out chip to me. I typically wire in a switch to bypass it on the units I have sold that way they have the best of both worlds. 99% of the time if the 72 pin connector is solid and you're getting the flashing red light- then the game isn't making contact with the lock-out chip which flags the system to not boot. This was Nintendo main attempt at killing off the unlicensed games- but unfortunately caused issues with licensed games working as it is more dependent/finicky on perfect contact with the pins. Before replacing the board I would solder a switch in so you can turn off the lock out chip and see if your issues go away.

[Quazimoto]

Thank You.  I've actually got a couple spare motherboards which are trashed due to someone pulling the wrong prong in an attempt to disable the lockout chip, so perhaps I'll use those as practice and see if I can't get it working again.  Wouldn't feel comfortable selling it like it is, so it's worth a shot.

I appreciate the advice.