Okay, I have an old NES-001 that I opened cleaned it, and lifted the 72-pin thingy. It worked like BRAND NEW! I was so happy!  I was playing Zelda II, The Magic of Scheherazade, and METAL GEAR. It worked last night too.

Today, I took the NES apart so I could give the CASE a nice paint job.  I disconnected the controller ports from the mother board, (I got pictures) but not the 72-pin connector, ( I left that alone) http://i43.tinypic.com/2i0obn.jpg

Put everything back together, and BAM! The same games I played last night, just go to a GREY SCREEN. (Not blinking)

My GF was so upset, and asked me what I did to the NES.  I said NOTHING I just painted it! :(
Any suggestions on what to do?  Feel free to ask questions.   :-/

There should be 2 ways to connect the NES to your TV.
One is the RF cable, and the other is RCA cables.

Try both, just in case one of those units has stopped  working.

The controller ports should not affect the ability to see anything.

Al

The external parts are connected properly. I think only an idiot would not know how to hook up a NES. Like I said it worked at 100% before, and after taking it apart then back together, all I get is a grey screen.  I think that maybe the 72-pin connector magically decided to stop working just to get on my nerves.

Maybe

1. The Pins

2. Or you touched or mess with something you should have not. Anything else you touched that could have gone in the NES.

I know my original NES had a problem with the Reset button being stuck, in the same position all the time.

hm... Maybe I should buy a new 72-pin connector, and see what that does.  Then if that does not work, I need to buy a whole NES console.

I sure hope it's ONLY the pin connector.  It's just so strange, it worked PERFECTLY, then now it doesn't. All I did was remove the controller things in my picture. That's it.

:/ So much for my MOD.

Oh well, ty for trying to help me.

CUT YOUR F**KING LOCK-OUT CHIP! ........(storms away)
"GOD!"

Examine everything that you did. All you told us is

1. You took apart the NES for the purpose of coloring
the case.

2. If you took off another part then why. It might be a crushed wire, a pin not in place, or a switch. If it worked before then you should not have to fix it. My old  NES has pins that pops out and I push them back in order to play games. Buying a new pins is not worth it, if it was working
five seconds ago.

nahh, everything looks exactly how it was before I painted it.
no crushed wires, only thing I took out was the Controller 1 and 2 cables. They're back in place. Just getting pissed off at that evil grey screen.  I don't know how more specific I can get. 

NESsharpKing891 wrote on 10. Feb 2012 at 17:22:

CUT YOUR F**KING LOCK-OUT CHIP! ........(storms away) "GOD!"

Well, take your Midol and call me in the morning, because I already grounded pin 4 to 11, and got a switch in the back of my system for that.    Ignorance is a bliss but not in YOUR case. ;)

yeah im ignorant thats why i have over a dozen boxed NES sets (some new) and you got a busted one lol

Snaps fingers* "mess with me!"  lol

you don't paint nes or any "collectible" for that matter,this isnt arts and crafts hour in pre-K...looser!

your nes is toatled i did that and my motherboard got damaged :(

why would you paint a freaking collectible or anything electronic? Not to be mean but your dumb