Hi all,

I was given a NES by my fiancee for my birthday, a really nice boxed console in good condition.  When I first plugged it in though, it suffered very badly from blinking grey lines across the screen a few times a second.

I did some research, and ended up replacing my 72-pin connector, as well as opening my cartridges up and giving all the contacts a very good clean (with contact cleaner).

The console is now better, playable, clear, but the flashing still occurs.

Any ideas where to go next?  I've read about disabling the lockout chip, but it looks like a big aggressive step!

Screenshots below!

Cheers,
n


http://img222.imagevenue.com/loc978/th_565733953_IMG_1479_122_978lo.JPG http://img273.imagevenue.com/loc436/th_565757132_IMG_1480_122_436lo.JPG http://img178.imagevenue.com/loc537/th_565775389_IMG_1481_122_537lo.JPGhttp://img226.imagevenue.com/loc561/th_565796585_IMG_1482_122_561lo.JPG

contact cleaner is insufficient and worthless unfortunately. Use silver or brass POLISH, not cleaner, to clean the contacts. After being polished, they will shine bright and either look brand new like gold or be obviously cleaned.

The new 72 pin connecters could pose a problem. Its actually possible not to get them on perfectly straight and that will cause problems in addition to that they are so tight that they can scrape the metal off the contacts on the game. you're better off buying a refurbished original from ebay or doing it your self by sticking something small into the connector like an Exato knife blade and bending the pins shut. Better yet, buy the refurbished one and then take your original and make it look like that. Thats what I did. Now if I need to switch it out, I have one ready. Both of my connectors work. But if you polish your game connectors, youre unlikely to have any problems for years. oh yes, a lot of games have special screws that require a special nes cartridge screw bit. also avlible on ebay. You'll need to open the games in order to polish them properly.