Very wierd NES problem

[acharris]

Hi all, I need some advice on an NES problem. I picked up an NES boxed with inserts and 2 controllers with mint instructions and everything for £8 GBP with Mario 3. Plugged it in and put the game in and nothing. So I checked with a known working PSU and still no luck to power it up. Took it apart to have a look and could not see nothing noticably wrong with it.

 

So I tried it again and this time I pressed the reset button and the light starting blinking as their was no cart in it as it was stripped down a little. So I put it back together to a point so I could connect it up to the TV and put the cart in. I did this and cause it was connected by composite, when I press the power switch I can hear the click in the speakers where power is going through, then press the reset button and the game comes on and it all plays normal with no problem. Turn it off to change games and you turn on then press the reset to power the game up. Comes up perfect.

 

I tried changing the switches board over from a spare parts NES thinking maybe there was a fault on that switch board, but it still worked the same way. Any ideas as to this is a fault or has it been deliberately modded like this for a reason due to a modification or some other reason. If you can think of any reason to do something like this I would be happy to hear ideas for curiosity reasons.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Anthony

[rjchamp3]

Hi all, I need some advice on an NES problem. I picked up an NES boxed with inserts and 2 controllers with mint instructions and everything for £8 GBP with Mario 3. Plugged it in and put the game in and nothing. So I checked with a known working PSU and still no luck to power it up. Took it apart to have a look and could not see nothing noticably wrong with it.

 

So I tried it again and this time I pressed the reset button and the light starting blinking as their was no cart in it as it was stripped down a little. So I put it back together to a point so I could connect it up to the TV and put the cart in. I did this and cause it was connected by composite, when I press the power switch I can hear the click in the speakers where power is going through, then press the reset button and the game comes on and it all plays normal with no problem. Turn it off to change games and you turn on then press the reset to power the game up. Comes up perfect.

 

I tried changing the switches board over from a spare parts NES thinking maybe there was a fault on that switch board, but it still worked the same way. Any ideas as to this is a fault or has it been deliberately modded like this for a reason due to a modification or some other reason. If you can think of any reason to do something like this I would be happy to hear ideas for curiosity reasons.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Anthony

 

Your connector: it's almost always the problem, go to ebay and get one you will be playing in no time.

 

And make sure it's official, DO NOT BUY A YOBO ONE.

[Zerosquare]

That sounds like whatever circuit is supposed to handle the power-on reset isn't working correctly.

 

I don't know much about NESes, but I remember that the lockout chip is connected to the RESET signal (to prevent the console from starting if it doesn't detect a valid signal from its counterpart in the cartridge). Maybe it's also used to generate the reset pulse on power-on, and somebody damaged it by trying to disable the chip ?

[fiftywattplexi]

I recently refurbed an NES and ran into a similar annoying problem with the blinking light and/or a plain gray screen even after installing a new 72-pin connector. Turns out that the mechanism that locks the cart in position when you push it down was worn to the point that it was not at the correct angle anymore, so even with a fresh connector it was acting up because the top set of pins was not making sufficient contact. I took out the carriage assembly, pulled out the part of the catch mechanism (the side with the little metal wire) and glued about 1/8" of soft material to act as a shim. I also pulled out the little brass leaf spring that holds tension on the metal wire and re-tensioned it so that the wire will 'catch' better. When I put it all back together the cart would click into place much lower than before and worked great. The new connector plus this adjustment can't make up for a really dirty cart, but the adjustment made a huge difference that a 72-pin connector alone could not fix. Hope this helps anyone struggling to revive that old NES. I'm pretty new around here but I've messed with this stuff since I was a kid (and all this crap was still new!) and I would be happy to answer any questions.