damaged 72 pin connector

[bradhig1]

I had issues with my NES and cleaned the 72 connector.  I got a grey screen on startup and had to wiggle the cart around to get it to work.  I swapped and cleaned the 72 pin connector with the original OEM one and it works.  The old OEM connector I was using has bent pins on the end and one bent one on the back.  Can it be saved? 

 

 

[Tanooki]

I know this sounds bad asking, but can you point out specifically where the damage is as I'm staring at it and I just don't see anything that looks bent to the point of a failure.

[+Starwander]

It might be worth replacing it. They are fairly inexpensive to replace

[bradhig1]

the pins on the ends of the bottom connector for the cartridge are beat down a little. The bottom of the 13th connector from the right on the bottom photo is bent a little.  Main problem I had a few years ago was not getting the tray to attach to the front of the board which prevented the cartridge from going down.  I tried a couple of those cheap knockoff 72 pin connectors and they both ended up with bent pins so I got another OEM 72 pin not remembering I saved the original one which is in the system right now. 

[Tanooki]

Well if you mean they're more just compressed flat(bend inward) so you think they won't make contact, that's fairly normal from lots of use over time due to that bending the mechanism does.  It's a dumb and easy slow fix, just get a safety pin reach under the pin and lift it upwards enough to contact the top part of that pin array and release gently.  It'll lift it up better to center, follow that by boiling the pin to clean any unseen funk and basically harden it up like fresh.  Only originals you can do that, the current era stuff from the last decade are largely garbage.

[0078265317]

When I cannot get a game to start I use a game genie.  The pcb is thicker so it makes contact.  Just enter no codes and its like you never used it.