Clean your Carts

[tradyblix]

I just wanted to start this thread as a public service announcement of sorts.

 

You can't look at the cart's card and decide based on how it looks to you if it's clean. 

 

I highly recommend getting a cart cleaner card: (https://www.1upcard.com/) are perfect. 

 

Sure, you can use q-tips but they don't do as good a job. It's probably best to get into the habit of cleaning the cart on each insertion, similar to how you'd clean vinyl a record before each play. 

 

I recently got a copy of Megamania that required multiple cleanings with one of these cleaner cards to work on the 2600+, which seems to require cleaner carts than the OG 2600 did. 

 

So just a heads up for everyone. Clean it properly. 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by tradyblix

[Video]

Straight. I know Atari carts, especially 2600, are highly regarded as reliable. Having very few, very large pins in the card edge helps a lot, but even Atari carts have limits to how well they function due to fouling over the years, which isn't always visible.

 

Granted, some of the compatibility issue is carts made in different areas, today noted is a worldwide standard, but in the 80's there was lots of pal floating around (and don't even start me on pal60) but I bet there's some secam stuff still out there too. On old CRT, as long as a cart wasn't to far away from standard, other formats would work to varying degrees, but modern screens want what they want and are pretty fickle on compatibility, especially for something oddball like 2600's non standardized resolution, 40 pixels stretched to 160, by a vertical that can be almost anything. You can't count on something being one format, often the format was denoted by a small sticker that often fell(or was peeled) off.

 

But absolutely, before discounting a cart, clean it first. This is the best chance of putting life back into it. Second, hopes of better combat ability in the future, but with a wide array of sizes and bank switch techniques, it may not happen. Atari carts are pretty durable, being so simple, its unlikely its out and out dead, but it can happen.

[+LS650]

3 hours ago, tradyblix said:

I highly recommend getting a cart cleaner card: (https://www.1upcard.com/) are perfect. 

Sure, you can use q-tips but they don't do as good a job.

I bought a pack of three from Amazon.  They definitely do clean faster and better than Q-tip cotton swabs.

I've bought maybe a dozen+ carts from eBay in the last month since getting my 2600+.

Some carts have looked clean, while others were dusty and filthy.  They all get cleaned with the 1up Card before I try playing them.

Every cart has worked fine after cleaning.

[Sean_1970]

I’m among the converted. Thought I had some dodgy carts when I first got the 2600+, but despite “looking” clean they really weren’t. Cleaning was a revelation. I’m rarely reseating games now 😁

[tradyblix]

1 hour ago, ls650 said:

I bought a pack of three from Amazon.  They definitely do clean faster and better than Q-tip cotton swabs.

I've bought maybe a dozen+ carts from eBay in the last month since getting my 2600+.

Some carts have looked clean, while others were dusty and filthy.  They all get cleaned with the 1up Card before I try playing them.

Every cart has worked fine after cleaning.

Yeah. nothing was worse than the roach head in my Jr. Pac Man cart. 

[MikeM_]

I spent a lot of time last year cleaning all my carts and I can say without a doubt, it was worth the time. I’ve had no issues with my carts in the 2600+ or in my existing systems ever since. 

[Gamma Ray]

A very good option other than something like a 1up Card is a can of Deoxit D5 (just the regular stuff) and a cheap toothbrush. Spray on one side, let it soak for a minute, and then scrub. Repeat for the other side. This stuff can decently revive an original NES 72 pin connector with a console that hasn't had its 10NES lockout chip disabled. It'll make quick work of 2600 carts and cartridge slots.

 

You can find Deoxit D5 at your local Guitar Center if you've got one nearby. Otherwise, you could try the CRC electrical contact cleaner. I know that stuff is decent, too. I've seen it for sale at Harbor Freight. You might find it or something similar at Home Depot and Lowe's.

[tradyblix]

2 minutes ago, Gamma Ray said:

A very good option other than something like a 1up Card is a can of Deoxit D5 (just the regular stuff) and a cheap toothbrush. Spray on one side, let it soak for a minute, and then scrub. Repeat for the other side. This stuff can decently revive an original NES 72 pin connector with a console that hasn't had its 10NES lockout chip disabled. It'll make quick work of 2600 carts and cartridge slots.

 

You can find Deoxit D5 at your local Guitar Center if you've got one nearby. Otherwise, you could try the CRC electrical contact cleaner. I know that stuff is decent, too. I've seen it for sale at Harbor Freight. You might find it or something similar at Home Depot and Lowe's.

Thanks for the tip. I feel like everyone with electronics ought to have some of that stuff.

[chad5200]

I recommend using microfiber foam swabs instead of Q-tips. The problem with Q-tips is they leave behind lint and fibers. 
 

Also, these microfiber foam swabs are thinner so they get all around the cartridge contacts much easier. 
 

Wellgler's 6.42'' Gun Cleaning Swabs, Long swabs,Microfiber Foam swabs(200pcs) https://a.co/d/6VAbhal

 

[Slider271]

For UK readers, I got a bottle of 99% rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol off Amazon which worked great to clean my Atari Jaguar carts and pad internals using decent quality cotton buds, and have also worked well on my 2600 carts (although they’ve been less finicky than the Jag ones anyway). 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Slider271

[scifidude79]

Thanks for making this thread @tradyblix. There's no better advice.

 

58 minutes ago, chad5200 said:

I recommend using microfiber foam swabs instead of Q-tips. The problem with Q-tips is they leave behind lint and fibers. 
 

Also, these microfiber foam swabs are thinner so they get all around the cartridge contacts much easier. 
 

Wellgler's 6.42'' Gun Cleaning Swabs, Long swabs,Microfiber Foam swabs(200pcs) https://a.co/d/6VAbhal

 

I find the 7800 cartridges are especially bad about grabbing fibers from the cotton swabs. I even bought one on Ebay where someone had obviously used one to clean it, and I had to clean their fibers out of my cartridge.

[Spanner]

Old cartridges can have corrosion on there teeth so you might need to sand then down with very fine sand paper so you can see the copper again BUT only do it lightly and the cartridge game works, I cleaned some of mine but they still have a connection problem and if you push the card up then it loads the game from it because it hitting a part of the teeth thats has copper on it thats making the connection.

NEVER store cartridges in a loft, it will destroy them, its because one minute its hot then cold and can make condensation of them and make mould appear on them, you should always keep old Computers and Consoles in room temperature, never in a cold area or a place were there is no control over the temperature, I have never store my stuff in a lot, my retro stuff is in a wardrobe.

Edited January 5 by Spanner

[scifidude79]

Never blow on your cartridges either. I've seen that advice too much over the years. When you exhale, you don't just let out air, you let out water vapor, and water causes corrosion.

[Spanner]

Here is my stuff, I do have stuff on a shelf too and if I want to use something I just get it out and put it back when I am finished with it...  you can not see the top shelf in the photo where my Atari 800XL is, its Atari 1050 Disk Drive and its 1010 Tape deck...  sorry if I hijacked the thread..  the Atari VCS(1977 2600) and Colecovison is under the ZX Spectrum +3, you can see the 2600 games cartridges.
 

Edited January 5 by Spanner

[+karri]

40 minutes ago, Spanner said:

you might need to sand then down with very fine sand paper

Ouch! All my carts have immersion gold finish on the edge connectors. Please don't even think about using sand paper on them. Another big no-no is touching the edge connector with your fingers. I have seen finger prints burned through the copper. The process is slow and may take a year or two. But the acids on your skin burns through copper. That is why I always use cotton gloves when servicing electronic equipment. And use a non-static environment.

 

I wonder where all this advice comes from? I have no evidence if blowing on your connector causes corrosion or not. So I am not going into details about that. But personally I don't believe in combining bodily fluids with electronics.

[Spanner]

I have touched loads of PCBs and never damaged them even in the 80s when I use to fix C64/Atari ST in a computer shop, when I said to use sand paper, I meant only to remove the corrosion so you can see what damage it caused so you can fix it with solder, you can get Conductive Paint too that you could use, but I have only ever used it on the Amiga A1200 keyboard membrane connector so when you plug it in to the A1200 motherboard and the keyboard works again, when you pull it out it has a habit for removing the connector traces off the connector because it pushes so hard against its connector, its one of the problems with the A600 and A1200 keyboards, Commodore should of kept the same design as the A500 keyboards, they are better.

[+karri]

Yes, I think it is different with consumer electronics. I would have liked to use hard gold plating for the edge connectors for my 2600/7800/Lynx carts but the price of the PCB jumps up by 200% if I take that route. Gold immersion is almost "free".

 

Fortunately I could create professional quality stuff during my engineer career.

 

It is interesting to see all the shortcuts people are taking in trying to save a cent in the consumer market. (Un)fortunately I do the same myself just now. Creating Pico-based flash carts that run at the edge of the specs, skip hard gold plated connectors, skip overvoltage protection and noise cancellation caps

[scifidude79]

2 hours ago, karri said:

I have no evidence if blowing on your connector causes corrosion or not.

Water causes corrosion and we breathe out water. It just seems common sense to me. But, I stopped short of saying that blowing into your cartridges causes corrosion, I have no evidence either. It just seems like a bad practice. For cartridges that I need to "blow" into (like one I got in the mail today) I use canned compressed air.

 

2 hours ago, karri said:

But personally I don't believe in combining bodily fluids with electronics.

Exactly. Humans are actually disgusting creatures. We're full of water, salt and oils that don't seem like they'd be a good match for electronics. Like you said, even fingerprints can be dangerous on a lot of metals.

[Bwayne32]

On 12/30/2023 at 3:41 PM, tradyblix said:

I just wanted to start this thread as a public service announcement of sorts.

 

You can't look at the cart's card and decide based on how it looks to you if it's clean. 

 

I highly recommend getting a cart cleaner card: (https://www.1upcard.com/) are perfect. 

 

Sure, you can use q-tips but they don't do as good a job. It's probably best to get into the habit of cleaning the cart on each insertion, similar to how you'd clean vinyl a record before each play. 

 

I recently got a copy of Megamania that required multiple cleanings with one of these cleaner cards to work on the 2600+, which seems to require cleaner carts than the OG 2600 did. 

 

So just a heads up for everyone. Clean it properly. 

 

 

Would you recommend the regular 1upcard or find the mini easier when cleaning your games?

[JetmanUK]

I use these with some IPA (not the beer, obviously), from Amazon.

[tradyblix]

On 1/5/2024 at 7:26 PM, Bwayne32 said:

Would you recommend the regular 1upcard or find the mini easier when cleaning your games?

Regular

[Bwayne32]

3 hours ago, tradyblix said:

Regular

Thanks, I ordered some and hopefully will be here soon.

[scifidude79]

14 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

I use these with some IPA (not the beer, obviously), from Amazon.

Now I can't stop picturing someone with a nice India Pale Ale and those things going "But, he said this would work." 🤣

[JetmanUK]

18 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

Now I can't stop picturing someone with a nice India Pale Ale and those things going "But, he said this would work." 🤣

Exactly! It almost stops me saying IPA, but I can't be bothered typing isoblahblahblah. 🤣

[Kal]

How do you get to the connectors inside 2600 carts🤔 I’m in the UK so can’t buy the wizard piece of plastics from the link above.