How should I clean my cartridge port?

[CrazyChris]

The contacts in my 5200's cartridge port seem to need a cleaning. What is some advice on how to do it and what to use.

 

Thanks, Chris

[jnice]

Yeah, I'd be interested in some ideas on how to do this as well. Atari never did release a cleaning kit--nor did they have to--like Nintendo! I would be interested in how to clean the system pins.

 

Hey, there's a homebrew idea: The 5200 Cleaning Kit! Use old Pac-Man or Super Breakout carts, take out the dust cover portion, modify the cases so they can be opened more easily, and you can put in the cloth thingy in there and wet it with rubbing alcohol. Presto!

 

For the label, we could use a picture of our new 5200 hero Koffi with a spray bottle and a rag! I'd like to use the word "holding," as in "holding a spray bottle...", but I'm not sure how a helicopter is supposed to hold things. Maybe it could be hauling a bucket with a spray bottle and a rag? I dunno.

[CrazyChris]

Yeah, I need to clean the contacts in the cartrige slot?

 

Chris

[bjk7382]

Whenever I get a new system in that needs to have the contacts cleaned in the catridge slot, I just wrap a strip of 600 grit sandpaper around a stainless steel ruler and put it in the cartridge slot a few times.

[Atariman]

although I'm sure there are some out there who would cringe at the thought of cleaning a cartridge port this way, I've found that it is quite effective:

 

All I do is to put some rubbing alcohol on the contacts of an already-clean cartridge. I then insert and remove the cartridge into the system a few times and then wipe the excess alcohol back off of the contacts with a dry q-tip. Basically, it's just transferring the dirt from the system, to the cart, to the q-tip.

 

My reasoning behind this is this: I've tried and tried and tried to use those stupid cleaning kits with the rubbery strip on the end of a plastic stick. They never seemed to get the job done, plus I ended up cleaning parts of the port that the cart wouldn't even necessarily touch! So, by using a cart, I'm only cleaning the parts that have to be cleaned. I've never really had a problem with this system (except that it can take awhile on an NES. ) and most of the time it doesn't take too many tries with this system to get the system working just fine. (like a 2600 or 5200 for example. )