how often do the cartridges give you problems?

[awsomo3000]

My rule of thumb is to clean every cart I find in the wild with alcohol and Q-tips before it ever touches my 2600--even if the contacts look clean.

839647[/snapback]

 

good thinking, i'll start doing that.

[AtariAger]

How often do you guys use fine grit sand paper? I mean, let's say you clean a cart...it sits for a while...you then can't remember if you cleaned it or not...so you decide to clean again! You are definitely scratching the metal off the contacts of the circuit board.

 

 

I know it takes some time...but I go with the alcohol...hands down.

[wildman]

copper oxide does not dissolve in alchohol. . i just look to see if the contacts are dirty if they are i hitem with the sponge. rub until i dont see any green anymore... doesnt hurtem.... through em in the clean pile.. actually my sponge is about wornout .. time to get another one from my taper friends

 

 

 

you guy would probably crap if i told you i use brasso in my cds. save a lot of disks that way.

[hex65000]

I strongly discourage the use of any abrasive on contacts unless you really can't get it clean and 9 times out of ten, you just haven't scrubbed long enough.

 

My chemicals of choice are typically Windex (glass cleaner) or rubbing alchohol(sp) if I'm strapped, and that tuner cleaner mentioned in a previous post. Actually, I use something 'similar but different' but the effect I think is the same.

 

- Q-tips (or equivalent) If you have money to burn, you can buy those special swabs on a wood stick, I have a paltry stash of about 15 for special occasions.

- Paper towels; not a cheapo brand either You want something that will hold up when it gets a liquid sprayed into it. I typically go with "bounty" around here

- A credit-card like object. Essentially, some thin peice of plastic that is a little bit thinner than a circuit card edge, but is pretty sturdy.

 

The contacts.

What you have to do is hit the contacts in stages.

1) windex & q-tips. The big trick is finding a brand that holds together under heavy rubbing. This has been a notable issue for me. I've had tolerable luck with the Target brand 1000 pack of swabs and the Q-tip brand swabs, but those are pricey and when you stare at 70+ atari carts to clean, that is just crazy talk.

Moisten and scrub vigorously. Go from side to side, move it up and down (can be effective) this will help break up the oxidation on the contacts. Repeat until you are getting pretty clean swabs

2) Dry Q-tip. Here we repeat the process by just using the dry swab to first of all remove as much moisture as possible, and to effectively polish the contacts. It's likely that you will see even more dirt at this stage of the game.

That's a basic cleaning. Since I'm insane, I add one last step that you can regard as optional.

3) Contact cleaner on a q-tip. This is the good stuff. It is possible that you will still see dirt on your swab at this stage. Unfortunately, it's so freaking expensive that wasting it seems like a bad idea. Sometimes, to just use up a swab I'll rub it over an uncleaned set of contacts to help break up the crud. It's very effective.

 

Copper contacts. . .

There are a few reasons why you have copper contacts:

-- game has been inserted and removed so many times that the gold or tin? plating is worn off or you have sanded the upper layer away and that is all that's left. Perhaps someone can correct me, but I'm not aware of the use of copper contacts as a standard practice for edge card connections.

 

Cleaning a console . . .

Now lets do the deck. The trick is to use a good paper towel here, or the thing will disintegrate before you even attempt to get the contacts cleaned.

First, you need to cut up that card. The idea being that you want it to be able to fit in the cart slot. Also round the edges a bit. This will reduce the amount that you'll rip through the paper towel.

Fold the towel up a couple of times and moisten with windex. Now fold the towel over the card peice that you cut to fit.

Insert and remove a couple of times, be careful and make sure that your towel doesn't start coming apart on you.

Repeat once with a dry peice of paper towel, maintain the same cautions.

Repeat with tuner cleaner if desired.

Give it a bit to dry out totally or use a "can o' air" to help accelerate the process, dislodge any stray bits of towel.

 

And yes, I agree with Big Player, uncleaned carts stay out of my decks, and once you get them up to snuff, you can do quickie 'maintenence cleanings' when needed.

 

Hex.

[ Man, who got me started...? ]

[KAZ]

The Q-tip isopropyl alcohol trick has worked on "non-working" atari carts I've found from the goodwill, but I have to say I had two games that would not work even tho I must have cleaned them with everything I could find.

 

It was a pesky night driver that wouldn't work, and another game...but I had duplicates, and so it wasn't important to me to keep it around.

 

Can't remember what I did with the carts, but I don't have it anymore.

 

I have a nearly 100% success rate with all of my video game items, I haven't found anything non-working except those. I do actually believe some carts might actually BE dead, but 99% of the ones I've had work with the cleaning methods.

 

I've never tried the sandpaper method, how cool.

 

Perhaps I was too hasty to get rid of them, those "dead" carts.

[jeepnut24]

Ive got about 5 carts that Ive clean numerous times over the years with 90% alcohol. No luck with them at all. Ive given up on them for the time being, but Ill try again in the future.