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Strange NES hardware problem.


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Short version: I have a NES front-loader and a NES Advantage controller. One seems to have fried the other somehow, because now they're both acting flaky. I need some advice on how to troubleshoot this, if possible.

 

Long version: I had been using this NES console along with a standard controller for quite some time now, and never had a problem. Last week I decided to dig out my NES Advantage, which I had found at a thrift store and really never used before. At the time, it worked fine, and I soon had a new prefered controller.

 

Today, while playing Ninja Gaiden the Advantage started acting flaky. The A button in particular started misbehaving, but the whole controller also would freeze up at times, with the buttons not responding and the joystick "sticking" in one direction.

 

While troubleshooting, I switched to a different game, Paperboy. The problem immediately became worse; the only response I could get out of the Advantage was the select button for player 2. Then I switched to Super Mario Brothers, and the Advantage's behavior seemed to improve somewhat, basically doing the same thing it did with Ninja Gaiden.

 

To skip ahead a few details, I found that both the console and the Advantage had gone flaky on me. There is definitely something wrong with the Advantage's A button. Sometimes it won't respond at all, other times it will get "stuck" on. The other buttons, particularly select and start, seem to flake out every now and then as well, but it seems to me that could be a side-effect of the A button's bad behavior. Turning on the A button's auto-fire feature seems to make the problem go away, but I don't really view that as a solution. It does not seem to be mechanical problem, and at any rate Ive already tried cleaning the contacts on the circuit board and making sure all connections are firmly seated. So far nothing has helped.

 

At the same time, there seems to be something wrong with the console, but so far it has affected only Paperboy. Super Mario Brothers, Ninja Gaiden and Ghosts 'n' Goblins all behave themselves with standard controllers, for both players. Paperboy however, still won't respond to player 1's select or start buttons. On a different NES console (also a front-loader), however, the game plays perfectly, even when using the same controllers. I have two Paperboy cartridges, and both are showing the same behavior.

 

Anybody seen anything like this before? Would there be an easy fix, by any chance? I'm really starting to like the Advantage, and it would be a shame to lose it now.

Edited by skunkworx
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I've never heard of anything like that before. But I

can say I remember when I first got my NES Advantage

back in '88 I hooked up both controller 1 & controller 2

ports and turned on the system, (was playing Contra)

and the game immediately started and when Bill Rizer

falls onto the first platform in the jungle, I had no control.

The charcter moved on it's own and fired on it's own. I had

this happen to me several different times then just stopped

happening. And this was with a then brand new "Advantage"

controller.

 

Though your situation sounds a lot worse. Oh and the "A"

button thing seems to be somewhat common on those sticks

as more than a few of my friends had their's stick all the time.

Heck the one I have now still will do that. While I favored the

controller over the NES Max, I'd say just stay away from the

gamestick if it's going to mess up your system and be all cranky.

Wish I could be of more help, but at least you know you're not

the only one to have had "oddities" with that controller.

:jango:

Edited by SHAGOHOD X99
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I've never heard of anything like that before.  But I

can say I remember when I first got my NES Advantage

back in '88 I hooked up both controller 1 & controller 2

ports and turned on the system, (was playing Contra)

and the game immediately started and when Bill Rizer

falls onto the first platform in the jungle, I had no control.

The charcter moved on it's own and fired on it's own.  I had

this happen to me several different times then just stopped

happening.  And this was with a then brand new "Advantage"

controller.

 

Though your situation sounds a lot worse.  Oh and the "A"

button thing seems to be somewhat common on those sticks

as more than a few of my friends had their's stick all the time.

Heck the one I have now still will do that.  While I favored the

controller over the NES Max, I'd say just stay away from the

gamestick if it's going to mess up your system and be all cranky.

Wish I could be of more help, but at least you know you're not

the only one to have had "oddities" with that controller.

:jango:

1024704[/snapback]

I've only had the buttons sticking issue. On three Advantages.

 

The A and B buttons aren't designed very well, though. If you hit tthem ont eh edge, there's a good chance they'll get stuck. Had to get in the habit of always nailing them in the center.

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I've only had the buttons sticking issue. On three Advantages.

 

The A and B buttons aren't designed very well, though. If you hit tthem ont eh edge, there's a good chance they'll get stuck. Had to get in the habit of always nailing them in the center.

1024727[/snapback]

 

You know, I wonder how difficult it might be to replace those buttons with arcade machine buttons and new contacts. At least we know those to be more reliable usually. Suppose that might solve some problems? :ponder:

 

As for the problems with the Advantage now, I know that the Advantage hooks into both ports on the NES. One solution might be to try using only one port and see if the joystick still behaves erratically then.

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I've only had the buttons sticking issue. On three Advantages.

 

The A and B buttons aren't designed very well, though. If you hit tthem ont eh edge, there's a good chance they'll get stuck. Had to get in the habit of always nailing them in the center.

1024727[/snapback]

 

You know, I wonder how difficult it might be to replace those buttons with arcade machine buttons and new contacts. At least we know those to be more reliable usually. Suppose that might solve some problems? :ponder:

I don't think they'll retrofit easily. But I wasn't thinking of that last time I opened one.

 

Just bevelling the edges on the existing button caps would help a lot, though. If the edges were sloped instead of squared they'd tend to slide out instead of catching.

 

As for the problems with the Advantage now, I know that the Advantage hooks into both ports on the NES.  One solution might be to try using only one port and see if the joystick still behaves erratically then.

And test P1 and P2 both seperately. If it's a short somewhere, that should help find it.

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Are you saying that you can only play as player one with the advantage set to player two?

1025101[/snapback]

 

The problem with Paperboy is independent of which controllers I use, so the Advantage is out of the picture on that one (though I'm still wondering if one problem was caused by the other).

 

While troubleshooting the problem with the Advantage, I only had it set to player 1. (Edit: That's not entirely true; I did switch between players 1 and 2 while testing Paperboy, and the behavior was exactly like when I was using two separate standard controllers.) When I get some more time, I'll fiddle with the plugs and the player switch.

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'll post here what I find.

Edited by skunkworx
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I had a problem when I started using my advantage where even ig the player one plug of the advantage was in the player one socket, you could still only play with it switched to player two, and the second controller port became unresponsive. Eventually, I could only use the "up" buttons, and the "a" button. Lastly, both ports became unresponsive. To this day, I have no idea why.

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I've had a chance to do a bit more troubleshooting now. I think it's safe to say the Advantage is fried. That's a darn shame, but it sounds like I'm not the only one who has had this kind of trouble with it, so I at least don't feel like it's something I did. The better news is, the console might be okay.

 

The Advantage behaves the same way regardless of whether I use it for player 1 or player 2, and regardless of whether I use standard controllers (or no controllers) for the opposite player. In fact, in addition to the problems with the A button, the Advantage has the curious effect of disabling player 1's select button in Super Mario Brothers when plugged in for player 2.

 

The console still gives me grief with Paperboy, however, my Yobo does the very same thing (without ever having plugged the Advantage into it)! I'm wondering if this is just a "feature" within the game that causes certain NES hardware to act flaky. I would be curious to know if anyone else who has Paperboy sees the same behavior I have.

 

And in case anyone is curious, the Advantage doesn't work at all with the Yobo!

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