NES system with blinking red light

alonzomourning23

alonzomourning23

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My cousin gave me his nes, plus games, to ebay. Well it sat in a corner for about a month before I finally got around to it. I tested it to see if it works and the red power light just blinks. Anyway to fix this?
 
If it blinks with the game inserted, most likely the games have dirty contacts or the cartridge port in the NES is also dirty or damaged. Give the games a good cleaning and try again.
 
Try cleaning the games and the cartridge slot with a q-tip and alchoal. Also try blowing on the on the games pin connecter before playing. The old NES was iffy on playing games, and you had to keep them dust free.
 
[quote name='cyborg2040']Try cleaning the games and the cartridge slot with a q-tip and alchoal. Also try blowing on the on the games pin connecter before playing. The old NES was iffy on playing games, and you had to keep them dust free.[/quote]

Windex works good as well.
 
[quote name='mehunglo']If it blinks with the game inserted, most likely the games have dirty contacts or the cartridge port in the NES is also dirty or damaged. Give the games a good cleaning and try again.[/quote]

Well I had my nes (which works flawlessly) out with his. I took TMNT 3, which turns on perfectly 100% of the time on mine, and put it in his and it doesn't even work. I then put it back into my system and it works. I cleaned the carts, and since ones that I know work well aren't getting any response at all I know it's not the carts.

Though I'll try the qtip and alcohol thing another poster suggested, that may work.
 
I picked up a 72-pin connector awhile back, and it pretty much fixed the problem entirely. That's probably your best option.
 
[quote name='Rusty Ghia']Your NES needs a new 72-pin connector. You can find them on the internet.[/quote] and for only like $3.00 and if you have any sense of electronics in general, replacing the thing is nothing.

That's pretty much the only way to fix that.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']My cousin gave me his nes, plus games, to ebay. Well it sat in a corner for about a month before I finally got around to it. I tested it to see if it works and the red power light just blinks. Anyway to fix this?[/quote]
I followed the instructions on this website and it worked for my NES.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']My cousin gave me his nes, plus games, to ebay. Well it sat in a corner for about a month before I finally got around to it. I tested it to see if it works and the red power light just blinks. Anyway to fix this?[/quote]

lol You sound so surprised. Welcome to the world of NES, they did this all the time even in the 80s.
 
[quote name='Vegan']lol You sound so surprised. Welcome to the world of NES, they did this all the time even in the 80s.[/quote]

None of my friends nes's ever did this. Mine, which I got in 1987 worked without any issues whatsoever up until 4 years ago. It probably still works, but it's been missing since then. My toploader (had since around the time it was released) also works fine. I've never encountered a blinking red power light on any original model system. It was always steady.

Maybe if you trashed your system it broke, but that should be expected.
 
i used to fix my NES by bashing it on the side, but I found replacing the pin connector makes it work like new.
 
Yeah, clean the contacts on the games and NES system. I really have never heard of this version of the NES not blinking when starting games. Its kinda its trademark. :)
 
[quote name='cyborg2040'] Also try blowing on the on the games pin connecter before playing. [/QUOTE]

Uh.. you do realize that blowing is actually bad for the games right?

I'd say you should probably get a new connector pin and clean you games with rubbing alcohol and q-tips. Be sure to clean them before using them with your new connector pin.

My NES is perfectly new, I got a used one that was fairly dirty and had trouble starting. I opened it up, carefully clean up all the dust/grime inside, installed a new connector pin that I got from eBay and then cleaned the games. Works like a charm.:)
 
I tried cleaning it, but that didn't seem to work. I'm not sure if I'll get a new pin or not. Maybe if I get one I'll just deduct it from his side of the money (we're splitting the ebay profit) and not mention it. He was close to tossing it anyway, I doubt he'd want to pay for a pin.

[quote name='Vinny']Uh.. you do realize that blowing is actually bad for the games right? [/quote]

What exactly about blowing on them is bad? I've heard that before but I thought it had to do with saliva. Years ago my friend used to put them under his shirt and blow on them, preventing saliva from hitting them. I picked that up from him. I haven't had a game ever stop working (and I have a lot), so blowing on them isn't likely much of a problem in and of itself.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']I tried cleaning it, but that didn't seem to work. I'm not sure if I'll get a new pin or not. Maybe if I get one I'll just deduct it from his side of the money (we're splitting the ebay profit) and not mention it. He was close to tossing it anyway, I doubt he'd want to pay for a pin.

What exactly about blowing on them is bad? I've heard that before but I thought it had to do with saliva. Years ago my friend used to put them under his shirt and blow on them, preventing saliva from hitting them. I picked that up from him. I haven't had a game ever stop working (and I have a lot), so blowing on them isn't likely much of a problem in and of itself.[/QUOTE]
The moisture from your breath will corode the pins on the cart or the system. It's not a permanent issue, a good cleaning will fix it, but it's not a good idea. And, no, a tshirt won't stop the moisture.
 
[quote name='daroga']The moisture from your breath will corode the pins on the cart or the system. It's not a permanent issue, a good cleaning will fix it, but it's not a good idea. And, no, a tshirt won't stop the moisture.[/QUOTE]

That's the issue with blowing them. And not only that, since you're blowing into an enclosed space (the hollow area with the exposed chip board), the air will be trapped and some of it will escape inside the cart itself, damaging the internal parts. The original NES and it's games were very cheaply produced, so even a simple thing as some moisture can damage the game in the long term.

Basically, blowing solves one problem (dust on contacts) but creates another (moisture). I heard that blowing doesn't already result in damaging carts, but it's not exactly a safe method nonetheless.

It's the same reason why you use compressed air to clean out computer parts (which can also be used to safely 'blow' into NES carts).
 
If they're so delicate that the moisture that gets through a t-shirt can still damage them (which I had always done to prevent moisture getting through), why wouldn't using alcohol cause a worse problem?
 
Because alcohol vaporizes very quickly. That's why the purest form of alcohol (a 99% alcohol solution, not sure if 100% exists) is best for cleaning carts, since 99% of that solution (in other words, the alcohol) will dry up within minutes. The moisture from your breath on the other hand stays a while, though you can't see it. It's kinda like humidity, except humidity normally doesn't go inside those carts unless it's forced in there somehow.

Plus, the alcohol only touches the chip board via a q-tip, not the actual circuits and chips and other crap inside those carts. In theory, I guess you could use your saliva to clean the connectors of the cart.:whistle2:k I wouldn't try it though...

As a note, 99% isn't necessary. I used 70% without any trouble, and heard that anything near 90% will work well.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Because alcohol vaporizes very quickly. That's why the purest form of alcohol (a 99% alcohol solution, not sure if 100% exists) is best for cleaning carts, since 99% of that solution (in other words, the alcohol) will dry up within minutes. The moisture from your breath on the other hand stays a while, though you can't see it. It's kinda like humidity, except humidity normally doesn't go inside those carts unless it's forced in there somehow.

Plus, the alcohol only touches the chip board via a q-tip, not the actual circuits and chips and other crap inside those carts. In theory, I guess you could use your saliva to clean the connectors of the cart.:whistle2:k I wouldn't try it though...

As a note, 99% isn't necessary. I used 70% without any trouble, and heard that anything near 90% will work well.[/quote]
They do have 100%, but it's worthless, it won't do anything.
Since it's 100% the alcohol can't react with water, so it just sits there, doing nothing.
And why you would want to clean out your NES games with Saliva is beyond me.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Because alcohol vaporizes very quickly. That's why the purest form of alcohol (a 99% alcohol solution, not sure if 100% exists) is best for cleaning carts, since 99% of that solution (in other words, the alcohol) will dry up within minutes. The moisture from your breath on the other hand stays a while, though you can't see it. It's kinda like humidity, except humidity normally doesn't go inside those carts unless it's forced in there somehow.

Plus, the alcohol only touches the chip board via a q-tip, not the actual circuits and chips and other crap inside those carts. In theory, I guess you could use your saliva to clean the connectors of the cart.:whistle2:k I wouldn't try it though...

As a note, 99% isn't necessary. I used 70% without any trouble, and heard that anything near 90% will work well.[/quote]

I use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol as well, and it works great.
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']My cousin gave me his nes, plus games, to ebay. Well it sat in a corner for about a month before I finally got around to it. I tested it to see if it works and the red power light just blinks. Anyway to fix this?[/QUOTE]

Dont worry about it, its just raving.
 
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