46 replies to this topic

[King Atari]

I'm reading the backs of my N64 carts, and one of the cautions is don't blow on or touch the edge connectors. I can understand not touching them, gunk from your fingers could screw with the connectors, but will blowing on them actually hurt the game?

I, like many others here, grew up with the NES and it's infamous blinking. Whenever a game didn't work, I, like many others also, would blow on the connectors. While now it doesn't seem like that would really do anything, it became a force of habit with cartridge based games. The N64 plain and simple does not connect well. It's a h*ll of a lot better than the NES, but the carts don't seem to 'snap' into place like the SNES' did (IMO the SNES is one of the most reliable systems connections-wise).

So, does this actually hurt the game, either in the present or over time, or was Nintendo just covering their a*sses?

[Lost Monkey]

When you blow on them, you are putting moisture on them and that can lead to corrosion...

[Invader_dag]

I`ve never seen any downsides to blowing in a cartridge, but i hear(Don`t know how likey it is to happen) that saliva could land on the connectors and over time oxidize them. I have never had this happen, and it actually seems benificial to blow on them in some cases

[Room 34]

I'm sure it's the fine spray of saliva when you blow on the cartridge that they are concerned about.

Of course, as anyone who's ever played an NES knows... blowing on the cartridge can be ESSENTIAL to making it work at all!

[Raijin Z]

Yeah, don't blow in a cart, use NINTENDO BRAND GAME CLEANER (not alcohol and water) to clean your NINTENDO GAME PAKS! Pfft. Not everyone spits acid, and your saliva evaporates long before it can corrode the contacts.

[Lost Monkey]

Raijin Z said:

Yeah, don't blow in a cart, use NINTENDO BRAND GAME CLEANER (not alcohol and water) to clean your NINTENDO GAME PAKS! Pfft. Not everyone spits acid, and your saliva evaporates long before it can corrode the contacts.

Kids usually spit candy juice or potato chip "bits" though!

[dew2050]

When a person's breath comes in contact with the pins, it works as a mild corrosive. It temporarily improves the connectivity of the pins, but it also makes it more prone to rusting. It takes a long time for pins to develop rust spots so by the time this happens most people will have moved on to another console. That's why most people don't notice.

The blinking problem in the NES happens because the pins on the cartridge and the connector inside the unit accumulate dirt. If you have an old style NES, there is another reason: The pins on the connector inside the NES lose it's springy-ness and stay bent, effectively barely touching the cart's pins. You could force the pins to touch by inserting an object between the NES and the cart (like another cart or a hair comb). Some NES models worked better if the cart was inserted but not pushed in at all.

To clean NES carts is really easy. Qtips with alcohol seems to work for many. If you are lucky enough to have a 3.5 mm security bit, you can open your NES cart and with a normal pencil eraser you can rub off the dirt.

To clean the connector inside the NES, you need to have a cleaning tool for that. You can also just buy a new 72-pin connector at places like ebay or MCM Electronics (part #83-3785, 1-800-543-4330) for about $8 USD.

[Lost Monkey]

dew2050 said:

To clean NES carts is really easy. Qtips with alcohol seems to work for many. If you are lucky enough to have a 3.5 mm security bit, you can open your NES cart and with a normal pencil eraser you can rub off the dirt.

Or just use your tongue and blow em right..

[holy_fluck]

I find the best for cleaning carts is the cleaning kits. Alcohol and q-tips works ok but not as good as the kits, well thats what I find anyway.

[Pitfall Harry]

Your saliva does get in there every time you blow into a cartridge. This is bad, bad, juju.

Glavanic corrosion is an accelerated form of metallic oxidation, which requires three things:

1. Two dissimilar metals in contact with one another
2. Oxygen
3. An electrolyte


Thing #1 - Dissimilar metals in contact

As it happens, the cartridge connectors inside game consoles, especially older game consoles, are often made of entirely different metals than the cartridge contacts that are pushed into them. The metallic composition of cartridge contacts varies from one game manufacturer to the next. Even when cartridge contacts are made of the same metal as the console connector they are mated with, the two metals can still differ slightly in their alloy composition or in their present state of oxidation. As long as two metals are not alloyed together in the same batch and oxidation aged in identical environments then they are dissimilar enough to permit galvanic corrosion to occur when they are in physical contact with each other.

Thing #2 - Oxygen

Oxygen, of course, is in the air. Unless you play your games in the vacuum of deep space, your console connectors and cartridge contacts are exposed to Oxygen every moment of their lives. The chemical bonding of oxygen ions to exposed metal ions is called "oxidation," or more commonly known as rust.

Thing #3 - An Electrolyte

Human saliva is a spectacularly good electrlyte. Breathe onto cartridge contacts and you will deposit your saliva onto the metal contacts. It may be a very fine mist of saliva, but it's an ocean compared to the size of metal and oxygen ions. Now slap that sucka into the metal connector inside your consoler and bingo! You've got all three ingredients necessary for galvanic corrosion.


Galvanic corrosion isn't at all like the ordinary, slow rusting of an exposed metal. Galvanic corrosion is "rust on steroids." That is, it is much, much faster. Dissimilar metals in an electrolyte generate an electrical current all on their own in much the same way that a voltaic cell (battery) does. Like a dime and a penny jambed into a lemon. The tiny current generated creates a watershed of metal ion formation on both the cartridge contacts and on the connector. These ions bond readily with the oxygen in the air, and rust happens.

Now this all happens when the cartridge is just sitting there in the console with the power switched off. Flip the power on and you have supercharged the galvanic corrosion! Two forces are a work now. One: The saliva penetrates deep into the crevices of both metals, maximizing electrical contact, which is what enables the game to play despite the insulating layers of crud which are already there. Two: Those newly penetrated metallic surfaces are undergoing supercharged galvanic corrosion as you play the game. It may even happen fast enough to crash your game in mid-play, requiring you to remove the cart and recontaminate it with a fresh coat of saliva to get it to play a little while longer.

Flip the power switch to Off, the saliva evaporates and that's the end of your problems, right? Wrong. After the cartridge cools down, moisture from the air rehydrates the dried saliva residue which is now on both the cartridge contacts and on the console's connector. If you leave your cartridge in the slot (tell me you've NEVER let that happen!) then all the time the cart is left in there, a tiny amount of galvanic corrosion is at work, steadily eroding and rusting the metals of both cartridge and console. Sometimes Nintendos are left in closets with a game carts stuffed in their mouths for a decade.

Every time you blow into a cartridge you introduce more and more salavitory electrolyte into your console and your cartridges. It all adds up to very bad juju.

Cleaning your cartridge contacts with alcohol is a much better solution because the OH ion in alcohol is hungry for the O atom in metallic rust. It strips it away, breaking down the oxide layer, which wipes away onto a cotton swab.

Water by itself is not very good at breaking down the oxide layer, unless you rub vigorously. This has the disadvantage of eroding the metal contacts or possibly separating them from the PCB.

Cleaning contacts with alcohol and then cleaning them a second time with water is probably the best way to go. Water is very good at flushing out oxide residues left behind by alcohol cleaning.

For best results, allow your freshly cleaned cartridges time to dry thoroughly before inserting them into your console. Play a different game while you wait if you must. But for god's sake, don't try to help the cartridge drying time along by blowing into it!


Ben

[Raijin Z]

In all my years of cartidge gaming, I've NEVER seen corroded contacts, inside or outside of the system. Rusted screws, yes, but never contacts. My Chopper Command, Goldeneye 64, Virtua Fighter 32X, and Super Mario/Duck Hunt all look the same, except Chopper Command has more dust on everything.

[King Atari]

Yiz-ikes, I don't think I'll be blowing in the carts anymore! Thanks for all the info!

So what, should I clean my carts now, to get rid of any leftover 'stuff'? I have an NES cleaning kit, what do you suggest for the N64, q-tips?

[holy_fluck]

If the nes one doesnt work ( I dont know what it looks like) get a N64 one or one that can clean all systems. My cleaning kit can clean all sega and nintendo cart systems and to clean the carts its just a plastic card with a felt covering on the end that you put the solution on and clean the contacts. I had some I guess oxidation or whatever on some of my carts that I couldnt get off with the alcohol but could with the cleaning solution

[RMila75]

I have a Gauntlet cart that had the real stubborn black stuff all over the contacts when I got it. It just would not come off with alcohol, so before I tossed it aside as "non-working" I decided to try some sort of brass/copper cleaner I found tucked away in the cupboard. It took the gunk right off, but left a residue. I cleaned the residue off with more alcohol and water. The game has been fine since then.
I would only use that kind of stuff as a last resort though. And make sure you get all the residue off.

[King Atari]

Quote

If the nes one doesnt work ( I dont know what it looks like) get a N64 one or one that can clean all systems. My cleaning kit can clean all sega and nintendo cart systems and to clean the carts its just a plastic card with a felt covering on the end that you put the solution on and clean the contacts.

My NES cleaner would probably work with N64 carts, but there's no solution, you just dab it with warm water.

[RMila75]

I sometimes mix up my own solution by adding a little alcohol to some distilled water.

[ventrra]

Raijin Z said:

In all my years of cartidge gaming, I've NEVER seen corroded contacts, inside or outside of the system. Rusted screws, yes, but never contacts. My Chopper Command, Goldeneye 64, Virtua Fighter 32X, and Super Mario/Duck Hunt all look the same, except Chopper Command has more dust on everything.

Wish I could say that. I've seen lots of games with corroded contacts, mostly for the NES. Generally, I got the carts from people who had owned their system for years and blew in the carts to get them to work.

[King Atari]

Okay, what do you guys suggest as a full proof way of cleaning my N64 carts? I don't want to take a chance and damage one on accident.

[Raijin Z]

Buy a new copy of the game, apparently. ¬_¬

[MegaManFan]

King Atari said:

Okay, what do you guys suggest as a full proof way of cleaning my N64 carts? I don't want to take a chance and damage one on accident.

Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol.

[AtariYoungin]

i use Q-Tips and Isopropyl Alchohal(70%), works wonders on all my carts, Atari-N64

[SuperDork3000]

Doesn't anybody here know the old trick of blowing into them??
Put your shirt over the connectors then blow into it, it works everytime!

[AtariYoungin]

i use that too, but when they are beyond hope and every time i get a new game, i use the Q-Tip

[MegaManFan]

Really, if you aren't going to take Ben's word for it (and he's a far smarter man than I who can explain the reasons why it's bad scientifically) take mine: DON'T BLOW ON CARTS. Every second of the day, your mouth is producing moisture. When you blow outward, you're blowing out moisture. Try blowing up a balloon several times and then hold it up so the spout faces down when deflated. I guarantee you, moisture comes out. You do not want to put moisture on contacts. Rub them vigorously with a 70/30 alcohol mixture from one side of a wet q-tip, then dry with the other undipped end (again rubbing vigorously). Even if you leave a trace amount of the alcohol behind, it won't corrode the contacts like the moisture in your mouth will. Who cares if it takes 20 years before it corrodes them enough to make them unplayable - the fact is you're just making it happen faster either way. Be good to your carts.

[Raijin Z]

...and I say the damage is negligible. If you're worried about ruining a game with your dragon breath, just get a second copy or emulate it.