SNES doesn't play all my games

[RetroRich]

my snes only seems to play about 25% of my games. No matter how much i clean the carts, some of them only get a black screen.

could the pin connector be dead? or does it just need cleaning?

[Sunnyvale]

I'd start with a cleaning. I haven't had a dead pin connector on a SNES yet, and I've had at least 50 pass through my hands. Get contact cleaner. I can't say it enough. Contact cleaner will clean what alcohol will not. It's amazing. Squirt a bit on a crap game's contacts and put it in and out of the console 20-50 times, Qtip off the crud, repeat until it don't look grey/blue. Then see what ya got.

[crazyjackcsa]

Repeat after me: "The easiest answer is usually the right one, and is the place I should start."

You don't need to jump right to a huge problem like a pin connector. Start with super duper really really cleaning everything.

Then remember you're dealing with older equipment. My Sega CDX is finicky with my Virtua racing. Both work great with others, but don't like each other. Quibbles are bound to happen.

This is also true with all other mechanical/electrical devices, and people for that matter. As things get older, little bits of odd behaviour get introduced, an odd clunk on a car, a noisy cd drive in a stereo, a bad knee as you age. It's just getting older and there isn't anything wrong with it.

You can't expect "off the factory floor" performance from anyting 20+ years old.