Repairing a Game Boy game

[Troglodyte]

Hello,
I recently won an an auction which featured
Finally Fantasy Legend I-III, & Final Fantasy Adventure.

Every game except Final Fantasy Legend III
worked perfectly without the need of cleaning them.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried to clean it,
I could not get Final Fantasy Legend III to boot up.

I even opened it up and tried to clean the contacts with
alcohol again. This also did not help. Although, upon closer
inspection I noticed that that a few of the gold contacts on
the end of the circuit board appear to have corroded.

Fortunately, I was able to get a partial refund from this seller
to cover the cost of a replacement copy of Final Fantasy Legend III.

What I am wondering, is does any one have any advice on how to maybe
repair these contacts and get them working again? Or should I just toss it in the trash?

Thanks for any advice.

[BetaWolf47]

Corrosion? Just use some cooktop cleaner or a pencil eraser.

[Troglodyte]

Hmm... I never tried cook top cleaner... but the pencil eraser trick was of no help.
Maybe I didn't explain the problem correctly, as it appears that the gold tracks of the
a few of the connectors has appeared to actually have corroded to the point that they
are no longer gold, or even part of the tracks have corroded off.

I may even need to some how repair / restore these tracks.

Thanks.

[jb143]

I had a game gear game that practically all the pins looked like this. Alcohol was no help and I thought it was a lost cause but I ended up lightly sanding the contacts with a fine grit sandpaper and now it works fine.

[tpugmire]

If the contact is so worn down to the point that it's not 100% there anymore, you can try rebuilding the contact using a kit to fix rear window defrosters in cars. It's basically conductive paint, and can be found at any auto parts store. I've never had a game get that bad, but I've had that idea for years now.

[Troglodyte]

Lightly sanding the contacts did not help... though it seemed to even out the damage the corrosion left. I will have to try the conductive paint trick... I used to use that trick for connecting the L1 bridges on the old Socket A AMD Athlon's for overclocking and it worked well.

[jb143]

Conductive paint might help for a while but I'd image it would wear away pretty quick inserting and removing the game. They also make some designed for circuit board repair that may work better. You mentioned it was an auction...is it too late for a partial refund? Good luck either way.