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zdirty
03-04-2010, 09:06 PM
Recently I pulled out my old SNES and bought some games off of eBay. They seem to work after a few tries, some on the first power up. Others not so much. I've read on here that using 70% - 90% alcohol solution on a q-tip will help clean these cartridges.

I was just playing FF3 and at one point my character froze. I was mid-battle and all I could do was to hold the L and R buttons (only those did something?) and run away. After that I was allowed to continue like nothing happened. Then I got to another point (a doorway) and as I walked in, it froze. I couldn't move and nothing worked. I tried to switch controllers to no avail. I reset the game, played back to that point, and found a save in another room. I tried the door again and I went through okay. Since then I've been saving any chance I get haha.

Is there something wrong with my game, or is the system? Maybe even the controller? When I was reconnecting my controllers, I noticed I could press in the port a little into the case of the system (not good probably..). I've never taken apart a SNES, but I really want to make sure I can play my games without worrying about saving or not. My FF2 worked great for 40 minutes the other day and my Zelda worked for another today (right before I put in FF3). Can someone help me out? Thanks!

Loremaster
03-04-2010, 11:13 PM
Sounds like a classic case of dirty cartridge. I might be wrong, and it can be caused by lots of other things, but dirt on cartridge connectors is the easiest thing to try first. Get yourself some rubbing alcohol and some q-tips and go to town.