DP MYTHBUSTERS : Blowing in NES Cartridges

[Ed Oscuro]

I can't prove it's true, it's just what some old engineers I used to work with told me. Something about peroxides forming in rubbing alcohol that's been out to long or something like that, and that being deposited on the circuitboard. We used some sort of freon based cleaner, which I think is illegal these days.

Lucky me - I don't work in an industrial environment with spoiled goods because we had a bunch in stock and couldn't dump it.

Since when does metal touching metal need moisture to make good contact?

I wouldn't say it "needs" moisture, but it will provide the desired effect in the short run.

Unless the saliva's enough to dissolve the corrosion that's formed on the connectors from the last time you blew in it.

You use sand to clean rust off steel and iron, not spit. Not gonna be helpful. The acidity of spit is probably minor to the effect of the moisture, but it wouldn't help regardless.

Not only does mackerel paste taste amazing on circuit boards, I heard that it also gets you high.

That reminds me - pass on the mackerel sashimi.

[blue lander]

I wouldn't say it "needs" moisture, but it will provide the desired effect in the short run.

Which is what, exactly? If you touch two pieces of metal togeather, why does moisture even come into the equation?

[jb143]

If your touching 2 pieces of corroded metal together then anything conductive between them will help make contact. Or more than likely, it could be helping to clean the corrosion just enough to make better contact while in the long run corroding them even more.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Which is what, exactly? If you touch two pieces of metal togeather, why does moisture even come into the equation?

I'm guessing you didn't examine the theoretical diagrams that I provided ...

...in the event that a few pins on the 72 pin-set are bent back so much as a milimeter, a blob of moisture could potentially bridge that gap and carry a current/data.

[Ed Oscuro]

You know, I have to agree with blue lander's argument here. If that diagram was meant to be read literally, that's just an insane amount of moisture. If it's beading that high then you might end up shorting pins!

My guess is that the moisture seeps around dirt and provides a contact.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

The diagram isn't to any type of real scale, it's just made to illustrate a THEORETICAL PRINCIPAL.

If I illustrated the moisture any smaller it might not have made sense at a glance.

...while I'm certainly committed to finishing this one month test, I should have know that doing anything of this nature on the internet would have been filled with this much general conflict, conjecture, and general negativity.

I don't know why I ever kid myself that people can have fun with something like this without taking every single opportunity to flex their internet intellect as if it was a virtual prick-measuring contest.

[blue lander]

Okay, let's assume that when you blow on a cartridge you're leaving a milimeter (or less, whatever) of spit on the connectors. Then like Ed says, those beads of spit could potentially connect several pins togeather and short the cartridge out. And if Ed's theory is correct and the only reason to blow on cartridges is to dissolves the corrosion left on the pins from the last time you blew in it, then why did we start blowing on cartridges in the first place? And why does this happen primarily to the NES instead of across all cartridge based systems? Shouldn't they all have corrosion problems, or shouldn't they all have bent back pins that need spit to make connection?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Okay, let's assume that when you blow on a cartridge you're leaving a milimeter (or less, whatever) of spit on the connectors. Then like Ed says, those beads of spit could potentially connect several pins togeather and short the cartridge out. And if Ed's theory is correct and the only reason to blow on cartridges is to dissolves the corrosion left on the pins from the last time you blew in it, then why did we start blowing on cartridges in the first place? And why does this happen primarily to the NES instead of across all cartridge based systems? Shouldn't they all have corrosion problems, or shouldn't they all have bent back pins that need spit to make connection?

Despite the fact that I've seen the same type of green and black mold/oxidation/corrosion in cartridges from Atari 2600 to Gameboy Advance (pretty much the last cart-based-system to have that style of top-lipped cartridge) including but not limited to NES, Genesis, Super NES, N64, and so on and so forth ...

... and I'm NOT claiming that these THEORIES are anything other than that, but I'm also not comfortable just writing this shit off because people like to be contrarians.

Let me review where I'm coming from just to get this back on track.

During my 5 years with Funcoland, I bought and sold THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of used NES games (as well as Genesis, SNES, N64, GB etc.) and I'd estimate that about 25% to 35% had mild to heavy corrosion going on in them.

A majority of people have been blowing in cartridges to get them to work for over twenty years.

A majority of people don't know what kind of damage they're causing.

I've NEVER seen anybody attempt ANY TYPE of experiment to see if blowing in cartridges causes any damage whatsoever.

As I stated clearly in the beginning of this thing, I don't care about multimeters, electron microscopes, PKE meters, nuclear reactors, or any other method for doing high-end electronic testing of these cartridges in actual NES systems or otherwise.

That's just too much to deal with and it's more trouble than it's worth - because we KNOW that a game with CRAP growing on/breaking down the contacts is NOT GOING TO WORK.

I wanted to do a simple experiment to see ONE EFFING THING:

DOES BLOWING IN GAMES CAUSE CORROSION TO HAPPEN?

DOES BLOWING IN GAMES CAUSE ANY DAMAGE AT ALL?

I'm really glad that this has evoked intelligent discussion on the topic ... but, as most intelligent discussions go on the internet, things are starting to become a contest as to who can trump whom's knowledge of this that and the other thing.

I just want to have fun with this, and if that means not posting any further responses and just updating the main page then that's how I guess it's going to have to go for me, because I'm really starting to get tired of defending things that I've openly expressed as nothing more than theoretical against things that are tantamount the same weight theoretically but presented as hard fact. (Again, standard internet debate logic.)

So, for those who are interested in results, stay tuned for updates on page one, but I'm signing off on the discussion henceforth.

[NoahsMyBro]

Don't let it get you down.

I've been following this thread with interest, and am anxious to see the results or lack thereof.

[Garry Silljo]

I don't know why I ever kid myself that people can have fun with something like this without taking every single opportunity to flex their internet intellect as if it was a virtual prick-measuring contest.

Awesome.

[5thman]

...while I'm certainly committed to finishing this one month test, I should have know that doing anything of this nature on the internet would have been filled with this much general conflict, conjecture, and general stupidity.

Fixed.

I appreciate what you're doin', Frankie.

[jb143]

Fixed.

I appreciate what you're doin', Frankie.

btw...I think what your doing is awesome as well. Just think, the real Mythbusters get people complaining about the way they do things all the time so your in good company.