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Thread: SNES stumper for you guys

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    Default SNES stumper for you guys

    I purchased an SNES at a tag sale the other day for 20 bucks. The system looked to be in good shape. It was clean and the pin connector looked good. It came with one game, NBA All-Star Challenge. A crap game, (one I had for the Gameboy growing up) but whatever, I didn't buy it for the game.

    The NBA game plays great. You can play it for hours. Since this is my first SNES, I didn't have any other games so I bought Aladdin. The game never goes to the opening Nintendo title screen. It then freezes every time right before it gets to the player select screen. I thought it might be the game and brought it back to the store but it played fine on their system.

    Since I thought this was weird, I brought the whole system in for the guys to look at. They proceeded to insert game after game into the system only to have all of them freeze at various times before the player select screen.

    In short, the SNES only plays one game and that is the one it came with. I opened her up and dusted her off but no dice. I'm really stumped on this one and I figured I would ask around before I totally give up. I'm assuming that there is something wrong with the motherboard. In that case, I don't think there's any way to bring her back. I could see if it didn't play any games, but to play one game so perfectly and no others is just mind boggling to me.

    Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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    Told you I could stump you guys.

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    I seriously doubt that. These forums aren't incredibly active normally, and this is Memorial day weekend. Not surprising there aren't any answers yet. I'll admit, sounds like a stumper for me personally, but there are people here that know a lot more than I do. I would suggest by starting with posting up some pictures of the mother board for us.
    Last edited by Polygon; 05-28-2013 at 04:20 PM.
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    Dirty contacts and maybe a dirty connector or try this fix http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/ni...s-glitches.htm

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    Thanks guys. I will try to post some pics soon. You're right, the Memorial Day weekend means people are busy.

    Everybody I've talked to has thrown their hands up and have just told me that the SNES is dead.

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    I would clean the games. I mean really, really clean the games. Like open the games up, scrub the contacts with a pencil eraser, then clean them up with q-tips + 91% alcohol. Which is how I clean my games.

    Dirty contacts can cause all kinds of weirdness. I had a couple games that kept getting their saves wiped repeatedly until I cleaned them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MoxManiac View Post
    I would clean the games. I mean really, really clean the games. Like open the games up, scrub the contacts with a pencil eraser, then clean them up with q-tips + 91% alcohol. Which is how I clean my games.

    Dirty contacts can cause all kinds of weirdness. I had a couple games that kept getting their saves wiped repeatedly until I cleaned them.
    Agreed. Try cleaning the contacts of the other game that doesn't work with the methods mentioned above.

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    I just find it interesting that it play the one game fine, but won't play any other game past a certain point. That's why I wouldn't really think that cleaning is the issue. However, it can't hurt. I would suggest cleaning the slot of the system and then cleaning all the games. I don't suggest using a pencil eraser though. Get some Brasso polish and some Q-Tips and clean the contacts. Then wipe off the excess and clean with some 99% iso. Repeat until you aren't getting dirt off.

    I would suspect you have deeper issues. Possibly some capacitor issues. That's why I figured it would be good to post some pics of the motherboard.
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    Thanks for all the input, guys. Like the last poster said, I don't think it's a cleaning issue. I've cleaned both games extensively. I use Brasso on every game I purchase. I then hit it with some alcohol to clean up any remaining brasso. In all my years of collecting retro games, I've never not gotten a game to work. Granted, that was with my Nintendo systems. I don't have a lot experience with the SNES, but I know this isn't normal.

    That being said, I brought the Aladdin game that doesn't work on my system to the Game Xchange and it worked perfectly in their SNES.

    I'm working on posting some pics now. Thanks again.

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    The quality of the pics didn't turn out like I had hoped. If these aren't sufficient, I will try taking new pics with better lighting.

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