NES System Cleaning

A basic cleaning of the system is not very difficult. Only the things listed below are needed.
1. 91% isopropyl alcohol
2.cotton swabs
3. a long skinny Phillips head screw driver
4.a rag
5. Electrical Contact Cleaner
6. a game that is broken or you dont care about using to assist you..... I mean it really can only get cleaner after this....

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Step 1: First unscrew and take the top off of the system. There are 6 screws and they are kind of deep. This is why you will want a long skinny screw driver to fit in there.

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Step 2: Once the top is off you will see a metal shield around the cartridge holding area (technical term). There are 7 screws here to take out.

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Step 3:
Now that the shield is off you can see the guts. Use a cotton swab and alcohol to clean up any dust you see all around the inside of the system. Then with a fresh alcohol swab, rub back and forth on the 72 pin connector to pick up and loose dirt that you can get. Also, at this point you can look at the pins and see if any are severely bent. If they are, use something small like an eyeglass screw driver or tweezers to push them back into shape.

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Step 4: Once you have all of the dust out that you can find, it is time for the contact cleaner. Let it sit for a few seconds and then insert your spare cartridge in and out a few times. This will spread the cleaner and break up dirt and corrosion. Now take a clean cotton swab and wipe up any excess you see around and on the contacts. You will get some dirt off of the contact in the process. They should already start to look cleaner. Give the connector another quick spray and let this sit for 2 minutes. After two minutes, run a cotton swab along the connector again to get any loose dirt and cleaner.

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Use a clean swab to clean out the cartridge. You will see some cleaner and a good amount of dirt come out on the swab. Clean it until there is no more dirt. You should wait at least 2 minutes before trying out the system.

Even if the connector doesn't look very dirty you should use the contact cleaner if you haven't cleaned the system in a while. Over the years dirt and oxidation build up causing the flashing screens and garbled games that we hate to see.
Now your NES is happy and ready to play!

As usual, leave any comments or corrections in replies to this thread.