I have replaced capacitors on the NES and Genesis with varying degrees of success. On one of my Gen model 2s (don't know what revision) I recapped it and went from a working Genesis to a non-working Genesis. I was pretty certain I had the polarities going the right way, so I wonder if I didn't add enough solder to some of them. Nothing else got shifted around. I recapped an NES which is much easier because there are so fewer of them on the board. The only one that's somewhat hard to do is the monster in the metal box in the corner. It went from a system that I had constant issues with to a system that had much fewer issues.

So with that said, I have a few questions for anyone with an electronics background or someone who's worked on consoles-

1) Is there a specific type of solder I should use? I used leaded solder with flux core in the past which I like because it has the lower melting point and seems to flow better. I also have some that has silver in it but I don't know if that is good or bad.

2) What are some other things to replace to get the system working as close to 100% as possible? I know the voltage regulator is one thing people replace but I don't understand how it affects anything. I know that people replace the 72-pin which I am adament against because every time I installed a new one, it had a death grip on it. I heard Blinking Light Win is good but I do have concerns about the death grip thing.

3) Best cleaning methods? I usually just swab the PCB of the carts with rubbing alcohol and it's really just a temporary fix. I think all it's doing is creating better conductivity. I shouldn't have to clean a cart every time it's removed from the system. I like the official cleaner from Nintendo for the system but again it seems like a temporary solution and I feel like it's dumb to keep inserting the dirty pad in and out of it since I don't have replacement pads.