Bending The Pins of the 72 pin connector in the NES

[chadtower]

Agreed. Bending the pins is usually only necessary for really loose connections. A good light sanding/cleaning usually does the trick. I just did three of them the other day with an emory board and it worked on all three.

How rare are those test carts, btw?

[omnedon]

I've heard about $200USD rare....

I got mine through a game store buddy, and he gave it to me.

Now he owns my soul....

[chadtower]

Oookay, then. Since I'm not going to be spending $200 on a test cart any time soon... what are the best methods for testing a newly refurbed pin? My guess at this point is just to try out about 20 varied carts on it but that takes longer than refurbing the connector does.

BTW, should a refurbed connector be considered truly good if the NES is touchy once the game is being played? I know a lot of NES units don't stand up well to be jostled during gameplay...

[omnedon]

For me to call it a 'pass' and charge $, the unit has to be able to take light jostling without resetting or freezing, in addition to pssing al the NTF2 tests. Moderate to severe jostling will make the cart snap down mechanism pop up, and a rest in that circumstance is to be expected, regardless of how good the pin is.

The use of my NTF2 cart is main reason I haven't written a pin refurb tutorial. Most people can't test with an NTF2 cart, and it's a cornerstone of how I do it.

[OLD_SCHOOL_SAM]

sooo, 3 rows or 4 rows of pins? please..

[omnedon]

In your diagram, I sand between point A, and the row above it, in your pic. that is where the cart contacts go.

[ste]

sooo, 3 rows or 4 rows of pins? please..

There should be 2 sets of 2 rows - 2 for the NES cart to plug into, 2 for the main board to plug into.

Are you saying you only have 3 rows? Your previous post said you had no pins in the area labelled A.

If you really want to use this method, you need a really really small screw driver, you have to sneak behind and Under the pin to lift it up. Usually, you'll slightly press down on the left or right - depending on what side you start from. A compass (i.e. the one used to draw circles) is also good for this type of job.

I found this method quite simple to perform - but Omnedon's method sounds really simple - I'll use it next time I pick up an NES.

[chadtower]

Dammit... I have a stack of NES that I just can't seem to get working well. I had tried the sanding method with an emory board, which looked like it was working well, but then with testing a large number of carts most of them still failed. I picked up some 100 grit paper today and am going to try that. Maybe the emory board just isn't strong enough.

[omnedon]

I do find that I come very close to tearing the pins at times. Occoasionally, one will start to tear, but if careful enough, you can just push the tear back down, and resume.

This is a black art it seems.

[chadtower]

Dude, we've already said like 3 times... FOUR ROWS OF PINS.

[OLD_SCHOOL_SAM]

Yes, I see. I guess I am just stumped as to how mine only has 3 rows. Did someone remove a row? I just doubt anyone would do that. Is there a reason behind it?

confused ~

[§ Gideon §]

Looking at your attached pic, things are fine. Nothing is missing. In fact, you linked to proof of this in your first post. Compare and contrast.

So, have you fixed it yet? Jeez, this is getting a little annoying.

[dreamcaster]

I just bent the pins on my connector and now my NES loads most of my cartridges first time!

It's not that hard to do.

Then again, I've had my fair share of experience in dismantling consoles.

[OLD_SCHOOL_SAM]

well, people keep saying 4 rows and I only see 3 so I asked....

no its not fixed, I gave up and waiting on my new connector from my ebay order.

Thanks anyway all ~

[chadtower]

Dude, if there isn't that 'missing' row of pins than your NES never worked. It's THERE. It's just set back more than the others. LOOK AT IT.