Quote Originally Posted by OldSchoolGamer quoting some other article View Post
You can try cleaning the contacts on your atari itself. Take a piece of 100 grain or finer sandpaper and cut off a square using scissors to fit the slot in the atari in the middle of the atari cartridge slot between the two prongs. Rub the edges and front of the sandpaper with your fingers to remove any loose grains of sand. Gently insert the sandpaper into the slot. Do not rub side to side, just in and out 4 or 5 times, then flip it over and do the contacts on the other side.
Teehee, someone doesn't know how sandpaper works. 100 grit would take all the traces right off of the board. Honestly I've never even come close to using sand paper on a game or system, as vigorous rubbing-alcohol-ing and q-tipp-ing does the trick most of the time; the worst problems have been solved by a toothbrush or paper towel.

Toothbrushes can sometimes be used to clean out the connectors, though usually you have to take the system apart to get to the connector to use it. In the past I have used a toothbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol, which I use to vigorously scrub the pins. After that, I simply blow out the left over alcohol with compressed air, and let it dry for awhile. It hasn't failed me yet, and has brought a couple of NES's back from the blinkies.

On the one time that a toothbrush didn't do a good enough job (I think that it might have been on one of my Genesii), I used a paper towel and plastic keycard. I had a hotel keycard, which is thinner than the circuit board that most games are printed on. I folded a paper towel over it, wet it with alcohol, and inserted and removed it a few times. After that I did the same thing, although with dry paper towels, and repeated until the dry towels stayed clean. Make sure that the card and towel when put together are still thinner than a cart pcb though, or the towel will tear quickly, or you might even bend some pins.

If that doesn't do the trick than you probably have to bend pins into place, which I have never done before, so I'm not going to write about how to do it.

Finally, if you eventually decide that the corrosion on the pins is bad enough that they need to be sanded, try to find some very fine sandpaper, like 400 grit and up. Any lower than that and you're just cutting grooves into the pins, not removing corrosion.