Pro tip: rubbing alcohol on old Nintendo cartridges brings them back to life

Picked up a copy of Super Mario Bros 3 at a garage sale for $2 but it wouldn't boot past the title screen. Read online that corroded pins are the issue so I grabbed some 91% isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip. Swabbed the contacts about 4 times until the q-tip stopped coming off brown. Fired it up and it runs perfect now. Anyone else have luck with this or use something different for bad connections?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna_craig1mo ago

Four times until the q-tip stopped brown? I must have gone through like twenty q-tips on my copy of Zelda. The amount of gunk that came off was honestly gross but totally worth it when it finally worked.

williamd701mo agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Mike tried cleaning his copy of Goldeneye last year. He started with one q-tip and rubbing alcohol, ended up going through like fifteen of them before the brown stopped showing up. The cartridge looked brand new when he was done but his whole apartment smelled like a doctor's office for the rest of the night. He said the worst part was finding a grayish chunk stuck near the pins that took three tries to scrape off. Did you notice any weird buildup on yours?