Dead Carts

[grasshopper]

The Gauntlet IV just gives me a blue screen. The Fatal Rewind boots then crashes. I know it's not my model Genesis either, because my copy of Zany Golf will boot up just fine. I took the carts apart and cleaned them quite thoroughly. I think the Gauntlet is dead for good, the Fatal Rewind on the other hand has me perplexed. Does anyone else have a Fatal Rewind they could try in a non-TMSS Genny? Do any EA games refuse to work in a non-TMSS?

[tony]

Fatal Rewind is my only dead cart as well...

[goldenband]

Pit Fighter (a Tengen cart!) and Comix Zone are the only dead Genesis carts I've had, but Comix Zone gets a free pass because it had been chewed up by a dog. The PCB looked fine but wouldn't boot. Pit Fighter looked clean as a whistle inside and out, but wouldn't work no matter what I tried.

I guess the idea that Tengen carts go bad is more than a rumor. I know Grind Stormer is notorious for dead carts.

[Bones Justice]

I open the cart case and clean contacts with elastic bands. This makes it so I no longer have to insert the cart all the way and pull it back out a bit.

Do you mean rubber bands? How do you clean the contacts with those?

[Chris]

I have three dead ones, Gauntlet IV, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie and Streets of Rage.
I've replaced the first and last game and have'nt had any problem with those ones.

[chessage]

RBI 94, a tengen cart, is my only dead one

Odd. Mine too.

Same here.

[Drakon]

Do you mean rubber bands? How do you clean the contacts with those?

Rub it against the contact until the crud comes off. Works great.

[grasshopper]

I wonder what the problem is with Tengen carts... Bad solder joints? ROM corruption? Maybe when I'm bored one day I'll pop that fucker open and hit all the solder joints again.

I had a NES cart once that wouldn't work for the life of me. It was River City Ransom. After I opened it, I noticed a bunch of the traces on the PCB were totally ruined from corrosion. I tried to make jumpers for the traces but I could never get it to work right. I gave it to my friend and he totally fucked it up with one of those conductive pens they sell. He went buck wild with that fucking thing, afterwards it looked like a kid drew a circuit out onto it, hahaha.

[djshok]

I wonder what the problem is with Tengen carts... Bad solder joints? ROM corruption?

Could be capacitor death. A lot of capacitors produced in the 90s are dying right about now it happens to retro systems all the time that's why people recap them. It would make sense that the caps on cartridges are dying as well. Like I said before, I've fixed dead SMS carts by replacing the caps on them, so it might be worth a try. It's normally only one cap on the carts that you'd need to replace so it's not a lot of work or anything.

[Drakon]

I wonder what the problem is with Tengen carts... Bad solder joints? ROM corruption? Maybe when I'm bored one day I'll pop that fucker open and hit all the solder joints again.

I had a NES cart once that wouldn't work for the life of me. It was River City Ransom. After I opened it, I noticed a bunch of the traces on the PCB were totally ruined from corrosion. I tried to make jumpers for the traces but I could never get it to work right. I gave it to my friend and he totally fucked it up with one of those conductive pens they sell. He went buck wild with that fucking thing, afterwards it looked like a kid drew a circuit out onto it, hahaha.

I'm going to guess due to them using cheap pcbs. I've messed with some famicom pcbs that broke like butter when I tried to do anything with them. Some cheaply made pcbs out there just weren't meant to last. I've never had to re-cap a single piece of hardware in my life.

[grasshopper]

I have, mostly old music equipment (vintage guitar amps). But old amps use electrolytic capacitors, which are notorious for leaking if not used for years. Genny carts probably don't have electrolytics.

[Guntz]

Genny carts probably don't have electrolytics.

Yes they do, but it's just one electrolytic cap.

[grasshopper]

rad, ill replace it when i get some time

[A Black Falcon]

I have three dead carts, Sonic 3 (one of the "made in Mexico" re-release versions), Vectorman 2, and World Heroes. I also have one Genesis game, Syd of Valis, that doesn't work in my Genesis, but does work when plugged into the 32X. I've mentioned it before, but yeah, it's bizarre.

[Raijin Z]

I think my only dead cart is Revenge of Shinobi. I have two copies (one works), but I don't know which, if either, is uncensored. Lost most of my mad skills over the years, and frankly, I cannot stand DIE DIE DIE YOU MUST DIE games enough to bother playing long enough to see.