Rubbing Alcohol is your friend (and a question)

[David J.]

Today, I was looking at my genesis, and it’s gotten dirty over the years… especially those vents on the left side of a model one Genesis. So I scrambled around the house looking for something to clean. I thought car dash wipes would work, but they sometimes remove paint, so I didn’t use those. I tried compressed air in the past, but it didn’t work very well. But I found a solution…

I just took some qtips and some rubbing alcohol, cleans good. I used it to clean the system all around, and works great. It might not be the best method, but it works well, you’ll be surprised what you get out. It works well for the rest of the system; I just took a napkin, put some rubbing alcohol on it, and wiped it down.

It’s good to remove marker off of CD’s and cart labels. I found it removes sticky residue from stickers, just don’t use too much when you’re getting it off of cart labels. Most importantly, it cleans the metal contacts on carts with no problem. Got a non-working cart? Give this a shot. I bought Metal Head for the 32X and it’d lockup after the first mission, but after I cleaned it, it worked like a champ.

Oh yeah…. Do you need the static shield for the 32X? I have mine removed and it works fine... I'm talking about the one in the system, not the ones that go in the cart slot. The same with the Genesis, or is it a heat sink. I removed those, cleaned

[danielscheil]

i take - "face water" ( does this word exist ih englisch ? )
and Ear Cleaners to get my genesis in new condition it works great and it's not so agressive like alcohol

[Drixxel]

Face water.. danielsheil, do you mean some kind of facial cleanser or soap?

[Vicman]

I'm guessing he might be meaning after-shave like Old Spice or something else that has alcohol but not as much as rubbing alcohol.

[Drixxel]

That would make considerably more sense. Still, if there are concerns that the rubbing alcohol is too potent for the console delicates, it can always be diluted with water. That'd extend drying time, but there's no reason that it shouldn't work. But hey, however you manage to keep the console clean, awesome. I'm sure stranger things than aftershave have been tried... turpentine, vodka, sulphuric acid, oven cleaner... all good choices!...

[David J.]

I never dilute rubbing alcohol, because I've never had any problems.

[David J.]

WTF?

At one time I had my own bottle, but it was stolen...

Then I took another bottle recently, which happens to be my dad (cleans his face with it), and he stole it back, and snapped. It's 8:08 at night, the stores are closed, and I need the $$$ in my wallet for lunch when I start school again on monday. What to do?

[Fang]

I haven't used rubbing alcohol on any game since the good ol nes days until today. I used some alcohol on a snes game and it worked right away, no more problems to get it working.

[Ro Nova]

I use a can of endust compressed air and endust antistatic wipes. It can get a little expensive but that combo seems to work real well. I'll use q-tips and a half water/half rubbing alcohol solution for the cart contacts.

[Segadream]

I use 70% and alcohol and never had a problem. Q-tips are awesome and to clean those really tight spots on systems. But when I get a "rescue" system I usually take it apart and wash the plastic parts in the sink with hot water. You never know where the latest addition to your collection came from or what they did with it,
(blowing into the carts, seeing if PB and J work as a game, Adding chips like cookies to upgrade, meatwads Atari was like that.) so I clean up my stuff a lot.
With this method though it can dry up your hands (not to mention let you know if you nicked your fingers anywhere) and if you use to much at a time it can leave a white residue.
Its not so good on the labels of your carts either as they can become faded.
I would assume it does this to the contacts of the games as well but its better than nothing and does take more bad stuff off than it leaves(IMO).
Controllers get the same stuff and if they are really bad they get taken apart, the board gets swabbed, and the rubber contacts get rinsed with the buttons and the rest of the plastic in a sink with warm water and dishwashing liquid.(dawn, Ajax, Joy) Any one that is mild enough for your skin and tough enough to cut grease and oil.
If you ever seen some of the blasphemies my cousin would do with his video game stuff, you would clean the hell out of what you got from someone else too.
Eating chips and mashing buttons seems good fun.
But what about the next player who gets handed a cheese crusted controller.
All types of YUCK.

[KitsuneNight]

oooh necrothread
*insert obligatory bitching about necromancy *

okay good
i tend to use 96% rubbing alcohol and q tips to clean my cardridges

[Drakon]

I clean stuff with goo gone. Goo gone is mildly acidic, a bit poisonous, non conductive, does zero damage ot pcbs, and cleans pins and electronics like a pro. Plus I only need to use a tiny amount to get the job done.

[AlecRob]

oooh necrothread
*insert obligatory bitching about necromancy *

okay good
i tend to use 96% rubbing alcohol and q tips to clean my cardridges

On NG you can get banned for bumping threads.

[Tripredacus]

On NG you can get banned for bumping threads.

Sweet. BRB.

PS, I found out on SS:UK that rubbing alchohol is either rare or expensive in England.

[KitsuneNight]

On NG you can get banned for bumping threads.

good thing then that i didnt bump this thread